Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff

 DS
  • Publisher: Tecmo
  • Release Date: Nov 18, 2008
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 8
  3. Negative: 2 out of 8
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. JustinD.
    Jun 12, 2009
    7
    An old classic brought back to life, the Tecmo Bowl series was insanely popular, back when there was no Madden or 2K Sports to rule the market. And what you got in those Tecmo Bowl games back then, are a spitting image of what you get here, for better or worse. A graphic and engine style that could run on an NES, it's simple gameplay is easy to pick up, but difficult to master. Or, An old classic brought back to life, the Tecmo Bowl series was insanely popular, back when there was no Madden or 2K Sports to rule the market. And what you got in those Tecmo Bowl games back then, are a spitting image of what you get here, for better or worse. A graphic and engine style that could run on an NES, it's simple gameplay is easy to pick up, but difficult to master. Or, in other words, for a Madden generation, confusing to master. Passing can be done in two ways. First with buttons, where tapping a button will go through your recievers until you land upon one which you want to throw to, and then you'd press the button to throw, which is quite different than having a reciever assigned to a button you could simply press, but for retro sake, the old style remains. Secondly, and slightly easier is to use the DS touch screen. With the touch screen, you can tap your reciever twice to select and throw the ball. This seems like the better of the two, but the touch pad can have some sensitivty and placement issues, many times which resorts in the user tapping directly on the reciever, but it never registering, which leads to a nice sack in your confusion. The running game is simple enough, pick the play and move with the D-Pad. Another option is leading your back by dragging the stylus over the touch pad, but here, D-Pad is easier. One of the huge draws about this game is it's INCREDIBLY in-depth game editor. Obviously this game has no NFL license, and it's players are randomly generated names and teams which on start-up have vague associations with pro teams. But with the editor, you can change absolutely everything about a team, from name, city, colors, uniforms, logo, and playbook. Which goes without saying, players are fully editable as well, along with stats, and with a bit of effort, you can have a replica of the NFL in no time. The replayability comes with the addition of a Season mode, where you simply pick a team and play out a season. It has a simplistic trading mode between teams that can keep things interesting, but for game mode depth, that's the only option. Overall, the game is very easy to find yourself picking up and playing many times throughout a day, and being hard to put down.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

79
#79 Best DS Game of 2008
52
#52 Most Discussed DS Game of 2008
67
#67 Most Shared DS Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
66

Mixed or average reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Nintendo Power
    60
    Althought the concept held up through Tecmo Super Bowl on the Super NES in 1993, 15 years later it just feels archaic. [Dec 2008, p.96]
  2. GamePro
    70
    If nostalgia is your game, the original Tecmo Bowl on Virtual Console still remains unbeaten after all these years.
    Read full review
  3. IGN
    77
    One solid, well-designed retro football experience. It's a great "remember when" piece; the football experience definitely has a hard time holding up to today’s sports experiences, but Tecmo does everything it can to make sure Tecmo Bowl fans have something to cherish in a current generation product on the Nintendo DS.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »