TECMO BOWL THROWBACK PS3 PS3

There is an impressive degree of player and team stats available through the menus, with certain customizations available along the way. Tecmo Bowl Throwback offers a Quick Play mode to get you going in a flash, and also a Season Play mode that offers more depth, variety (30 teams in all) and overall team development. It looks nice enough, though somewhat retro - a situation magnified by the game’s apparent lack of native Retina display support. It’s pretty much 2D gameplay with shadowed “3D' players. The iPhone version sits somewhere between the original arcade version and last year’s console release on the visual front.

TECMO BOWL THROWBACK PS3 PS3

When the title came to the PS3 and Xbox 360 it got a major overhaul featuring a sort of angled perspective 3D playfield. The arcade graphics were impressive for their day, while the NES version’s were less so. Spending time with the iPhone version, I can understand where that sentiment was coming from it’s a very approachable title. Tecmo Bowl, when it was released, was praised for its easy appeal to typical gamers. I did play the arcade version a few times with friends long ago, and recall it being a good time. Now, sadly, I am generally not a fan of sports games. This approach versus an onscreen D-pad that might’ve tried to emulate console play was a wise design decision, I feel. The active defensive player can be chosen with a tap and the act of tackling a player or breaking out of a scuffle is also done with a tap. Once a play is in motion, you can choose where a player runs or who to pass to with a screen tap. In the arcade and elsewhere this is done with buttons and sticks, but on the iPhone a touch interface that works well has been put in place. Like all versions of the title, gameplay in Tecmo Bowl Throwback consists of basically picking teams, starting off a game, and choosing plays from a menu that can be customized to some degree. This iPhone release is actually a port of last year’s console remake. Tecmo Bowl has, since, come to the Game Boy, the Wii Virtual Console and, last year, the PS3 and Xbox 360 in the form of Tecmo Bowl Throwback. Those fondly familiar with this classic likely recall the highly popular NES port, which was responsible for most of the game’s popularity, given the relative scarcity of the wide cabinet in arcades. Those recalling this well loved game will be happy to hear that Tecmo Koei Games has just released an enhanced iPhone version of the game, called Tecmo Bowl Throwback. The game was played on a side-to-side “widescreen' rendering of a football field across both screens. It was a 46-inch, double-wide cabinet that featured two side-by-side monitors sitting back in a dark sort of monitor cavern. Of all the cabinets I recall encountering in my youth, one of the most striking was that of Tecmo Bowl, an American football game released in 1987 that was easily the most visually impressive arcade take on the sport of its day. But, back in the day, they were wonderful places - the glowing cloud of phosphorescence, that lovely din of beeps and boops from every direction, and rows and rows of stand up cabinets of many shapes and sizes. TECMO BOWL®THROWBACK will be released on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®Network only in North America in Spring 2010.Arcades just aren’t what they used to be (with a notable exception or two, of course). Switch back to the original graphics and music in real time to go back the game you remember from the past! TECMO BOWL®THROWBACK is a remake of the original Tecmo Super Bowl (SNES), with the same rules and fast-paced gameplay as the original game, and the option to play with brand new high definition 3D graphics.

Tecmo bowl throwback ps3