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Fanswag: Tecmo games go to ...
Well, our latest giveaway has come to a close and we've been waiting long enough to select a winner. The lucky recipient of our Tecmo prize pack is none other than: garf2430, who likes Super Tecmo Bowl Congrats to our winner and better luck next time to all of you. Keep your eyes on DS Fanboy. We'll be starting up another giveaway soon.
Reminder: Tecmo games up for grabs
Like free stuff? Well, why not try and win some games for free, on us? This week we're giving away a copy of Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff and Robocalypse on the DS. Want to get in on the action? Check out the original contest post right here. Best of luck to you all and, remember: this contest ends Sunday night and you can enter once each day.
Fanswag: Tecmo two pack
Are you all ready for another fanswag giveaway? We've got a pair of Tecmo titles up for grabs in Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff and Robocalypse. We're running this giveaway starting today and ending Sunday, December 21st at 11:59pm ET. The winner will be selected the following day via random drawing. To enter, simply tell us what your favorite Tecmo game of all time is (check here if you need something to jog your memory)!One lucky reader will walk away with a copy of Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff ($30) and Robocalypse ($30). Of course, we've got a couple of rules. For one, you have to be at least 18 years of age and a current and legal resident of the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec). Also, you may only enter once per day. Before entering, make sure you read the official rules right here, too!Best of luck to you all and thanks for reading!
DS Fanboy Review - Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff
When I had received my copy of Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff for review, I was ecstatic. You see, I spent quite a bit of time with Tecmo Bowl and Super Tecmo Bowl when I was growing up, so I wanted to see how this revival held up. After putting it through its pace, Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff is kind of, well ... kind of a mixed bag. It does some things very well, but hasn't corrected all of the problems that plagued the first two games.%Gallery-23836%
DS releases for the week of November 17th
From big name releases like Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades to kids' games, at this point, the releases just aren't going to slow down. Everyone wants a piece of the holiday pie, even -- or perhaps especially -- in a flagging economy, but that just means a few agonizing decisions over what to buy. What will win for you this week? Bolt Cradle of Rome Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams Imagine: Ballet Star Imagine: Movie Star Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine Luminous Arc 2 Metal Slug 7 Need for Speed Undercover Petz Catz Clan Petz Monkeyz House Petz Rescue: Endangered Paradise Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party Robocalypse Rune Factory 2 Skate It Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff Tomb Raider Underworld Tony Hawk's Motion/Hue Pixel Painter Ultimate Band Winter Sports 2: The Next Challenge
Joystiq impressions: Tecmo Bowl Kickoff (DS)
Game companies must find old IP profitable, with yet another retro remake on the way in Tecmo Bowl Kickoff. This DS diversion plunges into the nostalgia glands within our hypothalamus; we fondly associate the NES original with grade-school sleep-overs. Maybe there's a direct connection between our memories and Visa card after all.And on that level, Tecmo Bowl wins. It's hokey, clunky, and fun. We think gamers who missed the NES or SNES versions won't enjoy it nearly as much as their John Maddens. But the Tecmo Bowl simplicity can even be elegant. You're limited to just a few runs and passes. There's no play clock. Team names and players are fictitious. Cut-scene interludes show the biggest graphical effects, with on-field play just clear enough to make out what's happening.%Gallery-33768%
Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff trailer tells us everything else is just a football game
For those of us that enjoyed the original Tecmo Bowl and its SNES sequel, Super Tecmo Bowl, this trailer is going to be chock full of nostalgia. It looks like Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff is going to include those awesome cutscenes, like when trying to dive over the line into the endzone. Other than an annoying trailer narrator, we're liking what we see here.%Gallery-23836%
Tecmo Bowl Kickoff trailer touches down
With its epic voice-over and claims that you've pretty much never played football like this ever, the latest trailer for Tecmo Bowl Kickoff nearly makes the game seem like it will have you saving the universe. Of course, unless you squint to catch the actual gameplay on the bottom screen, you'd also think it's comprised entirely of cinematics. Still, it's nice to see this level of production being lavished on a handheld treatment of the bona fide classic, even if it is a bit extreme ... as extreme as pint-sized pigskin can get, at least. Oh, and we think you have played a football game like this before: the original Tecmo Bowl. (That's not a bad thing.)
Fresh footage for Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff breaks through the line
Ah, Tecmo Bowl. We have some very fond memories of you, namely getting together with the cousins and other relatives on holidays and racing upstairs to the NES so we could throw the virtual pigskin around. Those were good times.And when Tecmo announced that the series was making a comeback, we found ourselves to be cautiously optimistic. Sure, we had hoped the traditional approach would return, but when things are revisited so many years later, there's a danger of losing what originally made the source material great. Thankfully, that isn't the case here, and we feel that Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff is not only a must-have, but also could very well be a cheap ticket back to the wonderful days of our childhood.%Gallery-23836%
E308: Welcome to the Tecmo Bowl
The whip-yielding soul suckers at Joystiq told us about some of Tecmo Bowl Kickoff's DS enhancements when they got their hands on the game, but this video reveals a few more things (and straight from producer Ryan Gilbo's mouth). We like how Tecmo really thought this remake through, and didn't just create a shabby port for the handheld. Not only does on-the-go Tecmo Bowl warm our arcade-loving hearts, but the customization options and super moves available only add a dash of excellence to the idea. We're definitely going to take a look at Tecmo Bowl Kickoff this fall, but the question is -- which version? From all the nice perks we've been hearing about the DS title, that's probably the one we'll be behind.
Joystiq hikes the handheld pigskin in Tecmo Bowl Kickoff
Joystiq managed to get their dirty hands on Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, and really enjoyed the redux of the old classic. According to our evil incredibly smart and good-looking overlords, the game both looked and played well on the DS -- what more can you ask for?When it comes to the controls, players have the option between using the D-pad/buttons or the stylus. Joystiq thought that the D-pad option was the better scheme, and was intuitive enough to make the game accessible to all gamers, not just those who've spent hours upon hours training with Madden. They also really enjoyed the addition of super moves, even though this new feature isn't an extravagant change to the gameplay. The point is, though, that Tecmo football didn't need a big overhaul.Their one major concern, though, was the WFC play. Not the fact that it exists, clearly. Yet, Tecmo Bowl Kickoff's customization scheme might be a little too deep for its own good, thereby ruining online play. You see, Tecmo cleverly worked around EA's NFL monopoly by adding tons of customization options (as seen in the video above). Player names and stats can be changed, among other things. In terms of multiplayer battles, however, we can foresee many gamers abusing such statistics in order to create an advantage over their opponents.Hopefully that won't be too much of an issue. In any case, pop on past the break to see some gameplay videos, or go here to read the unabridged impressions from Joystiq.%Gallery-23836%
Tecmo Bowl soon breaking tackles on Wii
For this blogger, sports is a big part of life. The competition, the stats and the camaraderie of sports is one that will never leave this blogger's life. And, being a huge game nerd, the love of sports and games both played a big part in developing the individual typing out this post in both Tecmo Bowl and Super Tecmo Bowl. Seriously, you have no idea how many hours were dumped into those games ...And now, like a lost puppy finding its way home, the franchise returns to Nintendo consoles. We don't have any information other than a confirmation from Tecmo that the franchise is coming to Wii, but we're pretty sure it'll be branded the same as the new DS game.
Joystiq hands-on: Tecmo Bowl Kickoff
We tried to get Hank Williams, Jr. to kick off this post with "Are You Ready for Some Football?" but he was booked. So, we're just going to assume that you are, in fact, ready for some football ... in this case, a rundown of our recent hands-and-stylus-on with Tecmo Bowl Kickoff for Nintendo DS. It's been 19 years since the original Tecmo Bowl hit the field on NES, making it one of the earliest football sims, not to mention one of the most famous. For its return on modern hardware, Tecmo drafted its first US executive producer, Ryan Gilbo, to head the project, and he promptly set out to update the game just enough, but not change too much.Read on for our full impressions and see first video of the game in action after the break.%Gallery-23985%
Kick off the morning with Tecmo Bowl screens
We've known plenty about Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff since it was announced, but we had to take some guy's word about how the game would look. No more! At last, you can feast your eyes on the 2D gridiron action, and it looks like it was worth the wait. We like the simplistic action on the bottom screen, and the rest? Frankly, these look a lot better than most DS screens, which are great in motion, but sometimes less than good in stills. For the rest, muscle your way into the gallery and see for yourself.%Gallery-23836%
Tecmo returning to E3 this year
Last year's smaller and considerably more inconvenient E3 marked quite a dramatic change from the glitz and glare we had grown accustomed to. Gone was the inescapable nexus of pulsating lights and the deafening roar of booths competing to be the loudest, instead replaced by warmly lit hotel rooms and, of course, tastefully dressed women. No wonder Tecmo didn't bother to show up. Jokes aside, the publisher has confirmed to Joystiq that it will be attending the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles this July, though it's unclear which games will be shown off. With Microsoft-published Ninja Gaiden II out of the way in June, we'll likely see more of Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, Rygar: The Battle of Argus and possibly some game about ninja babes slapping each other on the beach.
DS Daily: That tricky extra dimension
Tecmo's announcement that Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff would be a "classic 2D game" cheered us no end. Too often for our liking, developers seem desperate to recreate the kind of 3D games we'd find on beefier home consoles, and the results are rarely pretty. This blogger recently got around to trying out Brothers in Arms (on the advice that the game was a technical marvel), and found it to be a mess of treacly frame rates and choppy visuals. If World War II had moved at this pace, we'd still be fighting.Occasionally, however, 3D on the DS does work, and quite splendidly in some instances. It may sound odd, but I still consider Nintendogs to be one of the best uses of 3D on the platform, simply because it wouldn't have been a tenth as engaging in 2D. How about you, dear reader? What do you consider to be the finest 3D offerings on our humble handheld?
Details on Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff break through the line
For all of you fans of the gridiron, the news that the Tecmo Bowl franchise was getting a reboot and coming to the DS likely brought back fond memories of long passes for touchdowns and leaping over the pile at the goal line. Personally, we're dying to see a screen shot already, but that's beside the point. Prepare yourself to want this game more, though, because Tecmo let loose some details on the upcoming game.Known features include: Customizable teams: players can select color, emblem, player names, city and abilities Super abilities: some players will have special abilities that allow them to pull off big plays Wi-Fi and local multiplayer: oh yeah, you can play a friend in the same room or somebody across the country Stylus control: no other details on this one, yet Over 32 different teams Cut scenes: huh? Customizable playbook: no idea on how much you can customize it, but it's a nice feature So there you have it. Personally, these fresh details get us pumped to be out on the field, cracking heads. How about you?
Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff keeping it old school
Some of the details released yesterday about Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff didn't sound terribly old school to us (see: stylus control and internet play), but Tecmo wants us to know that the game's roots won't be forgotten in its DS rebirth.Rather than take the "janky 3D" direction chosen by other football games on the DS -- hello, Madden -- a Tecmo spokesperson assured MTV's Multiplayer blog that Kickoff would be a "classic 2D game." Score! We're already envisioning this as Tecmo Bowl with Super Dodgeball Brawlers-style visuals, and that makes us go all tingly inside.Also keeping with tradition (though arguably in a less appealing way), the title won't come with licensed NFL teams, thanks to the fact that EA recently secured the rights to those until the end of 2012. This means the game will instead come with 32 teams with names that "fit with the original spirit of Tecmo Bowl," which can then be customized within the game.
Tecmo Bowl Kickoff lands on DS this fall
Tecmo today announced Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff for DS, a revival of the classic sports franchise that will have to make due without an NFL license. Tecmo first confirmed the work-in-progress nearly a year ago, but at the time declined to specify the intended platform, saying only, "it's probably not going to be on the platform that you're expecting." But really, is there any other system better suited to Tecmo Bowl's patented zig-zagging runs than the DS with its stylus?Kickoff will feature arcade-style gameplay with various customization options, reports IGN. The game will also support local wireless multiplayer, as well as a Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection mode. Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff is due this fall.Update: Here are some additional details straight from Tecmo:
Tecmo Bowl making a comeback on DS this fall
We've known for almost a year that Tecmo would be reviving the much-loved Tecmo Bowl franchise, though the company has remained tight-lipped on the intended platform. Until ... now. IGN just revealed that Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff would be hitting our DS screens this fall, complete with stylus control, fully customizable teams, players, and emblems, and both local wireless and internet play over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.Apart from the logo above, there's no media for this one yet, but we're already chomping at the bit for some pigskin action. We recommend you warm up by grabbing the original from the Virtual Console. Hut hut!
