Conference and division standings not only included win-loss records, but points-for and points-against. Teams were also ranked in offense and defense according to the number of yards gained and allowed. Player stats could be viewed individually, but they were also divided up into nine different "league leaders" categories, each of which could be sorted into near countless subcategories. The degree to which player and team statistics were recorded could prove dizzying to any football fanatic. Making sure your team and its players were prominent in the league rankings could become almost as important as winning and losing. For a sports game to place such an importance on the numbers game was truly unprecedented.

But even that doesn't tell the whole story about what made Tecmo Super Bowl's season mode truly amazing. Tecmo has always showed a flair for storytelling in their games, and Super Bowl was no different. They say that every game has a story, but it seems Tecmo realized this before anybody. Super Bowl combined all of its elements in the season mode—the gameplay with the animated embellishments; the dramatic music that played constantly throughout a game; the team and player stat tracking; the agony of watching a star player go down in injury only to watch him return triumphantly a few games later; and the race at the end of the season for the playoffs—all of which culminated at the end with the Super Bowl, which the game almost treated like the final boss confrontation in Ninja Gaiden. Indeed, the season mode in Super Bowl played like a platform game, with each game representing a different level—the difficulty rising in each. The playoffs were like the final stage as the music suddenly took this strangely dark tone during games. It became more than a sports game—in fact, the game would have you believe it was more like a matter of life and death! After the Super Bowl, the game treats you to one of the longest and most satisfying ending sequences the NES has ever seen. As if all this wasn't enough, to make your season truly complete, you could make your own AFC and NFC All-Pro teams and play them in the Pro Bowl.

Tecmo Super Bowl went on to become the final word on football games at the time. It seemed like everyone had it. It even got a brief mention in the film, Boyz In The Hood, when Dough Boy called his brother Ricky a "Tecmo Bowl playin'" you-know-what. The game's great success paved the way for later releases on the Sega Genesis and Super NES. The 16-bit Tecmo Super Bowl added further enhancements—simple things that for some reason you couldn't do in the first game—like the ability to block punts and down the ball in the end zone. More significant additions included deeper and expanded use of play books, three full seasons and more detailed and colorful graphics. That version proved popular enough for an entirely overhauled 16-bit sequel called Tecmo Super Bowl II, which featured a more realistic gameplay perspective among other things. Though the game lost some of the simplistic fun of the original (not to mention the cinematic animation that made the series so unique), it was an extremely limited release as either Tecmo didn't anticipate the demand or just tried to create a demand. Whatever the case, an updated version, still for the 16-bit consoles, called Tecmo Super Bowl III: Final Edition was released soon after. An unheralded PlayStation release several years ago marked the most recent incarnation of this remarkable football franchise.

Tecmo used to be a fairly heavy player in the sports market not that long ago—not only with their Super Bowl series, but with regular entries in basketball, hockey, baseball and soccer. Unfortunately, the runaway success of their Dead Or Alive fighting games seems to have put the company on a new track, as they've all but abandoned sports development. It's too bad. Tecmo seemed to be the only developer that knew that with a little creativity, a sports game could have fast and furious arcade gameplay and still be a simulation. This idea was fully realized in Tecmo's NES masterpiece, Tecmo Super Bowl.