his summer during Tecmo’s Nite Out, the company announced it would be bringing back its famed football franchise, Tecmo Bowl. However, while announced, the company left the rest of the details out, including what type of game Tecmo Bowl would be and which platform it would appear on. The only thing we knew was that it would appear on a platform that we wouldn’t expect, which led us to believe Wii. Today, we sat down with Keisuke Kikuchi, Tecmo’s head of the new group Team Tachyon, who gave us a few tidbits about the company’s return to the gridiron.
Considering the fact that EA has the NFL license locked up for this generation, Tecmo won’t be using real NFL teams or real NFL players. However, while the company won’t exactly be promoting this feature, gamers will have the ability to plug in any names for the players and teams that they wish. Players will be based somewhat on their real counterparts, possibly, with their skill sets and their parameters. Tecmo realizes that they don’t have the NFL license, yet, if gamers want to Jett Clarve to something else, they’ll have opportunity to do so.
“Since the NFL season started, my typical day, I go home past 1 o’clock in the morning, I watch entire games, stay up 2-3 hours and watch an entire game. Go to sleep. Go to work. Repeat, and do the same thing again,” said Kikuchi, who admitted he was a 49ers fan.
Considering gamers can plug in whatever they want, this opens up any type of team, from college football, to whatever. Jersey and helmets will also be able to be customized as well, but from a limited selection of colors, shapes and emblems. Currently Kikuchi-san is working with Tecmo’s U.S. producer Ryan Gildo to maximize the customization features.
Tecmo Bowl is straying from the sim-type game, and it will be an arcade-style game—and the fruits of the company’s labor will be shown in 2008. The game is currently being co-produced in Japan and North America. While Tecmo is quiet on which platform it will be released on, it could appear on multiple platforms. However, most likely there won’t be a simultaneous multiplatform release.