| Aka: | Tecmo Bowl 97: Special Edition |
| Console: | Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) |
| TV Standard: | NTSC-U |
| Country: | United States of America |
| Developer(s): | Tecmo |
| Publisher(s): | Tecmobowl.org |
| Release Date: | 1997-02-17 |
| Players: | 2 |
| Co-op: | No |
| ESRB: | E - Everyone |
| Type: | Sports |
A port for the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in 1989 and was the first console game to include real National Football League players, via a license from the NFL Players Association. Tecmo Bowl contains twelve teams, each equipped with four plays. Most teams have two running plays and two passing plays. The exceptions are San Francisco and Miami, who have three passing plays and one running play.
Tecmo was not able an obtain an NFL league license to use real team names, as that had been given to LJN's NFL video game for the NES.[4] As a result, the teams in the game are identified solely by their home city or state. However, through the NFLPA license, each roster mimics that of the NFL team based out of the same city or state. Tecmo Bowl only uses players from twelve of the best and most popular teams of the time.
The teams featured in the game are Indianapolis, Miami, Baltimore, Denver, Seattle, Oakland, Washington, San Francisco, Dallas, New York (Giants), Chicago, and Minnesota.
