Bo Knows Tecmo, Kia Knows You Love That
September 14, 2016 10:26 AM Subscribe
A new Kia Sorento Tecmo Bowl ad has renewed interest in the 1991 NES game, Tecmo Super Bowl.
Possibly inspired by this crazy Bo Jackson run on YouTube (and certainly inspired by Bo Jackson's reputation in the game), the commercial shows off some of Tecmo's famously exploitable tricks, including "stepping" down the field to avoid tackles and the in-your-face "run around the team" dodge.
Although it preys on the nostalgia of 30-something car buyers, people pretty much love it.
With countless hacks and remakes, the Tecmo Bowl community is still going strong some 25 years later. But the original is still the best, despite (or because of) some unbalanced tricks and overwhelming teams. With a constant push towards realism in games, it might be worth remembering the golden rule of video games: fun isn't always fair.
Previous and Previous-er.
Possibly inspired by this crazy Bo Jackson run on YouTube (and certainly inspired by Bo Jackson's reputation in the game), the commercial shows off some of Tecmo's famously exploitable tricks, including "stepping" down the field to avoid tackles and the in-your-face "run around the team" dodge.
Although it preys on the nostalgia of 30-something car buyers, people pretty much love it.
With countless hacks and remakes, the Tecmo Bowl community is still going strong some 25 years later. But the original is still the best, despite (or because of) some unbalanced tricks and overwhelming teams. With a constant push towards realism in games, it might be worth remembering the golden rule of video games: fun isn't always fair.
Previous and Previous-er.
This is weird as hell.
It's like the kind of people who, a few years ago, would have made something like "Shut Up and Jam Gaiden" are now ad agency creatives.
posted by grobstein at 10:34 AM on September 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
It's like the kind of people who, a few years ago, would have made something like "Shut Up and Jam Gaiden" are now ad agency creatives.
posted by grobstein at 10:34 AM on September 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
That was really great. However, I'm afraid that the played ended in a safety when he ran the ball through, and out of, his own endzone.
posted by NoMich at 10:45 AM on September 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by NoMich at 10:45 AM on September 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
Bo Jackson in a Kia is probably slower and easier to tackle than Bo Jackson on foot in Tecmo Super Bowl. He has not improved his situation.
posted by savetheclocktower at 10:48 AM on September 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by savetheclocktower at 10:48 AM on September 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
Oh, man, is it time for Tecmo stories? On topic: the hell with Kia, but marvelous to see Bo Jackson getting work.
Right now I'm playing with a lightly-modified (roster tweaks) 1977 ROM and coaching the Buccaneers. That team went 2-12, the two wins coming in the 13th and 14th games of the season, resulting in the departure of both opposing coaches. (HOFer Hank Stram, who *burned the game film*, was fired *never coached again* and Don Coryell, who quit and headed for San Diego) I prefer the 1977 Bucs to the 1976 0-14 team because '76 was an expansion draft frankenroster anyway, and the '77 squad was the first to gel at all, inasmuch as a team that goes 7-37 its first three years can be spoken of as gelling.
In Coach mode you don't control anything other than play calling--no kick aiming and power, no passing or running timing--not even the decision to onside kick or not. It's a fun challenge that avoids a lot of the unbalanced tricks of PvP play.
So I'm playing the '77 49ers (Jim Plunkett!) in week 7 and am down 13-7 in the fourth, go for it, fail, give up a field goal on the other end, and am now down 16-7.
I drive down the field slowly, and realize I'll have to kick a field goal and try to recover an onside/force a punt. The AI makes the FG for me, then decides for itself to go for the onside and recovers it, all without my direct input. *Somehow* my play calling works I drive down the field and score; 17-16 final. It's quite possibly the least probable thing I've ever had happen to me in years of noodling around with the game. I was over the moon.
The next week, I got beat by the LA Rams 67-0, throw five interceptions, complete no passes, and gain no yards. In ten games I've been outscored 176 to 82...and I'm 4-6 and tied for third in the division.
Man, I love TSB.
posted by Earthtopus at 10:49 AM on September 14, 2016 [10 favorites]
Right now I'm playing with a lightly-modified (roster tweaks) 1977 ROM and coaching the Buccaneers. That team went 2-12, the two wins coming in the 13th and 14th games of the season, resulting in the departure of both opposing coaches. (HOFer Hank Stram, who *burned the game film*, was fired *never coached again* and Don Coryell, who quit and headed for San Diego) I prefer the 1977 Bucs to the 1976 0-14 team because '76 was an expansion draft frankenroster anyway, and the '77 squad was the first to gel at all, inasmuch as a team that goes 7-37 its first three years can be spoken of as gelling.
In Coach mode you don't control anything other than play calling--no kick aiming and power, no passing or running timing--not even the decision to onside kick or not. It's a fun challenge that avoids a lot of the unbalanced tricks of PvP play.
So I'm playing the '77 49ers (Jim Plunkett!) in week 7 and am down 13-7 in the fourth, go for it, fail, give up a field goal on the other end, and am now down 16-7.
I drive down the field slowly, and realize I'll have to kick a field goal and try to recover an onside/force a punt. The AI makes the FG for me, then decides for itself to go for the onside and recovers it, all without my direct input. *Somehow* my play calling works I drive down the field and score; 17-16 final. It's quite possibly the least probable thing I've ever had happen to me in years of noodling around with the game. I was over the moon.
The next week, I got beat by the LA Rams 67-0, throw five interceptions, complete no passes, and gain no yards. In ten games I've been outscored 176 to 82...and I'm 4-6 and tied for third in the division.
Man, I love TSB.
posted by Earthtopus at 10:49 AM on September 14, 2016 [10 favorites]
Needs a Randall Cunningham QB Eagles cameo.
posted by cmfletcher at 10:49 AM on September 14, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by cmfletcher at 10:49 AM on September 14, 2016 [7 favorites]
That was really great. However, I'm afraid that the played ended in a safety when he ran the ball through, and out of, his own endzone.
Huh? Wiki lists the following ways to score a safety:
The ball carrier is tackled or forced out of bounds in his own end zone.
The ball becomes dead in the end zone, with the exception of an incomplete forward pass, and the defending team is responsible for it being there.
The offense commits a foul in its own end zone.
Which one of those occurred here?
posted by leotrotsky at 10:54 AM on September 14, 2016
Huh? Wiki lists the following ways to score a safety:
The ball carrier is tackled or forced out of bounds in his own end zone.
The ball becomes dead in the end zone, with the exception of an incomplete forward pass, and the defending team is responsible for it being there.
The offense commits a foul in its own end zone.
Which one of those occurred here?
posted by leotrotsky at 10:54 AM on September 14, 2016
The "forced out of bounds" part also includes going out of bounds voluntarily or at all (cf: Dan Orlovsky running out of the back of the endzone accidentally for the Lions, Sam Koch icing the Super Bowl for the Ravens against the 49ers by stepping out of the side of his own end zone, etc.)
posted by Earthtopus at 10:58 AM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Earthtopus at 10:58 AM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
Which one of those occurred here?
What Earthtopus said.
posted by NoMich at 11:13 AM on September 14, 2016
What Earthtopus said.
posted by NoMich at 11:13 AM on September 14, 2016
It's like the kind of people who, a few years ago, would have made something like "Shut Up and Jam Gaiden" are now ad agency creatives.
That version of the Techo Bowl Music is fine, I guess, but it's nowhere close to the quality of the "Barkely Shut Up and Jam Gaiden" theme.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:20 AM on September 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
That version of the Techo Bowl Music is fine, I guess, but it's nowhere close to the quality of the "Barkely Shut Up and Jam Gaiden" theme.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:20 AM on September 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
Our subcultural legends are just becoming cultural legends and it's making me feel weird.
posted by zerolives at 12:15 PM on September 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by zerolives at 12:15 PM on September 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
That version of the Techo Bowl Music is fine, I guess, but it's nowhere close to the quality of the "Barkely Shut Up and Jam Gaiden" theme.
It's a much lesser work in all dimensions, no doubt, but it's just a little weird for that sensibility to enter the main stream. I also liked, but felt weird about, those Metal Gear Solid mashups that Ford did.
posted by grobstein at 12:19 PM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's a much lesser work in all dimensions, no doubt, but it's just a little weird for that sensibility to enter the main stream. I also liked, but felt weird about, those Metal Gear Solid mashups that Ford did.
posted by grobstein at 12:19 PM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
Tecmo Bowl remains a fave, but I never could get into Tecmo Super Bowl. Too complicated.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:19 PM on September 14, 2016
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:19 PM on September 14, 2016
Man, I love TSB.
Wow, that's actually amazing that you put so much effort into losing at an NES game.
I can't stand losing at sports video games. I just assume the computer is cheating. I think emulating the Bucs on a 2-14 season from 40 years ago is pretty much the opposite of being a fair-weather fan.
posted by lkc at 12:35 PM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
Wow, that's actually amazing that you put so much effort into losing at an NES game.
I can't stand losing at sports video games. I just assume the computer is cheating. I think emulating the Bucs on a 2-14 season from 40 years ago is pretty much the opposite of being a fair-weather fan.
posted by lkc at 12:35 PM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
Interesting. The ad certainly doesn't make me want to buy a Kia Sorrento, though, because apparently they are incapable of driving in a straight line.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:07 PM on September 14, 2016
posted by Sys Rq at 1:07 PM on September 14, 2016
That version of the Techo Bowl Music is fine, I guess, but it's nowhere close to the quality of the "Barkely Shut Up and Jam Gaiden" theme.
COMEONANDSL.AM while you wait for The Magical Realms of Tír na nÓg: Escape from Necron 7 – Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie – Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa to be released.
Coming some time before the heat death of the universe! Maybe!
posted by majuju at 1:09 PM on September 14, 2016
COMEONANDSL.AM while you wait for The Magical Realms of Tír na nÓg: Escape from Necron 7 – Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie – Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa to be released.
Coming some time before the heat death of the universe! Maybe!
posted by majuju at 1:09 PM on September 14, 2016
I know it's probably because of copyright, but it irrationally bothers me that they spelled Sorrento wrong. I mean, I keep thinking "I can't afford this car," but then I look at the name and think, "So? Rento!"
posted by Dimes at 1:30 PM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Dimes at 1:30 PM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
put so much effort into losing at an NES game
This is a tale of triumph! I just got home from work for week 11 and scored over 17 points for the first time all year, beating the Falcons 21-7 in a game where we scored two touchdowns with a backup RB in as third-string FB and completed a 4th-and-19 on the drive that broke the game open.
I'm 5-6 and have an outside shot at finishing 7-7. (It is quite arguable that I should lower my players' already feeble stats some.) If I could get past the division-leading Bears next week 8-6 would be a lot less impossible and I'd be mathematically alive to win the division, though I will lose any tie based on Tecmo's preference for point differentials.
I'm almost too nervous to re-open the emulator.
The car swerving in the commercial was a nice nod to AI avoidance but not something, I agree, that you'd want your car to be associated with. I did also note with a smile that none of the defenders were trying too hard to actually be near the car; would have been fun to get some grappling animations but I can't blame Kia too much for not wanting their car to be associated with plowing through piles of bodies.
posted by Earthtopus at 2:43 PM on September 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is a tale of triumph! I just got home from work for week 11 and scored over 17 points for the first time all year, beating the Falcons 21-7 in a game where we scored two touchdowns with a backup RB in as third-string FB and completed a 4th-and-19 on the drive that broke the game open.
I'm 5-6 and have an outside shot at finishing 7-7. (It is quite arguable that I should lower my players' already feeble stats some.) If I could get past the division-leading Bears next week 8-6 would be a lot less impossible and I'd be mathematically alive to win the division, though I will lose any tie based on Tecmo's preference for point differentials.
I'm almost too nervous to re-open the emulator.
The car swerving in the commercial was a nice nod to AI avoidance but not something, I agree, that you'd want your car to be associated with. I did also note with a smile that none of the defenders were trying too hard to actually be near the car; would have been fun to get some grappling animations but I can't blame Kia too much for not wanting their car to be associated with plowing through piles of bodies.
posted by Earthtopus at 2:43 PM on September 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
I wonder if everybody in my university dormitory hall has bought a Kia yet. We certainly played enough Tecmo tournaments freshman year that I'm sure I'm not the only one from Markley Hall who had flashbacks from that commercial.
posted by Metro Gnome at 3:30 PM on September 14, 2016
posted by Metro Gnome at 3:30 PM on September 14, 2016
Always play as the New York Giants. Always run the ball. The secret to my success in playing Tecmo Bowl.
posted by Fizz at 5:12 PM on September 14, 2016
posted by Fizz at 5:12 PM on September 14, 2016
Hung tough with the Bears in the first half but succumbed, but then won overtime games (against the Saints, twice in a row due to some schedule bug in the mod) to indeed finish 7-7, at the bottom of a 4-way tie for fifth(!) in the conference, all with the league's worst offense and the point differential of a 4-win team. An 8-6 record with the Vikings losing one more game would have put me in the 4-seed. Damn.
A season to remember, and all thanks to that gutty last-minute comeback against San Francisco when I was in danger of falling to 2-5.
If I ever sim it again, I'll know 8-6 and the four seed is potentially in play, depending on what happens to Minnesota. And maybe I'll try and only lose by 40 or so to LA.
posted by Earthtopus at 6:49 PM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
A season to remember, and all thanks to that gutty last-minute comeback against San Francisco when I was in danger of falling to 2-5.
If I ever sim it again, I'll know 8-6 and the four seed is potentially in play, depending on what happens to Minnesota. And maybe I'll try and only lose by 40 or so to LA.
posted by Earthtopus at 6:49 PM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
A college legend from the 90's was that on a black-and-white TV, the Giants would be invisible sometimes. One guy would play as NY and their "ninja defense".
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:08 PM on September 14, 2016
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:08 PM on September 14, 2016
The car swerving on the playing field reminded me of Carmageddon and the non-3D Grand Theft Auto games... (*splat!* *bonus!*). It's difficult to put my finger on it, and I'm absolutely not against videogame violence, but this mix of reality with potential videogame violence did make me feel as if a line had been crossed.
Also, I'm not too fond of the current cashing in on 80s nostalgia (and yes, Stranger Things, I'm looking at you too).
posted by Captain Fetid at 6:06 AM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also, I'm not too fond of the current cashing in on 80s nostalgia (and yes, Stranger Things, I'm looking at you too).
posted by Captain Fetid at 6:06 AM on September 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
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*looks at tags*
Dang it.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:32 AM on September 14, 2016 [1 favorite]