Only Bill Simmons can pull-off writing a riveting column about football video games. You can feel the excitement of Tecmo Bo with every word. When Tecmo Super Bowl was released in 1991, we could play whole seasons and keep stats, which pushed Bo's magic to the next level. I knew a guy in college who cracked 1,000 yards with him ... in one game. When I mentioned Video Bo's brilliance last year on ESPN.com, the e-mails poured in, with everyone writing in reverential tones, as if he were a real person. One reader remembered his buddy ripping off an 85-yard game-winning run, saying he was "helpless as Bo shed about 874 tackles at once and strolled into the end zone ... it took me a long time to get over that one." Another reader wrote, "When I tell my kids about the greatest athletes of my generation, Bo Jackson will be on that list, in large part because of my memories of Tecmo Bo." Who's better than Bo? By Bill Simmons When Mike Vick broke his leg, real football fans had two immediate thoughts: "Should l still take him in my fantasy draft?" and "Uh-oh, the Madden cover jinx." Ah, yes, the dreaded curse: George, Culpepper, Faulk, now Vick. Just wait until next summer, when Clinton Portis makes the cover and then is disemboweled in an intrasquad scrimmage. Michael Vick -- the latest victim of the Madden curse. Happening two days after the release of Madden 2004, Vick's creepy injury overshadowed another stunner … something so unbelievable I hesitate to even write about it. For 15 years, the greatest force in video football history was Bo Jackson. No one has ever approached Bo's performance in the first two Tecmo Bowls: not Rice, Sanders, LT, Okoye, Cunningham, Desmond Howard, Randy Moss ... not even Cap Boso. Video Bo was the best. Sports fans will argue about anything, but this particular subject has never been up for debate. Until now. I'm here to say that Mike Vick's video alter ego is the first direct challenge to Bo's legacy. When I got my hands on Madden 2004 last week, I quickly took Vick for a test drive. His player ratings include 95s for speed and acceleration and a 95 for agility. Yikes. In the shotgun offense, he's simply unstoppable. On the first play I called against the Panthers, Vick ran a QB sweep for a 75-yard score. Nobody touched him. He finished with 371 yards rushing and 322 yards passing, and accounted for all 8 TDs in a 56-28 victory. Just another day at the office for Video Mike. So now you're thinking, "Move over, Bo -- there's a new sheriff in town!" Well, not exactly. Vick can actually be stopped: he gets tired if you keep running him, and you can contain him somewhat if you stack the line. Unlike Bo, defenders don't bounce off him like bad guys in a superhero movie. Nowadays, video games are too sophisticated. Nobody can bust 11 tackles on a single play; it wouldn't be realistic. Back in Bo's day, video games were much more primitive. The original Tecmo Bowl featured only four plays per team, and on a loaded '89 Raiders team, Bo had only one run play to himself. It was like limiting Will Ferrell to one SNL skit per week. No matter. You couldn't come close to stopping him. When Tecmo Super Bowl was released in 1991, we could play whole seasons and keep stats, which pushed Bo's magic to the next level. I knew a guy in college who cracked 1,000 yards with him ... in one game. When I mentioned Video Bo's brilliance last year on ESPN.com, the e-mails poured in, with everyone writing in reverential tones, as if he were a real person. One reader remembered his buddy ripping off an 85-yard game-winning run, saying he was "helpless as Bo shed about 874 tackles at once and strolled into the end zone ... it took me a long time to get over that one." Another reader wrote, "When I tell my kids about the greatest athletes of my generation, Bo Jackson will be on that list, in large part because of my memories of Tecmo Bo." Bo Jackson was practically unstoppable in Tecmo Bowl. Everyone has the same highlights: running Bo backward to his own goal line, then turning him around so he could plow through everyone for a 99-yard jaunt. Or watching Bo bust TDs even if the defense called his play (no one else could do that). Or seeing Bo carry defenders like a knapsack for 20, 30 yards. Video Bo was larger than life. I've heard that when Bo speaks at colleges, someone always brings up the video game thing, and Bo will laugh and admit that "No matter where I go, somebody always mentions it." It's weird how it all turned out. In four seasons, Bo played just 38 games before that freak hip injury ended his career. He never broke 1,000 yards in a season. Other than a few outrageous runs and the time he pancaked Brian Bosworth on Monday Night Football, there wasn't much substance to Bo's time with the Raiders. Just as we wonder about the careers of Gabe Kaplan and the woman who played Lacey Underall, we'll always wonder why things didn't turn out differently. If anything, Video Bo was more memorable than the real thing, the most unstoppable virtual football force of all time. Let's hope Vick's real career doesn't end up the same way. For now, the important thing is that somebody finally has made a run at Bo. I never thought I'd see the day.
Tecmo Bo is the greatest video game athlete ever!!! Tecmo Jerry "Dirty" Rice is a distant second. He was given that nickname after numerous unbelievable catches during the initial 3 years of Tecmo. Me and my friends still refer to him as "Dirty" to this day. "Playgood" Jeffires was a helluva player too one of those years.
ahh simmons with another great one. he thinks so much like me (and probably so many others) it's ridiculous. on tecmo super bowl (aka the greatest video game ever made) i will say rice's ability to catch anything and everything thrown his way (along with montana's ability to always be on target) made rice ridiculous and if barry sanders was in excellent condition, he simply could not be caught by mortal defenders (even those freak ones that just pop out for one play and cover about 30 yards of screen in 1 second, he could juke those and make 'em slow down). and if i hadn't recently played a season with the raiders, i might have disagreed, but damn Bo was awesome. i actually made it a point to never not call a bo running play and only once was i stopped; when the oilers called my play at my own 1 yard line and safetied me (no way out on that particular play), causing me to only win 87-2 (another thing, the raiders wreck like nobodies business, not even san fran's when you're controlling them, i put 87 on the oilers and was missing opportunities, i could've put up 100 on a good day). bo had barry's speed, okoye's hitting power, and didn't fumble. and lord help you if you're playing the raiders and the guy you're controlling doesn't get to bo, just put 6 on the board. while that would be hard to get over, that doesn't compare to the craziest thing i ever saw on tecmo super bowl (guess this is as good a time as any to mention it). two friends playing. one completes a pass, takes it pretty far down the field. gets tackled and fumbles. other friend picks it up. and not with one of those guys who is fast and busts all the tackles, just some normal guy. manages to zig zag all the way to about the other 25. gets tackled. fumbles the ball. original friend picks it up with similar normal guy and manages to zig zag all the way back for a touchdown. i don't think it was the last play, but it ultimately decided the game, absolutely crazy. i mean usually when you get a fumble or INT and some superman doesn't pick it up, you get pounced on, and to not see only one guy, but two basically navigate the whole field on the same play off fumbles was amazing. one thing i had a hard time getting over was a 70 yd field goal someone hit as time expired while i was wrestling with the MFing holder and still didn't get the block. man that pissed me off (especially b/c some weak-ass receiver on seattle had been catching triple coverage passes all day like he was friggin rice or something).
I barely played Tecmo Super Bowl. However, in Tecmo Bowl, LT is THE man in 2 player mode. I'd get interceptions after interceptions since he is so fast and can literally cover the whole field. He also never misses a tackle. It's great that my favorite all time player is also the best video game player of all time.
I haven't played any Madden football games in years, but this article inspired me to go and buy a used copy of Madden 02 for the low low price of $5.00 (I can't believe how cheap PS2 games are). Well you know what they say, "Its new to me". They should stick Tecmo Bo in Madden 05, just for the humor factor alone.
