Tecmo Super Bowl II: Special Edition

Features

Tecmo Super Bowl 2 was released for Super NES and Genesis in 1994. The game still had all of Tecmo's features (breaking tackles), but once again teamed with the NFL Players Association, the game had names for nearly all of its players, with a few players still under generic names. The game also added a new feature, "trade player". A pre-season three-week period allows up to three trades to be made. If the offered team accepts the trade, a message, along with other trades from other teams will be posted. Any trades not listed means the trade was rejected and the trade period moves on to the next week. Unlike the previous versions, defensive players can be injured or adjusted around in the depth chart. Although these new features included the fair catch and choosing a particular defensive play formation, penalties continued to be not one of them.

All rosters have been increased to 37 players for each team. Now teams have to switch end zones after each quarter.

Newer game graphics were created to allow new random player animations, such as dragging tacklers, and random spin moves and jumps to avoid dive tackles. User controlled ballcarriers can now dive at any time and anywhere on the field. The fair catch option and two-point conversion were added. Timeouts can now be called right after the whistle blows instead of waiting for the playbook screen to come back up. Punt and field goal fakes are now possible as well. The offensive playbook was expanded to 16 plays, and the defense was now allowed to choose either a normal, goal line, nickel or dime formation before guessing his opponent's offensive play. In addition to the increased playbook choices, audibles can now be called while on the field to change previous selected plays. The defense can also audible into different defensive formations that are listed above.

The game was packaged with the 1992, '93 and '94 schedules, as well as the three team rosters corresponding to those years. Alternate and unofficial schedules are generated by the CPU, but only in Trade Season Mode. Game quarter lengths (in preseason and probowl only) can be either shortened or extended. Fumbles and injuries can also be turned off, but neither the previous and later options are available in regular season mode. To keep with the traditional "arcade style" feel of the previous games, the game clock remained the same (accelerated), and both penalties and the 40 second play clock were excluded. This was the first Tecmo football game that allowed users to change quarter lengths in Season Mode.

Reception

The game saw a relatively limited release, with only 15,000 units of the Super NES version being shipped to retailers.

In their review of the Super NES version, GamePro commented that "Year after year, Tecmo's football games remain popular with players, even though other carts boast better graphics and game play. Super Bowl II continues that trend: It's a decent game that'll still rank high in the sales." They cited the stats as the game's best feature, but criticized that the graphical style is outdated and there aren't as many plays as in other football video games. They nonetheless concluded that the game is "undeniably fun, especially for first-time players."