NES Works tackles Tecmo Baseball & Tecmo Bowl

Jeremy Parish is back once again to share a look at the NES’ vast library. In today’s installment, we get a double dose of classic sports game action.

Tecmo made a strong debut on NES in 1987 with several of the console’s more memorable early exploratory titles… and then, inexplicably, they sat out all of 1988. Maybe the company decided to regroup and rethink its North American strategy, because they return to the scene here at the start of ’89 with a pair of games crafted specifically for the U.S..

Tecmo Baseball, which (despite the Famicom audience’s seemingly insatiable appetite for all things pro yakyuu) never even shipped in Japan, and Tecmo Bowl, by far the best console adaptation of the American gridiron to that point in history. It would eventually be eclipsed by the game’s own superior sequel, but here at the beginning of a new year, Tecmo has arrived in force. And this isn’t even the high point of their early ’89s titles!