Tecmo Bowl Unblocked — Play Free Online

Tecmo Bowl is the 8-bit American football game that Tecmo released on the NES in the late 1980s, and it is the one that many people point to as the start of console football games with real players and team names. Here it runs inside an NES emulator in the browser, so you open the page, click the screen and you are looking at the title menu a few seconds later.

It is nothing like the fighters that fill the rest of this site. There are no health bars, and you do not mash buttons. Instead you pick a team, call plays from a short menu and then steer one player at a time on a field that scrolls up and down the screen. A game is four short quarters, so a full match fits into a coffee break, and you can also stop whenever you like. If you came here for Super Smash Flash because you like quick head-to-head matches on one keyboard, this is a slower, more tactical way to get the same competitive itch.

How to play

The emulator maps the NES pad to the keyboard. Arrow keys are the D-pad, and X and Z act as the A and B buttons. Enter is Start and Shift is Select. The mappings can be changed in the emulator's settings menu, which also lets you plug in a USB or Bluetooth controller. Click inside the game once so the keys reach it.

Before each snap you choose a play from a menu. On offense that means a run or a pass, and on defense you guess what the other side will do. After the snap you control the ball carrier or the quarterback, or on defense the player nearest the action. A pass is a two-step job: the quarterback throws with a button press, and you then take over the receiver to catch it. Tackles, fumbles and interceptions all happen in a few seconds, so the decisions you make at the play menu matter at least as much as your reflexes.

Tips

• Mix your play calls. If you run the same play three times, the computer will be waiting for it on the fourth.
• Do not force deep passes. Short throws to an open receiver are safer than a long throw into coverage.
• On defense, keep control of the player closest to the ball carrier and tackle early. A missed tackle often ends in a long gain.
• This emulator has save and load state buttons in its toolbar. Use them before a big fourth-down decision if you want to retry it.

Similar games on Super Smash Flash

If you want something with more contact and less waiting, Big Shot Boxing is a straight one-on-one sports brawl and Rowdy Wrestling does the same in the ring. For a more chaotic two-player session, try House of Hazards or Gun Mayhem 2. Tecmo Bowl suits the player who likes to plan a move and then see whether it works.

It is a good pick for a short solo game against the computer, or for passing the keyboard back and forth with a friend. A keyboard is the best way to play it, because the emulator does not give you touch controls.