Despite being more realistic than other games of the era, like Ten Yard Fight, Tecmo Bowl still had some faults. For instance, any pass thrown to a covered receiver resulted in an interception, and it was unrealistically easy to block field goals and extra points. A player using the New York Giants, for example, could easily block every kick using Lawrence Taylor simply by selecting him and running through the blockers. Tecmo Bowl contains twelve teams, each equipped with four plays. Most teams have two running plays and two passing plays. The exceptions being San Francisco and Miami who have three passing plays and one running play. Tecmo, Inc. was not able to get the NFL's consent to use real team names. As a result, the teams in the game are identified solely by their home city or state. However, each roster conveniently mimics that of the NFL team based out of the same city or state.
