Take Tecmo Bowl with you

It's the Tecmo Bowl that fits in your pocket...

So let's pretend you're sitting in an airport, waiting for a flight that, er, three hours late. The TV has some news program you're not even interested in on, and you've finished thumbing through the magazine you picked up in the terminal. So you turn to your beloved cell phone and one of the games that was preloaded on it (I know these days some phones either have demos or none at all). Now, football fans, which would you rather play: Some no-name Tetris clone, or a version of Tecmo Bowl that fits in your pocket?

That's what I thought. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's true. Tecmo Bowl is available on your mobile phone.

Now before you hurry up and log on to your mobile gaming Web site and download this game, let me give you some details on it. First of all, it's basically a barebones version of the original Tecmo Bowl (late '80s version) that only allows you to play the equivalent of an exhibition game. Plus, you can only choose from four teams - San Francisco, Dallas, New York and Green Bay - who don't have nicknames and don't feature player names (Thanks, EA Sports). The classic music and sounds from the original are missing as well.

Now that I've given you the negative sell, let me tell you what I really like about this game. For starters, it's classic Tecmo Bowl, so it would be hard to screw it up. The gameplay is exactly the same: Four offensive plays to choose from, with the defense trying to guess which play the offense picked. All of the gameplay elements are there, down to the automatic cycling between receivers, shaking off blockers and tacklers, diving and choosing your defender before a play. There are also some good-looking still-frame cut scenes that pop up during the game.

If I were doing an official "review" of this game, I'd probably give it a 2.5 or 3 out of 5 overall. While this version is perfect for getting your Tecmo Bowl fix on the go, you probably won't want to stare at such a small screen for so long. But if you want a version of the game that can go wherever you do, then it's definitely worth the few bucks it costs to download it.