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They play football in Japan.

And this time, we're not talking about soccer. We're not talking about the world's game; played by every nation but played well by only a few. In Japan they play American football with pads, helmets, cheerleaders, three yards and a cloud of dust.

Many elements of American culture are popular in Japan but the people who gravitate toward Japan's X League for American football seem to be an intense subculture of their own. Athletes play for peanuts, injuries are common and the caliber of play is half a notch above high school ball, but it's a pretty impressive league considering the overall lack of institutional football culture. What Japanese football lacks in flair and fundamentals it makes up for with dedication and enthusiasm.

It is with this understanding that we witness the revival of one of the most beloved sports franchises in the history of video games: Tecmo Bowl.

Tecmo is a Japanese company that named its football game after itself in the late 1980s and used the NFL license to win the hearts of an entire generation of video gamers who would go on to love, buy and play many millions of football games in years to come. Through years of NFL GameDay, NFL Quarterback Club, NFL Blitz, Mike Ditka's Power Football, Mutant League Football and a somewhat popular video game football franchise named after former Oakland Raiders head coach John Madden, Tecmo Bowl (and its sequel Tecmo Super Bowl) has held a special place as the sports game experience that stirs up the most intense feelings of pure, juvenile arcade fun.

Tecmo Bowl Kickoff is all of that nostalgia reborn and shoved into a Nintendo DS cartridge. It looks and plays just like the game you remember. You have a choice of four running plays and four passing plays that you can call on offense. On defense you'll once again be trying to guess which offensive play your opponent called. If you're right, you'll blow up the play and maybe cause a turnover or at least a sack. If you're wrong, well you've got some work to do and it'll take some amazing thumbwork to stop the other team.

On offense there's no directional passing or any real need to read a blitz. On runs you'll simply want to follow your blocking and avoid diving tacklers when you're in the open field. Dodging tackles demands tough and nimble thumbs since you can still set up defenders by heading in one direction and dodging in another if you anticipate their dives. When you're passing, you'll still be toggling through all of your receiving options one at a time with quick presses on the same button and then firing the pass on the other button.

So what's different with Tecmo Bowl Kickoff?

First, there's no NFL or NFL Players license, thanks to the generosity of Electronic Arts and the Soprano-style tactics of the National Football League. There's a comprehensive team/player editor feature that we'll be telling you about in a later piece. This feature is key however because we'd like to tell you that it will definitely allow you to re-create this game in the NFL's image circa 1993 or even 2008, but we can't formally tell you that because we're not supposed to tell you how to get around the NFL's wishes.

Second, you have the ability to play Tecmo Bowl Kickoff using the touchscreen and stylus to execute plays. Instead of cycling through receivers by mashing the A button over and over, you can simply tap on the receiver you want and the QB will deliver the ball. When your ball carrier runs into defenders you can scrub the stylus over him to try to break tackles.

Third, there's a wealth of Super Moves you can use in different situations that would've come in handy back in the early 90s when your cousin, buddy or roommate was punishing you with Lawrence Taylor. Quarterbacks can throw Rocket Passes that can't be blocked by defenders and get to the receiver quickly. This is important because in Tecmo Bowl, a receiver is only as open as his QB's arm will allow. That is, a guy can be standing down the field with nobody around but when you hit the pass button to deliver him the ball, it can take an excruciatingly long time to get there if you have a rag armed passer.

Receivers can make Divine Saves. In translating the game to English this feature is described as "Receive Pass From Far Away." We interpret that to mean this Super Move allows your receiver to catch an errant deep pass because that's what we've seen them do. Running Backs can make Power Runs that will let them carry a pack of defenders an extra three yards once they're in the process of being tackled.

There are several more Super Moves for each position but the idea behind each of them is the same: better players should be able to do amazing things when the moment presents itself. If you were to be that type of person to NFL-ize your Tecmo Bowl Kickoff experience you'd want to be able to give superstars like Adrian Peterson and Terrell Owens some kind of difference-making ability and the Super Moves are just that.

Tecmo Bowl Kickoff is not a game that's going to make anybody forget The Official Video Game of the NFL, Madden NFL 09. The style of play requires very little football knowledge and less reaction time on the controls. With only eight options per play, the "which play did he call?" guessing game is half of the chess match between you and your opponent. Knowing your personnel and who's good at what in different situations is the other half. If you've got a running back with exceptional power, getting him the ball in the open field is your best bet. Why make him "popcorn" through all 11 defenders when breaking away from two or three can spring him for a touchdown? And really, that's about as far as the strategic thinking goes in Tecmo Bowl. Just like you'd need luck and a Mike Singletary to stop Bo Jackson back in the original Tecmo Bowl, in Tecmo Bowl Kickoff you'll want the superstar linebacker on the Baltimore Bulldozers to help you out against the talented running back on the Los Angeles Supercocks. And I wish I was making up those names. Thank goodness for the team and player customization feature. We'll have the coming up in Part II.