Tecmo Super Bowl was the successor to the original Tecmo Bowl, which was released for the NES in 1989. While not nearly as good as Super Bowl, the first game laid down the basic concepts, visuals and gameplay that would be used to full effect two years later. Tecmo Bowl [F]eatured 12 teams—all based on real NFL squads—but since the game didn't have an NFL license, they were identified by their respective cities only and were represented by bizarre logos made up by the Tecmo developers. Strangely enough, Tecmo Bowl did have an NFL Players Association (NFLPA) license, so the real players of the day were included in the game. Also included were very brief stat lines from the previous season for each player, which the game used as a guide to measure player abilities.