Is "running pass" even correct football terminology? I'll probably never know myself unless Mario picks up the pigskin.

Anyway, it may be time for EA to move Madden over, as Tecmo is back on the gridiron with their eponymous Tecmo Bowl, a football title with roots dating back to the NES. The original title was a little odd, in the sense that the developers were not able to get the rights to use actual NFL team names, and so they wound up using the names of the cities from which they hailed instead as they built up a roster that saw each team mimmick the real life version. If my understanding is correct, however, they did have rights to use players from the NFL Players Association, and so guys like Lawrence Taylor were still able to appear.

The more recent Virtual Console version, however, had to forfeit those long-expired rights as EA now pretty much holds the NFL license lock, stock, and barrel. Fortunately, Tecmo has been able to turn out a solid game before without full use of the NFL license, and can hopefully pull out something similarly endearing to today's fans.

The game was first brought up about a year ago, though the platform it would appear on went unsaid (save for it "not going to be on the platform you're thinking of right now"), until today when Tecmo revealed that the newest iteration would land on the Nintendo DS. Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, as it's known, will feature an arcade-style approach to the gameplay, with cutscenes that put emphasis on bigger plays. And despite the NFL handicap, there will be 32 teams to choose from with customizable squads that allow players to choose colors, emblems, names, and more, including their own playbooks.

The DS touchscreen will be used to control the players, while Nintendo WiFi will enable local and online multiplayer games. Kickoff still lacks a rating, but remains on target for a Fall release. EGM says there will be a Wii release a short time later, but no further details are given.