In my opinion football gaming has come a long way since the days of Tecmo Bowl — a long way in the wrong direction. With super realistic graphics and gameplay that matches actual game far too well, football gaming for me has become far too real and balanced. I miss the days when I could choose the magic 49ers play that always worked and score a touchdown with Jerry Rice every time. That’s the way football should be.

And that’s the way it will be if we can trust this trailer for Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff. Back are the cut scenes and pixelated football spikes, not to mention the cheerleaders and, dare I dream, the half-time show. Here we have a return to the side-scrolling wonder that was Tecmo Bowl and Super Tecmo Bowl and I couldn’t be more overjoyed. Seriously, if you’re going to play football on a portable device this is how you have to do it. I know EA has the NFL all bagged up, but in all honesty you couldn’t tell the teams apart in the originals anyway. I’m pretty sure SF wore pink.