Tecmo Bowl just came out for the Wii’s Virtual Console, but as WiiFanBoy notices, the player names are stripped out! What’s up with that crap Nintendo?

No doubt this is a result of the NFL Player’s Union exclusive deal with EA Sports for Madden, but it reminds me of the debate that has been coming up on and off in recent years: should people be allowed to use technology to modify established works?

Specifically I remember a lot of people being pissed off over the new versions of Star Wars on DVD months ago that included Hayden Christensen in the final Return of the Jedi scene. I think there was also some controversy involving changing E.T., though I didn’t see the new version.

In the other direction, there’s the nix that was put on using digitally altered historical video clips. Some example of this are Forrest Gump with Nixon and Lyndon Johnson and also in the movie Contact where Bill Clinton appears at a conference announcing the finding of aliens.

If you’re not allowed to digitally edit certain things, should you be allowed to do other things, like removing player names from Tecmo Bowl? Especially if it’s just because the NFL Player’s Union is greedy?

Personally I was kind of hoping for the other extreme. Updating the Tecmo Bowl rosters with NEW players from today. Of course there are entire teams now that didn’t exist then…but that game never had the team name license anyway.