The full NFL license is used and the action is realistic for a side-view football game.

The game is closer to the real-life sport in comparison to its NES predecessors in several ways. Each team has a playbook of eight passing plays and eight running plays, any one of which can be switched out and another put in its place in the middle of a game. It also included some of the more nuanced strategies of football, such as attempting two-point conversions. Also setting itself apart from the NES-era games was the in-game presentation, which is more akin to the realistic "TV style" presentation of modern football games like the Madden series. After a big offensive play, or a turnover or sack on defense, a box would appear on screen with a small grayscale picture of the player involved alongside his current statistics for the game.

The series' shift towards greater realism is also reflected in the game's season mode. First, it records fairly detailed statistics of each game and cumulative statistics for each team in the league throughout the season. Also throughout the season the game would maintain a list of leaders across the league in each major statistical category, and would record when a player or team broke an NFL record. The rosters for each team can also be customized by the user, and the stating lineup of a user-controlled team can be changed at any point in Season mode. Tecmo Super Bowl III's season mode also features occasional injuries, which would last for varied amounts of time just as in real life.

Although Tecmo Super Bowl II: Special Edition added many new features during its limited release, Tecmo Super Bowl III added even more to make the "Final Edition" the last 16-bit installment for both the SNES and Sega Genesis. The new Super Star Editor allowed for creating players while using a limited point system. These created players can be improved upon, but only if they do well in Season Mode. As in the last edition, player trades can be made during a three-week period right before Season Mode begins. Free agency is another addition to the game, which allows signing players not currently on teams, but not before space on rosters is made available. The free agent pool is only available when Trade Mode Season is selected. Depending on the home team, different stadium types are sometimes used, such as real grass fields, indoor/outdoor astro turf, or even a converted baseball infield style of stadium.

Like in last year's version, alternate schedules are generated by the computer after the official (1995) schedule is played through. The fake extra point option, which was excluded from the previous version, was added to the game. Also new to the game is that player stats and real life player portraits are occasionally posted during games, so whenever a player makes a big catch, or a running back runs for so many yards, a window comes up indicating how that player is doing.