Sega Genesis
Released in 1993 by EA Sports
Grade: D
This is the culmination of EA’s series of side-scroll basketball games, and boy is it unimpressive.
Where it falls in the series
This is the last of five basketball games before EA switched to a diagonal view and took the shackles off the gameplay in NBA Live 95. The series is referred to as the “NBA Playoffs” series, with Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs, Bulls vs Lakers and the NBA Playoffs, Team USA Basketball, and Bulls vs Blazers and the NBA Playoffs. This sentence took longer to type than the game takes to reveal its shortcomings.
Gripes
This might look just like NBA Live with a side view. Well, it’s not. NBA Live has fast, smooth action and responsive controls. This game does not.
The controls have a horrible delay that makes me feel like I must be drunk playing this game. Passes never go where you’re pointing. When shooting, you need to release the button well before you reach the peak of the shot. Dribbling isn’t fun at all, because you stop on a dime as soon you come in contact with a defender, resulting in a standstill or a charging call.
If you are determined to get good at this game, you’ll resort to a too-reliable head fake, which has the defender leaping almost every time, even when you’re a few feet past the three-point line!
Defense is frustrating because there’s no steal button. God forbid you’re too close when your man tries to shoot; you’ll be whistled for a foul randomly. You can block shots frequently, but you can’t rebound to save your life. If the ball ends up in your player’s hands, it’s luck.
I figured maybe the playcall button might bring some life to the game, but it just makes your players quickly move to a new spot, which is useless. You can’t use teammates for a pick, and they never get separation from their defenders.
The graphics look nice in a screenshot, but in motion they’re bland and unnatural. Sometimes you don’t even see the ball fly through the air; it’s just suddenly in the hoop. And upon any inspection, you’ll see that half the floorboards are green!
I can’t believe they made five games like this. Who the hell bought these games? What publications gave them good reviews? The shift to NBA Live couldn’t come soon enough.
To temper my complaints a bit, I contend that basketball is the toughest sport to recreate in video game form. NBA Jam found a winning formula with hyper-realistic 2-on-2 action, but I don’t know of a great simulation basketball game until NBA 2K11.