Man, I tried really hard to find the fun in this game.
Sega Genesis
Released in 1990 by Sega
Grade: F
This is one of the most ill-conceived basketball video games that’s ever existed. It’s oddly challenging, and not worth it. It’s painfully slow and full of annoying quirks.
Where it falls in the series
This game is developed and published by Sega, who also shot hopeless bricks with David Robinson’s Supreme Court and NBA Action ’94 series, but they did half-decent job with NBA Action ’95: Starring David Robinson.
Gripes
The first thing you notice is how slow the players move. It feels like you’re on drugs playing this game.
The next thing you’ll probably notice is that you get a traveling violation trying to put up a shot, because this game has an unusual (and not necessarily bad) shooting system that requires two button presses for a jump shot. One for the jump and one for the release. This happens on slam dunks too, where the primitive side-view graphics suddenly switch to a close-up of your player rising toward the rim, and a meter helps you time the slam. If there’s a defender nearby, he’s also in the screen with his own meter to try and block it.
After the traveling call, suddenly the other team is tossing the ball into play before your team can regroup and get back on defense. This happens constantly, even after made baskets, so the game is full of fast breaks … the slowest fast breaks ever. This funny misstep embodies the rest of the game logic, which bears almost no resemblance to real basketball.
Did I mention the controls are woefully unresponsive? Because they are. They’re not just delayed, but literally unresponsive at times. Also, steals seem impossible, until you realize they’re easy from behind! Even for a simplistic 16-bit game, that is so unrealistic it’s inexcusable.
That’s enough. You’ve already wasted too much time reading about this game. I played it in a few different sittings, just to make sure I wasn’t missing the point. I embraced the challenge, I tell you. Even after figuring out some tricks, this game was just NOT FUN.
You can toss this one in the pile of bad basketball games. The bottom of the pile.
Published December 7, 2017
Updated September 28, 2022