Friday, October 29, 2021

SNES Game Review: Tecmo Super NBA Basketball

 Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl's three editions are well sketched and well noted in the minds of the public for nearly 40 years now as the first game came out in the last 80's and into the 90's when they made three games for the Super Nintendo.  However the folks at Tecmo made other sports games as well, one of those was Tecmo Super NBA Basketball.  This game was based on the 1991-92 season, so nearly 30 years in the making already.  This game made its North American debut though in 1993.  All in all, what does this game do well? What does it struggle with? All that and more below!

Positives:

1. Graphics- Tecmo does well with the graphics in this game I feel.  It's not as 'tadow' as the Tecmo Super Bowl versions 2 and 3 but it does do well to capture the essence of a basketball game with a well done court (if basic but on the Super Nintendo you had to be basic) and the crowd and the noise of the crowd. 

Credit to SNESguide on YouTube

2. Well done player sprites- They are essentially 3D player sprites and they do really well for making them look and seem like basketball players.  I thought this was a bit ahead of it's time as it took EA a few years to perfect this when they finally got it down with NBA Live 96 for the SNES.  So good job on that Tecmo.

3. Michael Jordan- Most will wonder why I put him on here.  Here's why: This is one of the few actual basketball games he is featured in.  He isn't in NBA Live with that series of games.  He isn't in NBA Jam, so Tecmo is literally one of the few games he is in.  I believe that this was due to trademark of himself rather than the NBPA or the NBA as to why he isn't in other games but players should take notice and enjoy having Michael Jordan in a game.  

4. Realistic schedule/ratings of teams- The schedule is what it was in 1991-92 so they did a really good and extensive job with the calendar on this game.  However the ratings of the teams are also quite good and competitive.  1991-92 was the year of Chicago which is also evident in the game but the teams that played them are pretty competitive and they do well to exemplify that competitive nature in the game.  Unless a complete mismatch, it's typically pretty close games.

Negatives:

1. Shooting/passing- These can be major let downs.  Shooting if you are not just absolutely perfect on it is going to be so hot/cold.  If you are not perfect to the pixel, you will miss almost all the time.  If you are right on the pixel for it, you will not miss.  It's pretty unforgiving overall and you will feel pretty frustrated by it.  For passing, it seems this is more on just players passing into the defense for some reason.  I noticed this playing against the computer, they pass so much but it also leads to a lot of turnovers.  I am not sure why that is but it would be a major downside as well to the game. 

Overall Rating/Rank

All in all, when you get past the shooting/passing flaws, though major, this is a well made game by Tecmo.  I do have to admit that the shooting/passing are major flaws though.  Anyone that was expecting this game to be that of NBA Jam/NBA Jam: Tournament Edition is kidding themselves though.  Not even NBA Live 96 can get to that extent.

Overall Rating: 7 out of 10 is fine.  It's not a great game by any stretch due to the shooting/passing flaws.  But it's not a trash game.  

Overall Rank: Top 300 is fine, I'll say 248th out of the SNES Games. 

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