Retro Game Review: Tecmo Super NBA Basketball

Players: 2

Co-op: No

Genre: Sports

Release Date: 01/01/1993

ESRB Rating: E

Developer: Tecmo

Publisher: Tecmo

Platform Reviewed On: Nvidia Shield Android TV (Retroarch cores: SNES9x_2010, Genesis-Plus-GX)

Additional Platforms: Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis

Initial Thoughts: I got this game as a kid for the Super NES. I love NBA Basketball so I thought that it was perfect. This game came before the NBA Lives, NBA Jams, and NBA 2Ks. Looking back Tecmo I feel should’ve stuck with making sports games. I mean they did Tecmo Bowl and that was pretty cool. Sometimes I do imagine what would a current generation sports game would look like today if Tecmo had stuck in the genre.

Description: So game had an original version for the NES titled Tecmo NBA Basketball. It followed the 1991-92 season it had real teams and it had real players. The players were as best as they could be during the time but the fact that everything was based on real was amazing for the time. Then Tecmo put this game out for the SNES in 1993 which is the version I’m currently reviewing. The weird thing about it is that when they put it out for the SNES the rosters were not updated and it still followed the previous season. Not the 1992-93 NBA season. That next year in 1994 it was put out for the Sega Genesis. The rosters were updated and it was the actual 1992-93 but then it came out during the 1993-94 season. Do you see the trend here folks? It was always a season behind. Maybe that’s why they stopped doing sports games. LOL! So when you play this game you have a choice of 27 teams to choose from. The reason they are 27 teams is because that’s how many teams were in the league during that time. You can do a preseason/exhibition where you can play the computer or play with a friend. They also have a season mode too where you can choose a team or teams and either emulate the season or play every game. You can do short seasons, and medium seasons too if playing an 82 game season is too long for you. As for quarters they can either be 4, 8, or 12 minutes. The time goes fast but if you want a realistic NBA score I would probably go with 8 minutes. As for when you are actually playing a game you can check player data to see what their abilities are. If they are good rebounder, good shooter, etc,. But still making a shot when you are playing in a game is a luck of the draw. At least I think so anyway. When playing a game it is pretty easy to block shots and charge if you are not careful. Rebounding is pretty easy too. Shooting on the other hand is a whole other story. If you are controlling a player that is a bad shooter and even if they are right in front of the rim chances are they can miss the shot very easily. You can call plays if you want to but who wants to do that. LOL! And if you look at the menu for that it looks pretty complicated if you ask me. Overall if you like a good retro sports game and want to try something different (other than NBA Live or NBA Jam) then try this game.

Music: Here is a link to some of music in the game. Not bad if you ask me. Playing Basketball 1 is my favorite.

Final Thoughts: I hear from a lot of people that old school retro sports games don’t hold up very well today but I think that this game was very easy to play and if I want a basketball fix on the retro side I know where to go. It would’ve been cool if you could trade players but I understand the time. They only added more to sports games later on including updated rosters.

My Score: 7/10. It was excellent during the time and that is how I’m grading this game.

Video Gameplay Footage: Coming soon!