Tecmo Super NBA Basketball

By the time this basketball title reached the Super Nintendo, Tecmo had already built a reputation as a company that understood sports games. 1992 was a turning point for console sport: sixteen-bit hardware allowed larger, better-animated players, official licences were becoming standard, and audiences began expecting real teams and real names. Tecmo Super NBA Basketball sits squarely inside that wave, built on the NBA licence, and the catalogue files it under that series.

The action plays out from a side view of the court, the most common compromise of the period between overview and legible action. What the SNES contributed to the genre was its colour palette and smooth scrolling, so the run from one basket to the other moves quickly and without tearing. Single-player and multiplayer are both supported, and as with most sports games of that generation, two people on one couch is the part that has aged best.

The publisher on this record is Tec Toy, the Brazilian distributor that dominated the South American market through the nineties and released many titles locally. The entry therefore documents a release distinct from the original North American one.

A sober assessment: sports games age worse than most genres, because their main selling point — current rosters — expires within a season. What survives is the control scheme, which is simple and readable, and a pace that never stalls. If you want sixteen-bit basketball without the statistical layers modern titles pile on, this delivers exactly that and nothing more.