NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC
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| Released for the Nintendo 64 on November 16, 1999 by Midway, and developed by Eurocom, NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC features arcade-style basketball action for up to four players. |
Midway's NBA Jam was an arcade and a 16-bit console favorite of mine and most people in the early to mid-90's. However, in the 32 and 64-bit age, when the naming rights went to now defunct publishing house, Acclaim, the series took a downturn. However, this didn't mean (the also now defunct) Midway quit making arcade-style basketball games. On the N64, Midway continued in the spirit of NBA Jam with 1997's NBA Hangtime, and its follow-up, 1999's NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC. Like its predecessors, Showtime features zany two-on-two NBA action, with players able to jump far over the rim while dunking, and becoming "ON FIRE!" after making three shots in a row without the other team scoring in between. Being ON FIRE! allows the player to then make subsequent shots from anywhere on the court, as well as legally goal-tend, though ON FIRE! ends as soon as the other team makes a shot.
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| Look at these beautiful late 90's colors! |
NBA Showtime (also released in the arcade, and for the PlayStation, Dreamcast, and the Game Boy Color) works best experienced with friends. The Nintendo 64's two and four player
modes suit the game's fast-paced, simplistic nature. Controls are pretty much
limited to three buttons: one to pass/steal, one to shoot/block, and one for
TURBO, with the joystick controlling movement. The controls are fairly tight, though blocking a shot is a little imprecise. Also, if there's only one person controlling one team, the other player on that team is a
computer-controlled drone that will pass or shoot whenever that person tells it to, but
otherwise controls itself (and not badly, either). Showtime is extremely offense based,
as you're mostly trying to TURBO around to the basket to perform an outlandish
dunk (you can double-tap turbo to juke around defenders). Of course, using an ace three-point shooter is
also quite fun.
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| Did I say "Ace?" That's because that's what I named my Grant Hill-resembling create-a-player, with whom I am putting all stat points into making three-pointers. Of course, my player will never compare to Rex Chapman, king of Nintendo 64 three-point shooting. |
NBA Showtime on the Nintendo 64 uses team rosters from the 1998-1999 NBA season. Of course, this is a two-on-two game, so only a few players from each team are there to choose from. Each one has varying, listed stats, with some players great at threes, some great at dunking, or stealing, or blocking, etc. Some players are a great balance of all, though where's the fun in that? You can also create your own player, and save them to a memory card. You get to choose the player's appearance, and set their stats as you choose from a limited pool of useable points. Thankfully, you can gain more points to add to his stats as you win games with him, and you can stick him on whatever team you want. This is a fun, though slightly tedious way to create a super player.
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| Or you could just use Shaq |
NBA Showtime's bright, colorful, late 90's graphics are solid, if a little awkward. Players can sometimes appear quite blocky, in stereotypical, early 3D, Nintendo 64 fashion. The slightly more streamlined and smoother look of the NBA Courtside series' players is a small step above what's here. On the flip side, the crowds, while mostly static, look pretty good. The announcer is also pretty fun. Sure, he eventually starts repeating the same stuff, but he's lively and never gets irritating.
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| This ain't Courtside, Kobe, you're just here to pass the ball to Shaq! |
As fun as this game can be, it has its frustrations. The menu screens, for instance, are pretty stiff and unforgiving. Pick the wrong team by accident? Too bad. You can't go back. You have to start a game with them, then exit. Also, loading up your created player is tedious--you've got to enter your initials, and a password you're forced to create...so if you forget or lose your password, your create-a-player is locked inside your memory card forever with no chance of escape.
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| Just like the ball has no chance of escaping the hoop when it's being shot by ON FIRE! Rex Chapman. |
There's also not really any options to play through a season, playoffs, etc. The focus here, as it likely should be, is on the fast-paced, cartoonish action. NBA Showtime features an army of goofy, secret characters (you just have to know the initials and password for them), basket-loads of over-the-top action, and great opportunities to yell at or make fun of your friends. It doesn't try to be anything more than that, and while it might not quite hit that iconic NBA Jam vein, there's plenty of blood in this. That metaphor was as bad as Shaq is at free throws, HEY, AMIRITE? Just kidding, I love you, Big Diesel.
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