TV Sports Basketball

~ TV SPORTS BASKETBALL ~

Cinemaware / NEC

HuCard

1991

To be fair, this is easily the strongest member of a broken series. Stupid things like the absence of tip-offs (especially when the announcer says a tip-off just happened only for the game to switch to an inbounds pass) and the ridiculous action-disrupting incorporation of a mid-court menu (I don't even bother to call plays) drag it down, but it's a functional basketball sim. It's stupidly easy, especially if you have a fast guard (like "DiFalco" on the Wizards) who can outrace members of the other team down the court (particularly if the computer leaves in fatigued players, which it frequently does). Still, at least it's not as sloppy as Hockey or as fundamentally flawed as Football.

This feels more like choosing a Halloween costume than selecting a basketball team.

The contest begins. Notice that tip-offs are considered superfluous.

Speedy guards like DiFalco can beat everyone else to the basket and get easy slams.

You have no control when the ballcarrier is crossing mid-court and the screen switches to this perspective save for over the calling of plays. I don't call plays. I don't have any problems winning, either.

Free-throw shooting is the ol' "stop the arrow in the right spot" exercise.

And so ends a 255-154 thriller. You can see how many points and fouls each player had, but that's about as far as this game goes with stats.

You can sleepwalk through a whole season of blowout wins if you really want to.

Go team.