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Reader review by aschultz
October 15, 2010 Few early video games had a story, but Super Basketball musters half of one: win a series of increasingly improbable sixty-second comebacks against a junior high team (78-70) up to the world champions (114-70.) It's more keep-away or Capture the Flag, and that's probably kept it fresh while more realistic early attempts at basketball have gone flat. It's even better now with emulation, which bypasses the annoying controls so you can enjoy the absurdity.You're always on offense, inbounding beneath your own basket, but you gain five seconds per made basket--with a bonus for dunks and three-pointers--so there's always hope. Of course, later opponents defend better. In SB, this means running into the dribbler to draw a charge. Goaltending is often recorded as a rebound or blocked shot, and sometimes the game lets an enemy in the lane block your three-pointer. These failures, along with turnovers, cost five seconds if over ten seconds are left. Missed shots also hang in the air before you're eventually out-jumped for rebounds, so quick layups and short jumpers are the way to go.
That gets you extra points, but the melodrama's more engaging. The gym's "WIN A GAME" banner, with no crowd but lots of cheering, made my first Engrish experience. Teammates blubber over missed free throws (sometimes you actually get a call--I'm not sure how,) and the game-winning shooter taking his shirt off and jumping (no actual vertical, just legs bending at the knees) in time to the announcer's repeated "BRAVO. BRAVO. BRAVO. BRAVO." Then there's the weird teddy bear kangaroo dribbling a ball in the break between games, with the "YOU ARE GREAT" marquee. SB's easy enough so even indifferent players will see all this. They will probably even find out, from desperation, that the first half-court shot in each contest goes in automatically, though sometimes it rolls around the rim several times first. Opponents wear two-tone uniforms, at least half-pastel, with short shorts. Early ones may even get knocked over by an errant pass. All this with sound effects--besides the ref actually verbalizing, just bursts of noise, but they feel right.
That's fun, but so's the actual strategy. The computer throws several defensive sets at yours: three midcourt players and one at the top of the key. If you fail on one possession, the computer stays with what works. I've lost almost my whole minute before breaking down a defense, while realizing the moves that worked against College won't quite work against Japan's national team. Worse, later teams crumple into a nasty zone where they crowd the basket and goaltend your wide-open three-pointers. There are a few sweet spots, though, along the baseline, though the defenders close them down well, too. It's tricky enough that you always have to offer a variation or be ready to make that next pass. It's possible to go from lost to winning and back several times in a game, and quickly, too, as you score several four-second baskets in a row, then get stuck, and so forth. While your regular score based on passing, dribbling, baskets and time left when you win may get you in the GRAND CHAMP BEST FIVE, it's more involving to calculate if you're on pace to win your current game.
All this is wonderful as long as you don't break a wrist or finger in the process. SB had three buttons, and one requires constant attention on an arcade machine. For shooting--release at the top of your jump. Passing is chest-to-chest to the flashing guy, usually the one you're roughly dribbling towards. Though you'll miss him if you move after passing, and sometimes a new teammate, guarded by a defender, flashes at the last moment. Dribbling? Four bounces a second. Thankfully, there's a turbo feature in MAME so you don't have to keep pushing the damn button to avoid double dribbles. You can even cheat at the between-round speed free throw contest this way.
I enjoyed SB before knowing about the wretched controls, though, and it's a delightfully surreal mash-up of the best parts of basketball. A six-point last-minute comeback in a movie script is a cliche, but SB makes something clearly impossible in real life believable and entertaining without even needing Gus Johnson. I often wonder what the developers left out by accident in this game, but either way, they did a lot right.
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