NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC

"Aiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrr ballllllllll!!"

Let's cut right to the chase. This game is horrible. There is no strategy. I would estimate that 80-90% of the scoring comes off of dunks. The bad thing about that? Well, it makes the game painfully trite and boring. It's basically a game of whoever dunks last wins the game. What fun is that? On the other hand, the graphics aren't horrible. I expect more out of my Dreamcast, but I've seen worse graphics. The player models resemble their real-life counterparts, but the audience looks like it belongs in a Playstation game. To top that off, there is some pretty long loading times. I don't mean long like 20-seconds long, but considering I've played Dreamcast games with no loading time (i.e. Marvel Vs. Capcom) there's no excuse why this game has to has the delay. The rosters are also a bit dated. The create-a-player mode isn't very good either. You basically have the choice of a bunch of mascot heads and some other goofy features. It's more of a novelty than a feature.

Graphics (3/10): Arcade-perfect for the most part, but that isn't saying much. I expect BETTER than arcade-perfect from Dreamcast.

Music (5/10): To be fair, the only real music is the ''NBA on NBC!'' theme-music, which I think is pretty cool.

SoundFX (6/10): The announcer gets annoying. ''Rejected!'' ''Get that sh...ot outta here!'' ''Oooooooooooooo BOOM!'' The first few times you hear those phrases it's kind of cool, but it becomes annoying.

Control (5/10): The control is decent. I've never really been a fan of the NBA Jam control scheme, but I guess it's as good as any basketball game. You can adjust the controls though so that's a plus.

Replay Value (2/10): Even with 4-player support, the game still gets incredibly boring incredibly fast.

Overall (2/10): The game just isn't fun. If I were to just rate this game as a 1-player game, it would receive a 1. But, as a 4-player game, I would boost it up to a 3. So, to be fair, I have to give the game a 2. You MAY want to rent this game for a quick fix of arcade action, but don't make the same mistake I did by paying $49.99 for it. You'll be sorry you did....

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 02/12/00, Updated 01/13/01