Wayback Wednesday: NBA Showdown Retrospective
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at NBA Showdown, with a particular focus on the Super Nintendo version.
As someone whose basketball fandom was solidified in the mid 90s, my introduction to the virtual hardwood came slightly later than other hoops gamers my age. My first basketball video games were NBA Live 95 for Super Nintendo and the PC version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition, with NBA Live 96 PC also being an early favourite. To that point, I didn’t grow up playing any games in the NBA Playoffs series; the forerunner to NBA Live. As such, while I’ve always respected their contributions to the genre, I don’t have the same nostalgia for them as I do the early NBA Live titles.
Indeed, I’ve found the NBA Playoffs games quite difficult to get into, as they lacked many of the innovations that began with NBA Live 95. They are intriguing of course, and as I’ve added some of them to my collection, it has been fun and illuminating to spend some more time with them. Although they have their quirks, I’ve come to better appreciate them, and it’s been fun noticing early versions of features that later became staples of NBA Live. NBA Showdown was the final release before the re-brand and revamp, and the Super Nintendo version has captured my interest lately. In a way, it bridged the NBA Playoffs and NBA Live series. Let’s take a look back…way back…
The NBA Playoffs series of course began with Lakers vs. Celtics, the complete title of which is Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs. Although the Sega Genesis release from 1991 is arguably the more popular and famous version, the game was actually first released for MS-DOS in 1989. For any console fanboys who insist that basketball games don’t belong on PC, history is not on your side here! Admittedly, the series didn’t see another PC release until NBA Live 95, and most of the games were exclusive to Sega and/or North America. To that end, NBA Showdown for SNES must be imported to PAL regions, and can only be played with a Universal Adapter.
One of the most infamous hallmarks of the NBA Playoffs series is that a majority of the games didn’t include all of the NBA teams. Lakers vs. Celtics featured eight teams that had qualified for the previous postseason, while Bulls vs. Lakers and Bulls vs. Blazers included all sixteen Playoff teams from the year before. All-Star squads were able to sneak in some additional players from teams that were absent. The Olympic-themed Team USA Basketball obviously featured national squads rather than NBA teams. NBA Showdown was the first game in the NBA Playoffs series to include all 27 teams of the time, though the Tecmo NBA games beat EA to the punch by a year.
While we’re on the subject of roster trivia, NBA Showdown was the first game in the series to include custom teams, namely the Slammers and Jammers. Those nicknames would be recycled for the custom teams in NBA Live 95-97, where they were joined by the Blockers and Stealers. NBA Showdown for Super Nintendo featured final 1993 season rosters, while the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version – which was titled NBA Showdown ’94 – was updated for the 1994 season. The SNES version thus marks Michael Jordan’s final official appearance in a 5-on-5 basketball game until NBA Live 2000, and Charles Barkley’s last appearance until the 1998 season titles.
Just to wrap up some other trivia notes before diving into gameplay and modes, though NBA Showdown broke from the previous naming convention, it is still considered to be part of the NBA Playoffs series. It was the first game to feature third party advertising; a notion that was far less odious and obnoxious at the time! It’s also the first NBA game to be released under the EA Sports brand rather than Electronic Arts, and the final game to be developed at EA’s San Mateo studio before moving to EA Canada for NBA Live 95. Finally, it was the first EA Sports game to recognise tenths of a second in the final minute, for a more accurate representation of the clock.
That brings us to the gameplay in NBA Showdown. In most respects, it resembles its predecessors, to both its benefit and detriment. On the bright side, it meant that the game was built on a solid foundation, and the gameplay is certainly commendable for its era. The downside is that those mechanics were getting long in the tooth by that point, as evident by how much of a leap forward NBA Live 95 was. With that in mind, the NBA Playoffs games have aged much worse than early NBA Live, and for me, there’s no nostalgia to smooth over some of their rough edges. At the same time, NBA Showdown has its good points, so it’s a mixed bag when I go back and play it.
By that point, the basic rules and aspects of basketball were all ably represented. There are shooting and non-shooting fouls, defensive and charging fouls, the 24-second shot clock, 12-minute quarters (though 2, 5, and 8-minute settings are also available), 12-man rosters with substitutions, timeouts, and fouling out on six fouls. Obviously the three-point line is in effect, though as the rule didn’t change until 1994, being fouled on a three only grants two free throws (this threw me until I remembered that!). Three second lane violations and illegal defense are about the only rules that aren’t implemented, as travelling, backcourt, and other infractions are accounted for.
Substitutions can be made at any dead ball or by calling timeout, with a generous (and fictional) limit of five timeouts per quarter, which don’t carry over. Players tire and get injured – which rules them out for the rest of the game – unless fatigue and injuries are turned off. Lineup changes are made by selecting an active player with up or down on the D-Pad, and then choosing a bench player with left and right, before pressing B to swap them. Free throws are attempted with the T-Meter, which was introduced in Bulls vs. Lakers. Y jumps for blocks and rebounds while the A button attempts steals, though the steal animation resembles a hand check more than a swipe at the ball!
Shooting success depends on a combination of timing, fatigue, defensive pressure, and the player’s abilities as per their statistics. It isn’t as readily obvious as in later games that display detailed ratings, but there is definitely skill differentiation. Both A and Y are shoot buttons, though A is strictly for jumpshots while Y also performs dunks and layups in the paint, as well as Marquee moves. These signature moves that a handful of players possess were a staple of the NBA Playoff series, and they’ll be triggered when the player is in the appropriate spot on the floor. Hook shots are also triggered contextually when players are properly positioned in the low or high post.
Players will pass to their nearest teammate with B, though you can also hold it and use the D-Pad to select a recipient – indicated by a brown star underneath them – and release it to complete the pass. There’s instant replay with regular speed and frame-by-frame playback. Tapping either shoot button will fake a shot, picking up your dribble and risking a turnover on a travelling call if you try to move again (sadly, this doesn’t allow you to pivot). There are a few different dunks, all of which are slammed home with a satisfying sound. The iconic THREE is also there, predating NBA Live.
Although there’s only one camera view, it’s a broadcast angle that provides a good perspective of the action. As noted in the manual – which is definitely worth a read for its extra content and fun blurbs about the development team – player performance has been painstakingly modelled after the real NBA, as much as the tech of the time would allow. The results are pretty good, with the right players generally taking the most shots and scoring the most points. In short, the gameplay is respectably deep, even surprisingly so for a 1993 release; especially as the mechanics were already a few years old at that point. It was great in its day, and it can still be fun in 2025.
Once again however, it’s not quite as fun as NBA Live 95 onwards. As several long-time basketball gamers have noted, like many other sim games of the era, its pace is a bit slow. It doesn’t help that there’s no sprint control, though running diagonally does provide a boost to get around defenders. Shooting can be hit-and-miss in a frustrating way, particularly as there are a plethora of blocks on the perimeter. Players can even get the block on the way down after being caught with an up-fake, and without a sprint control, it’s tough to burst past a defender who’s left their feet. Conversely, there are times when you don’t feel like you can have a big enough impact on defense.
This can lead to some rough stretches at both ends, even on the easiest difficulty level. However, much like its predecessors, the major problem with NBA Showdown is the fouls. It’s far too easy to get into foul trouble, as simply brushing past a ball handler will be enough to draw a whistle. Charging fouls are the biggest headache though, as they’re way too common and tend to be in the CPU’s favour. Injuries are tied to fouls, and can happen quite randomly. Unlike later games, players aren’t out for a quarter or the rest of the game; if they get injured, they’re done for the night! Boards tend to just fall to a flat-footed power forward automatically, inflating their rebounding numbers.
Due to these quirks, my sessions with NBA Showdown either go quite well, or are rather annoying. When taking on the Phoenix Suns with the Chicago Bulls, I lost Scottie Pippen to injury in the first half, and also had to be very careful with Michael Jordan due to him picking up two early fouls. The Suns went on an absurd 17-0 run in the second quarter where I couldn’t make a jumper, and so many of my dunks were waved off due to a charging call. A furious rally in the second half at least made the final score respectable, but I did feel as though I was really fighting the game and getting lucky as I resorted to a desperation three-point barrage in the fourth quarter!
Then again, I’ve also had games where fouls and injuries weren’t a problem. Even in losses, it felt as though I was fairly challenged on those occasions, and simply didn’t execute well enough down the stretch. The CPU is competent even on the easiest setting, which is always welcome. I’m also impressed that the scores are actually quite realistic for the era on 12-minute quarters. As the pace slowed down in the late 90s, that’s something that a lot of sim games didn’t properly represent. While the action can feel a bit sluggish at times, and there’s no way to make explosive moves outside of the Marquee shots, there’s an impressive amount of realism for a 1993 basketball game.
Of course, the primitive tech means that players can’t catch passes on the run, which contributes to the issues with pace. Making long passes into the frontcourt is virtually impossible, and to avoid your guards being hit with cheap charging calls or getting the ball stripped, you’ll often be bringing the ball up with a big man (the CPU is also fond of turning centres such as Mark West into ball handlers). The clock doesn’t stop in the final minute, so time can run out in clutch situations before you’ve had a chance to inbound or call timeout. Players will blow wide open dunks a little too easily, though again this is something that tends to affect users far more often than it does the CPU.
Therefore, when I play NBA Showdown for SNES, I can be really impressed one moment, and incredibly frustrated the next! When everything’s flowing smoothly, the action feels well-balanced at both ends, and it doesn’t seem like the game is being officiated like netball, it’s still quite capable of being fun. Unfortunately, all it takes is a few cheap foul calls, a cold streak at the offensive end, and getting bogged down by short passes and sticky defenders, to make the gameplay irritating. Naturally, I must give NBA Showdown some grace here. It’s over thirty years old with mechanics that are even older, and compared to some of its contemporaries, it is at least playable.
The issue is that NBA Live 95 came out a year later and changed the game, blowing its NBA Playoffs series predecessors away. From the addition of a turbo control, to more fluidity and freedom in player movement, to even more accuracy in the rules and representation of player abilities, the gameplay is so much better while on the same generation of hardware! Obviously, like any other retro game, NBA Showdown needs to be put into historical context when we evaluate it today. Nevertheless, the sheer amount of improvements NBA Live 95 made in a single year means that NBA Showdown hasn’t aged as well, especially if you don’t have nostalgia to compensate.
To put it another way, while NBA Showdown bridges the NBA Playoffs and NBA Live series in some respects, the on-court experience is definitely closer to Lakers vs. Celtics than it is NBA Live 95! With that being said, I don’t want to downplay how solid it was when it came out, or overlook the fact that it paved the way for better games beginning with its immediate successor. It also has a few features that were absent from NBA Live for years, such as signature moves and a crude forerunner to direct/icon passing. And of course, it has Michael Jordan as an active player on the Chicago Bulls, which thanks to licensing issues, no NBA Live release can claim!
Even though the gameplay is more reminiscent of EA’s earlier titles than what was to come in the golden age of NBA Live, NBA Showdown made some significant strides in terms of modes. Since it included all 27 teams, there’s a full 82-game season mode that culminates with the Playoffs, rather than only representing the tournament as in the “Versus” games. Not only that, but similar to NBA Live 95, you can trade players in the starting lineup and simulate games. There are even league leaders, though the game notably doesn’t track assists. Rather than a password system, Showdown uses battery backup to save progress, and like NBA Live 95, there are three save slots.
Playoffs mode is still available, though it generates random brackets with no option to customise them. This is a bit of a letdown – again, NBA Live 95 improved upon this the very next year – but considering that Sony’s NBA games and some NBA 2K titles have had limited tournament customisation options, and the newer NBA Live games haven’t even featured a standalone Playoffs mode, NBA Showdown actually has an advantage over much more advanced games! Also, while it may seem quaint now in the age of multi-season franchise and career modes, the ability to play through a full NBA season and then the Playoffs with appropriate seeding was a big deal in 1993!
The two custom teams were also a nice addition that may be difficult to appreciate if, like me, you played NBA Live 95 or a later game first. By default, the East and West All-Stars populate the custom team rosters, providing an example of how they can be used to assemble a squad of superstars. Another interesting detail is the names of the difficulty levels: Exhibition, Regular Season, and Showtime, predating the labels of Rookie, Starter, All-Star, and later Superstar. Additionally, while Pre-Season (i.e. Play Now) games can be set to any difficulty, Season mode can only be played on Regular Season or Showtime difficulty, while Playoffs is always set to Showtime.
Needless to say, NBA Showdown’s 16-bit graphics don’t compare to modern games, or even early 3D titles such as NBA Live 98 or 99. They’re not unappealing though, and the player models in particular aren’t far behind NBA Live 95, with many of the player heads being recycled in the early PC releases and through to the end of the 16-bit generation. Some players have incorrect hair colours, and Kenny Williams has a mismatched body and head model that’s completely inaccurate, but generally speaking you can tell who’s who. Notably, single digit jersey numbers are still preceded by a zero to avoid being off-centre; another detail that NBA Live 95 ended up addressing.
Despite not being personally nostalgic for the NBA Playoffs series, I absolutely love the presentation in releases like NBA Showdown. Before the game, hosts Ron Barr (who is real) and K.C. Darty (who isn’t) introduce the matchup, name each team’s star players, and make different comments depending on where the game is being played, such as referencing Showtime in Inglewood when the Lakers are the home team. They also provide commentary at halftime and in the post-game. Sure, it’s nowhere near as deep as voiced appearances by the Inside the NBA crew in NBA 2K, but this kind of authentic TV-style presentation was incredibly immersive during games of that era.
The music by Traz Damji – who went on to compose some fantastic tracks for NBA Live and other EA Sports titles – is classic 16-bit era sports game goodness. From the main menu theme to the music during game introductions and substitutions, it’s catchy and puts you right in the mood to virtually hoop! As for the sound effects, I’ve already mentioned the THREE and the thud of trying to dent the rims with dunks, but there’s also your teammates crying out “Put it up!” as the shot clock winds down, the grunts of players on hard collisions, and the ball swishing through the net. Simple as they may be, they’re nostalgically embedded in the minds of gamers three decades later.
Touching on some other key features in NBA Showdown, not only is there co-op and competitive multiplayer in Pre-Season mode, but co-operative play is also available in Season and Playoffs mode. While only one team can be selected in those modes, it’s still noteworthy that NBA Showdown supports co-op season play, as much newer games have often neglected that functionality. Indeed, NBA Live 15 doesn’t even allow co-op in Play Now! There’s also progressive fatigue in Season play, and players can go on hot and cold streaks that last about seven games. Again, despite making other improvements, many of these details were absent from several NBA Live titles.
The further back you go, the harder it is to sound like you’re not nitpicking a game that’s simply too old to include the features and gameplay advancements that you now take for granted. With that in mind, if my take on NBA Showdown seemingly skews negative, it’s because it’s from an era in which many of the 5-on-5 sim basketball titles haven’t aged as well as games that came along soon afterwards. Even accounting for its vintage, NBA Showdown doesn’t hold up as well as games like the original NBA Jam, but it does hold its own against contemporaries such as Tecmo NBA Basketball. Developers were still figuring things out, but also did some really cool stuff as well.
As I said, while it’s even more primitive than early NBA Live titles in just about every way, the gameplay is also respectably deep, with a few additional features such as the Marquee moves. It does lack the iconic isometric camera angle, but NBA Showdown does still look great for a 16-bit sim basketball game, from the in-game models to the portraits, courts, and team logos. It’s not as accessible as NBA Live 95 onwards due to the lack of a turbo control and relatively clunky player movement, but it can still be enjoyed. Again, I don’t have any nostalgia for the NBA Playoffs games as I got into basketball gaming with NBA Live 95, but I can absolutely have fun with Showdown.
That being said, it doesn’t take long before some of the more frustrating aspects rear their heads, and I’m reminded that it lacks the key innovations of its successors. As much as I’m impressed by the level of realism in the scores and stats on 12-minute quarters, the pace isn’t ideal, and the lack of explosiveness and fluidity is a problem. I also miss conveniences such as being able to quit out of a game without resetting the console, and flexibility with gameplay options. Playing NBA Showdown also really makes me appreciate the foul frequency sliders that came along in NBA Live 95. If your key players get into foul trouble in the first quarter, you might as well restart!
I’ve focused on the Super Nintendo version here as it’s the one I own and have played the most, but I have to acknowledge that in addition to updated rosters, gameplay in the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive version is a little faster. It still suffers from the lack of a sprint control, but it is speedier in general. Interestingly, while the Super Nintendo version is exclusive to North America – again, I had to import it, and use a Universal Adapter to play it on original hardware – PAL regions did indeed get a Mega Drive release. Licensing may have been an issue here, just as the PAL release of Lakers vs. Celtics was cancelled. Just another oddity from the infancy of basketball gaming.
Again, due to playing NBA Showdown many years later, well after already playing NBA Live 95 and its successors, I personally appreciate it more for its place in the history of NBA Live, and basketball gaming as a genre. However, that is selling it short, which isn’t my intention. The tremendous leap that NBA Live 95 took and the inevitable comparisons make it tough to appreciate NBA Showdown as much as I would if I’d played it first, yet I also recognise how solid it is. In many ways it’s a strong game that does have retro appeal; it just happens to have a sequel that marked a revolution in the genre, and established the name in sim hoops titles in the mid 90s!
In summary, while NBA Showdown doesn’t hold up as well as NBA Live 95, I’d still deem it a classic. Between the established gameplay staples, attention to detail, great presentation and music, complete 12-man rosters for all 27 teams, robust modes, and a few unique features, it’s a fine game that proved to be a springboard to the next big jump in basketball games. I stand by my criticisms and it can be frustrating, but the more I’ve played it, the more I’ve enjoyed it. If nothing else, NBA Showdown was designed with love and appreciation for basketball during a golden age for the NBA. What it lacks in technological advancements, it makes up for with fun, heart, and soul.
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