NBA Unrivaled

[JohnnyLi]

http://kotaku.com/5274869/tecmo-getting-into-nba-gaming

NBA Unrivaled will be a new option for players looking for an NBA video game alternative.

A bottom-of-the-press-release surprise from Tecmo today was the news that the publisher is backing an NBA game, NBA Unrivaled for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade later this year.

Tecmo joins a field currently occupied by EA and Take Two's NBA Live and NBA 2K series, respectively, though only Tecmo's game is announced as download-only.

NBA Unrivaled is said in Tecmo's press release to feature a "contemporary retro design" as well as full NBA team licenses and player rosters. The game supports two players competing head to head or against the computer. It also features a momentum bar that rewards players who perform in a crowd-pleasing manner.

We would have screenshots for you, but Tecmo bundled them in a 2GB file. So expect them later. Much later.

Only for PSN and Xbox Live, but I still hope it will be good

[benji]

Kotaku should have headlined it "Tecmo getting back into NBA gaming."

Tecmo Super NBA Basketball ftw.

[shadowgrin]

Hell yes. For those who have forgotten or missed out on the kind of NBA videogame Tecmo used to bring out:

http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php?title ... Basketball
http://super.nesguide.com/games/tecmosu ... asketball/

Tecmo Super NBA features real teams (all 27 contemporary teams) and a roster of real players (over 320). One or two players can compete in regular, reduced, or short seasons, or play an exhibition game. Though primarily horizontal scrolling, digitized speech and cinemas, along with a free throw point of view, add drama to the proceedings. Besides the expected elements of basketball (substitutions, penalties, steals and blocks, time-outs, overtime), Super NBA gives you the chance to call offensive plays and to program win/loss records. Has a battery to back-up season play.

Tecmo Super NBA Basketball is a basketball video game published by Tecmo for the Super NES. It also came out a year later (with updated rosters) for the Sega Genesis. It was released in the United States in March 1993. The teams consist of NBA teams from 1992. Players can choose from exhibition games, the 1992 All-Star Game, or the 1993 season. In playing the season, players can choose which teams they want to control, for example, a player can choose to play as two teams, and will play every game those two teams play.

Trivia
It's one of the few games of its time to include Michael Jordan. Jordan rarely appeared in video games since he was not a part of the players association (so he could cash in on companies using his image). However, Tecmo didn't get word and included him in early versions.
Miami Heat guard Jon Sundvold, who retired in 1992 after suffering from an injury, is the game's best three-point shooter. He was 1 for 1 in three-point field goals before retiring and has a high shooting range bar (60% or so) from being a career sharpshooter. In this game, if Jon gets across half court he can sink just about any three-point shot with amazing levels of success.
Pete Chilcutt and John Starks had their free throw percentages interchanged with their three-point percentages resulting in an abnormal amount of made three pointers and missed free throws.
Traditional shooters Like Larry Bird and John Stockton can also shoot exceptionally well.

And that was in 1993, the first of its kind, even before NBA Live!

phpBB [video]

[Andrew]

Awesome, I'll have to check it out when it hits XBL.

[benji]

And that was in 1993, the first of its kind, even before NBA Live!

If anything it caused NBA Live. I don't think people around here realize how absurdly slow the EA basketball games were. Bulls vs. Blazers had to go up against Tecmo and NBA Jam. (At the arcades.) So they double the speed for NBA Showdown and it's still absurdly slow in comparison. Then we get Live, which finally let you actually run instead of plodding up court just to take a crappy jumper because you couldn't move forward if a defender was within three feet of you. (Well, you could, but you'd be called for charging. Anyone who's played those games has nightmares from the ref popup informing you of your latest charging infringement. i.e. trying to get Jordan anywhere near the basket.)

IIRC, you could adjust the rosters or stats or something which was unheard of at the time. I mean, the EA game that comes out the year after this one, NBA Showdown was the first game to let you trade and it was only starters. (Trade for Shaq, Malone, Mullin, Jordan and Stockton. You'll win 65 simming, which is the max allowed. Don't worry, you can trade anyone for anyone with no restrictions. Yeah, I simmed and just played the playoffs.) The win/loss editing was great because since it came out at a weird time in the year (not start of season like we're used to now), you could set it to play the playoffs that was actually happening then.

[shadowgrin]

NBA Showdown, to imitate Barkley - that's turrible. I was expecting that game to be better than the past VS games but was sadly disappointed. The slowness of NBA Showdwon, it's coming back to me now.

I think the reason I lost enthusiasm with playing the one from Tecmo was because the game battery died out on me. I kept losing saved seasons just a week after. Frustrated me to no end and I had no idea then that you could replace the battery.

Thank god for the amazingness of NBA Jam.

[cavs4872]

phpBB [video]

This game does not look very promising. I think it is supposed to come out sometime this year on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network.

[shadowgrin]

Are you kidding? If this game manages to be the current gen consoles' NBA Jam, it's hella fun.
The movement looks crap compared to NBA Jam though.

[Andrew]

I like the concept. With NBA Live and NBA 2K aiming for the sim experience, it's nice to have an arcade alternative. I'll at least be getting the demo off the Arcade to see how it plays. I've got to agree with shadow though, in that video the movements don't look quite as good as the old NBA Jam games.

[Patr1ck]

Damnit Tecmo. Look at the way the players run, I would swear it's the exact same way they ran in Tecmo Super Baskteball.

I can only pray that this is just a quick cash grab before a full sim game is developed.

[jettdaking!]

they could jump as high as Jesus now? oh well, at least it has good graphics.

[Andrew]

Well, it's supposed to be an arcade style game with over the top dunks...like NBA Jam or NBA Street.

[Patr1ck]

And Double Dribble-like slam dunk sequences.

[MikeMan™]

It's Outraculous. Outrageous and Ridiculous! So damn ugly though. I'd rather play NBA Ballers than that.

[cavs4872]

Are you kidding? If this game manages to be the current gen consoles' NBA Jam, it's hella fun.

My bad. It could be fun for about a week or two. I should really change my post to say promising, instead of fun.

[Andrew]

It should hopefully have longer lasting appeal than that; one of those games that you pick up every so often when you've got some time to kill and you're in the mood for something more "arcadey".

[Fcuk Orlando]

This looks like an awful flash game I thought Tecmo making an NBA game would be like Konami's Starting 5 for the PS2

[Andrew]

Perhaps they will go that route with future releases, but with this one they're trying for an old school approach.

[JaoSming]

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/09/tecmo ... psn-later/

Damn game comes out on Wednesday, that was kind of unexpected

[Andrew]

I still reckon I'll give it a look.

[benji]

phpBB [video]

[J@3]

This looks fucking stupid.

[Null17]

Didn't we see that trailer on another topic?

[JaoSming]

yep

viewtopic.php?f=72&t=69131

[The X]

This looks fucking stupid.

Couldn't have put it better myself