Monday Tip-Off: Basketball Gaming’s Tecmo Super Bowl
We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some thoughts on finding basketball gaming’s answer to Tecmo Super Bowl.
Tecmo Super Bowl is undoubtedly an iconic video game. Fully-licensed NFL teams and players, well-designed gameplay, stat tracking, and the dominance of virtual Bo Jackson, all helped cement it as a legendary release. That legend has only grown over time, thanks to emulation facilitating a modding scene that has kept the game dutifully updated and enthusiastically played right through to today. When it comes to a cult following in the retro gaming and modding scene, Tecmo Super Bowl is right up there with the original Doom games.
Basketball is my sport however, so I’m left wondering: is there an equivalent retro hoops title to Tecmo Super Bowl? For that matter, could there be? Obviously, there are a handful of old favourites still being updated, but these days those titles rarely approach the same vintage as Tecmo Super Bowl. It stands to reason. It could be argued that sim basketball games that hold up decades later didn’t come along until the mid 90s, or even the mid 2000s. Once they evolved to that point, we ended up with several great releases that remained moddable and playable years later. With that in mind, which titles could potentially be basketball gaming’s Tecmo Super Bowl?
The games that come the closest in terms of enduring popularity and modding support are probably NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14. They’re over a decade old now, and while “classic” may be a more fitting label than “retro”, they still show their age in terms of graphics, features, and their representation of certain NBA rules and formats. In that respect, they’re certainly similar to Tecmo Super Bowl! Moreover, much like Tecmo Super Bowl, despite their outdated elements they remain accessible to an enthusiastic group of gamers thanks to a combination of quality design and modding tools that are powerful and readily available. NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14 are definitely candidates.
Of course, while they’re comparable to Tecmo Super Bowl in those aspects, needless to say they’re considerably newer. It’s difficult to compare the demographics of those modding communities, especially with so many NBA 2K modders making their work exclusive to Facebook groups and other platforms. Given that NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14 are more recent releases however, it’s likely that if nothing else, there’s a wider range of ages when it comes to people still interested in playing and modding them. I’m not sure how many younger gamers are into the Tecmo Super Bowl modding and retro gaming scene – and I could be wrong – but I’m guessing it generally skews older.
If we’re talking about basketball video games that are of a similar vintage to Tecmo Super Bowl, there aren’t too many likely candidates from 1991. Once again, the sim-oriented basketball titles from that era – while definitely interesting to revisit – don’t hold up as well on the sticks. I’d say people who played those games all those years ago mostly prefer later releases that made significant advances, and even then, many of them would probably set the cut-off for retro/classic gaming at the sixth or seventh generation. With that being said, there are a couple of basketball video games that are comparable in age to Tecmo Super Bowl that are still being played and modded now.
Thanks to emulation and modding tools, there have been some excellent hacks for the arcade and Super Nintendo versions of NBA Jam Tournament Edition. Released in 1994, it’s admittedly slightly newer than Tecmo Super Bowl, but still close in vintage. It also holds up superbly all these years later being pick-up-and-play, and lacking the clunky mechanics that plague pre-NBA Live 95 sim titles. In terms of being a truly retro basketball title with an active modding scene, those two versions of NBA Jam Tournament Edition are probably the closest equivalent to Tecmo Super Bowl. Of course, not everyone is into those games specifically, or the arcade style in general.
Some of the early NBA Live games on PC could feasibly be the virtual hardwood’s answer to Tecmo Super Bowl. We still have the tools in our archives, as well as a selection of mods to learn from or even build upon. Indeed, there was actually a 2020 season roster update for NBA Live 95 PC uploaded to our Downloads database during the Bubble, which was a pleasant surprise! As far as emulation and console releases are concerned, there’s also a utility for modding the Genesis/Mega Drive version of NBA Live 96, and a couple of those ROM hacks have been uploaded here as well. In short, there’s certainly the capacity for those games to be our Tecmo Super Bowl.
As much as I enjoy those games and can still revisit them though, I’m not sure they’d have widespread retro gaming appeal. The PC releases of NBA Live 95 through NBA Live 97 don’t have a dedicated steal button, which doesn’t make them as accessible as the Windows-exclusive releases that followed. Even if people could get reaccustomed to that quirk, despite some surprising depth in places, the gameplay is still probably too dated for all but the most open-minded of retro hoops gamers. More importantly though, it’s significantly tougher to mod the art and model files in those early NBA Lives, and their rosters also have a few limitations that can make them fiddly to edit.
When it comes to accessibility by way of having some semblance of a modern feel, as well as modder-friendly files and handy tools to work with, NBA Live 2003 is likely as far back as most gamers could go. That’s not to say that the PC versions of NBA Live 98 through NBA Live 2001 aren’t worth playing or modding nowadays, but they are naturally more dated than NBA Live 2003 onwards. NBA Live 2003 also added a more user-friendly approach to using modded files, and the textures themselves are also somewhat easier to modify. There’s a reason that NBA Live 2003 and NBA Live 2004 retained their popularity with basketball gamers longer than previous releases.
While I’d obviously support NBA Live 2003 or NBA Live 2004 getting the Tecmo Super Bowl treatment, my guess is that NBA Live 2005 and NBA Live 06 are the stronger candidates for basketball gamers who’d like to stick with something older, while enjoying it with a new coat of paint. The efforts to update those games are also far more recent, particularly NBA Live 2005. We’ve been able to preserve a larger archive of mods for those games, which could facilitate new projects. Many of the files in those two games are compatible, or can be easily converted. Several mods for NBA Live 07 and NBA Live 08 are likewise compatible, or quite feasible to convert.
Popularity is still a concern, though. Sure, there’s probably more lingering interest in NBA Live 2005 and NBA Live 06 than NBA Live 2003 and NBA Live 2004. New mods for 2005 and 06 arguably stand a better chance of sparking renewed interest than updates for 2003 and 2004 would. They’re a step closer to modern titles, plus as Murat and others have demonstrated, there’s some untapped modding potential there. If we’re being realistic however, I don’t see them reaching the same level of popularity as NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14! Once again though, I’d absolutely support any attempt to revive interest in playing and modding those or any other beloved NBA Live titles.
Mind you, as awesome as it would be to see a complete renaissance for some classic NBA Live releases – or other games – that isn’t a necessity. It’s perfectly fine to mod retro games for your own enjoyment or creative satisfaction, and then share that work just in case there’s at least one person out there that would be interested in it. When it comes to larger and more ambitious projects however, that does require getting more people interested and involved. Of course, such projects are what drive people to dust off old favourites and enjoy them anew, so it’s kind of a Catch-22! In any case, there’s potential for a retro modding scene for NBA Live, and several games to choose from.
That brings us to what is perhaps the main sticking point as far as naming basketball gaming’s Tecmo Super Bowl. While there are some old favourites that are still being updated, and others that could also see a modding revival, there are too many viable choices – to say nothing of differing tastes – to pick just one. NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14 are the games in the NBA 2K series that have remained the most popular long after a majority of gamers have moved on, but there’s also interest in creating similar projects for NBA 2K11 or NBA 2K12. Newer games such as NBA 2K19 and NBA 2K20 also have a following and some dedicated people working on massive projects.
And so, I expect there’d also be differing opinions as to which early-to-mid 2000s NBA Live to revive through modding. Not only do we have the PC releases, but with the advances in PS2 and PS3 emulation – and viable PS4 emulation on the horizon – there’s interest in tinkering with console releases, too. johnz1’s NBA Jam: On Fire Edition mods have been truly groundbreaking, and NBA Live 10 is an intriguing possibility as well. Gamecube emulation has supported modding for quite a while now, leading to great projects for NBA Street Vol. 2; just to add another game to the mix! Basically, there are too many options for hoops gamers to gravitate to just one.
Conversely, there’s really no choice when it comes to Tecmo Super Bowl. It caters to a retro gaming and modding niche that older Madden games don’t. To that end, even if we only had three to five basketball video games to choose from as the title for retro gaming and modding, it’s unlikely that we’d reach a consensus. Even the most popular choices – which again are most probably NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14 – don’t appeal to everyone. Now, that doesn’t mean that we should give up on or discourage interest in reviving any particular hoops title, with or without a modding scene. As someone who has grown weary of recent NBA 2K releases, I can speak to the value of retro gaming.
When it comes to major projects though, we’ll have to be selective. As I’ve said before when discussing reviving modding for older titles, we may have to make the best of the situation in order to get big mods off the ground. A public release that’s a work in progress is more likely to attract helping hands than an unreleased project with very little chance of ever seeing the light of day. It definitely helps if there are a couple of popular choices that stand out, but if you’re passionate about sprucing up a different game and trying to drum up more interest in it, I say go for it! It’s wise to keep your expectations realistic though, and initially strive for what’s feasible over what’s ideal.
As for Tecmo Super Bowl’s cult following, it speaks to what a unique and special release it was. That isn’t to say that it hasn’t been surpassed by any other NFL video game, and admittedly I don’t know enough about the sport to weigh in on that debate anyway! Generally speaking though, given that sports video games from that era have often aged poorly – especially the sim-oriented ones – it’s a testament to Tecmo Super Bowl that more than three decades later, its now-retro gameplay still clearly remains enjoyable, and can be further enhanced with mods. Considering Madden’s popularity, Tecmo Super Bowl’s longevity is impressive, outpacing similarly-aged hoops games.
Nevertheless, while we may not be able to decide upon one specific basketball video game to be the virtual hardwood’s Tecmo Super Bowl, we do have a couple of strong (relatively) modern choices in NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14. Beyond that, there are a few other viable possibilities that could inspire the necessary amount of nostalgia to establish a handful of retro basketball gaming and modding niches. Of course, while mods are welcome, they’re not always necessary to have throwback fun. Ultimately, I don’t think there’s a definitive answer as to basketball gaming’s counterpart to Tecmo Super Bowl. Fortunately, with some of our options, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
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