From: v089l3s3@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Jeremy B Horwitz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: SNES Sports Games Review [Horwitz]
Date: 21 Nov 92 05:54:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

Brief summary statements on the following new SNES sports
titles follow.
Electronic Arts' John Madden Football '93
Acclaim/LJN's NBA All-Star Challenge
Tecmo's NBA Super Pro Basketball
David Crane's Amazing Tennis

John Madden Football '93 is not the saviour everyone has
expected. While it is a much better piece of software than
any previous Madden release, it is not perfect by any means.
The graphics are jittery throughout as the realtime scaling
of the football field mixes irritatingly with the psuedo
scaling of players, confusing the viewer and perhaps actually
causing visual discomfort. Exceptionally neat spot effects
include a terrific EASN opening and character promenade
with the pre-game crowd doing the wave in a dome. 
Sounds are repetitive but appropriate generally, although
the angry grunt sound is used too often. The main problem
is the play mechanics, which will either agree with you
or disagree, in my case the latter. Having played Sammy's
Ultimate Football, the ability to play from the side-
angle really helped to make passing plays easier and
never hurt the running plays. In Madden, passing is
difficult for many reasons including the use of a
windowing system. The play selection method is also
outdated in comparison with Ultimate Football, using
a system which really gives few play choices and
makes things overly complicated. 
Madden plays an intelligent computer game and gives
plenty of options of teams and environments to choose.
It takes these assets and unfortunately makes them
worthless, in my assessment, because I don't enjoy
playing the game.

NBA All-Star challenge has good points and bad points.
The good points are the neat graphic effects (relecting
the player's image in the shiny floor), the changing
of the floor in realtime 3-D, and the wide selection of
players (each team's all-star, from the current day
[Barkley plays on the Suns]) rendered in great screen
shots with stats. 
The bad points are the bad gameplay in the various
competitions. The horse game is well done, as is the
three-point shootout. The one on one is just kind of
boring, but simulates the real thing pretty well.
The games are kind of simple and require only a 
button press or two each. It's not really all that fun.

Tecmo's NBA Basketball is, in my estimation, no NCAA
Basketball. If you liked the cinematic style of Tecmo's
Super Bowl, you'll like the NBA opening scene, which
is really well done. The game itself is little more than
Lakers Vs. Celtics with all the real NBA players.
The occasional 2-second cinema (and I mean really 
occasional) pops up, but they're nothing all that special.
It's funny to throw the ball from under your own basket
and see it ricochet off the rim of the other team's.
Every time. The sounds are ok, the music's ok. The
graphics are OK, but again, NCAA is innovative and
this is just a rehash of old territory with cinemas
straight out of Double Dribble.

Finally, the good one. David Crane's Amazing Tennis by
Absolute is a totally terrific game. If you haven't seen
the pictures, you control a player in a real 3-D
tennis court... Different in that your character is
quite large (about the size of Ryu in Street Fighter II)
and extremely well animated... like watching real people
play tennis. The voice is totally terrific, sampled
from a famous line judge (kinda British tone). Thethe
computer opponents range from great to terrible, just to
fit any player's level. 
The only problem - Only singles matches. Live with it,
it's great anyway.

[ -> Jer Horwitz ] [INTERnet Game Consultant]
Newsgroups: rec.games.video