NBA Showtime NBA on NBC.  Midway is no newbie to this type of genre... a jokey, action packed, and brutal sports game.  NBA Showtime follows the ground gained by NFL Blitz, promising an arcade style game that will make your palms sweat.

If you have missed out on the arcade fun Midway has provided over the years with NBA JAM, this game will be unique.  NBA Showtime is a 2 on 2 Basketball game, in pure arcade fashion.  Basically, you do not have to memorize offensive plays, icon passing, rules, or player management.  The action is non-stop, usually keeping the game close until the last few seconds of the 4th quarter.  NBA Showtime is a game that emphasizes offense, although the occasional block or steal may make the difference in a close game.  You can select from any official NBA team, anywhere from 4-8 high caliber players.  Some teams obviously have an edge in stats than others, but the player that knows how to pass and score quickly will win.

Offense is relatively straight forward.  Since there is only 2 players on the court per team, you are either lining up for a shot, or dishing the ball to your partner.  As simply as this sounds, there are many options at your disposal.  While you can chose any players you want, I would suggest giving yourself a balance by choosing a perimeter threat like Kobe Bryant and a powerhouse center like Shaq O'Neal.  This way, you can do fancy passing and be able to attack from anywhere on the court.  The action is so fast that you wonder how you can be pulling off some of the awesome moves you see your character doing.  It is fun to see the many types of dunks, especially when your player is on fire.  Some new things I have noticed since the ol NBA JAM days are Alley Oop passes, spin dribbling, and player creation.

I do have a few complaints about this title though.  First, reminiscent of older Acclaim arcade ports, the difficulty settings in NBA Showtime do nothing.  There are 10 variations of difficulty, which after playing many games I realized that the easiest setting is actually "keep the game pretty close", and the hardest setting is "beat me by 6 points."  While this sounds trivial, easy should be just that, a blowout.  Also, the ability to catch fire in this game is extremely difficult.  In the rare situations that you sink 3 consecutive shots, the computer will usually just pass the ball to the open player and sink a 3 pointer to end you fire streak.  The incentive is gone for catching fire, since it ends so quickly.  Lastly, with the power of the DreamCast, I was hoping to see more visual effects with long range shots and power dunks.  There is not much eye candy here.

NBA Showtime brings back good memories of the NBA JAM days.  The 3D characters look good and the character creation utility is kind of neat.  The NBC NBA song is very cool, as well as the opening video sequence.  Unfortunately, there is not enough sophistication in this game to hold my interest for extended periods of time.  While NBA2k is perhaps too complicated, this game is not complicated enough.  A blend of the two games would be sweet.  NBA Showtime is a good game for single or multiplayer action, but odds are you will find yourself looking for something deeper relatively quickly.  Rent this title first to judge for yourself.  Overall, a solid game with mixed emotions, but I would like to see the developers go all out using the DreamCast's 3D power.  Luckily with sports games, there is always next year!

reviewed by Todd Alexander