NCAA Basketball (video game)

This article is about the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game. For the EA Sports series, see NCAA Basketball (series). For the Bethesda Softworks game, see NCAA Basketball: Road to the Final Four.

NCAA Basketball,^[a] known in Europe as World League Basketball,^[3] is a basketball video game which was developed by Sculptured Software for the Super NES.

NCAA Basketball
North American cover art
Developer(s)	Sculptured Software
Publisher(s)	JP: HAL Laboratory NA/EU: Nintendo
Designer(s)	Hal Rushton
Programmer(s)	Adam Clayton
Composer(s)	H. Kingsley Thurber Paul Webb Mark Ganus
Platform(s)	Super NES
Release	JP: June 26, 1992[1] NA: October 1992 PAL: July 22, 1993[2]
Genre(s)	Traditional basketball simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

It was the first basketball game for a console to utilize a 3D perspective. The game uses the Super Nintendo's Mode 7 to create a 3D players' perspective that became the standard for later basketball video games. Sculptured's NHL Stanley Cup featured a similar effect.

According to short-lived Flux magazine, which originated in the United States, this video game was declared to be the 75th best video game of all time.^[4]

Gameplay

In the game, the player chooses a basketball team and then plays against either a computer or human player on a court. The goal is to score the most baskets within the given time through dribbling and passing. Players also have the ability to save the game as well as change options and difficulty settings.

The game allows the player to play either an exhibition game or a full season.

The North American version of the game contains college teams from five major NCAA Division I-A conferences (ACC, Big East, Big 8, SEC, and SWC) but with fictional players, while the European game features fictional professional teams located throughout the world, and the Japanese release has its own fictionalized likenesses of NBA teams.

Reception

Reception

Review scores

Publication	Score
Consoles +	88%[5]
Computer and Video Games	88/100[6]
Player One	96%[7]
Super Play	84%[8]

Entertainment Weekly wrote that "While most video basketball games play like most other video basketball games, this Nintendo effort sets itself apart with a unique, rotating 3-D perspective."^[9] Nintendo Power ranked NCAA Basketball the ninth best SNES game of 1992.^[10]

Notes

1. Known in Japan as Super Dunk Shot (Japanese: スーパーダンクショット)