Basketball Classics Review

Basketball Classics is a classic 5on5 basketball game inspired by classic games from the golden era of gaming. It features a simplified control scheme with three buttons, easy to pick up gameplay and a retro feel reminiscent of classic ball games such as Double Dribble on the good old NES.

While it’s much more straight forward and simplistic than 2K’s yearly NBA recycling, the game has a surprisingly decent amount of content. You can either do a quick game (against AI or a friend), jump into Story mode where you play as a team of scrubs going up against championship teams from the 70s, 80s and 90s in a Mega Man style match selection.

Clearing Story mode will unlock legendary players as you stack up wins. And then there’s Season mode where you pick a team and go through a regular season of basketball. You also have the choice to skip each game, but again where’s the fun in that? You also have a roster editor where you can rename teams, change colors and edit/change players.

In total, the game offers a whooping 175 teams across a plethora of decades giving you plenty of options when it comes to playing a quick game. One interesting feature of the game is when you’re about to dunk. The change switches perspective with your player in mid air and you can perform special tricks. But if an opposing player is nearby, it becomes sort of a 1v1 situation where you need to get by the player otherwise, you’re blocked.

Basketball Classics reeks of style. The game looks great; especially if you’re looking for that classic old school style of gaming. Each team has its own color palette, players have a simplistic yet blocky presentation. Additionally, players, hosts and half time performers (that appear for a brief moment) are all faceless. Why coming off creepy, it adds a layer of realism so to speak; as much as possible in a 16 bit game. The movements in the 1v1 dunk confrontation is also quite solid. On the audio side of things, nothing to report. There’s no real voiceover to keep the old school presentation.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with Basketball Classics, except that those looking for a deeper experience might be short changed here. Also if you’re getting acclimated with the gameplay, the Rookie level difficulty can sometimes be a bit too easy. At least there’s a handful of additional harder settings. Also feels impossible to dunk when an opposing player confronts you.

Basketball Classics is an absolute blasts to play and offers a surprisingly enjoyable experience and alternative to the recycled NBA 2K series that’s also polluted with microtransactions. Basketball Classics encourages replay by allowing players to actually unlock additional content. Whether it be solo or for some local multiplayer fun, Basketball Classics is an addictive gaming experience and can be enjoyed by casual and hardcore gamers alike. Highly recommended.