Super FamiComplete #39: Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball (Redux)

Title: Bill Laimbeer's Combat Basketball

Release Date: November 1991 (USA Only)

Developer: Hudson Soft

Publisher: Hudson Soft

When writing this blog originally, November 1991 marked the first month where a block of USA titles would be released each month. Unlike Japan, where release dates were well recorded and uniform across the country, releases in the United States were often staggered across the country depending on several factors, such as the number of orders by retailers, and the general amount of carts produced and shipped for the region. This is also an interesting game as it was not released in Japan at all, and was one of the rare "US Only" titles.

 The front cover box looks like a melange of different things all mashed into one. It's a sports game with a well-known (at the time) star in the title, a sort of Sci-Fi future bent, the promise of combat (something basketball really isn't known for), and it is created and published by Hudson Soft. This is a promise that this game really doesn't fulfill.

Background

Well let's start with Hudson Soft. Hudson Soft was the well-known developer of the 16 bit and 64 bit era mascot Bomberman, as well as other series such as Bonk, Bloody Roar, Adventure Island, and Lode Runner and even the much loved Mario Party series. They were a Japanese developer based in mid-town Tokyo. Hudson Soft is an interesting developer as they were the first third party company to develop for Nintendo. This being the case, they tended to churn out many, many games for the Nintendo consoles, though they often developed for the Turbografx 16 as well (Bonk ended up being one of the main mascots for the Turbografx 16). Hudson also seemed to develop a mixed bag of different games. They developed platformers, schmups, licensed games, and infrequently, such with this title, sports games. Around 2012, the evil pachinko empire that has become Konami absorbed Hudson Soft into its fold; a sad and inglorious end to a moderate giant in the industry.

The next question: who is Bill Laimbeer? Well he is a well known Detroit Pistons player throughout the 80s into the early 90s. He played center, stood at 6'11", and even helped the Pistons to two championships wins in 1989 and 1990. Nowadays, he is a coach in the WNBA, and has coached his team, the Detroit Shock, to several championship wins. Definitely well known enough to warrant a video game at least.

Final question: What the hell is Combat Basketball? Well apparently the story of the game is that good ol' Bill has become the Commissioner of the basketball league, and has suspended all rules as far as rough play and fired all the referees. This means that players can fight brutally check one another, can sometimes use weapons such as bombs, and generally attack the other team. Apparently, this was decided as the Pistons, at the time, were well known as a sports team that was quite rough and tumble on the court, and were notorious for checking and fouling their opponents. I am not quite sure why Bill Laimbeer would agree to put his name on something like this, as it is like he is openly acknowledging a bad reputation.

Gameplay

I will say, the promise of this game is rather novel and fun. I mean, a sports game where you can be no-holds-barred violent? Sounds like fun. There were other titles at this time that tried to cash in on the "Rollerball" style violent-future sport angle (Mutant League Football for the Genesis comes to mind), so it definitely isn't alone in a vacuum with this premise. The problem is that this game really doesn't deliver on this concept at all. This novelty does make the game "fun," but this quickly wears out after a few minutes.

The camera, for some reason, is birds-eye view, which completely eliminates any connection you have to the players. When I think basketball in a video game, I usually picture something like NBA Jam, where you have a horizontal view of the players; it gives you a) a necessary view of almost the entire court, b) gives your players appropriate detail, and c) allows you to feel the pace of the action better. Basketball is a fast moving and kinetic sport, but this simple decision eliminates most of that. It is like watching the little "players" on a foosball table play a game.

The game also moves stupid slow. Your character moves slow, you dribble slow, and the ball moves through the air slow. A thrilling and exciting game of basketball this is not. The game kills any excitement of the game by just being a poorly put together mess. It played so slow that I tried this on several formats to see if it was an issue with emulation, and then ordered a copy and set it up on my original SNES for comparison. Nope! The game was just poorly made. 

For having such an interesting premise, the game really doesn't live up to the idea of violent basketball. You can shove players, and every so often you throw bombs, but they don't really effect the game in any way that makes fun gameplay. It's not like you are dismembering players or anything crazy violent (it is a Nintendo game afterfall), so the "combat" portion of the game is more akin to a rough round of playground basketball. In fact, it this conceit actually makes the gameplay poorer for it. The game becomes just endless stealing of the ball with no real strategy except "GRAB IT" before the other player can. I am starting to think the real reason against fouling isn't for the danger of hurting another player, but instead because it makes the game super boring. It is like playing a schoolyard game with someone who doesn't respect the rules and just blatantly cheats/ignores them (I keep thinking of this kid who, during capture the flag, would just ignore being tagged, mosey into the goal, and then just grab the flag and walk out); it just makes the game not fun and leaves everyone sour. Why not have players be injured? Why not have special moves since they are all wearing robot armor? Why not have different "classes" of players who each have combat specialities? Just spit balling here!

The basic "basketball play" here is broken as well. Aiming the ball to pass or shoot is terrible. The ball goes just about anywhere except for where you want it to go. Your teammates' AI is awful as well. They seem to be everywhere but where you need them to be for passing or making plays. Usually in a sports game of this era, the AI has symmetry or collaboration coded into their behavior, but here they end up just buzzing around at random. Very strange decisions.

Is the music good at least?
NOPE.

Ads, Commercials?
YUP

Final Verdict
This game has an interesting premise, and they even landed a "star" from the time, but it just seemed like a lack of competence in how to make a basketball game. So many formative and design decisions that just seem to make this an unplayable slog. This is a best forgotten gem. I'm kind of upset it is in my collection now.