10 best NBA video games of all time

5. NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC

This pick may generate some controversy but I don’t care. We stan NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC in this household. Midway revolutionized the basketball video game genre with the NBA Jam series. Acclaim, who bought the rights to NBA Jam from Midway, messed it all up and released a series of horrendous games under the NBA Jam name. Midway then broke off and developed the criminally underrated NBA Hangtime then, in my opinion, perfected the arcade basketball genre with NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC.

First off, it has Roundball Rock in it. That is probably enough to make it one of the greatest basketball video games ever but you need some more evidence? Fine. Do you remember NBA Jam and NBA Hangtime? Yeah, you do. NBA Showtime takes everything great about those games and makes it better. The famous “On Fire” feature was back but now thanks to a new alley-oop feature, both you and your teammate could go “On Fire” creating an opportunity for one team to completely dominate the action.

I’m not saying NBA Showtime is better than any of the original NBA Jams but it’s the best spiritual successor. Slick new graphics? Check. Better sounds and animations? Check. Roundball R … right, we already covered that.