NBA teams and players, signature moves in team game.Ĭo-operative play, instant replay in team game. Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs The final game in the series was NBA Showdown 94 for the Sega Genesis before the transition to the NBA Live naming. The series also included an Olympic basketball spinoff game, Team USA Basketball (1992) which uses the same engine. Each revision added more teams and players, as well as more signature moves. Unlike the first game, these two releases were titled after the two teams who were in the NBA Finals the previous season, while the original release apparently chose the Lakers and Celtics due to both teams' historical success, in particular their rivalry in the 1980s. Lakers, released in 1991, followed by Bulls vs.

The next game in the series was Bulls vs. The game featured only eight of the sixteen teams that qualified for the NBA playoffs that year, as well as both NBA All-Star teams. Details such as Horace Grant's goggles are clearly visible, and Michael Jordan's 'Air Reverse Layup' is animated with very high accuracy.

The game was one of the first to feature an NBA license, containing both real NBA teams and player likenesses and signature moves. This game was played from a horizontal view (while later versions moved to an isometric view before ultimately moving to 3D on newer consoles).

Celtics, released first in 1989 for MS-DOS-compatible PCs and later adapted for consoles in early 1990 for the Sega Mega Drive. The predecessor of the NBA Live series was the NBA Playoffs series, which featured Lakers vs. As of 2023, the series has been in an indefinite hiatus, and after the cancellations of NBA Live 20 and NBA Live 21, there has not been any official confirmation by EA on whether or not the series will continue. The last released installment to date was 2018's NBA Live 19. The series, which debuted in 1994, is the successor to the previous NBA Playoffs and NBA Showdown series.īeginning in the late 2000s, NBA Live sales had dropped off compared to their main competitor, 2K's NBA 2K series. NBA Live is a series of basketball video games published by EA Sports.

Download the nba finals