NCAA Basketball

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #587 of the NLSC Podcast!

Not long after we finished recording last week’s show, EA Sports surprised us with the announcement that they will be returning to the virtual hardwood with a new college basketball game, slated for release in 2028 at the earliest! This week, we join the community in sharing our reactions to the news, from rating our excitement level to discussing the things that we want and need to see in a new hoops title from EA. We also touch on 2K’s somewhat petty reaction to EA’s announcement, and the response it drew on social media. Suffice it to say that things are set to be a lot more interesting in the basketball gaming space over the next few years!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:00:21 — 41.8MB)

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To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #586 of the NLSC Podcast!

Although we generally focus on the Triple-A scene, there’s definitely untapped potential for the virtual hardwood and blacktop in the indie gaming space. To that end, this week we discuss The Dunkers, a 2D indie basketball title that’s currently available in Early Access on Steam. Following a competitive session with the game, we’re hoping that it will continue to be updated and ultimately fulfil its potential! We also once again touch on the possibility of EA Sports returning to basketball gaming with NBA Live or a college basketball game. Little did we know that a big announcement was on the horizon, so we’ll undoubtedly be coming back to this topic in the very near future!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 47:37 — 33.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

In an exciting development for those of us who have been hoping to see more titles in the basketball gaming space, EA Sports has announced a new college basketball game, their first since NCAA Basketball 10 way back in 2009! The company unveiled their plans to return to the virtual hardwood with a post on X, simply stating “Bring the Madness. Let’s run it back.”, along with the hashtags #CBB and #ItsInTheGame.

As reported by Gamespot, Extra Points recently obtained a memo from the Collegiate Licensing Company indicating that a bid had been put out for a new college basketball game, which EA Sports appears to have won. Furthermore, it seems that the CLC’s proposal is for a game that includes both men’s and women’s college teams. Notably, EA Sports has previously done that in their NCAA March Madness/NCAA Basketball series.

Before we get too excited, it should be noted that it seems as though the game won’t be available until 2028 at the earliest. Considering that the return of the EA Sports College Football series was announced in 2021, and EA Sports College Football 25 was subsequently released in 2024, this isn’t altogether surprising. It’s also being speculated that like the College Football series, the new college basketball game from EA Sports won’t be NCAA-licensed in light of EA’s split with the organisation following the lawsuit headed up by Ed O’Bannon. Again, that hasn’t been confirmed, but it’s a solid guess at this point.

No further details are available at this time, but we’ll certainly be keeping our eyes and ears open for any news! That also goes for a potential return for the NBA Live series, though I personally wouldn’t get too excited about that prospect until we hear a similar announcement. Nevertheless, EA Sports’ willingness to develop a new basketball game is certainly promising. In the meantime, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, as well as here in the Forum!

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at NCAA Basketball for the Super Nintendo.

With Baylor’s victory and another March Madness in the books, I’m taking a look back at one final college basketball game. It’s a game that I’ve covered twice before in Wayback Wednesday, albeit under two different titles: World League Basketball, and Super Dunk Shot. As I mentioned in those features, this 1992 release developed by Sculptured Software changed its name and content according to the region it was released in. To that end, depending on whether you’re in North America, a PAL region, or Japan, you’ll be nostalgic for a different version of the same game.

Since Australia is a PAL region, the version of the game that I grew up with was World League Basketball. Now that I’ve picked up a Universal Adapter for my Super Nintendo, I’ve been able to collect Super Dunk Shot and NCAA Basketball, and play them on my PAL hardware. Obviously it’s a very familiar experience in terms of gameplay, but the different teams and format make it a real novelty to play the other versions. On top of that, NCAA Basketball holds up as one of the best college hoops titles of its era. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown.

As it stands, basketball gamers don’t have a lot of choice year-to-year. You can either buy NBA Live, NBA 2K, or both, or stick with an older release. Alternatively, you could not play basketball video games at all, but if that’s the case, you’re not exactly relevant to this discussion; no offense. While I wouldn’t be against another developer throwing their hat into the ring with a sim-oriented NBA game, I’m not sure that we necessarily need that to happen. I think that we basketball gamers will be alright as long as NBA 2K continues to do its thing, and NBA Live makes some big strides this year.

Of course, there’s always room in the market for other types of basketball video games. This includes full-blown arcade basketball titles, or perhaps sim-oriented games that focus on different leagues. Cheaper digital releases that focus on mini-games and the like. Resurrections of popular old properties, as controversial as that practice can sometimes be. As you can probably guess, I have a few possibilities in mind; without any further ado, here are five basketball video games that I’d like to see developed.

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