NBA Superstars Arcade Game

NBA Superstars is the first NBA-branded arcade game released in thirty years, licensed in partnership with the National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Players Association. The license is why the cabinet carries all 30 NBA teams and all 30 NBA home courts instead of invented franchises, and why the 120-player roster lists LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Doncic under their own names. Raw Thrills and Play Mechanix built the game as three-on-three basketball for one to four players, called by Tim Kitzrow, the commentator from NBA Jam.

The cabinet is built around a 75-inch screen with four player positions across a width of 78 inches, which puts a full four-player game at one machine. A fully animated LED stadium scoreboard runs above the play area, the marquee fires lights that simulate press camera flashes, and RGB lighting on the cabinet matches the colors of the teams on court. Assembled, the machine stands 113 inches to the top of the marquee, 90 inches without it, and weighs 970 pounds. Power is 120V at 60Hz drawing 5A, or 230V at 2.5A.

Ceiling height rules out more buyers of this cabinet than floor space does. At 113 inches to the top of the marquee, NBA Superstars wants 9 feet 5 inches of clear height, plus working room above that to bring the marquee into position. A room with a standard 96-inch ceiling cannot take the assembled machine at its published height. The 90-inch figure Raw Thrills publishes without the marquee is the one to hold against a finished basement, a low mall corridor, or any ceiling interrupted by a soffit, ductwork or a sprinkler head; it clears a 96-inch ceiling by six inches.

Measure the pallet, not the cabinet. The assembled machine is 78 inches wide, but the monitor pallet arrives 81 inches wide, 56 inches high and 51 inches deep, so 81 inches is the width that has to pass a doorway, a gate or a hallway turn. The pedestal pallet is smaller, 50 inches wide by 37 inches deep and 55 inches high. Two pallets arrive rather than one, at 624 and 346 pounds, so the receiving end needs a pallet jack and a dock or liftgate rated for a 624-pound pallet, not a two-person carry.

Electrically, this is a modest cabinet for its size. 5A at 120V 60Hz leaves a standard branch circuit well short of loaded, which matters on a route where several machines share one wall and one breaker. Buyers outside North America should read the 230V line instead: 2.5A at 50Hz or 60Hz. When you are comparing two large-format cabinets, put their amperage figures side by side before you count on adding either one to a circuit that already has cabinets on it.

On content, compare licensed roster depth rather than screen size alone. NBA Superstars carries 120 named NBA players across all 30 teams and all 30 NBA home courts, which is the reason a regular player picks a different matchup on the fourth visit instead of replaying one court. One to four players compete for the win, with Superstar Mode and MVP honors on the line, and free online player accounts keep results and statistics between visits so a returning player has something to beat. The software update available for the game brought team rosters and player headshots to the 2024-25 NBA season, along with larger characters, smaller courts, new dunk and celebration animations and further Tim Kitzrow commentary.