NBA Hangtime
Reviewed by Kent Frechette
Maybe you've Jammed before, perhaps you've even gone to the Extreme (ice
ice baby) on occasion, but you've never pushed, shoved, smacked,
grabbed, or alley-ooped like you will in NBA Hangtime. Yes, kids, the
folks that brought you NBA Jam and its many and not-so-varied sequels
bring you yet another update to the very popular series.
In order for a sports series to remain popular, it must constantly
update the rosters, have team and player licenses, and, most
importantly, add something extra to the gameplay with each and every
outing. Some other notable series that have accomplished this are
Madden, NHL Hockey, and more recently, the World Wide Soccer series on
the Saturn. The initial console versions of NBA Jam came out on the
Genesis and SNES. They sold extremely well but were far from being exact
replicas of the popular arcade title. The sequel to this title sold well
too, but it tasted like the same game we had just played the year
before. Whereas I had played the original title every day for months,
its sequel managed to garner a couple of frenetic days of gaming out of
me, but nothing more. Blah dee blah blah blah. Next came the Saturn and
PS versions of the game better put: the FREAKING BASTARDIZED VERSIONS
spewed forth by an uncaring, money-grubbing pile of crap company you may
otherwise know as Acclaim (ACK-LAME).
Acclaim was allowed to mess up the arcade to home conversions of the NBA
Jam series through a licensing agreement with Williams , now known as
Midway, for many years, but those not so happy, feeling kinda dumb
titles are behind us. Midway has wrestled the popular series back, and
are out to prove that they could do their games more justice than
Acclaim did. Well, whether or not they managed to do so is ultimately up
to you, but in my mind, after 3 wonderful days with NBA Hangtime, Midway
has more than surpassed my expectations for the game.
To be honest, after the PS version of Jam, I wasn't expecting much at
all. I never even bothered to play more than a few games of Hangtime at
the arcade, not enough time to fully appreciate the differences between
it and its predecessors. But I am a Jam freak, always was, and more than
likely, always will be. What that means for a lamer like myself is that
I'm destined to purchase every incarnation of this series... good, bad, or
Acclaimified.
A day before Hangtime was released on the N64, a site on the WWW
(VideoGameSpot) declared Hangtime 64 the worst N64 title to date. Had
these idiots not played Mortal Kombat? Had these gaming dingoes never
laid their clueless hands upon Killer Instinct Gold? Where were these
dullards when Cruisn USA bellowed, sputtered and coughed its way onto
the N64 scene? VGS, I declare you the worst webzine I have ever
read until I venture back to NGO that is. Wink wink, nudge nudge. The
reviewer declared the game was so bad because the title had been done
before. Well then, by that token, when Mario Kart 64 comes out next
month, in order for VGS to remain constant, they better declare Mario
Kart 64 the new worst (mom and day would be proud) N64 title ever.
Don't hold your collective breath.
OK, 'nuff o' da chitty chitty chat chat. On to the game.
The reasons I'm so enamored with Hangtime 64 are varied. I'll list 'em
for you.
Load times, or the lack thereof. Sure, many may call this a minor
quibble with the cd-based systems, but after waiting 30 seconds for Jam
on the PS to load up, and then another good 30 seconds for the game to
start, for halftime to finish, and then again for the game to end, it
gets pretty tiring and the thought of playing another game all but
escapes your weary little b-ball brain. The load times do not exist in
the N64 version. I purposely bought this version over the PS game of the
same name for that very reason alone. Perhaps the PS version will have
better music, but who gives a rat's fanny about music in a bloody NBA
Jam game?
Create a Player. When I saw this feature on the box, I thought, "Neat,
probably something I'll do once, but never bother with again." Wrong-o,
genius. Having the ability to choose your own head, height, weight, and
playing abilities, but being limited in your choice of upgrades until
you've won a good deal of games is a wonderful new addition. I made my
player tall and fast with a good outside shot. I wasn't close to maxing
out any of the ability settings, but the more I won, the more I was
allowed to increase some of my abilities. Oh yeah, did I mention that I
gave myself a pig head, and nickname Spanky? Well, I did, so there. You
get a nice long varied list of head choices as well as nicknames. The
nicknames refer to what you want the announcer to refer to you as. If I
had my way, he'd call me... well, I won't get into that.
Options: More players to choose from on each team, with a lot more
hidden. The ability to turn on Big Heads from the menu is nice too.
There hasn't been this many settings choices in any other Jam game. You
can skip the settings if you don't like being bothered with such
nonsense, or you can revel in the freedom of choice like I do.
Audio: The amount of speech in this game hasn't even been attempted in
previous console versions. Not only is there speech aplenty, but there
are accompanying sound effects as well. These are often more humorous
then the labored and uninspired comments of the not-so-peppy announcer.
Who hired this log of wood with a tongue?
The other four reasons aside, the one change in NBA Hangtime that would
make me buy it over and over again and recommend it so strongly to you
is the Alley OOP. But not just alley oops. You also get double dunks
--when you go up with the ball to dunk, your teammate follows you up
into the air, you give him the ball and he smashes it though. If your
team does 3 of these in a row, you're both on fire. You'll need a couple
of games under your belt to get the real hang of doing these things, but
once you do, you'll find yourself hanging back with the ball, waiting
for your teammate or drone player to go the hole, and once you see him
catch some air, you whip him the ball for a fancy alley oop. I've gotten
to the point that I can do them from half court and offscreen. It's all
a matter of timing and knowing what your partner is going to do. Wait
too long to pass, and the ball will go flying over his head. These are
precision dunks, and are the most satisfying part of the game when done
right. They're also a pain when the computer is doing them against you.
You'll need to play better D than you have in the past. Knock them down
as they run to the hoop in hopes of stopping the play, because the
computer loves the Alley OOP as much as you do.
Here's a quick breakdown of the standard rating categories that we find
most applied to video games.
Graphics: Astounding. This game looks better than the arcade. Some
llamas in the Usenet groups claim there is no scaling in the game. These
are probably the same guys that waited all December for Santa to bring
them a Tickle Me Elmo doll. While they're off anally-violating poor
little Elmo, you'll be enjoying your arcade perfect, scaling copy of NBA
Hangtime. Even with normal heads, you can identify your players on the
court, with Rodman's persona the easiest to pick out. Love the hair
color, Midway. The courts you play on adjust to the city you're playing
in as well in terms of color, which isn't major, but is quite a nice
change of pace.
Sounds: Like I mentioned earlier, the sounds are great with the one
glaring exception of the Prosac-consuming announcer. Put some effort
into it, dude! But what captain Quaalude lacks in enthusiasm, the sound
effects more than make up for. After 20 odd games, I still hear things I
hadn't heard in the previous outings.
Options: Again, as I mentioned earlier, outstanding. Change the
difficulty, the music and sound effects volumes, the speed of the clock,
the size of your heads, your girlfriends underwear, your dad's choice of
deodorants etc. The lack of load times also makes the trips through the
menus a breeze. When you put in your virtual quarters, you're given the
option of creating a player(or altering an already created player),
starting up where you left off in your quest for the crown via your
saved game, or just playing a straight-up game without messing with
names and numbers. There is also a cheat meter that, if you know the
correct codes, will power up some neat little extras in the game. The
only extra I've bothered with so far is the hidden outdoor court, which
is really nice. The crowd is replaced by a nice city skyline, and some
cheerleaders. The chord net is now a chain net. You can hear traffic in
the background, and helicopters at times. Again, not an earth-shattering
addition to the game, but it is great that it's in there.
Gameplay: This is all that really matters. If you loved the previous Jam
games, or have never played a Jam game in your life, you already know,
or need to know, that gameplay is what sets the Jam series apart from
all other sports games. It's simply fast, furious action. The only
strategy you need to know is get to the hoop more times than the other
team. Butta-boom-butta-bing. It don't get much more simpler than that,
honey. As was true in all the other Jam games, beat it and you'll open
up other pieces of the game ie. More players that you can choose at the
start of the game, and harder opponents to play against.
Another key point to bring up is that the days of tripping over the
blasted multi-tap are over. With the Nintendo 64's handy-dandy 4
joystick ports, you just plug in and go. Very sweet indeed.
Before I conclude, here are the lowpoints: The announcer. I've said
enough about him already. Lastly, unless I'm totally brain dead, it
appears that each player has to have his own memory card in his own
controller in order for all 1-4 of you to save your players and stats.
Could get expensive. Well, that's the last of my complaints. As you can
see, not too many to go around, and the ones that do exist aren't that
painful to absorb.
If you've never been a fan of the Jam series, NBA Hangtime on the N64
surely isn't going to convert you, brother, but if you've been a fan
like I have, you will absolutely love this new addition to the series.
You'll be alley-ooping until the cows carry Aunt Betty home again.
Enjoy.
As for a rating: I'll give it a 95/100, and declare it my second
favorite N64 title to date, falling second only to Wave Race 64.