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Summary of the NBA Hangtime Experience
Story:
N/A
Play mechanics:
It's exactly like NBA Jam -- except it's NBA Hangtime
;-) The gameplay in NBA Hangtime involves wild Arcade basketball, with
so many high-flying dunks that you'll wonder if the game is taking place
on the moon.
The default control setup is hideously awkward. It uses A as the turbo
button (which enhances in-game actions when held down), and the Bottom
C and Right C buttons for the game's actions. It is very hard to press
A and Right C at the same time for a turbo pass! I recommend customizing
the controls so that R is turbo, and A & B are the action buttons.
You can use either the analog or digital pad, but I could find no
real control differences between the two.
This is the first game that effectively uses the N64's Controller
Pak (NCP) Memory cards. You can create and save your own custom character
to your NCP. As you move through the game's many match-ups, you can save
any upgrades to your character. When you compete with friends (even using
a friends copy of the game), you can use your powered up player from your
NCP and show off.
In addition to the passing and dunking, there are new special moves
you can pull off by passing to your partner when he lights up. As usual,
three unanswered baskets results in your character becoming "on fire,"
giving him improved ability until the opponent's team scores. There is
also a way to get your team "on fire" by completing three of
the special moves mentioned earlier.
The best feature of the game is it's four player mode. I think that
it's what the game was really designed for in the first place.
What's it like to play?:
I had no idea what to expect from NBA Hangtime.
In some ways I was surprised by the game. In many ways I was disappointed
by it. Unfortunately, the disappointments considerably outweighed the
surprises.
The Surprises:
- NBA Hangtime easily looks as good as the NBA Jam arcade game. Players
really do look like their real-life counter parts. The animation is smooth.
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- The voices were more varied than I had expected. The crowd chanting
"Defense! Defense!" was a fun touch. The announcer also has much
more to say than I remember from the SNES version of NBA Jam.
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- The custom character option is a nice addition. Finally there's a
game that uses the NCP effectively!
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The Disappointments:
- The control is hideous! Trying to steal or block the ball is a pointless
exercise. It was very frustrating to feel that I had little or no influence
over who had the ball. This meant that the winning team was simply the
one who scored last. Moving my on-screen character felt like I was altering
the path of a runaway train on the court. You also can't switch to a CPU controlled teammate during
the game, limiting your control over the action to wherever your character
is on the court. This wouldn't be so bad if the "drones" (as
the CPU characters are referred to in the game's awful manual) on your team
were actually good players.
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- The difficulty is insane! I couldn't win a single game that I played
against the CPU. Not even playing as the Bulls on the easiest difficulty.
The CPU simply plays too well on defense, and due to the poor control, there's
nothing you can do about it.
There is a feature that gives the CPU a power boost when it's behind.
Even with this feature turned off, the CPU opponents seem to improve dramatically when the CPU team is behind.
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- There aren't as many different dunk animations as there should be.
This combined with the repetitiveness of play and the little variation
in court decoration results in the game becoming very dull after only a
short while. The difficulty of the game and of the control adds frustration
to the mix. Not good at all.
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I very, very nearly gave this game a Definite Miss rating. It's only
saving grace is the multi-player mode. The game didn't seem as bad
in the multi-player games that I played (probably because other human players
aren't immune to bad control like the CPU controlled players), but defense
was still unforgivingly poor. While it most definitely isn't a
great multi-player game, NBA Hangtime would probably be a good last-choice
rental for a party. Just don't even think about enjoying it as a one-player
game.
Overall Rating: Rental Only
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Game Elements....
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