NBA Hang Time

NBA Hang Time is the Tim Hardaway of basketball videogames. It's cocky, funny and full of energy. But, most importantly, its got serious game. Nintendo 64 owners should thank their lucky stars for such an enjoyable time burner. Don't confuse this with your little brother's hand me down NBA Jam titles, Hang Time has mucho staying power, even if the look is a little dated and there are no 3D polygons to speak of.

Playground Rules

The game play of NBA Hang Time is incredibly fast and furious. There are no fouls. You have to get the ball into your opponent's basket, within 24 seconds, by any means necessary. You can do any of the following in the game: push, throw, block, slam, alley-oop, shoot, swipe, turbo-pass, goal tend and, significantly, double dunk.

Although real life basketball is any thing but, NBA Hang Time is an intensely simple game to learn how to play. However, there are enough finesse points, not to mention hidden bonuses, to make it worth your while to keep coming back for more.

The heart of Hang Time, which is, as we all now by now, the true distillation of the Jam series, is not the arcade battles between the pros, it is the game's Create a Player feature. With this option available to you, the game is no longer just an action based quarter sucker, it becomes a basketball RPG, suitable for daily visitations.

When you venture in to create your own version of a pro hoops demigod, whether he be a carbon copy of Scottie Pippen, a mutant clone of Frankenstein, or a snapshot duplication of Greedo from Star Wars, you are making the contests in NBA Hang Time a personal matter. This is your chance to experience life as an NBA pro. (although, your vicarious existence is in an even more cartoonish version of the league than the real thing) Best of all, is the fact that as your pro plays, he grows. He gains abilities and new strengths and becomes more of a threat on both ends of the court. It's down right heart warming to watch this maturation take place.

During a NBA Hang Time season, your records are kept for you (provided you have a memory pak). If you keep winning with your newly created superstar, you'll be granted a new set of ability points after every forth win. These points can then be used to boost your player in several key areas, including blocking, dunking, stealing and shooting.

As you move up the ranks of the various NBA teams, you'll start to see the finer details that the Hang Time crew sweated over. The lean-in and fade away shots, the circus spins to the hoop, the finger rolls, the beautifully animated alley-oop dunks, the turbo-spin around a defender, and the list goes on.

One extra feature I really enjoyed (which was borrowed from EA's NBA Live series) was the trivia questions at the end of every game. Answer enough of these correctly and you'll be privy to even more digital swag.

If you're a traditionalist and you want to stick to matching pro against pro, NBA Hang Time is all over it. All 29 teams are on the cart and each club has a fairly up to date roster. You have to concede a few roster errors when you consider the game's production time (Kidd's still on Dallas), but it would have been nice to have a trade feature in the game, to alleviate these inconsistencies. Maybe next year?

Hang Time's courts are authentically shiny and they're populated by crazed fans (and unusually calm bench warmers). Every team's colors have been stitched into the game (although the team colors for The Grizzlies are actually The Raptors' and vice versa).

In the end, you may find that the game plays way over the top crazy, but if you're a pro hoops fan looking for more of the "Stuff" to love, NBA Hang Time does not disappoint.

Glossy Courts

Although this is not the slickest looking hoops you can bring home, NBA Hang Time is still high on the candy. The players are colorful, detailed and have been very well animated. Spin moves are especially remarkable. I enjoyed these moves on the SNES and Genny but with the better resolution and frame rate of the N64, it's pure Clyde.

With the muscle of Nintendo's newest box, the artists were able to throw in the arcade's scaling effects and animate the background crowd like crazy. All of the players' heads are recognizable from the tip off, but if you really need to see 'em, you can make 'em bigger in the options menu (and you thought only Nike contracts and movie deals could do that to an NBA star). The razzle dazzle of superhuman dunking animation, and watching players and teams (after three double dunks) catch fire, is always entertaining and the N64's version of NBA Hang Time consistently wows 'em. This game is almost as much fun to watch as it is to play.

Obviously, this title is not a N64 show stopper. With its standard side scrolling viewpoint and its sprite based, non-mocap players, this cart is a touch on the anachronistic side of game design but the visuals work despite all of that. Bottom line is you can't take the fun out of playing this game, no matter how much better you think the graphics should have been.

Pump It Up

The audio of NBA Hang Time is impressive. Sound effects are clean and sharp - I liked the Tarzan yells and the sound of a dive bomber when my player was on his way to a spicy slam dunk.

NBA Hang Time's music hits all of the right frequencies. The title theme is a catchy little funk number that echoes through the on court action. And if you can believe it, there's even a listenable rap groove broken down for us during half time.

The always conspicuous play-by-play announcer is clear and efficient on this cart. You hear everything he says, but his energy level could have been bumped up considerably. Still, you gotta dig b-ball-isms like "Shamalama ding-dong" and "He couldn't hit the back side of a barn!"

This is yet another cart that backs up Nintendo's claims that the N64 is capable of producing some seriously cool game audio. There may not be a whole bunch of different music cuts in the game (there's none during the attract screens) and these may not be CD quality sounds, but I enjoyed what I heard nonetheless.

Post Game Wrap Up

Right now, NBA Hang Time for the Nintendo 64 is the ultimate 2 on 2 b-ball videogame on the market. If you are looking for a taste of gamin' honey, this is as sweet as it gets. Although this cart is not devoid of the flashy stuff, it is the sheer abandon of its play that makes it so attractive. If you're a hoops fan, I guarantee, NBA Hang Time will bring a wide smile to your face. And if you're the representative for a group of four hoops fans, this cart is going to make your lives richer.

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