Hangtime Captures Nba Excitement

NBA HangTime

Formats: Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo.

Estimated selling price, manufacturer: $50-$64, Midway.

Category: Sports.

Players: One to four.

Recommended ages: 6 and up.

How the game works: At first, NBA HangTime looks just like the earlier NBA JAM, but start playing and you’ll find it goes a lot further in capturing the essence, energy and excitement of a live NBA game. This challenge features lifelike players from all 29 NBA teams, equipped with realistic movement capabilities, in nonstop 2-on-2 full-court action.

NBA HangTime lets you shake-and-bake with spectacular spin moves, becoming unstoppable from beyond the three-point arc and able to go up for slam dunks, acrobatic alley-oops, death-defying double dunks and ferocious fade-aways.

NBA HangTime also boasts more than 200 secret power-up codes, new hidden characters, the option to choose to play on various courts, and up-to-date ‘96-‘97 player rosters which include the latest NBA rookies. At the beginning of each game, players now have an opportunity to enter a series of three-digit “combination-lock” codes to activate special hidden features.

There’s also a new “Create-a-Player” option that lets you custom-build your very own NBA HangTime player, with your choice of the physical appearance (height, weight and face) and attributes (speed, shooting, dunking, passing and defensive ability).

HangTime showcases Chicago Bulls announcer Neil Funk calling the play-by-play throughout each game. His commentary and the game’s audio effects, enhanced by the DCS Sound System, offer an unparalleled experience that creates the supercharged atmosphere of an NBA arena during game time.

Good points, bad points: NBA HangTime features the smoothest, most fluid graphics and animation ever for a digitized video game. No other basketball game can compare, for now. But we haven’t yet heard from NBA Shoot Out ‘97 for the Sony PlayStation from Sony Sports, due out any day.

Bad points? I couldn’t find any.

Tips: Usually I avoid giving out codes, but here is one I found in Gamepro - for Genesis, numeric code (802) for Max Power; for N64 (0000) for a secret character code featuring Glenn Rice.

The verdict: NBA HangTime is a slam-jam basketball game that makes you sweat when you play it. Now that’s virtual reality!

xxxx