NBA Hangtime (N64) Review

Overview

NBA Hangtime for the N64 was released on January 17, 1997 in the US and on September 1^st of that year in Europe. For me this game is an interesting beast, as I have a bit of history with it. It was one of the original six games I got for the N64 my parents bought for me for my 11^th birthday (2006). I admit I didn’t like it at first, but it grew on me over time. To this day, I still own (and occasionally play) this game. In this review, I’d like to set all personal bias aside and review this game from a purely analytical standpoint.

Graphics

From a graphical standpoint, while this game doesn’t blow me away (more because of me being spoiled by the pretty pictures of modern gaming than anything being wrong with the game itself), it does look quite nice for an early N64 game. The menus are simple and are more or less designed to get you into the game as quickly as possible. All 29 teams around at the time are present, including Vancouver and Toronto. It should be noted that this version of the game bears more similarities not to the original version of the arcade game released in 1996, but its update, dubbed Maximum Hangtime, which was released later on. The in-game graphics are near-identical, for example. To this end, all of the graphics look remarkably faithful to that arcade version.

Sound

For some, the audio might be considered a mixed bag. On the one hand, every one of the four tracks in the game (including the game’s main theme, “What’cha Gonna Do?”) plays at appropriate times faithful to the arcade game. This runs in contrast to the PS1 version, which exchanges a couple songs appearing in their proper place (ex.: the post-game theme) in exchange for higher quality audio and some extended remixes of the music that is there. The audio here, especially the announcer chatter, comes in a bit muffled. It could be chalked up as a constraint of working with the cartridge-based N64 technology, but it is something to note. Regardless, all appropriate sound effects and audio are there.

Gameplay

Gameplay here is really quite simple. You simply pick a team of two players and go at it on the court in arcade NBA action.  There’s a small options menu at the start menu screen which lets you configure sound effects, music, difficulty, and clock speed. There’s also a menu that allows you to flip various switches on and off based on personal preferences. The menu system seems to be designed to get you into the action as quickly as possible, which is admirable in a game like this. On the court, it’s really identical to NBA Jam, with the only real addition being alley-oops, which are triggered when a teammate flashes briefly and jumps into the air. Control-wise the Pass, Shoot, and Turbo buttons are mapped to the right-C, down-C, and A buttons respectively. This can be changed in the options menu as well to suit prefereces. Simply pass to that person to complete the alley-oop (or possibly get a fancy layup). It should be noted that the N64 version lacks the load times that the PS version has.

Depth/Replay Value

Being a port of an arcade game, it’s not all that deep, to be honest. The closest thing it has to a season mode is entering your own record at the start and facing off against all 29 NBA teams. It mainly serves to serve as a fun fix of NBA action. It does have a “create a player” mode new to this game and its arcade/console cousins. Here, you create a player, give them a nickname, and alter their attributes to your liking. You can then save them, as well as various settings and records, on your Controller Pack. Aside from that, not much to write home about.

Summary

Getting back to my personal opinion, do I like the game? Yes. It’s a fun arcade basketball game. Would I play this constantly? No. This game is no NBA Live in terms of content, but in my opinion, it doesn’t need to be. It’s essentially NBA Jam 3, and I’m pretty cool with that.