BOOM SHAKA-LAKA! That now famous NBA Jam phrase was one of the
key pieces in what started Midway's sports arcade lineup.
Unfortunately, because of licensing, Midway
lost the rights to the NBA Jam name. That didn't hold them
back from continuing the series with NBA Hangtime, and
now NBA Showtime. Like NFL Blitz 2000, Midway is on a
role in supplying the Dreamcast with great arcade
conversions that beat out the other platforms.
For the first time, Midway has taken the series to
3D by constructing both the players and courts of smoothly animated polygons.
The arcade version's graphics have been ported over
perfectly to the Dreamcast. Characters are modeled
comparably to their real life counterparts, but are
not and were never intended to be modeled accurately.
You will easily be able to distinguish who is who thanks to
players having their real life faces texture mapped onto the polygon characters.
With the change to 3D,
the game now incorporates better collision detection as well
as instant replays which will show great shots or dunks
from various camera viewpoints. Despite going to 3D though,
the gameplay hasn't suffered at all. If anything, it feels
the same if not better than before.
New to the game is the ability to create your own character
and then upgrade his attributes based on points you earn
from playing. Your character will be available for you
to use with any team and with the added bonus of the VMU,
you'll be able to take it with you too. This combined with
playing against three of your friends, makes it a great party
game.
Unfortunately while the game is a perfect port, with the
exception of some occasional minor load times, that is
all Midway has given us. Like NFL Blitz 2000, Midway has
decided to leave this game void of options, modes and enhancements.
It does have a basic configuration for controllers, time,
difficulty and audio levels, but that's it. There
isn't even a way to turn off the help screen at the beginning.
To make matters worse, after you complete a game, it kicks
you back out to the title screen so that you have to load
up your character again before you can play another game.
This can get quite annoying especially when you have to
deal with load times on top of that. Midway should have
at least included a way so that you could continue on
to the next game without going through such a hassle.
It also would have been nice if they included other
modes of play such as a tournament mode, or practice
mode. On a positive note though, Midway now allows you to
customize your buttons to any configuration, unlike what was
done in NFL Blitz 2000.
While the heart of the game is great, it's a shame
that Midway didn't put more effort into the presentation
and selection of options and modes in this game. There was
more added to NFL Blitz 2000 than NBA Showtime, if that helps
you visualize how little has changed. However, because the
game is so addicting, it's definitely a game worth getting;
especially if you have friends to play with, as that is when
the game really shines.
-- Marty Chinn
