Sunday May 28, 1995 was a day I'll never forgetIt was Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals pitting the young uprising
Orlando Magic vs. the
Indiana Pacers. I was at the local mall and walking past Radio Shack when I saw they had the game on ten TV screens. There were 3 people standing there, watching in angst and talking in-between plays. I made it a crowd of 4. The game was in its final 3 minutes, and as the drama unfolded, the crowd grew from 4 to 8 to 12. Even the employees stopped what they were doing and huddled around.
These are the moments you live for as a sports fan, and to boot it was one of the
greatest finishes in NBA playoff history.With under 15 seconds to go, this improbable sequence took place:
-Brian Shaw's 3 pointer gave the Magic the 1 point lead
-Reggie Miller answered with one of his own, putting the Pacers back up by 2 causing the Indiana crowd to erupt in a frenzy
-Mere seconds later the player many then believed would carry Jordan's torch and the NBA into the new millenium, Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway nailed a heart breaking 3, giving the Magic a 1 point lead with 1.3 seconds and left the sold out capacity crowd in stunned silence
PennyAs the game went to its final commercial break there was a
deafening buzz within those small confines of Radio Shack. I was right in the middle of it and the adrenaline was indescribable. I felt like I was at the game myself! That day I developed a much deeper appreciation for basketball in general.
Speaking of basketball....
In October '94 EGM previewed a Super Famicom-only basketball game. The unique street ball look instantly intrigued me.
Like others before it, I was recently able to play this game, effectively ending the 12-year curiosity streak.
There are 16 "non-official" teams to select from, plus a "Japan" team.
Though, oddly, if you look in the EGM preview you'll see SPURS and BULLS. So I looked at the teams closer. The subtle "not-so-hidden" parallels are definitely there. For example check out the Wizards (keep in mind in 94 today's Wizards were known as the
Washington Bullets). Their court is the same color as the Orlando Magic, and they got a starting center with incredible stats who wears # 32 (Shaquille O'Neal) Besides... Magic... Wizards... hmmmm
I see you Shrek (Shaq's 93 stats: 23.4 ppg, 13.9 rpg, 56% FG, 59% FT)I guess you can say there are real players in this game. Just like the classic
Ken Griffey Junior Presents Major League Baseball on SNES, the jersey numbers are the same as well as their stats (or very close anyhow, as seen with the Diesel). They just have different names. Sneaky.
The 3-on-3 halfcourt mode is good fun. Here 3 point shots count as 2, and 2 point shots as 1, just like streetball rules. You can pick from 3, 6, 9 or 12 minutes and any 3 of 12 players from the team you selected.
There is a different court you can choose for the 3-on-3 mode, as well as 4 different basketballs, some of them being quite outlandish
I'm not going there...You can play exhibition or Round Robin. In RR you're given a password after each victory. At the end, you will face your clones and then the USA Dream Team.
The 5-on-5 mode is highly reminiscent of Konami's
Run N Gun and plays faster than the SNES game
NBA Give N Go. The CPU here can be cheap on Normal difficulty, and on easy is
too easy. But with 2 players, it's loads of fun. You can play exhibition or Tournament, also with passwords provided. Sadly there is no season mode but that is fine, as it only adds to the whole YMCA/street-ball feel/atmosphere of the game.
I've played a lot of basketball games, but
none has mastered the beauty of making a simple 18 foot jump shot as Dream Basketball: Dunk and Hoop. In a lot of games making a jump shot is easy but here you really have to
earn it. You must release the ball at the
VERY peak of your jump. Any
slight miscalculation and you'll miss the shot. What else do you expect from Human, the Fire Pro makers who are notorious for testing the timing of a gamer?
At first it may frustrate as you shoot 3 for 18 in practice mode. But pretty soon you get the timing down and there's no sweeter looking jump shot in town. Nor one that is as satisfying to make, because you truly have to
earn it in this game. Other basketball titles even if you're not at your peak, you still have a 25% or so chance of making the shot. Not so here.
Click here to see the sweetest jump shot in townMISC
-----
-I'm a sucker for the players' ratings as well, so it definitely gets bonus points here. Reminds me of the ole
'91 Marvel trading card series.
Ahhh those were the days...vs.Spider-Man head-to-head with SHAQ-The players' stats are imperative to look carefully over so you know players' strengths and weaknesses. A player with a high shot rating will have better success making shots than a player with a low shot rating, no matter HOW perfect you time it.
-The 3 on 3 mode is good for quick arcade thrills, but the full-court 5 on 5 mode brings about more strategy as you have a bench to go to. Players are rated
fresh, OK or tired. You'll have to do some managing throughout the 4 quarters to keep legs fresh.
-My personal favorite team is the Photons. In the 3 on 3 mode I call upon
Rogers, Davidson and Feguso-I love playing the sport in real life too. My freshman year in college I took 2 basketball courses and brought my own ball every Tuesday and Thursdays, regularly hitting the gym to play pickup games and worked on my conditioning/left-handed dribble. Although 9/11/01 was a tragic day indeed, my college basketball coach taught me something that day important, as he forced us to play ball without him once bringing up the tragic events that took place
ONLY HOURS BEFORE. Yet as confused and distraught we were then, we realized by period's end the method to his madness:
basketball can be therapeutic and
that's good for the human soul CLOSING THOUGHTSIf you like basketball and their video games, you'll probably get a good kick out of this. To a non-fan, this is meh. To a fanatic like me, this is freaking sweet. The different modes and 2 to 5 player options make it a great multiplayer affair.
And if you're wondering what happened in the final 1.3 seconds of that
Pacers-Magic game...
Rik Smits sends the Pacer crowd home happy3-on-3 gameplay