FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Showtime: NBA on NBC- ever hear of it? No? Yes? This is back in the day when you were cool if you had the Playstation 1, Sega, or N64. Why am I blogging on this? Well,

1) It IS the Sports Gamers's Blog

2) I'm feeling like doing this Going Retro series

3) I found this game and am addicted to it (again)

I find the game. I remember almost everything about it. It's loading on my TV, and- wait- you can't use a PS2 memory card on it. Luckily my old PS1 one is right beside the console. The game's loading and, "No Data"? Oh yeah, *hits button on memory card to switch side*, okay "Data Loaded". Okay, so here's the trademark screen..."All rosters as current as 9/10/99", or something close to that was on the bottom of the screen. 1999? Dang, MJ won't be on this game. Oh, now the screen that shows all 29 (yes, 29) logos of the NBA teams. Hey look at that, the Jazz and Nuggets have their old colors, the Rockets with their old logo, the Spurs with their rainbow logo, the Hornets in Charolette and the Grizzilies in Vancouver. Yep, Canada hasn't been the same after half of it's NBA left the country (there you go, DJ).

So after a cool entrance video with the NBA on NBC classic theme (Nelly's "Heart of a Champion" sounds like it) I start. "Enter initials"- that was a profile in '99- okay, let's try that. Dang...what was my profile name? Oh yeah *types in and hits enter*. Ugh pin number? Umm...wow, I remembered it! There's my profile, with the stats and rankings. And "remaining:" with nothing after it. That's right, I beat all the teams AND the Midway Challenge (Midway is the maker of the game, you know, NFL Blitz?). So now it's time to pick my team...uh-huh, what? Jason Kidd, a Sun? Steve Nash, a Mav? Avery Johnson, a player? Vince is on the Raptors, and here's the legends. Hakeem, Ewing, Reggie Miller, Shawn Kemp, Tim Gugaliota (he's a legend, right?), and so on.

I narrow it down to 3 teams: the Pistons, Rockets, and Knicks. The Pistons of Laettener, Lindsey Hunter, Jerry Stackhouse, and a few other guys. The Knicks have Ewing, Spreewell, Houston, and some more. And the team I pick: the Rockets. They are stacked with Hakeem, Charles Barkley, and Scottie Pippen. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Shaq and Kobe are teammates. Anyway, I pick My created player (which you have to on you profile) and Hakeem. That's right, this is two on two, and you don't switch players. This is what I love about the game: the created players are basic, the game is simple, and the controls are easy. A shoot button, a pass button, jump, steal, and turbo.

The game is fast, and there are no rules, except goaltending and "fouls". 5 pushes to a ball handler in a quarter sends them to the line for a shot worth 3 and ball back. Anyway, 4th quarter, no fouls, and down by 10 with 55 seconds left. They have the ball. Hakeem stuffs the guy, I hit the pass button for the ball dribble to my player's hot spot and Wooosh! the ball's on fire! I goes right in for 3 points. Down by 7, I knock the guy over and make the steal, 3! says the crowd and I nail the shot. Down by 4, another foul, and I drive in at the foul line a Turbo and Shoot. My guy jumps 20 feet in the air, does moves Dwight Howard can't do, and slams it down. The announcer says "He's on fire"- after 3 straight field goals, you have a higher shot %, unlimited fouls, and goaltending legalized until the other team makes the shot. 10 seconds left, I goaltend, get the ball and dunk it. Overtime.

Fastfoward: 5 seconds left, I steal the ball tied at 100, pass it to Hakeem and let him shoot his first shot of the game (it's easy to be a ballhog on Showtime). Swish. That's right, I tied Wilt Chamberlain with 100 points and won the game. After a stats page and a trivia question, I'm sent to my profile. That was my 100th game, and win #70. Which is good; you can't blow out a team, it seems like the AI always keeps it close.

So how was that? Honestly, I think a game like this with today's players would be a huge hit. How about you? Comments?