NBA Hangtime

released on Apr 16, 1996

Hangtime was the third basketball game by the original development team behind the NBA Jam series. The title was changed due to the NBA Jam name being acquired by Acclaim Entertainment, the publisher of the games for the home market. Acclaim's NBA Jam Extreme was released the same year as Hangtime. Features introduced in Hangtime included character creation, alley oops and double dunks. A software update known as NBA Maximum Hangtime was released for the arcades later in the life cycle.


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I did not care about basketball as a child until Space Jam came out, and then I really cared about basketball - at least the fake version of it. NBA Hangtime scratched that itch perfectly. Why even play other basketball games that don't let you do a flying quadruple flip dunk from half court using a character that vaguely resembles Mario?

This was the 'next gen' version of NBA Jam. The Nintendo 64 game was a very good arcade port that brought the over-the-top arcadey basketball action to home consoles.

While the game was very fun and improved upon graphics and gameplay over previous NBA Jam games, it lacked content and variety.

The Nintendo 64’s first basketball is a straight up arcade conversion, which means there’s nothing to the game except matches and very few options. It’s a 2-on-2 basketball game where scoring is so east that most games will be back and forth of constant scoring from both teams.

With four players, you might find a bit of fun, but this is the kind of game best suited left in the arcades, as it’s something that can be fun for a quick go, but playing for more than a few minutes quickly wears thin. For an arcade game, it’s fine. For a console game, it’s pretty terrible. I know that some people love this game, but it really needed a lot more to it.

Sure it’s basically NBA Jam 2, but there’s no boomshakalaka…

The Hyper Fighting of NBA Jam - it's fast, like too fast, I'm talking 'pass from half court and the ball out-races the camera' fast. It's maybe too excessive, but that's what I admire about it. The best sequels iterate without replacing, and this breakneck ice-fest is a great complement to Jam's sharper arcade methodology.

Hot take- Hangtime was far superior to NBA Jam. I feel like Jam gets boosted by nostalgia glasses, but Hangtime does everything Jam does but better. More NBA players, deeper attributes, a better soundtrack and creatable players. You could create a character named Large Marge. Laaaaarrrrge Marge from downtown!