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NBA Hangtime (or Hang Time) was developed by the original NBA Jam team (Midway, ported by Funcom) and is 24 MEGA POWER
College Slam was published by the new owner of the Jam IP (Acclaim, and developed by Iguana) and is 32 MEGA POWER (the largest basketball cartridge, right? but where do these extra 8 meg went?)
The latter is considered the worst despite having a 9/10 in Sega-16 VS a 6/10 for Hangtime.
Thoughts?
Hang Time is a bit unappealing graphically. I think they went too hard with the digitized look. The SNES version also looks off-putting despite being better suited for that style. The arena itself looks poorly lit. The announcer doesn't have as many catchphrases as NBA Jam. I can see why someone may not like it as much as either of the Jam games. FWIW I like it quite a bit as it plays really well and even has good music for a western developed game. The create a player feature is neat, too. I find myself going back to it. It's pretty much NBA Jam 3.
College Slam is just Acclaim milking the franchise. I could never get into it. It doesn't offer much over Jam.
I enjoyed the Hangtime games that I played (it's been a while though). Didn't they use Roundball Rock in the Dreamcast version? That may have been that "NBA on NBC" game. It's a blur. I need to play these games again, but I think I only have the first NBA Jam and Live 95 for the Genesis at the moment. Damn. Time to go shopping.
I played some Jam and Hangtime back to back the other night and I have to say it's like night and day with the way they play. Hangtime is so much faster and fluid than Jam, the animation is better, even the controls feel more responsive. Compared to the SNES version, the graphics are a lot less off putting. Everything doesn't look so cardboard and digitized. The announcer voice sounds good for a MD game as well. The music, while repetitive, isn't hard on the ears.
If I had to recommend Hangtime or Jam/TE to someone who only wanted one or the other, I might go with Hangtime. I never realized how good it is.
^That sounds like a great candidate for a Double Take article for the site.
College Slam is pretty much just nba jam with college teams.
NBA Hangtime is much better, also I like the N64 version a bit more.
I know this was made on the genesis section, but a more apt comparison would be NBA Jam Extreme vs NBA Hangtime since both came out in 1996 and NBA Jam Extreme was really acclaims first nba jam made by them that didn't just clone nba jam.
I still would say NBA Hangtime is the best choice, NBA Jam Extreme did the 3d graphics and was ehh just ok.
yes they did and BTW I prefer NBA hang time to college slamQuote:
Originally Posted by Jump Space
I think they both are awesome basketball games
I love nba hangtime , I used to create my own player and go all the way.
fun times
ok sorry to revive this but anyone experienced with College Slam can explain where those 32 MEGS went ? Hang Time & T.E. are 24 and original Jam is just 16 meg as the NBA Live series
Taking a quick look at it. Sprites are larger and animations seem to be smoother. The UI is full of backgrounds without much repetition (the base patterns are repeated but the lighting and gradients mean lots of unique tiles). The splash logos even have fancy effects. Yeah, looks like all that extra ROM went into graphic detail (just a wild guess, mind). Also that's some nice parallax in the audience (though that doesn't add much to the size).
(looking at this which is the first video I found mmkay)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JBE-D_Q4kI
Also there seem to be more backgrounds than just a professional court and that stuff definitely adds up (more graphics = more ROM needed).
Sik, are you talking about College Slam or Hangtime? IMO Hangtime does indeed look more impressive than the earlier NBA Jam games, but it's the relatively less impressive College Slam that's 8Mb larger.
Oh whoops, for some reason I saw the thread title and thought they were a single game (・・；) (well, now you know why it's larger than NBA Jam tho!)
For the record, I think they accidentally swapped the signedness of a drum in the Mega Drive version of NBA Hangtime (which is why the title theme has that weird sound out of place).
The what of the what ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Sik
Perhaps some of those 32 megs are wasted? Some things I can think of that set it apart from NBA Jam and TE are more detailed background graphics with actual movement in the crowds, but it's not exactly a dramatic improvement. There are more teams, and season and tournament modes in College Slam, however. And every player in the game is customizable. Considering TE was already 24 megs, I can see those additions adding up to a bit more than that. Maybe.
Still, I've always felt that College Slam was a wasted opportunity. No fight songs or mascots, or anything really that makes college basketball unique from the NBA. It just looks, plays and feels like standard NBA Jam without player names. They could have done so much more with it. Instead of just the standard drone audience, they could have put a pep band in the crowd, or have people wearing their school colors. The announcer could have said phrases related to the schools instead of the recycled NBA Jam quips. Perhaps they could have shown coaches yelling in cut shots, or pacing the sideline. Instead it feels like more of a cheap cash in than a fully realized game, just a reskinned NBA Jam with a few tweaks.