Hoops
System: NES
Release Date: June 1989
Developer: Aicom
Publisher: Jaleco
Genre: Sports
Jaleco has brought us baseball and tennis, now they take it to the court with Hoops. This isn’t a five on five game, but instead you can play one on one or two on two half-court street ball. You choose how many points you play to from 10, 15, 20, or 25. I suggest you play 10 point games until you decide if you like it or not. You can either play make it take it or alternating possession. There are also two courts you can choose to play on.
Then you choose your player(s). There are eight different neighborhood champs to pick from. They each have different strengths and weaknesses. Some are short. Some are tall. Jammer is fat. You can look at each player’s profile and get an idea of what they’re good at while enjoying a fun animation. The first player you pick is your main ball handler, so you want to make sure you choose someone quick, or you’ll be at a disadvantage. My team was Zap and Jammer, I won a few games with them until I quit.
You start the game by shooting for possession. An arrow starts moving around erratically and you need to get it centered over the hoop and get the right altitude. I lost pretty much all of these. You can also play a game of Around the World before you start a game in an attempt to get better at the arrow timing. I got destroyed when I gave it a shot.
Shooting happens when you press the B Button to jump in the air, and then press it again to release. You can pass by pressing the A Button. I learned jumping and then passing out of the jump was a good way of moving the computer out of your way. If you’re in the paint, you can go for a slam dunk. These usually work, unless your opponent is in the way, then you’ve got a 50% or less chance to throw the rock down.
Playing ball at the playground, you’d think that fouls wouldn’t be prevalent. How wrong you would be. Pretty much everything I did ended in a charging foul. This is exasperated by the fact that the AI is always crawling up your butt. Turnovers are constant. Once you get in a scrum, you start bashing the A Button in order to steal. Then you try to move and you’re called for a foul.
Graphics: 2.0
The graphics are kind of janky. They’re kind of neat, but also kind of bad.
Sound: 1.0
The dribbling is constant and the song gets annoying quickly.
Gameplay: 1.5
Penalties are waaaaaay too frequent. The AI mugs you nonstop.
Difficulty: 2.0
It’s a tough game, but not always fair.
Fun Factor: 2.0
I had an okay time, but the constant penalties drove me nuts.
Overall Grade: 1.7
Hoops earns a C-. It’s an alright basketball game, but not what I really want out of the genre. Good for a short play.