|
|
| Title: |
Slam
City with Scottie Pippen CD |
| Released: |
1995 |
| Genre: |
Basketball |
| Developer: |
Digital
Pictures |
| Publisher: |
Digital
Pictures |
| Regions: |
USA,
UK |
| Availability: |
Rare |
|
It's hard to imagine
that there was a time when many people believed that video games comprised
of nothing but full motion video were the future of the gaming industry.
Sega certainly lead the battle charge with awful "interactive video" titles
like Sewer Shark and the infamous
Make Your Own Video
series, and poor Digital Pictures followed gamely behind. This now-defunct
development house was responsible for the release of four of the five available
Sega 32x CD games, hereby known as "the five turkeys." It's hard to find
fault with the innovative spirit of Digital Pictures, and they certainly
did their best to try and combine several of the most popular video game
genres with the new full motion video technology. Unfortunately, the experiment
went terribly wrong and hasn't been repeated since.
Slam
City with Scottie Pippen was envisioned as the natural evolution
of the basketball genre, a kind of
NBA Jam for the next generation;
too bad it's saddled with terrible control and near-zero interactivity.
Basketball games had been a staple of the gaming scene since the time of
the Atari 2600 and seemed a natural for the digital video treatment, so
basketball legend Scottie Pippen was drafted to front the first basketball
video game comprised entirely of video footage. Played completely from
a first-person perspective, Slam City pits you against an
assortment of silly trash-talking opponents. Like the equally terrible
Supreme
Warrior, Slam City compromises gameplay and precise
control for its innovative but ultimately flawed presentation. Control
pad inputs are terribly unresponsive, and most matches degenerate into
dull frustration fests. Success requires hitting a particular button at
a precise moment (much like Dragon's Lair) and then watching
a video sequence. Unfortunately, this sort of memorization
gameplay is the exact opposite of truly fun basketball games like NBA
Jam. The final match with Scottie Pippen himself can be found on
disk 2, but its doubtful you'll make it that far. As far as we know, no
other basketball game has attempted to replicate Slam City's
first-person playing perspective, and this should definitely be considered
a good thing. Avoid this one if your a fan of the sport or video games
in general.
