SEGA 32X

Slam City with Scottie Pippen

Although the controls could use some improvement, Slam City is a great way to experience though street-hoops action. Make way, Jammit --- Scottie Pippen is here to stay.

I've played a couple of different versions of this game and is just too darn hard to score. The concept of the full-motion video with one of the NBA's finest players is a good one. But the game could have been put together so that it is easier to play. I can understand the need for a game not to be easy. I'm going to reject this one at the buzzer. Too hard!

Actually, Slam City is a little tolerable compared to stuff like Corpse Killer. The sports FMV games from Digital Pictures tend to be the best (Prize Fighter, Quarterback Attack). That does not however, mean they are good games. This one commits a few flagrant fouls, the most notable being the inability to skip past the cinemas. You'll need to watch the same tired actors go through their routine countless times, and you have no choice but to sit through it (or just not play it all).

The CPU is tough and exceedingly cheap. There's plenty of trash talking throughout the game, but most of it is really dumb. The graphics are terrific, with good definition and no lag time. Watching the same video clips over and over does wear thin after a while though, and although you're supposed to playing on a city basketball court, it's clearly just an indoor sound stage. Likewise the "streetwise" players look more like a bunch of perpetrators, and the white actors look terribly out of place. I have to admit that the shorthaired blonde with the tight white dress is incredibly hot though. The action is spread over four CDs, which seems like a good thing at first, but changing disks is a real pain in the ass. I will admit that Slam City did keep me occupied for a little while, but the game should probably be called Scotty Pippen's Airball.