188 · HOOPS

• ON THIS PLAYGROUND, IT’S A WHOLE NEW GAME!
• NES Longplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz8hOpjTmYI
• Introductions
• Overview
  • The legends of the Playground are all here: Mr. Doc, Jammer, Legs, Bomber, Wiz, eight players in all.
• Gameplay
  • The game is done in a half court style[7] with the player having a choice to disable or enable winners outs.
  • Street Rules
  • 1 on 1 or 2 on 2
    • What is the balance here
    • Making a shot (arrow)
  • There is also an around the world mode that allows players to focus on making
  • Return of the Watch mode
  • Other Jaleco Sports Games
    • Moero sports games. Why not keep the sports franchise conceit for North America?
  • NBA Street
• EGL
• Next week - Hydlide

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Hoops! On this playground, it's a whole new game!

00:19 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. Guys, I got the feeling that basketball for us is the sport that, you know, of the major sports, the one that we know the least about. Is anybody here a basketball fan? I mean, I played basketball in my youth, like, before high school. And I mean, I don't really watch it as much as I would, like, football or hockey, but I still enjoy basketball.

00:56 Yeah, I wasn't, you know, I didn't play many sports. I mean, I played baseball when I was younger. But, like, you know, I was aware of all, you know, I played casually with friends, all these, you know, football and baseball and hockey and stuff. But basketball was the one that I just never, never really played. So whenever I did, it was, it wasn't pretty.

01:18 Sean, you bring up a good point, though. And that's actually what I was leading on to is, like, you know, even if we don't, none of us really follow the NBA or care about basketball all that much.

01:28 Everybody, like, every kid at one point or another, like, goes to a basketball court or their friend has a basketball hoop in their front yard or whatever. And they play probably a more faithful version of what hoops is going for today than, you know, the double dribble we got earlier in the NES's lifespan, which was more of like, you know, a two-on-two NBA jam slash, you know, NBA style game. Hoops is trying to go for that street basketball that I'm sure we're all just a little more familiar with. Oh, yeah. They've got, it's all half court. You can only do as many as two-on-two. They even have some of the common ways to decide who gets first possession of just, you know, shooting for possession. That's what we did on the playground.

02:18 Um, uh, it's actually pretty, pretty faithful to, uh, the kids. Yeah. It feels more like, I mean, it's faithful in the sense that it's, you know, it's the way that we played probably if you're just, if you're just casually playing basketball, but also in the sense that in a, in a game like, uh, double dribble, there's all these other players. It's kind of like a lot of these other sports games that feel like there's, there's some simulation going on while you're playing too. And there's a little bit of a disconnect where this is like, if you're playing one-on-one, I mean, you're in control the whole time.

02:53 Um, so I think that that makes it also a little more quickly translatable. Yeah. I guess the one thing that it really doesn't, uh, that is very unrealistic is there's some unseen, uh, uh, referee that's calling you for charging every few minutes. Yeah. You guys didn't have the local playground referee who made all the calls? No, we did not. No, of course not. No, I, I actually, uh, think that when I was playing basketball as a kid, I, I felt like you could just travel too. Like there was almost no rules, uh, which seems impossible. Well, then you're just an asshole, you know? Yeah. You're just an asshole. Yeah. But that's like, that's kind of how recess rules were, right? Like everybody just kind of makes up the rules as they go.

03:31 I, I mean, I, I would call people out for traveling, but that's just me. I feel like you're a stickler. We were pretty like self-governing in that sense where it's like someone might try and get away with that, but everyone's going to call you on it. Yeah. If this game had, instead of like a pop-up that says traveling or a pop-up that says charging, um, if it simulated an argument after that and like the game kind of kept going, but there was just a lot of like back and forth, um, then it would be much more, uh, authentic.

04:04 Yeah. I think what they should have done is, is maybe, maybe you hit, you hit select to, to like call someone and say that they were traveling and then they have to agree with you before the game could move on. So you have to get into a real life argument about it. Yeah. There's a speech mini game. Right. It's a, it's a house rules mode where the rules are just kind of decided as they go about, you know, just talk it out with the computer. It's like, all right, we're going to agree to do this, but not this. We're going to points are now worth four.

04:31 Uh, cool. So, you know, the one thing that, uh, hoops, uh, doesn't have going for it, but apparently, you know, lots of sports games back then couldn't get it is any kind of recognizable names. Instead, they just try to tease you with the idea that the legends of the playground are all here. The legends of the playground are all here. Mr. Doc, Jammer, Legs, Bomber, Wiz, eight players in all. I mean, if you're talking about the legends of the playground, you should list them all out, right? Like, I mean, how much, how much better could the other four be if you're not even going to mention them by name?

05:07 I mean, well, I, are you arguing that, um, uh, that, that they should be legends that we personally know? So I'm just saying why even go that far to give them like, you know, I, I guess like I could see the argument of it shouldn't be like backyard basketball where it's just like kid versions of the NBA stars. But, uh, you know, I think like teasing us with that, the legends of the playground and it's filled with names of people we just never met or knew. I don't know. It doesn't mean, it doesn't add any emphasis. Yeah. Has the legends of this particular city's two playgrounds.

05:46 That's true. Cause they do say on this playground. Yeah. A whole new game. They don't say on the playground. So you just don't know the neighborhood, Mike. Right. I'm not familiar with this, uh, Sesame Street.

05:58 Well, I think that, uh, if you, if you want to, if you can get over the fact that there's no real players, if you, if you don't care about that, I think this actually has some advantages because, because they can make these players well, well designed from a gameplay standpoint more easily without having to think of like a real player. Like, well, what are they like? What do they play like? So I think they actually have some cool, you know, I, I, I admittedly didn't play with enough of the characters to, to actually say that it's well balanced, but it seems well balanced to me. The idea of it is well balanced. Yeah. They thought about balance.

06:35 Right. Yeah. I think that's what I was going to hold you to Joe is like, they thought about balance, but if you've played certain matchups, uh, they suck. You know, uh, I, I also did not play as all eight characters. I didn't, I didn't see that as like a, uh, worthwhile investment, but, um, I think Mr. Doc is like the all around player, right? He's the one who's supposed to just be like, if you don't want to pick a certain strategy, just be Mr. Doc. He can do him and Barbie. Yeah. I think they have the same stats.

07:05 Yeah. Barbie is the, uh, uh, is the other name of the all around player. Yeah. But Barbie is the, uh, the girl all around her. I mean, it's nice to include girls too. We've haven't seen that in a sports game yet. Other than, uh, the volleyball game, right. Which was an all girls volleyball. Yeah. You got to get the gamer boys and the gamer girls playing the same thing, you know?

07:24 Well, that's the one thing I wanted to talk about before we get into the game too, is just like the, uh, you know, Sean, you were saying I'm not familiar with this, uh, you know, this neighborhood. And I think they did a really good job of like making, uh, an aesthetic here for like,

07:39 uh, you know, a local street. A rundown city. Rundown. Yeah. Like, no, I'm just saying like, even like, I'm sure they were emulating like some form of, I made a joke to Sesame Street or like, you know, New York City in the, in the late seventies, early eighties. But like, even the graffiti on the walls and everything like that, like it's all tasteful touches. There's no, like, they didn't make it so decrepit that it's like, Oh, what are they saying about urbanization? You know? Yeah. But they, but they made it like true to, uh, you know, those areas. Uh, I don't know how you guys felt.

08:10 Yeah. It's got, I think it has a pretty good presentation. It all like has a, it all feels like a hole, but there's nothing that sticks out as it's very, yeah. It's very nineties, uh, teen, uh, what adults think teen aesthetic is, especially the cover. Yeah. I feel like it's like the aesthetic of what I would see in like a video that my teacher played about like, why, like why not to do drugs or whatever. It's like the cool kids are like standing in this basketball court. Like, Hey, Mr. Doc. Yeah. Mr. Doc. You got some reefer. Me and Wiz.

08:51 And who are the, um, there's two kids on the main menu that, um, I, I guess, I don't know who, if they're like actual players in the game or they're just like, weren't picked for the teams or whatever. And they're just blowing bubble gum over on the side. They weren't really like, yeah, they're like going home, you know, they're like, ah, screw this. And it's like, all right, your turn to, to sub in. Yeah. I think those are the developers sons. Yeah. Very interesting.

09:39 All right. So we can talk about the game now. Uh, because I feel like we're, we're already there. Uh, Sean, you already, you already talked to quite a lot about this game. You know, it's a half court style. Uh, the mostly one-on-one you can do two on two too, but, uh, you really don't have much other choices other than like, you know, whether you want it to be winners outs or losers outs, or if you want, um, uh, if you want to be around the world mode instead of regular basketball, let's just focus on like a regular one-on-one game for a moment. How does it feel going up against the computer and trying to take on the computer one-on-one?

10:16 It's very, uh, it's very difficult. Uh, I found at least, um, I feel like I, um, I had some trouble just holding onto the ball with, uh, against the computer because, uh, they seem to have a better, a more adept knowledge of the steal button than I did. Uh, so it didn't even feel like there was any action happening. I would just, uh, I would just be relieved of possession of the ball once in a while. Yeah, I had a very similar experience, uh, at first, especially I was playing as Mr. Doc when I first played, and I don't remember the name of the, uh, my opponent, but he was the shorter guy. He's slower, stronger, slower, supposedly. On paper, he's slower. Isn't that jammer? Maybe.

11:09 But, but either way, it's the guy who on paper was supposed to be slower, and he was way faster than me, I felt like, at least to my eye. Um, and yeah, he would always be able to steal the ball from me, and it took, was very difficult for me to steal the ball from him. Um, and after a while, I did start to sort of get the hang of it, where for a while, I would, I would stand near, near him and kind of ram the A button or B button, whichever one it is, uh, to steal.

11:33 And I would just be doing that, because I'm like, I'm right on top of him. And I think that, and I, I'm not certain on this, but I think that there's a little bit of timing, I think, is important in this. And I think that if you're just ramming the button, it's probably harder. Because when I started actually just like running up, and when I thought I was close enough, giving like one definitive press of the button, I found that I got better results with stealing the ball. I get that there's only two buttons on this controller, and you do what you can.

12:01 But, I just felt like, I hate these mechanics of, especially in these, uh, you know, ball style sports games, where it's like, just get really close to them, hit the steal button or whatever, and hope that it works. Like, it should either like, I guess always work, right, if you're close enough to the player and you steal the ball button, right, especially because there's no defend button.

12:23 It should just work. Or there should be something more involved than just like, be really close to this guy and hit this button. Uh, it just, I don't know, I kind of agree with what Sean was saying about how it seems really hard to keep control of the ball. But even when you, like, even if you manage to like, you know, outrun or make a smart move against the, against the computer player or whatever, it just doesn't feel like,

12:45 it feels like mostly I'm just trying to avoid another player and make a shot where I can see the basket finally, so that I can see where my arrow is and determine if I'm going to make the shot or not. It doesn't really feel like I'm playing a one-on-one game of basketball. It feels like I'm playing keep away from another player. And the same thing with the computer. He's just trying to avoid me making too close of contact with him. Whereas I feel like in a normal basketball game, most of the game is played very close corners. I would say that, I don't know if this is true or not, but it, it seemed that, um, because

13:19 your character does a little animation when you go to steal, uh, I think it really depends on where the, your arm lands in that animation. And if it sort of intersects with your opponent, like then it steals. Uh, and that can also mean that your opponent is actually behind you and it would be kind of impossible based on your positioning on the court for you to actually steal it. But that, that's what it seemed what was happening. So there, it doesn't make sense, but there does seem to be some mechanic happening there that isn't just like press the button and you steal. Uh, you have to like press the button in a specific spot and then you steal.

14:00 But, uh, but to your other point, uh, I do agree. Like it's really hard to make a one-on-one basketball game really work when again, you only have two buttons. Cause if you're playing one-on-one basketball and any other, like in real life, it's, it's more than just positioning. It's more than just like, can you whack the ball out? It's like, there's also, uh, can, can you, uh, try and jump and block the shot or, or just like sort of screen him?

14:30 Like there's, there's a lot more going on in one-on-one that if, if you have it as simple as this game has it, it's going to feel like something's missing. And that's why I do think that the two-on-two is, uh, the better, the better mode in this game. Well, well, here's my question then. So similarly, like you don't, I think a lot of it comes down to, you know, the fact that you can't, you obviously can't really simulate handling the ball.

14:56 So, so it comes down to like, with the stealing aspect of it, you, you're stealing or you're not like, it's not, there's not a level of skill that you're using on defense or on offense rather to, to kind of keep the ball, you know, it's, it's just like, stay away from the opponent. So have either of you guys played like an NBA game recently? Oh yeah. Even somewhat modern. How do they do that? How do they, how do you solve that with four buttons? You know? Um, well, they also use the analog stick as like, if you, did you play the NHL games?

15:29 Yeah. I mean, I've played them not, not much, but I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Like in a modern NHL game, like the right analog stick is like the, uh, stick skill or whatever the hell. And that is like a one-to-one representation of how you're handling the puck in an NHL game. Well, in the NBA games, like if you do certain patterns on the right analog stick, you can like dribble behind the back or dribble between your legs and, uh, sort of make these more, uh, uh, the, the more complex maneuvers on a basketball court. Um, you could set up screens. Um, so there's a, the basketball games are very complex now.

16:10 Um, and I think even, even in like the PS one, PS two eras, uh, there was some in between complexity as well between what we're playing and what we ended up with, uh, with 2k 22. Um, so I think it's, it's sort of like on a curve. It's just hard for one-on-one to work again when you have this few, these few inputs.

16:34 Yeah. Cause the advantage of two on two is that now you can pass the ball around and yeah, you can actually like, you know, fend off your opponents by strategically being in certain spots with your other. It's almost like, you know, I feel like in the, in the one-on-one mode, the only thing that's protecting you, uh, you know, Sean, you were saying there's a little like hand that potentially like that is the trigger for like, if the hand touches the ball, then that player gets the ball back or something. Uh, if that's true, or even if it's not true, just like what I did to avoid being like taken, uh, to have the ball taken from me. Uh, and it didn't always work successfully, but what I would do is I just kind of have my,

17:12 I'd go like sideways with the player so that my back was kind of turned towards whatever direction they were going and just trying to almost like fake them out, like go in one direction and then try another direction or, you know, it's some mixture of that. Um, and, and I don't know, it just doesn't feel as good in a, uh, 2d, two button game. Whereas like with two player now, um, you know, the ability to pass makes the game a little more passable.

17:42 Okay. That's good. Thank you. Uh, Sean, do you have any more thoughts on two player though? You're on a roll. You mean one on one? Two on two. Oh, two on two. Uh, yeah, I have a little bit. Um, whereas it makes it more fun when you, when you switch over to two on two, um, because now you have this, this other option, uh, rather than just trying to run around a person, uh, run around a computer that knows your inputs. Um, now you can pass, but now passing is a little overpowered because I don't think that the computer can intercept or even like tip your pass. Like the ball's going to make it to whoever you pass it to.

18:25 Um, so that almost makes it a little too easy because now you're guys in a position where, uh, the computer can't easily just ghost steal. And now it's really just, uh, you're lining up your shot. Um, and maybe even like getting into a point where you can just dunk it. Uh, so it's, it's more fun, but it's also like it has the opposite problem where now it's just way too easy. Joe, your silence tells me you might not have tried. You know what? I was going to confess to that, but, uh, no, I did not try two player, but I do have a thought on two player and that is, um, that you want to, right?

19:08 Two on two. Yeah. Oh, two on two. Right. Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah. I actually also obviously didn't play two player, but I, I have thoughts on that too later, but for now two on two. Um, so I played a couple of games. I started out playing as Mr. Doc and I eventually switched over to bomber who, uh, I think he's good at shooting from the outside. He's a little faster.

19:28 Um, and I thought that that would maybe be a little easier because I was taking a lot of, you know, taking a lot of shots from the outside. Um, and I'm, and I found that I think he, he, he probably does make more shots from the outside, which is still hard to do though. You know, uh, it's still hard to do. So I found that like someone like him would probably be good on a team of two, you know, where you can, you can, you can throw to him when you need to, when you need to like make a big play. But if you, um, if you're playing like one-on-one with him, I feel like his skillset doesn't really like help too much because I, you know, I feel like he seemed to miss shots more.

20:10 Um, so I feel like there are all this to say, I feel like there are a lot of these statistical things that maybe we were saying earlier might've been unbalanced in some one-on-one matchups

20:21 that make it a little more robust and complex. If you're doing two-on-two matchups where you can kind of combine each player's skillset. They're designed to be complimentary. Yeah. So I didn't play two-on-two, but I did think when I was playing with Bomber that like, well, maybe I shouldn't have chosen him, but he would be a good teammate or someone, you know, I know that you're controlling both players, but he would be a good teammate to like a, a duo.

20:44 Yeah. I like, yeah, I agree. Speaking of shooting though, I can't believe we haven't talked about this yet. I mean, that's the point of the game, right? To shoot the ball into the baskets. They have a way, they have a solve for this that, you know, I'm not sure how many other basketball games have here, but there's an arrow system to make your shots.

21:03 Thoughts on this, on this process here, Joe? So that arrow system, that's just for the free throws, correct? That's what I, that's the only time I saw it. Yeah. Free throws. And I believe the entire around the world game. Yeah. Right. Which technically is the free throws, but just from different locations. Isn't around the world also just a means to, oh, is around the world a full game? I thought around the world was just picking. I thought it was just a means to get possession. Yeah. Wait, you mean to tell me that if I complete a full game of around the world, I just, I just decide, but that takes so long. It does take a long time.

21:37 I thought it was like a separate game where you just keep moving around the court. I couldn't even do that. Wow. But yeah, I thought it was interesting that that was the free throw method, but it didn't appear the rest of the game. I mean, I get it. It would be kind of distracting. It would be so annoying. To be at, to be running around and having to line up the arrow while you're playing. But it also does feel like making a shot is a little random. I mean, whether you're going to make it or not. I don't know if it has to do with the height of your jump when you hit the A button again. I think that is what it is.

22:13 Like, that's just, I think that's become the, uh, the standard is it's just sort of like a timing. Uh, you hold down the button, uh, you try and gauge where the apex of your jump is and then you let go. Um, but in this case you have to not let go, but you have to like press it again. And I always traveled because of that, because I have terrible muscle memory. Or I would be trying to steal the ball, which is the same button as jump and shoot. So I would be trying to steal the ball. And as soon as I stole it, I'm still ramming A. So then I would jump by accident, not realize I was shooting and then I would land and then I'd be traveling. So that was not fun, but that's a little aside. But, um, but yeah, I, I, I, I guess if you were to.

22:58 Spend more time with this game and really get used to it, you would probably get the feel of the apex of that jump and like how to, how to make a shot. But just playing a couple of games like I did, um, it still felt a little random to me because I wasn't, you know, I wasn't familiar with it. I think if you just play enough of around the world, I don't know. It's crazy to think that like that just leads into a full game. That was 90% of Mike's, uh, time in this game was playing around the world. And I, I, I'm pretty sure it was because I, I just couldn't believe that the computer actually was making as many shots.

23:30 I don't know how much time you guys spent with that arrow system, but maybe I just have like terrible reflexes, but I could not make these shots. And when I did, I just felt like it was just luck. Like the, the, the randomizer of the arrow is like pure hell. Like somebody really, whoever designed that really knows how to do like some kind of form of random number generating, because that thing never had, it doesn't have a pattern. It goes all over the place. I'm glad that the arrow was not a persistent, uh, thing in the game. And it'd be funny, uh, Joe, I think at one point you suggested like if it was just always

24:04 there and you had to time your shots with like when it was in the center, uh, that would, that would be a game where I would never score a point maybe. But also, uh, I just feel like I might actually just take the randomness, you know, which again, I don't think it's that random, but like might take the randomness of if my shot makes it or not, just depending on like if I jumped in the right spot and when I released the ball and stuff like that, as opposed to this arrow thing, which might guarantee you that you're going to make the shot. But for me, it would guarantee I would never make the shot. I really did not like this arrow system.

24:37 I think the arrow, like it ends up in the center, like at very regular intervals. I think the randomness is just like what direction you would miss if you didn't quite hit that sweet spot.

24:49 But it's not, yeah, but it's not just like, it's not just going like left to right or something. It's going like diagonally and then to, and then to the sides and then underneath. And then it does like half steps where like it goes down and comes back up the same direction.

25:05 It technically always crosses the center just so fast that you might as well like anticipate pushing the button when it's not in the center. Well, that's how you do it. I noticed that it would, every once in a while it would do like, it would do like an up, down, up, down right over the basket. It would do like two nice little like broad strokes over the basket. And that's when I would always look for and try and score.

25:29 But then because of that, because I was doing that so much, I started to think that like the game probably should have like a time limit on how long am I allowed to watch for this? Because I would just sit there for, I'd sit there for like a minute trying to wait until the arrow lined up perfectly and then I would, then I would throw it, which like feels like, I don't know, there should be some, I don't know, penalty for just sitting there forever until you have like the perfect shot. Yeah. There probably is.

25:55 I guess that's, I guess that's just what you get, you know? It's just what you get, just like the street rules of it all, right? You just get the rules they feel like applying. This is not an NBA recreation. In the manual, I think it even says something like, playground basketball has fewer rules, but there are still guidelines. Like, you know, I think that's cute. And I like that they included some of these. I don't really have a comment about like if they should have included more or less. I think the game would be chaos if you could just do whatever you wanted.

26:32 So I'm a fan of these additions, but it is traveling, charging, pushing and out of bounds, which again, I'm not even like, is that a bound something worth mentioning here? Like, is that really a rule thing? Like, so is scoring, right? Like at that point. Yeah. I mean, I think you're right. I'm just being particular. I know. Yeah. It's at the basis level of what makes a sport a sport.

26:59 One more thing we got to talk about. It's the return of the watch mode. Remember when games had these watch modes all the time? Oh, yeah. In the early NES. Now it's like, I didn't even click on this. So I don't even know what happened. I didn't either. Forget about like, you know, I think there was Tecmo Bowl where you can watch, right? Just like, hey, I just want to put this on and watch these guys go at it, right? Do you really want to watch a bunch of like made up playground characters go at it?

27:25 I don't. That's why I didn't do it. I guess it depends on how invested you get in that. Maybe after you've played this game a lot, you get really invested in these players. Maybe if you do personally know the legends of this playground, it would be cool to watch a simulated version of them. I don't know what city this is. This was based on a real playground, though, right? Yeah. Yeah, I imagine if that's what they were saying.

27:47 Maybe that's what we should do, though, is like we'll set up on our Twitch account, our Nostalgia Twitch account, we'll do a, you know, round, you know, an Elite Eight of basketball and just have them each face off against each other and stream the finals. I think before that, we need to have a draft, the Nostalgia Draft. Right. Of the eight playground basketball players. You need to have some skin in the game.

28:11 Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. At least 500 bucks. Right. Okay, so that's... If I win Zelda 2. No. Oh, hello. And if I win $500. Yeah, exactly. I'll take it. It's worth 500. Oh, I like that. I bet a lot of listeners would agree with you. And a lot others would disagree, and that's why it remains controversial.

28:34 That was my story about watch mode, so we'll just skip over that. I just wanted to also mention that this is a Jaleco or Jaleco or whatever they're called. That company who makes all the sports games. This is another one from them. They also make all those bases loaded games that we've played. And I think they did like Racket Attack and stuff like that. They make sports games. My point here is in Japan, all of these sports games have like the same name. They're under like Moreo or Moro or whatever.

29:05 And that's the franchise. Why not just keep the sports franchise conceit for North America? Obviously not the Moreo thing, but why not just have them all be like Jaleco Sports Presents? And then it's basketball. And Jaleco Sports Presents Baseball. Why make them feel like totally different games each time? I mean, they are different games.

29:27 I mean, they all still say Jaleco on the title screen. But yeah, you're right. It doesn't have like that EA Sports sort of umbrella. Yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying. It's like don't even call it hoops anymore. Just say, you know, Jaleco Sports Presents Basketball. And that's like, you know, I could see that being like a lame thing from like an Atari 2600. The only thing with this is I feel like if you get like Jaleco Sports Basketball, you're thinking like NBA. And this is clearly something different. It's clearly trying to be like. I would be upset. Yeah, right. All right. We've got one more thing to settle on the court. And that is when we gather as a court. And I don't know where this is going.

30:13 But I think you're doing good. Don't second guess yourself. No, I know. I think I feel it. Yeah, like we are, you know, we are judge, jury and executioner here. And we're going to decide if this half court game deserves to be on our full essential games list.

30:32 All right. Sean, it's time for the essential games list. Take your shot on the court. Yeah, I appreciate a lot of the presentation stuff. I was a big fan of like NFL Street. So I enjoy the amateur aesthetic of a lot of this stuff. But the gameplay is way too half baked. Like we never really said whether a lot of it was good or bad. But handling the ball and shooting, they feel kind of flat. And so, no, this is not on the essential games list or on Sean's patented essential sports games list. Okay, Joe, we're subbing you in.

31:22 Yeah, I mean, it's always hard for me to try and, you know, to put a sports game on the essential games list. I will say that I do think that this, I think that this has value as a two-player game. I think that it's such like a pure competition game. There's not like too much else going on. I think it would be a lot of fun if you and a friend both kind of got acquainted with this game and tried to play. But even one-on-one, I think a lot of the problems that one-on-one had would kind of go away if there's two skilled humans involved competing. That makes it a little more fun. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's one possible saving grace.

32:07 And like you said, Sean, the presentation and, you know, the aesthetic and everything is great. But overall, it does not get on my essential games list. All right. I think for anybody still listening, please see NBA Street Volume 1, 2. I've never played 3, but I have to imagine it's also good. See those games. There's no way I'm putting this on the essential games list. Not that it was like so bad that there's no way. But just that like, you know, these games that I just listed are so much better and they do the street sport genre. So much more justice than Hoops does, but also arguably than any NES street style basketball game could do.

32:50 So that's where I leave it. I'm just going to suggest other games this time instead of telling you what's wrong with this one. And that's what we're just doing here, right? We're just being prescriptive about whether or not you should play these games.

33:00 And if we say you shouldn't play them, you absolutely should not play them. In fact, I would sell your copies on eBay for significantly less than they're currently selling. Two NostalgyCasts. Hey, to be clear, I didn't say you shouldn't play this. No, no, I'm saying when we say that, though, about any particular game. Like when we say don't play Zelda 2, we mean it. If anyone were to ever say that. Yeah, nobody said that. Yeah, I didn't think so. I'm just trying to be even more controversial. I was trying to save you there a little bit. I was like, I don't want anyone coming to your house. Whoa. Yeah. Whoa, hold on. Don't be threatening, Joe. That did come off like I was threatening to come. Save it. Or like I'm going to send someone. It wasn't what I meant, but, you know, it's just something to consider.

33:48 I mean, that's not what I mean at all, but I mean, it's just like, you know. Why risk it? Yeah, think about it. Yeah, who knows? Who knows what I'm capable of? Please save it for the best of 1989 episode. Honestly, though, now, if you go missing right after this episode is released, I'm number one suspect. Like, I'm screwed. Yeah, that's true. You should never incriminate yourself like that.

34:09 But also, like, you know, you shouldn't incriminate yourself, but you should follow Nostalgia at NostalgiaCast on Twitter. That is something everybody should do, and there's no way law enforcement would, you know, arrest you for that. They don't arrest people for following people on Twitter. I know that for a fact. It's risk-free. Go ahead and do it. While you're there, follow at Esposito Film. That's me, Michael Esposito. And, you know, I heard Sean has a Twitter, but he's not giving it out. So maybe someday, keep listening. Maybe one day, Sean will give out the Twitter handle. One day. And Joe does not have a Twitter. I don't have a Twitter. Don't even ask.

34:48 Next week, we've got a Hyde Lied. I hope I said that right. I could ask you guys. I think it's Hyde Lied. Hyde Lied? Like a sport? Yeah. Oh, it's not a sports game. Another sports game? I don't know. We'll see. It's another sport. I got you. All right. If it's a sports game, we'll find out next Friday, like every Friday. Keep doing this with us. We'd love to see you here. We'd love to hear you here, and you'd love to hear us, hopefully. Right back at you, kids. Bang, bang. We'll see you next time.