Blog Banter: Crossover Triples, Taking You to School

Welcome to the latest installment of Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza created by bs angel and coordinated by Game Couch. Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deep insight to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This week’s topic is: Which game would you like to see a modern re-make of and why?

When it comes to older games, it’s hard to think of what the best remake would be. Some games that I loved as a child, like Sonic, get remakes all the time. Problem is, they suck, and have so little to do with what made the originals great, and you wonder why they even bother.

On the other hand, games like Life and Death, Wing Commander, and Doom (yes, Doom 3 was a pretty sweet “remake,” for all of its flaws) all got interesting and fun updates, depending on how much you like FMV Mark Hamill and Trauma Center. So what’s left, what’s left that absolutely needs to be made?

Into my mind pops a game called NBA Hangtime. Think NFL Blitz on a sidescrolling basketball court, 2 players per team, with unlimited fouls and crazy, awesome gameplay and presentation. I think there might have been a less wacky game very similar to it on the Genesis, but it never caught me and held me the way Hangtime did. The sad thing is, the only places I ever found Hangtime were on the N64 and the PC. My PC version no longer works, a victim of XP and its advances over Windows 95.

So what would a new Hangtime have? Not 3D gameplay, thank you very much. Maybe, if it looks really cool, they could do something like Street Fighter IV, I guess? I feel like the cartoony look just wouldn’t translate into a full-court game unless they were really careful. I’m absolutely fine with the perspective staying on the sidelines, if they recreate the sheer fun of that game. Bring back the big heads, the nicknames (“Bigfoot,” strangely, was always popular with us), the skill upgrades, and the literal fire that wreathed your ball when you hit 3 shots in a row.

It might seem a bit simplistic, and I’m sure that EA or whoever did it would pop in a “Season,” and rosters, and trading, and totally seksy, pointless stuff. I really just want incredibly fun 4-person gameplay, gameplay that starts fights; you’re that bizarrely into it. Maybe Nintendo should make it, then?

Participants:
Crazy Kinux: The modern re-make of a game
Lou Chou Loves You: Blade Runner
Zath!: Sid Meier’s Re-Colonization
XboxOZ360: Eternal Darkness
Silvercublogger: Mario Paint
Unfettered Blather: Mech my day
Save in Progress: Earthworm Jim
MasterKitty’s Weblog: Zelda: A Link to the Past
Game Couch: Tass Times in Tone Town