Wayback Wednesday: Kobe Bryant's 81-Point Game, 20 Years Later

Wayback Wednesday: Jersey Swaps for Future Stints in NBA Live 95

If you played either of the 16-bit versions of NBA Live 95 back in the day, you'll know that roster customisation is extremely limited. We can only trade players in Season mode, and even then, only the five starters for each team are available to swap. This is because the game only includes portraits for the starters, so any trade that placed a bench player in the starting lineup would result in an inconsistency in the presentation. For the same reason, we can't change our starters prior to the pre-game introductions, though we can actually pause and substitute them just before tip-off.

On the bright side, whenever we make trades involving the starters, their jerseys will be changed to reflect their new team. Whereas the PC version used (for the time) high resolution Media Day headshots and thus had static portraits, the 16-bit versions of NBA Live 95 placed player heads on an assortment of matching shoulders. Not only did this save space on the cartridge, but it facilitates jersey swaps whenever a trade is made. To that point, I've made jersey swaps in NBA Live 95 for the Super Nintendo to represent several notable future stints. Let's take a look back...way back...

Wayback Wednesday: NBA Jam 99 Retrospective

After Acclaim snatched the NBA Jam moniker away from Midway, they attempted to continue the series with NBA Jam Extreme. Although losing the iconic brand was naturally a blow, Midway nevertheless released their own superb follow-up to NBA Jam Tournament Edition in NBA Hangtime. To that point, while Acclaim had the name, Midway boasted the superior game. With that in mind, it's perhaps no surprise that Acclaim sought to change up the formula with NBA Jam 99, moving away from an arcade style and adopting more of a sim or sim-arcade hybrid approach.

Of course, while that differentiated it from previous NBA Jam titles and Midway's new arcade hoops games, it also placed NBA Jam 99 in direct competition with the NBA Live series. However, Acclaim didn't completely abandon the series' roots with NBA Jam 99, as it included an arcade mode. While true sim-arcade hybrid basketball games have their place and I've come to appreciate them, NBA Jam 99 wasn't a good take on the concept. Indeed, it was proof that Midway deserved the name that they coined far more than Acclaim did. Let's take a look back...way back...

The first time I've seen gameplay of Jam 99 was through a video discussing the "forgotten" Jam titles. You're absolutely right about the game being one of the worst basketball games out there! I guess one of the only good aspects of the game was Kevin Harlan's appearance in a basketball game prior to the NBA 2K series which a lot of people don't know.

Another interesting thing a lot of people don't know; the game being absurdly fast is actually an emulation issue as many uploads on Youtube have gameplay taken from an emulator. I found a video taken from real N64 hardware which shows the game at its intended speed which makes it much easier to follow but no more fun to play!

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I did momentarily wonder if it was actually an emulation issue! To that point, I do have the original game and a working N64 set up, so I should've double-checked that first. I might have to post a retraction/revision of that point, though as you said, a lot of the issues clearly still remain when the game is playing at the intended speed!

I've made some amendments to last week's retrospective after playing the game on original hardware and feeling the gameplay speed as it's supposed to be. I still stand by my other comments on the game, but I am retracting the criticisms of the speed that are emulation issues, and acknowledging the changes in a couple of editor's notes.

Wayback Wednesday: Kobe Bryant's 81-Point Game, 20 Years Later

Tomorrow marks 20 years since Kobe Bryant torched the Toronto Raptors with an 81-point outburst, setting a new mark for the second-highest points scored in an NBA game. It always sounds cliché when we talk about how the years seem to fly by after we've taken a few more trips around the sun, but it's absolutely true! Our perception of time undoubtedly changes. When Kobe dropped 81 on January 22nd 2006, I was only 21, so 20 years felt like a long time to me; basically a lifetime, in fact! Things that happened 20 years before that - or 20 years before I was even born - felt ancient.

For example, 20 years before Kobe had his 81-point game, Larry Bird and the Celtics were the 1986 Champions. To me, that felt like something from another time. And yet, because I remember it, Kobe's 81-point game feels contemporary despite it being as old today as the Celtics' 1986 title was in 2006! Again, it doesn't feel like it's been 20 years; or perhaps more accurately, 20 years doesn't feel the same. It doesn't feel like eight years since I last reflected on Kobe's big game, or indeed, six since his tragic passing. As that game is turning 20 though, let's take a look back...way back...