''NBA ShootOut '97'' (''Total NBA '97'' in Europe) is a 1997

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed and published by

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

for the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

. It is the second installment of the ''NBA ShootOut'' series. The cover features Eddie Jones of the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

. It is the final game in the series to be developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, with

Sony Interactive Studios America 989 Studios was a division of Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) that developed games for PlayStation consoles and Microsoft Windows, Windows personal computers. Their games include ''EverQuest'', ''Twiste ...

replacing them for later installments.

Gameplay

ShootOut 97 features rosters from the

1996–97 NBA season The 1996–97 NBA season was the 51st season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league used this season to celebrate its 50th anniversary, which included the unveiling of the league's list of its 50 greatest players. This particu ...

. However, the game does not include

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player, who is currently a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Ass ...

Charles Barkley Charles Wade Barkley (born February 20, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player who is a television analyst on NBA on TNT, TNT and CBS Sports. Nicknamed "Sir Charles", "the Bread Truck", and "the Round Mound of Rebound", ...

and

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

, as they were replaced with custom players named "Roster Guard", "Roster Forward" and "Roster Center" respectively.

Reception

Most critics hailed ''NBA ShootOut '97'' as a dramatic improvement over the original. Kraig Kujawa and Dean Hager of ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The magazine was fou ...

'' praised the faster game speed and new icon passing system. Kujawa wrote a longer review of the game for ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'', in which he additionally complimented the authentic NBA sounds and visuals and criticized the small play book. ''

GamePro ''GamePro'' was an American multiplatform video game magazine media company that published online and print content covering the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software. The magazine featured content on various video ...

'' gave it a 3.5 out of 5 in sound and a perfect 5.0 in every other category (graphics, control, and fun factor), saying that it "shakes up the basketball world, cooking the court with spectacular, slam-dunkin' gameplay and the most realistic five-on-five hoops action ever brought to the 32-bit arena." Like Kujawa and Hager, they highly approved of the icon passing system. A '' Next Generation'' critic called the game "the first true basketball simulation for a console", elaborating that unlike previous basketball video games, the statistics have a significant impact on how players perform in actual gameplay. He also commented positively on the icon passing, but said the game was not as fun as '' NBA In the Zone 2'' due to the controls, explaining that "the game has an almost clinical feel, almost as if the player isn't really affecting the outcome of plays." The game held an 87%, based on five reviews, on the review aggregation website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. In Japan, where the game was released under the name , on June 27, 1997, ''

Famitsu , formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...

'' gave it a score of 27 out of 40.

References

External links

* 1997 video games Multiplayer and single-player video games NBA ShootOut PlayStation (console) games PlayStation (console)-only games Sony Interactive Entertainment games Team Soho games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Richard Joseph {{basketball-videogame-stub