Fox Sports College Hoops '99

Fox Sports College Hoops '99
Genre(s): Sports Platform(s): Nintendo 64 Release Date: October 31, 1998 Developer(s): Z-Axis Publisher(s): Fox Interactive

Fox Sports College Hoops '99 is a college basketball sports video game developed by Z-Axis and published by Fox Interactive under the brand name Fox Sports Interactive for the Nintendo 64. It was released in North America on October 31, 1998, which was Halloween. Jeff Sheppard of the University of Kentucky is featured on the cover.

Why It's Nothing Foxy

1. Originally, the game was intended to become BMG Entertainment's contribution to the NBA N64 basketball lineup, Fox Sports College Hoops was eventually converted as Fox took over publishing duties when BMG went under, the game was rushed to released one year after the release of the Nintendo 64, which resulted in this.
2. The frame rate is very erractic; the worst example is when a player takes a shot. In many cases, the game speed slows as the ball travels to the basket. Although this "effect" might add dramatic tension to the shot, it's hardly realistic, and worse yet, it creates this jerky stop-and-go tempo that wrecks the game's flow. The animations are jittery and robotic, the graphics are also generic.
3. The game's overall pace is far too slow.
4. Passing is often unresponsive (depending on the number of players on screen) and the ball physics are far too floaty, even for an arcade hoops title. Sometimes, the ball bounces off the rim in an incredibly awkward fashion and flies through the air at a high arch before finally landing in a player's hands.
5. The basketball court overall is generic and nothing appears to stand out from the other basketball video games that came before this game, and had much better graphics and backgrounds compared to this game.
6. The offensive CPU plays are pretty poor, though, and even beginning players should have no problem putting a stop to the offense after a game or two by using first steps and the like.
7. While there are some basic options (such as adjustable length, auto-substitution, three skill levels), College Hoops is oddly devoid of options and features, even for an arcade game.
8. While digitized music is good, here just isn't much variety since Z-Axis couldn't fit any of the college anthems/songs on the cart.
9. The audio is generic and the effects are repetitive.
10. There is no in-game commentary - just a stadium announcer who calls fouls and scores.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Decent digital soundtrack.
2. The artificial intelligence is smart and works decently.

Reception

Fox Sports College Hoops '99 received mediocre reviews from critics, who felt the game was dated compared to contemporary basketball games. The game has received a build score of 55.27% from GameRankings. GamePro considered the game to have extremely intelligent artificial intelligence and praised the game overall. Nelson Taruc of GameSpot called the game an "incomplete work in progress".

Trivia

• The game was only marketed in America, it was not published in Europe or Japan.

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