Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five times that Halloween has had a presence in basketball video games.

Back in June, I let a Friday the 13th pass without a Friday Five topic related to bad luck or the number 13. Admittedly that’s because I’ve already gone to that well a few times and didn’t have a fresh topic in mind, but since then, one has actually occurred to me. I’ll have to wait until next year to use it since we won’t have another Friday the 13th until then, but in the meantime, I can mark another famous date here in the Five: Halloween! Since Halloween has fallen on a Friday this year, I thought it’d be fun to look at how the holiday has been celebrated on the virtual hardwood.

As I’ve noted when I looked back at some creepy moments in honour of Halloweens past, horror and basketball video games don’t usually go hand-in-hand. Well, I could cynically refer to how scary it is that microtransactions have become so accepted, or the twisted tale of how there’s a monopoly in the space, but that kind of snark isn’t what I’m going for here! In any case, there are examples of basketball video games getting into the spirit of the spooky season, which include both sim and arcade titles. While they may not be anywhere near as frightening as a horror game packed full of jump scares, this Halloween content has been an extra treat for basketball gamers.

1. Halloween Costumes in NBA Live 98 (PS1)

Although sim games are generally about a realistic and therefore serious portrayal of basketball and the NBA, there’s still been room for light-hearted fare. It’s come in the form of hidden content accessed by cheat codes, which has given the developers an opportunity to get creative (and silly!). NBA Live 98 is notable for having a rather large number of fun cheat codes for a sim title, particularly the PlayStation version. On top of the hidden developer teams that can be unlocked, there’s also an underwater court with an impressive visual effect, additional gear for created players, an adorable, loveable teddy bear costume, and an option to turn one or both of the teams invisible.

There are also three Halloween costumes to choose from: clowns with a face full of makeup, big shoes, and polka dot jerseys, mummies wrapped head to toe in bandages, and aliens; specifically, your classic grey extraterrestrials. After entering “Secrets” as your username to access the cheats menu, entering the codes “Scary” and “Freaky” unlocked the ability to enable one of those three costumes for the home and away teams respectively. Interestingly, when the costume codes are activated, the players will only be referred to by their numbers, though their names are still present on their jerseys. It’s not something I’ll use too often, but it’s fun to break it out for Halloween.

2. Jacko in NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC

While secret characters in sim games are bonus content for times you don’t feel like taking them too seriously, I’d argue that they could be considered a core part of the arcade basketball experience. Defeating all 27 teams in NBA Jam Tournament Edition not only unlocked expanded rosters for us to use, but allowed us to take on an array of super-powered secret characters, from developers to celebrities to NBA mascots. By using the appropriate codes when entering our initials, we could also take control of them. Though Midway lost the NBA Jam name to Acclaim, they retained the same fantastic arcade hoops action in future games, and the tradition of secret characters.

The one that I’m singling out here is Jacko in NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC. Even without a screenshot to give it away, I’m sure most people would correctly guess that he’s an anthropomorphic Jack-O’-Lantern. Appropriately, he can be used by entering JACKO as your name along with the pin 1031, i.e. October 31st. Some cheats listings feature a code for an alternate version of Jacko – similar to the ones for Kerri Hoskins and Lia Montelongo – but I suspect it’s fake. At least, it doesn’t work on PlayStation. Anyway, if you’re in the mood to dust off this somewhat underrated continuation of Midway’s NBA Jam series this Halloween, I’ll suggest lighting the fire with Jacko!

3. Monsters Team in Slam ‘N’ Jam 96

We’ve covered Halloween in a couple of sim and arcade games, so let’s talk spooky and creepy things in a sim-arcade hybrid title: Slam ‘N’ Jam 96! It’s kind of forgotten these days, but it’s an interesting release. Developed by Left Field Productions – the studio that made Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside – Slam ‘N’ Jam is undoubtedly trying to imitate Konami’s Run and Gun, and its NBA-licensed home port, NBA Give ‘n Go. It does an admirable job, but it’s not quite as good on the court. Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are also the only real players. They lead their Los Angeles Not-Lakers in a 29-team league that just happens to greatly resemble the NBA of 1996.

No, none of that is particularly spooky; though, many gamers may have been scared off by the lack of any NBA players outside of a couple of retired ones (Magic’s 1996 comeback not withstanding)! Besides the fictional stand-ins for NBA clubs, there are also some hidden teams, including a squad of monsters. Some of them are inspired by the Universal Monsters, such as The Mummy, The Invisible Man, and Frankenstein’s monster. They’re creatively re-named – presumably for legal reasons – but there’s also “The Fly”, a creature clearly inspired by the short story and movies of the same name. “Mr. Kong” is also walking a fine line here, but at any rate, it’s a fun Halloween team.

4. Halloween Live Service Content & Events

I could spin some horror stories about live service content and its impact on basketball video games, but again, I’m not going to go down that cynical path on this occasion! I must also acknowledge the benefits of games receiving content throughout the year, whether it’s the card collecting modes of MyTEAM and Ultimate Team, or the career modes of MyCAREER and The One. Yes, there’s a push to get gamers to spend real money on virtual items that disappear with the servers, but there are also free rewards on offer, especially in the card collecting modes. Their pack odds often leave us with a trick instead of a treat, but special events and challenges deliver some good freebies.

Holidays are an obvious theme for any live service content. Naturally, this includes Halloween! In addition to cards with spooky artwork and boosted ratings that make the players frighteningly good, there’s an opportunity to get creative with Halloween events and challenges in Ultimate Team and MyTEAM. An example that we’ve seen a few times over the years involves taking on squads of masked players, and earning their cards for our collection. As for the career modes, their Halloween-themed live service content has ranged from costumes for our avatars to online events with spooky trappings. Personally, I find the rewards in card collecting modes a bit more exciting.

5. The Skeleton Crew in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition

Let’s wrap things up by returning to arcade games, namely EA Sports’ NBA Jam: On Fire Edition. As I’ve said before, while the original NBA Jam games from Midway were pioneers and all-time classics that hold superbly three decades later, I do think that On Fire Edition is the best NBA Jam release. The traditional gameplay combined with adaptive AI, a deep and innovative campaign mode, and a plethora of special teams and bonus content, are what earn it that distinction in my view. It helps that new teams were added post-release, making it the only NBA Jam game to receive downloadable roster and content updates. That includes the Skeleton Crew squad.

Added to the Jam Store in time for Halloween 2011, the Skeleton Crew could be unlocked for 25,000 Jam Points. The team consists of four players: Skinny, Skully, Bones, and Hank, who is headless. They’re not the most talented squad, with no OP players or even a very good jack-of-all-trades. Hank is notably only good for dunking, blocking, and shoving opponents around, though again, there is the novelty of him being headless. As with Santa’s Slammers and The Gobblers, they’re fun to play with when their holiday rolls around, but they’re not a great choice when tackling any of the tougher challenges in Road Trip. They pad out the bonus content nicely, though.

Do you remember these Halloween-themed moments in basketball video games? Do you recall any other times that the virtual hardwood celebrated Halloween? Let me know in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.

The post The Friday Five: 5 Times Halloween Hit The Virtual Hardwood appeared first on NLSC.