"The best basketball game in the arcades!"

Released onto arcades in 96' by Konami using Konami GX to give the game 3D, Run and Gun 2 could possibly be one of the best b-ballers on the arcades. Slam dunks, Alley oops, pump fakes, all the moves were here.. let's look over the game in detail....

Graphics

As stated before, the game utilized Konami GX, hardware that allowed games using it to have 4 scroll layers plus a sprite layer with alpha blending and linescrolling. In short, it made the games look more badass on it. About 15 games were produced on this hardware. including Run and Gun 2. The players were rendered on 3D software, and then exported as sprites, which allowed for fluid animation, especially with all the special moves in this game. There are downsides though. It seems as if they only used one model for the body, and a few different heads, so the players all bear a striking resemblance to each other..

Gameplay

Run and Gun 2 is the standard 5 on 5 player matchup, and plays fairly realistic(no NBA Jam here). Control is tight, and the game featured 3 buttons. Shoot, Pass, and Change players. Pressing both shoot and pass at the same time allows you to peform an alley-oop. One of the reasons that the gameplay is so fun is that you and 3 other buddies compete against each other, if the cabinet is dual monitor.

Sound

The game has a standard Metal/Rock soundtrack, and it fits. The game also features a commentator, which becomes REALLY annoying after 3 minutes. The commentator doesn't speak throughout the game though, but when you shoot, steal, dunk, etc. he says the same thing OVER and OVER.

Final Comments

I think that this is one of the best basketball games for the arcade, with it's fun and simple gameplay, 4 player matchup, and a fairly well soundtrack. If you see this game(it's not common to see, but not rare either), don't hesitate to drop in some change and play an awesome game..

Fun Facts and Information

The series is known as Slam Dunk in Japan.

Utilized Konami GX Hardware, which allowed it to look WAY better than it's predecessor, Run and Gun.

The game has a certain number #23 in Chicago, but no name is listed, as all the games in the 90's (This game features no actual player names, or an NBA License, for that matter) But it's pretty cool, since most games didn't even put #23!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/05/03