Rap Jam: Volume One

"Every rapper dreams of being a basketball player, and now they can!"

Since the beginning of time, rappers have longed to wear the jersey of their favorite NBA team, go man to man against Michael Jordan, and dunk on 7'6'' softy Shawn Bradley. Well, in Rap Jam: Volume One, a big cast of mid 90's rappers take it to the court, and show you what they got. That's right, it's rappers, doing what they do best, HOOPIN!

Rap Jam features a bunch of semi-popular rappers. No, you won't find 2 Pac and Snoop Dogg going head to head with Biggie Smalls and Puffy, but you will see DJ Lethal taking it strong to the hole against Queen Latifah! U-N-I-T-Y! Other rappers include L L Cool J, Coolio, and Warren G. There are also rappers from such rap groups as Naughty By Nature, Public Enemy, House of Pain (White Men CAN Jump!), and Onyx. Who's Onyx? Remember, they did that song SLAM! Anyway, you get 2 modes of play, Championship and challenge. So if you were hoping to guide Warren G through a 10 year career, going from the LBC to the NBA, you are going to be unhappy, as Rap Jam doesn't sport the franchise option. For Championship mode, you can either pick a team of rappers, like Public Enemy, or a solo rapper, like Coolio. Coolio then gets to pick 2 teammates to help him on his ''Fantastic Voyage'' to the pros. When the game starts though, you can't even distinguish Coolio, and his wild dreads, from Flavor Flav, with his huge alarm clock necklace. Every player, man or woman, looks the same(except for the white guys). And it gets worse. The gameplay absolutely sucks. Players move like the are sliding around on ice, the jump shots have about as much arc as Shaq's free throws, and you can't even switch between defenders. So if you picked Sticky Fingaz, you gotta play as Sticky Fingaz the WHOLE GAME! Just plain awful basketball. If Everlast plays ball in real life like he does in this game, Ronald McDonald has a better chance of making it to the NBA!

Graphics:
The pre game pictures of the rappers are dead on, but once the game play starts, it is easy to confuse Chuck D with Warren G! Awful!

Score: 1

Sound:
Phat beats play during the setup menus, but once again, it all goes down hill when you step on the court.

Score: 1

Controls:
Is my controller broken, or did Terminator X smoke a bunch of weed before the game, because he's not going where i want him too.

Score: 1

Replay Value:
If you want to take a stroll down memory lane, load up this game. You will recognize most of the rappers featured, and laugh at the generic white boys they threw in their for comic relief.

Rap Jam: Volume 1 is one crappy game. But just wait till you play Rap Jam: Volume 2. Rappers, trying to bowl! There is nothing funnier than seeing Jay Z throwing a gutter ball.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/01, Updated 12/28/01