With unmatched immersion through a palpable passion for the sport, Blacktop Hoops has become my new favorite way to hoop up in VR on Quest 3
Look, I am not a big fan of playing or even watching sports IRL. But I do love experiencing them in VR, you know, from the comfort of my room. I've logged way to many hours in Racket Club and even had my fair share in Sports Scramble. Safe to say, I was pretty excited to try out Blacktop Hoops which promises to offer an "authentic" VR basketball experience. So does Blacktop Hoops capture the essence of bouncing, shooting and dunking like the real thing? The quick answer is that it does and it is awesome!
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The moment I bounced my first virtual ball, I knew Blacktop Hoops was something special. Dribbling feels elastic and fluid, with the ball tethered securely to your hands like some sort of yo-yo. Performing crossovers and fakes to lose defenders comes naturally. As for shooting, Blacktop Hoops granted me near-supernatural accuracy through intuitive gesture controls that emulate the perfect shooting form well, at least when I played the campaign in the lower difficulty settings. With a small flick of the wrist, watching net-rippers splash through the hoop grew addicting fast.
The standout element has to be dunking. With a single button press, my character skyrocketed to new aerial heights, throwing down ferocious slam jams with ease. While unrealistic for mere mortals like myself, the ability to posterize opponents with high-flying theatrics feels quite awesome in the moment. Depending on how you move your hands while in the air, you can execute a variety of dunks and honestly that never gets old.
Blacktop Hoops offers both single and multiplayer. Its creative campaign, which I must say it's quite a vibe, tasks you with helping your sister through winning streetstyle basketball matches. Matches play out like pickup 1v1 run-and-guns against varied characters, keeping them fresh all throughout the short campaign. As you beat more opponents, your character will slowly rise from playing in the neighboorhood courts in Oakland to becoming a streetball legend as you compete in the $500K tournament that happens inside the Acropolis in Athens. I almost forgot, you can also add a twist to your experience with unique modifiers like slow-motion, chicken ball, big head, and giant opponents.
As I said the campaign is fairly short, but there are mutliple difficulty settings for you to try. Then there's the multiplayer that offers either Casual, perfect for laid-back pickup games, and Ranked for those skill-based matches where you can compete for the global leaderboards each season. Both modes offer 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 pickuup matches. Currently it is really easy to find lobbies with other players to play in 1v1 and 2v2 modes, while the other two modes can be a little hard to play as I didn't really find enough players the times I tried to play.
Character customization is also a big thing as there are a lot and I mean a lot of cosmetics for your avatar, from sunglasses to sneakers, to either unlock by completing the campaign or straight up buy from the in-game shope either with currency earned through playing or using real money. Now I know that microtransactions are frowned upon, but here they are only for cosmetics that do not affect the gameplay in any way, so I don't really have any problem with them.
The game excels at crafting an engaging VR basketball atmosphere through a really strong presentation. It transports you straight to the streets with vibrant urban environments bursting with authentic hoops culture. Stylization reinforces the gritty streets vibe too. Environments exhibit a hand-drawn animated look through black contours separating simplistic yet boldly colorful forms. Players also stand out with exaggerated proportions tied to their chosen apparel. It taps into nostalgia for classic basketball media like NBA Street and NBA Jam.
Presentation extends to the sensory experience as well. Banging hip-hop tracks play constantly in the background with an added play-by-play commentary with authentic slangs add a lot to the vibe. Blacktop Hoops truly understands that presentation is half the experience in VR. Its lovingly-crafted ambiance transports you straight to the courts and hypes every flashy move through atmospheric flourishes. The dazzling surroundings become another player on the team, motivating ongoing engagement with energy and style that replicates real basketball hubs. Its strong scene-setting makes balling in VR feel that much more real.
I absolutely love Blacktop Hoops. With an unmatched immersion through a palpable passion for the sport, it has become my new favorite way to hoop up in VR on my Quest 3. Its realistic foundations paired with arcade-like exaggeration will probably satisfy all your basketball appetites. I highly recommend this game! Now excuse me as I have to go and dunk on some fools in multiplayer. Thanks for reading!
The game was reviewed on a Quest 3 via a promo copy provided by the developers. Blacktop Hoops is available on Meta Quest, PCVR and PICO.
