Almost a PTPer: ESPN Shot Block Basketball

By Jonathan Berohn

If you don’t know that a PTP’er is Dick Vitale speak for a clutch performer (prime time player), consider yourself fortunate to have escaped his moldy shtick of yelling and screaming that somehow passes for color commentary on college basketball.

Also consider your days of idyll bliss numbered if you have kids that watch any kind of TV, because the only thing moiré ubiquitous than ESPN SportsCenter ads are ads for ESPN games on kids’ TV shows.  Despite Dick’s presence, ESPN Shot Block is a pretty good basketball game for kids, but it has several pretty glaring flaws that keep it from attaining true MVP status.

The Hook

Ever since ESPN introduced the Game Station last year, my son and all his sports minded little friends think ESPN toys are just about as cool as it gets.  Checking in at around $150, though, the game station packed a heavy cost.  This year, fortunately enough—I suppose—the Shot Block comes in at a comparably reasonable $69-$85, depending upon where you find it and what sales or specials are running.  Finding it is a bit of a trick, though, because the aforementioned popularity has turned into one of the season’s hottest toys.  This is one gift you probably want to consider trying to buy in person instead of over the web unless you have a deal with free shipping.  The box is both big and heavy, and shipping costs can be substantial ($20 and up).

What You Get

ESPN Shot Block is essentially a home version of the basketball shooting games you see at arcades like Dave and Buster’s (NOT like what you see at amusement parks—you can actually score in the Shot Block baskets).  Briefly, you get two foam basketballs about the size of softballs, a backboard with an electronic scoring system, and a chute/net that keeps the balls from bouncing all over the room.  You hang the whole contraption on the back of a door, and have at it.  It also collapses easily so you can open and close your door when not playing.

The main innovation of the Shot Block is the shot blocking.  Basically, the rim has a top layer that opens and closes sort of like wings at random intervals and blocks any shot headed through at the time.  Oh yeah—you also get Dick Vitale’s dulcet tones urging you on to great heights of basketball superstardom.

While it probably comes as no surprise that you have to assemble the Shot Block, the extent of the process deserves a little mention.

Assembly

The 16 steps of instructions take you through 24 pages of the manual, so that ought to give you a little idea of what you are in for (hint: this process goes much smoother with an appropriate beverage handy).  The manual suggests using pliers to hold the lock bolts, and I would heartily agree.  I would also suggest using an electric screwdriver if you have one.  Driving screws into plastic is just not my idea of fun.

Game Play

Once you get the thing put together and hung from a door, the game play is pretty good.  There a number of different modes you can choose from, but they all essentially come down to making as many baskets as you can in a certain time period.  Most of the games are one player only, but there is a One-on-one mode that pits you against an opponent.  This last mode is a little clunky, though, since it’s not real one-on-one basketball, but a far more scripted version where you get 10 seconds to score (even if the defense steals the ball), and the first person to score 10 points wins (a definite edge to whoever goes first).

Obviously, the limits of the electronic scoreboard force some of these adjustments to traditional basketball rules, but the general weak and missing 2-player action is one of the major flaws in Shot Block.  Simply put, why you can’t select 2-player options in every game mode is beyond me.  Every arcade basketball game lets you take turns and compete against your friends.  ESPN Shot Block makes you do that manually, and that’s juts not quite as fun.

The other major problem with Shot Block is the cheap materials they use for the basket.  Since the whole thing is plastic, it’s simply not very sturdy.  As a case in point, the rim on our Shot Block, which is supposed to fold up for storage but never down, collapses completely after about 5 minutes of play.  And we’re not talking pout of control dunking here but simple shots bouncing off the rim causing this.  If your rim is less sturdy than a Nerf Hoop, you ought to think about reengineering it.  For our part, we’re considering exchanging it for a new one since my kids love the game too much to stomach a simple refund, but they are quickly tiring of having to constantly reset the rim.