Whenever deciding to check out any piece of media, it is always best to keep an open mind. Sure, there are things out there that you look at, get a good idea of what it is all about, and make a proper assumption about their quality based on that, but in many cases, you don’t really know how good or bad a product can be without giving it a proper shot. Hell, there have been plenty of points in the past where I would watch a movie, play a game, or whatever, thinking that it was gonna be nothing all that special, or it would just flat-out suck, and it ends up becoming one of my new personal favorites from whatever medium it comes from. So, I figured I needed to have this type of approach when it came to a game like NBA Jam.

If you have been keeping up with my reviews for a while now, you would know that I generally am not a fan of sports games in the slightest, as most of the time, they are usually not only incredibly similar to each other, but also have zero effort put into them to make one stand out from another, and are just pumped out non-stop for poor souls to waste their time and money on. There are obvious exceptions to this, but that is usually the case when it comes to a lot of these titles, and I had a sneaking suspicion that this game would end up like most of the others. I had heard from many YouTubers and others in the past that, out of all of the basketball games to be released back in the day, or just sports games in general, this was one of the best of the bunch, which made me very curious to try it out for the longest time. I figured it was about time that I do give it a fair chance, and it may not come off as a surprise to some of you, but I actually ended up having way more fun with it then I thought I would. It isn’t anything more than what it is advertised as, so you won’t be seeing anything too groundbreaking from it, but for what it is, it is some of the most fun I have ever had with a sports game in such a long time.

The graphics are pretty good, featuring good recreations of what a lot of the players here look like in real life, and the sprites for the players on the court do look… off, but still well done enough to where you can have a great time watching all of the action take place, the music is pretty good, not being there for a majority of the main game, but for all of the menus and segments, there are some enjoyable tunes to listen to that get you ready to play another round, the control is pretty solid, with you being able to do plenty with so little in order to score points, although it can take a little getting used to, in my case anyway, and the gameplay is pretty much what you would expect, but with all of the personality and energy that you would want from one of these games, which makes it worth checking out above all the rest.

The game is a basketball game, where you take control of one of many, MANY different basketball teams from 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 NBA seasons (depending on what version of the game you play), take on another team in a two-on-two game on the court, get the ball whenever you can to pass to your teammate and shoot it into your hoop whenever you can, use the turbo feature to keep up with the other players and shove them out of the way to make sure they never get the chance to score either, and enjoy all of this without any of the dumbass rules that really basketball has to keep you from going too buckwild… except for goaltending and 24-second violations, because you can’t have too much fun with this. A lot of it is pretty generic for a basketball game, so you wouldn’t really think too much of it on the surface, making you question why you would play it over any other basketball game released at the time or ever since, but if there is one thing that makes this game stand out from the rest, it is the energy and personality that it brings to the sport as a whole.

The game is already flashy and engaging enough with its appealing visuals and sound quality, but then there are plenty of other elements added to spice up the gameplay even more to make it that much more fun and exciting. While the game mostly sticks to the realistic movements and maneuvers one would typically see in a basketball games, there are also a lot of other movements that are over-the-top and greatly exaggerated, making a lot of the actions you can perform throughout the game feel exciting and extremely satisfying. Of course, a lot of that comes from whenever you shoot or dunk the ball into a hoop, and a lot of these movements can be pretty basic, but some of them get so incredibly ridiculous that you can’t help but love them, such as when you are able to not only set the net ON FIRE because of how awesome you are, but you are also able to straight up break the backboard of the hoop, and it is just the most glorious thing that I may have ever seen in any NBA game ever.

In addition to this, you also have an announcer that will be commenting on everything you do in the game, and while he doesn’t really do much to change up the gameplay, I just love listening to this guy talk. He adds a lot of the charm and personality that a game like this needs, and many of the phrases that he does say have become just as iconic as the game itself, with lines like “Boomshakalaka!”, “He’s heating up!”, and “He’s on fire!” being just some of the few most noteworthy ones you can hear. Seriously, how can you not love hearing that whenever you manage to score a perfect shot in the basket? Not only that, but whenever the announcer does say “he’s on fire”, you get an infinite turbo meter for a limited amount of time, making it easy to keep up with opponents, take the ball, and score even more points.

But of course, what would one of these games be without the many, MANY easter eggs that you can find? Throughout the game, you can see plenty of different ones that not only relate to the NBA and the players found in it, but also from Midway themselves and whatever whacky shit the devs thought of including in here. Depending on what version you play, you can enter different cheat codes to play as different characters, such as other players from the NBA, some of the devs that made the game, and even some pretty out-of-nowhere characters that you would never expect, such as the mascot for the Charlotte Hornets and even Bill fucking Clinton! I mean, c’mon, you can’t hate a game that allows you to dunk on basketball players as a former president. Aside from that though, there are also other codes that change up the game itself, such as one that gives everyone huge heads, one that makes all of the floors slippery to where you can fall down if you go too fast, and there is even a secret tank game that you can access just for the sake of it. All of this is incredibly stupid and unnecessary, and yet, it makes the game so much better just by being there, not only for the novelty of being there, but also allowing you to experiment with the many different modes and characters you can play as for many more matches.

At the end of the day though, it is still a basketball game through and through. You run around, shoot hoops, and try not to let the other team score as many points as you do, with there being no other modes to try out, so if you are not someone who enjoys these types of games, or you just aren’t a fan of basketball or sports in general, then you probably wouldn’t enjoy this game as much as others. Not to mention, in terms of the original version of NBA Jam, the one that I played for this review, there have updates to it made over the years which does add more content to the game, so if you are going to play this game, you would be better off sticking to one of those versions over this one. That doesn’t make this version bad whatsoever, but that is still something to consider if you want to play the game for yourself.

Overall, despite how simple it is and how it is outdated when compared to future editions of the game, NBA Jam may just be the best sports game that I have ever played from this era, and it may even be the best basketball game I have ever played in general, having the exact energy that a game like this should have, along with plenty of personality and extras for you to try out that make it truly one of a kind. I would absolutely recommend this game, not just for those who are fans of basketball or sports games, but for anyone to try out in general, because even for someone like me who avoids sports games like the plague, this managed to give me one hell of a good time regardless, and it will probably do the same for you. You see that, modern sports game designers? THIS is what more sports games should be like, alright? Not whatever shit EA usually pulls out of their ass for all the sport cucks to throw their money at every year.

Game #531

Pros: Exciting basketball arcade action, with fun new mechanics that you can only do in the world of video games! Also, credit to the SNES version for being up to four players using the Multi-tap! Two on two matches are a blast, pushin, shovin, passin and high ballin, doing incredible slam dunks with pizzazz! Get repeated shots in a row and you're ON FIRE! Where you can do even more spectacular moves, especially dunks where you fly sky high into the air, and come crashing down with style, often shattering the backboard!! This game is a riot, it's so much fun, and playing it on the SNES was the next best thing to the arcade.

Cons: It ain't the arcade version, and it still pales in comparison to later games, like T.E., Hangtime, and the Wii revival. But this original still holds up great! The arcade version has better graphics, sound, commentary (though thankfully all the best iconic lines are still here), and one of the graphical elements that the SNES version lacks, is the photo real faces during gameplay... But, for me personally, what NBA Jam, any version of NBA Jam, lacks most of all, that brings down the experience... is that there is no Michael Jordan... But hey, he'd have been a lose-proof cheat anyway, heh.

What it means to me: I was a huge basketball nut in the 90s, being from Chicago (as was NBA Jam developer, Midway), during the Chicago Bulls reign of dominance, so this game was right up my alley as a Nintendo fan. Enjoyed it plenty, and still do.