Boom Shalaka-laka! Is NBA Jam Coming Back?

[modeps]

http://evavhost.com/i/news/nbajam.png

N4G (http://www.n4g.com/News-392349.aspx) linked to a Playstation website (http://playstationlifestyle.net/2009/09/10/nba-jam-jumping-for-rebound/) who located a new trademark (http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=77819794) application from the NBA, regarding the words NBA JAM. It covers a host of things, including:

computer game software; video game software, video game cartridges and video game machines and video game hand held controllers for use with televisions;

I'll take two... as long as we can play as presidents.

[Methos]

"He's ON FIRE!!!"

Seriously. Loved the NBA Jam SNES back in the day. One family vacation in the station wagon, we had a TV and SNES hooked up for the whole trip. The kid's were never more quiet during the long drive through North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon.
Good times.

[Jotoco]

good, fond momories of NBA Jam back in the SNES days

[Skampy]

FROM DOWN TOWN!, man that brings back memories, if they could bring back a style of nba jam with cell shaded graphics, it could be insanely fun, on xbl or psn, 2 on 2.

[Darcydian]

There is a Final Question, on the Scene It DVD game which i was forced to play
Which was "What did the Code ARK, Unlock on Midways NBA JAM"
I was in a room full of people who have vaginas and they were mostly not impressed, as I cooly answered it like it was common knowledge. I was elated that I won, not because of the victory, but because I didn't have to play Scene It the DVD game anymore. And would never be invited to play again/

[Rangoth]

I normally *hate* sports games but I loved the Jam series. I still bust out my Saturn to play it...that reminds me....

[Emabulator]

"He's ON FIRE!!!"

Seriously. Loved the NBA Jam SNES back in the day. One family vacation in the station wagon, we had a TV and SNES hooked up for the whole trip. The kid's were never more quiet during the long drive through North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon.
Good times.I loved it too. My friends and I used to have a blast playing Jam back in the SNES days.

[JazGalaxy]

This is the game that ruined sports games.

Before NBA Jam there were hardcore games like Madden or, if it was your fancy, the PC sports business simulators, but there were also TONS of other sports games on the shelf that featured the mechanics of the sport in a fun and accessible package. Ken Griffy Jr. Presents Major League Baseball and NES Play Action Football come to mind.

But after the NBA Jam furor, "arcade sports game" came to mean little to no rules and violence for the sake of violence. Most sports games came out entirely broken.

And who can forget this game as being the birth of "computer assistance" which has ruined many many games from then on.

[brandonjclark]

This is the game that ruined sports games.

Before NBA Jam there were hardcore games like Madden or, if it was your fancy, the PC sports business simulators, but there were also TONS of other sports games on the shelf that featured the mechanics of the sport in a fun and accessible package. Ken Griffy Jr. Presents Major League Baseball and NES Play Action Football come to mind.

But after the NBA Jam furor, "arcade sports game" came to mean little to no rules and violence for the sake of violence. Most sports games came out entirely broken.

And who can forget this game as being the birth of "computer assistance" which has ruined many many games from then on.


Yes, Yes, Yes...... but did you enjoy it?

I know I pumped shitloads of quarters into a local arcade machine back in the day.

[Alexious]

This is the game that ruined sports games.

I couldn't disagree more. Madden will never top Tecmo Bowl for level of fun. A serious NBA game will never be more fun than NBA Jam. Nothing better then getting on fire and dropping threes in your friend's face.

[MacDuff]

holy crap yes please

here's hoping for a NBA JAM: TE reskin on xbox arcade

love this game to death. such good times getting down to the buzzer against my bros

also how could you say NBA JAM ruined sports games? Go play NFL: Head Coach and analyze some stats while I do a quadruple backflip dunk that sets the hoop on fire and I guess we'll both be happy.

[Sensei-X]

This could be great, but it also really has the potential to suck, I don't know if anyone recalls but the final NBA Jam game (NBA Jam Extreme) was garbage. Acclaim had laid claim to the name and so the real sequel to the series was Midway's NBA Hangtime and NBA Maximum Hangtime, which were pretty good and felt more like the original NBA Jam.

[Jamikazi]

Nail in the coffin! Man I loved doing whirly bird dunks with the other Clinton. George that is

[gzsfrk]

Wow! NBA Jam was definitely the best sports game EVER in the arcades. This would be total insta-win if they could bring it to XBLA/PSN with updated rosters and tons of bonus characters. I know the NBA has lost a ton of popularity over the past decade, but NBA Jam was probably second to only Tecmo Super Bowl as my favorite sports game of all time. MAKE THIS HAPPEN!

[JazGalaxy]

I couldn't disagree more. Madden will never top Tecmo Bowl for level of fun. A serious NBA game will never be more fun than NBA Jam. Nothing better then getting on fire and dropping threes in your friend's face.


Tecmo Bowl is another example of just what I'm talking about though. It had simplified controls but it was still every bit Football.

After NBA Jam, every single sports game that wasn't trying to be "hardcore" for sports nuts was relegated to being absolutely nothing like the sport it was based on. Suddenly Football became 3 guys on a side knifing eachother for control of the ball and running it into the endzone before it explodes. Or something.

Suddnely games were either for jocks who ate and breathed sports, or for the add kids who lived to ruin everyones game by grabbing the football and running into the woods.

[Raw]

Almost no one has played o remembers NBA Hangtime, the "sequel" to NBA Jam. I loooooooooooooooved that game.

[Chimpbot]

Almost no one has played o remembers NBA Hangtime, the "sequel" to NBA Jam. I loooooooooooooooved that game.

I played the holy hell out of that on the N64. I used to play as the weird Greedo-like alien or the werewolf all the time.
My friends and I wasted far too much time back in the day on this and Blitz 2000.

[gzsfrk]

After NBA Jam, every single sports game that wasn't trying to be "hardcore" for sports nuts was relegated to being absolutely nothing like the sport it was based on. Suddenly Football became 3 guys on a side knifing eachother for control of the ball and running it into the endzone before it explodes. Or something.

Suddnely games were either for jocks who ate and breathed sports, or for the add kids who lived to ruin everyones game by grabbing the football and running into the woods.

I don't remember it playing out quite the same as you. It's not as if, once NBA Jam came out, all sports games were stratified into either dumbed-down arcade experiences or hardcore sims. There was still a fairly plentiful middle ground of "Tecmo Bowl"-like games that had relatively simple controls, yet remained faithful to the core rules of the sport upon which they were based. Remember that the Madden games, for the first half of the 90's, were actually a good example of games that fit in this category; they really didn't start moving more to the sim end of the spectrum until the latter part of the decade.

Even on the basketball side, you still had plenty of titles (particularly on the home consoles) that came out after NBA Jam which fell comfortably between shallow arcade and hardcore sim: the NBA Action series on the Genesis, Coach K College Basketball, the early NBA Live series, and several others that I think fall well short of being categorized as "sim" while still following "real" basketball pretty closely.

And to be fair, NBA Jam wasn't even the first arcade sports title to simplify the game mechanics and rules ("Hat Trick", a fantastically fun 2v2 hockey game comes to mind). But it was the first one I remember that really went all out on licensing and over-the-top presentation--that "wow" factor which probably contributed the most to its popularity. And inevitably, several imitators did follow (NFL Blitz, NHL Hitz, College Slam, NHL Open Ice, and MLB SlugFest, among others). But I don't remember there being either a deluge of "*itz" games or a dearth of sports games that fell somewhere between "*itz" and "sim" in the aftermath of NBA Jam's success.

[TeeCakes]

And to be fair, NBA Jam wasn't even the first arcade sports title to simplify the game mechanics and rules ("Hat Trick", a fantastically fun 2v2 hockey game comes to mind). But it was the first one I remember that really went all out on licensing and over-the-top presentation--that "wow" factor which probably contributed the most to its popularity. And inevitably, several imitators did follow (NFL Blitz, NHL Hitz, College Slam, NHL Open Ice, and MLB SlugFest, among others). But I don't remember there being either a deluge of "*itz" games or a dearth of sports games that fell somewhere between "*itz" and "sim" in the aftermath of NBA Jam's success.

Leave us not forget that Arch Rivals was the original "NBA Jam" looooong before it was vogue to actually bother getting real sports licenses for games.

[gzsfrk]

Leave us not forget that Arch Rivals was the original "NBA Jam" looooong before it was vogue to actually bother getting real sports licenses for games.

You're right! Can't believe I forgot that one. (Although to be honest, I only played it a couple times in the arcade.)

[Mozain]

Now, I'm not sure which one came out first... But if you want to complain about a series taking a sports game and making it about knifing guys to death and running to the end zone before a ball explodes JazGalaxy, you can blame Mutant League Football for that! Mutant League Hockey came out afterwards... But I thought it was much better myself (Still one of my favorite games of all time!)... Hehe I still have my cartridge and Genesis sitting in my closet ^_^. So yah, blame who is rightfully to blame... And certainly give credit where credit is due, and that is to one of the best sports games of all time... Mutant League Hockey!

[JazGalaxy]

Now, I'm not sure which one came out first... But if you want to complain about a series taking a sports game and making it about knifing guys to death and running to the end zone before a ball explodes JazGalaxy, you can blame Mutant League Football for that! Mutant League Hockey came out afterwards... But I thought it was much better myself (Still one of my favorite games of all time!)... Hehe I still have my cartridge and Genesis sitting in my closet ^_^. So yah, blame who is rightfully to blame... And certainly give credit where credit is due, and that is to one of the best sports games of all time... Mutant League Hockey!

I'm not saying those kinds of games shouldn't exist. Baseball Simulator 1000 and Basewars were some of my favorite NES games.

Unfortunately, I feel, those games had little impact on the games scene because they didn't sell enough units. NBA Jam was the culprit, beyond Arch Rivals, because NBA Jam became a phenomenon. I feel like after that game, every game attempted to be like it to try to attain the same level of financial success that that game had.

Sadly the landscape of the current game market is for everyone to emulate the one game that's making money and try to scrape out some "me too" dollars as opposed to doing anything original.

[donkeydrop]

"Put's up a brick!"

[altaraxic]

best sports game ever

[Deunnero]

I don't particularly like basketball, but I loved this at the arcade and would love to see an XBLA version available (secret codes and all)!