WELCO METOT HENEX TLEVEL - NBA Jam
Publisher: Acclaim Developer: Iguana Entertainment Released: 1994
Considering the reputation Acclaim (rightfully) had during most of its life span, it's easy to forget the glory days. The mid-nineties were quite kind to this notorious brand. Through a series of acquisitions of the likes of Probe Software, Iguana Entertainment, and Sculptured Software, Acclaim went from being a mere production house to a major game developer in the space of about two years.
You have to think that the sweet publishing deal it had with Midway games had a lot to do with that success. Midway didn't start publishing conversions of its arcade games until 1996, and so had an exclusive deal with Acclaim for home console versions. This meant Acclaim got to ride the wave on such massive titles as Smash TV, Mortal Kombat, and NBA Jam.
NBA Jam wasn't an entirely new concept back in the day. Arch Rivals was released in1989, and featured fictional players from fictional teams in 2-on-2 matches where the only foul called was shot clock violations. Players were free to punch each other in order to grab the ball, and had to avoid on-court obstacles thrown by the fans.
NBA Jam revisits this concept, but adds a full NBA license, real players, and the digitized character sprites made popular by Midway's massive hit, Mortal Kombat. It also introduces the concept of crazy, super human dunks and the ability to be “on fire” if a player manages to score three times in a row without anyone else making a basket.
The NBA license was a massive score at the time. It enticed an entirely new audience into the arcade. People who were hardcore fans of a particular NBA team or player had to get their hands on this game. That's what brought them in. The beautiful graphics, superhuman moves and bombastic audio is what kept them coming back.
Seriously, though. The announcer plays a huge role in this game. It's so satisfying to leap into the stratosphere, slam the ball through the hoop and hear his shout of “Boomshakalaka!” Everyone was familiar with his voice and phrases back in the day. It's a total throwback to Smash TV, with the smarmy host that would pop on and quote lines from films like Robocop and Running Man while feeling up a couple of trophy girls.
NBA Jam reportedly made an astonishing amount of money during its first year in the arcade. It basically brought sports games back to the coin-op scene. Midway followed it up with the equally impressive NFL Blitz, and 2-on-2 Open Ice Challenge.
And of course, thanks to the partnership with Acclaim, NBA Jam came to just about every home console in existence.
The Sega CD version features updated rosters, redbook audio and some full motion video of actual players during halftime. Otherwise, though, this is a disappointing port. It looks and plays exactly like the Genesis version. I guess that's not a bad thing, as the Genesis cartridge was pretty good. But you kind of expected something a bit more from the disc. Like, maybe, bringing back the player scaling found in the arcade version. The hardware was capable of it, after all.
Unfortunately, NBA Jam is one of those titles that totally proves the unfair assertion that Sega CD games were just cartridge ports with pretty music.