NBA Jam on the Genesis is still Great

NBA Jam was one of the first video games that I can remember seeing a commercial for. It looked really cool, and my friends and I were very excited for it. My friends Joey and Eric got the game for the Sega Genesis, which is how I played it.

I keep getting this date wrong, but I remember playing NBA Jam and Judge Dredd for the Blockbuster world championships. My friend Drew played the SNES games, and I played the Genesis games. He was really the only person I knew who cared about the console wars, so he didn’t like the Genesis. Neither of us made it past our local competition.

Eric is the person I played this game with the most. We played a lot of random sports games together over the years, as well as Toejam and Earl, Phantasy Star IV, and Ecco the Dolphin. He rented so many odd games over the years, and most of them were forgettable. He’s also the only person I know who had a 32x.

I’ve gotten a little off track, so let’s get back to NBA Jam. This game was made by Midway and ported to the Genesis by Acclaim. They published it under the short lived Arena label. It is one of the many games that I didn’t know was in the arcades before being released on the home console.

There is a lot I could say about this game. Much of it has already been put in the fabulous NBA Jam book from Boss Fight Books. This is the start of me going through the series. What I’m planning on doing is playing each of the NBA Jam games and the Midway spiritual successors. Anyway, let’s get into this game and see if it is as good as I remember.

TLDR: An incredibly fun arcade basketball game.

Narrative

There isn’t a story in this game, and there doesn’t need to be one. This is a two on two basket ball game that is based on Arch Rivals from 1989. What this game does have is a lot of unlockables and a fun story about its development.

NBA Jam was one of the games that used Midway’s digitization technology. This was something the company got very good at, and it has been documented in other sources. I’ve reviewed a few of the books that talk about it.

If you want a more in-depth look at how they made the technology, look at the book Creating Q*Bert. For more on how NBA Jam used it, check out the book NBA Jam from Boss Fight Books. There are several books about Mortal Kombat to choose from, but I would recommend David Craddock’s book on the history of Mortal Kombat.

Not having a story in the game didn’t hurt NBA. It didn’t really hurt any of the Arcade and Simulation sports games. What I always liked about these games is that you can just make up your own story while playing.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very good! With only two players on a team and a relaxed set of rules, the game is a lot of fun and easy to understand. All you have to do is score more points than the other team.

Penalties are few and far between in this game. The only one I can really think of is Goal Tending. Even that is a little inconsistent. It feels like it gets called more when you’re winning, which goes along with the game’s rubber band AI.

NBA Jam never lets you get too far ahead or behind. This is done with a rubber band AI that kicks in if you start blowing your opponent out, or if you play against the Bulls. One of the developers was a big Detroit Pistons fan, and he kneecapped the Chicago Bulls out of spite. It is one of the funnier things about this game’s development.

Each game is two on two, and there are very few rules in the game. There are a few limited penalties that have to be in the game, but most have been stripped away. This makes for a more violent game, or at least one where fouls don’t matter. It is pretty fun, and works well for a game like this.

The rosters and teams are from the 1992-1993 NBA season. There are also some unlockable characters with their own stats. It is a lot of fun that the developers took the time to do this. Slam Dunks really stand out in this game. Defense is pretty relaxed, but it isn’t nonexistent. It feels like other arcade sports games where you can play great defense if you get good enough at the game.

Overall, the gameplay is very good! It is fast and a lot of fun. Because I never played the arcade version of NBA Jam, the Genesis version is my favorite. The controls are very good, and I love the gameplay.

Visuals

The graphics are excellent! While not as good as the arcade version, the Genesis has wonderful graphics. The court, players, and special effects look very good. I don’t have anything bad to say about the graphics in this game.

Players look very good! On the selection screen, you can tell who each player is and what team they play for. On the court, they don’t look too different from each other, but that is more of a product of the home consoles at the time.

The fire effect on the ball looks great! This happens when a player is “on fire,” and it is very cool to see. If you make enough shots with one player, then this happens. It’s the one thing that really stands out as being great.

The courts and crowds look good. There isn’t a lot of variety between them, which I don’t mind. It is one of the things that could’ve looked better, but it is good enough for the console versions of the game.

Overall, the game looks excellent. There are some things that I like more than others, but nothing in the game looks bad. The special characters are cool to see, and there are quite a few visual easter eggs. Stuff like this is always fun to see.

Reviews at the Time

The review scores are what you should expect to see. Back in 1994, when the game was released on the Genesis, it received scores between an 8 and 10/10. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the game’s scores took a hit, much like other retro games.

GamePro gave the game a 10/10. They praised Acclaim’s port of the game and called it a “Slam Dunk.”

Mean Machines gave the game an 89/100. They praised the game as something for both sports and non-sports fans.

EGM‘s review is odd. MobyGames has the score at 38/50, but I don’t see where the Genesis review is. There is a review for the Game Gear and SNES versions of the game. Neither is reviewed by all five of the reviewers in this publication. It’s a little odd.

Most of the scores were taken from MobyGames. When I checked them, they didn’t always match up. This is just a reminder that it is always good to double-check your sources when doing stuff like this.

9/10. There are very few things that I can fault this game for. The controls are great, graphics are excellent, and the gameplay is a lot of fun. If there were a career or franchise mode, then this would be perfect.

Pros

• Excellent Graphics
• Great Controls
• Fun Gameplay
• Lots of Unlockable Characters

Cons

• Limited Game Modes
• A little repetitive, like other sports games

Conclusion

I’ve come back to play this game several times over the years. It was one of the first games that I picked up when I started collecting games for the Genesis. NBA Jam is one of the many Genesis games that I have fond memories of playing with my friends.

I don’t remember how I managed to convince my friend Eric to let me practice with him. Because I didn’t own the game, I had to go to his house to play it before playing in the Blockbuster tournament. For whatever reason, I never thought about playing Judge Dredd. At some point, I’ll have to play that game, even if I don’t think I’ll like it that much.

I’m pretty sure that my friend Joey owned the game as well. He had both an SNES and a Genesis, but I’m not sure if he had it for both or just one. Joey’s parents got him an SNES in the mid 1990s, a few years after he got a Sega Genesis. As I think back about all this stuff, I’m realizing that most of my friends got every console, and I just had a PC.

There are quite a few sports games on the Genesis that I played over the years. It is still a fun game to come back and play. For a long time, I didn’t know there were more versions of NBA Jam, aside from the Tournament Edition. I’ll have to get to those games over the next few months.   

If you liked this post, check out my other posts about sports games. Such as NFL Quarterback Club or Acclaim as a publisher.