Sunday, October 24, 2021

SNES Game Review: NBA Jam and NBA Jam: Tournament Edition

 That's right I am going to post about 2 games at one time here.  The reason? NBA Jam Tournament Edition has a lot of the same features, just more players and a tournament style.  This was a dual of games that made it a cult following even today and a top basketball game at its time and one that people still play on retro games today.  What does this game do well? Is there anything it doesn't do well? ALl that and more (and an extension as to what NBA Jam: Tournament Edition does) coming up below!

Positives:

1. NBA and NBPA licenses: Yep, essentially what Madden couldn't do for years NBA Jam did instantly with having the NBA license and the NBPA license.  Meaning real teams, real players and their likeness and names.  It was fantastic to see overall that this game started with all the realism in teams and players.


2. Arcade style works: A lot of people might scoff at arcade-style games being on different platforms but this game works immensely for being arcade-style and fun.  The arcade style makes it fun overall to play and it makes it also chill but also competitive.  

3. Trolling: This is a great game to troll your friend with but also the game itself has a history of trolling a team.  That is because the producer of the game was/is a Pistons fan, and the 90's were peak rivalry of Bulls/Pistons.  The producer then decided to put something in the game code that if you are the Bulls you will miss every shot at the end of the games against the Pistons.  15/10 for the trolling indeed.

4. The announcer: I just love this guy, just saying stuff like "Heating up! He's on Fire!" and just having a lot of fun with it.  This is something that may seem minor but it is a plus that the announcer is minimal but also really good with the game.

5. Graphics: Graphics in both games are just really, really good and the sprites are great.  The movements of the players are just fantastic as well so all in all a really good game. 

NBA Jam: Tournament Edition

The only main differences on this is just the tournament style, some new players and just different screen graphics overall on the main menus.  This was something that isn't made major important but it is still good fun overall because the game is so well made by Midway and most fans of NBA Jam will love NBA Jam: Tournament edition.  The announcer is still amazing, still arcade style and has the NBA and NBPA licenses so you are great overall with it.

Negatives:

To me, there are none.  I could be wrong but I really couldn't find one negative with this game at all and that is something I enjoyed overall.  This was just a well made game.

Overall rating/Rank

This game is very well made by Midway and NBA Jam: Tournament Edition is well made as well.  Neither game has any major flaws and with all the positives, both games rate very highly.  It's no surprise they are right next to each other in the all-time rankings.  Both games are 10/10 in my opinion, and both are highly ranked the order, in 22nd and 23rd overall on the SNES rankings list I have done.

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