''NBA Jam'' (sometimes "Jam" for short) is a long-running basketball video game series based on the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA). Initially developed as arcade games by Midway, the game found popularity with its photorealistic digitized graphics, over-the-top presentation and exaggerated style of two-on-two basketball play. The successor to Midway's ''

Arch Rivals ''Arch Rivals'' is a basketball sports video game released by Midway for arcades in 1989. Billed by Midway as "A Basket Brawl", the game features two-on-two full court basketball games in which players are encouraged to punch opposing players ...

'', the original 1993 ''

NBA Jam ''NBA Jam'' (sometimes "Jam" for short) is a long-running List of basketball video games, basketball video game series based on the National Basketball Association (NBA). Initially developed as arcade games by Midway Games, Midway, the game foun ...

'' allowed players to jump many times above their own height, make slam dunks that defy human capabilities, and freely shove or elbow opponents out of the way without consequences. It also featured a variety of secret characters, as well as the ability to track player records and statistics between play sessions. After the release of ''NBA Jam Tournament Edition'', Acclaim, the publishers of the home versions of the ''Jam'' games acquired exclusive rights to release games under the ''NBA Jam'' name under their Acclaim Sports brand. They produced their own games with the NBA Jam name starting in 1996 with ''

NBA Jam Extreme ''NBA Jam Extreme'' is a 1996 basketball arcade game by Acclaim Entertainment based on the 1996–97 NBA season. After Midway Games released two ''NBA Jam'' games, Acclaim, the publisher of the home versions of ''NBA Jam'', ended up winning the ex ...

'', an arcade game featuring the trademark over-the-top style of the previous games. Meanwhile, Midway continued its own series of NBA games with ''

NBA Hangtime ''NBA Hangtime'' is a 1996 basketball arcade game developed and released by Midway. Home versions were released for the Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Super NES, Sega Genesis, and Microsoft Windows. A version for Game.com was announced, but cancelle ...

''. After ''NBA Jam Extreme'', Acclaim started publishing titles exclusive to

home console A home video game console is a video game console that is designed to be connected to a display device, such as a television, and an external power source as to play video games. Home consoles are generally less powerful and customizable than ...

s with a more realistic style. Acclaim then attempted to return the series to its arcade roots with one more console game, 2003's ''

'', before the company closed in 2004. 6 years later,

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

acquired the rights to the name and in 2010 released ''

'' for the Wii,

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan, November ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

. The game was an attempt to replicate the original Midway games on newer consoles and original lead designer/programmer Mark Turmell was consulted on its development.

Installments

Midway NBA Jam series Non-Midway NBA Jam series

Reception

In 1996, '' Next Generation'' listed the ''NBA Jam'' series as number 99 on its "Top 100 Games of All Time", commenting that, "''NBA Jam'' is still a terrific game, especially in the arcade with four players. Many of its innovations are now cliche, but it remains one of the best arcade machines around."

References

External links

NBA Jam on Electronic Arts website

{{Iguana Entertainment NBA Jam Video game franchises introduced in 1993