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Arcade-style two-on-two basketball is action is alive and well on the 32x, courtesy of NBA Jam Tournament Edition. This moderately improved sequel to Midway’s incredibly popular NBA Jam came straight from the arcades and was converted to almost every available platform of the era. The original Genesis version of this game is already quite good, retaining most of the action of its arcade parent. The 32x port adds what was missing, including more colors, the oversized heads on the players, the arcade's scaling effect, and generally cleaner graphics and sound (the programmer responsible for the 32x version of NBA JAM T.E. claims that this game pushes the 32x hardware to its limit, but we have trouble believing that.) The scaling effect turns out to be an important addition, bringing the 32x port much closer to the arcade original in terms of gameplay. NBA Jam T.E. shuns the more realistic action of recent basketball titles in favor of fun, over-the-top action. All the arcade’s trademark features are here, including flaming basketballs, completely unrealistic cross-court jumps, the trademark "Boom Shaka Laka!" voice-overs, and hidden characters galore. Iguana has even added a funky new "baby" mode featuring tiny characters with huge heads. The Genesis control pad is perfect for this sort of finger-frenzied game, and the control is precise and accurate. Four-player NBA Jam is absolute gaming heaven, and the 32x handles the action without breaking a sweat. The action may not be very realistic, but this is the only basketball title in the 32x library, so you might as well have your fun where you can find it. The 32x port of NBA Jam T.E. sold poorly, probably due to the fact that the Genesis version and its prequel sold millions and gamers were getting tired of it. One of the better 32x games, and worth scouting out.
NBA Jam
and NBA Jam T.E. are two of the most popular arcade sports
games ever made, and both titles were ported over to a huge variety of
home platforms, including the Sega Genesis, Saturn, and Game Gear, Nintendo
Gameboy and Super Nintendo, Atari Jaguar, and Sony Playstation.
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