Tag Archives: Acclaim

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at Bart vs. the Space Mutants.

In order to plan out future features, I’ve devised lists of potential ideas. For Wayback Wednesday, that naturally includes game retrospectives, but also topics related to modding and our community, specific features and content found in basketball video games, and NBA history. After all, there’s a finite number of old games to discuss, and certainly a finite number of them that I can get actually my hands on. At some point, I’ll have covered all of the games in my collection. With that being said, there are still many game retrospectives left on my To Do list.

That brings us to Bart vs. the Space Mutants. I’ve often mentioned it in passing, but now I’m finally covering it in detail. It’s undoubtedly flawed, which isn’t surprising for the time that it was released, though other games of its vintage have avoided similar pitfalls. Nevertheless, it’s a nostalgic favourite despite its flaws; or indeed, in some ways because of them. I’m committed to covering both good and bad games, so as always this overdue retrospective will attempt to look beyond my nostalgia, while simultaneously celebrating it. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #625 of the NLSC Podcast!

Namo Gamo – now partnered with the newly-revived Acclaim – has announced Super Basketball Classics, a follow-up to the original Basketball Classics that was released back in 2019. Whereas the first game paid tribute to the 8-bit era of hoops, the new game will be a throwback to the 16-bit era of basketball gaming. Among other enhancements, the game also will star the Harlem Globetrotters. This week, we share our thoughts on what we know about Super Basketball Classics so far, and also make some suggestions regarding what we’d like to see in terms of gameplay, modes, and features. Suffice it to say, we’re keen to see what Josh and Dave have cooked up with this sequel to a fantastic release.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 43:57 — 30.5MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

When we’ve talked to Josh and Dave from Namo Gamo in the past, they’ve mentioned the goal of bringing Basketball Classics to console in addition to Steam. That dream has been realised, as the game is now available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Switch!

The console version of Basketball Classics remains priced at $9.99 USD, making it well worth picking up if you love retro-style games with modern design sensibilities. Additionally, the PC version is currently on sale at a 65% discount, which is a great bargain. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of the game – and not just because I’m an unlockable player in it – so I highly recommend snagging it on your platform of choice.

As previously announced, Namo Gamo’s partnership with the revived Acclaim has also led to an upcoming sequel. For those who missed the announcement, Super Basketball Classics will feature revamped gameplay, new modes, and of course, the World-Famous Harlem Globetrotters. The release date is as yet unknown, but we’re looking forward to more details, and will definitely be covering it upon release.

You can check out the console launch trailer below. Congratulations to Josh and Dave once again for all of their well-earned success with Basketball Classics, as well as the forthcoming sequel! While we may be lacking Triple-A options in the basketball gaming space these days, indie developers are leading the charge to provide alternatives. If you’ve grown weary of NBA 2K and you’d like something new on top of revisiting old favourites, I’d strongly suggest keeping an eye on the indie scene as more and more developers are stepping onto the virtual hardwood.

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We’re big fans of the original Basketball Classics here at the NLSC, and the way that it combines old school gameplay with modern design principles. We’ve had the pleasure of chatting to Josh and Dave on multiple episodes of the NLSC Podcast, and we’re honoured to have our NLSC THRILLHO 2K Pro-Am squad featured in the game as an unlockable team. To that point, it’s extremely exciting to see the announcement of a sequel: Super Basketball Classics!

Super Basketball Classics will feature fully rotoscoped player animations, new gameplay, and a new soundtrack, all in 16-bit style. Not only that, but the game will star the Harlem Globetrotters as the iconic team celebrates its 100th anniversary. Appropriately, we can expect to pull off all sorts of crazy alley-oops, trick shots, and other moves, as both a nod to the Globetrotters’ unique brand of basketball and classic arcade hoops video games. The game will also include Exhibition, Season, and Tournament modes, as well as both co-op and head-to-head play.

No release date has been given as yet, but Super Basketball Classics will be available for both PC and consoles, and it can already be wishlisted here on Steam. A reveal trailer spotlighting the Globetrotters has also been released, and you can check it out below.

We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on further developments, and are looking forward to the game. Congratulations to Josh and Dave on the sequel, and for Namo Gamo’s partnership with the newly-revived Acclaim and the World-Famous Harlem Globetrotters!

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at NBA Jam 99.

After Acclaim snatched the NBA Jam moniker away from Midway, they attempted to continue the series with NBA Jam Extreme. Although losing the iconic brand was naturally a blow, Midway nevertheless released their own superb follow-up to NBA Jam Tournament Edition in NBA Hangtime. To that point, while Acclaim had the name, Midway boasted the superior game. With that in mind, it’s perhaps no surprise that Acclaim sought to change up the formula with NBA Jam 99, moving away from an arcade style and adopting more of a sim or sim-arcade hybrid approach.

Of course, while that differentiated it from previous NBA Jam titles and Midway’s new arcade hoops games, it also placed NBA Jam 99 in direct competition with the NBA Live series. However, Acclaim didn’t completely abandon the series’ roots with NBA Jam 99, as it included an arcade mode. While true sim-arcade hybrid basketball games have their place and I’ve come to appreciate them, NBA Jam 99 wasn’t a good take on the concept. Indeed, it was proof that Midway deserved the name that they coined far more than Acclaim did. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five reasons why both NBA Playgrounds and NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 fell short of the best NBA Jam titles.

When Saber Interactive announced NBA Playgrounds back in 2017, we were excited and intrigued. EA Sports had allowed the NBA Jam series to fall dormant once again following the masterpiece that was NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, so NBA Playgrounds appeared poised to be a worthy spiritual successor. Both it and NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 reportedly sold quite well, though critical reception was mixed. I did have some fun with both NBA Playgrounds games, but I was definitely somewhat underwhelmed by them. To that point, I’m on record as calling them a poor man’s NBA Jam.

That was once impossible to say without receiving pushback, and accusations of being an NBA Jam fanboy blinded by nostalgia. However, there’s no denying that NBA Jam pioneered the genre of arcade basketball games, setting the bar with success that speaks for itself. There are a few lacklustre releases in its lineage – primarily the ones developed by Acclaim – but the best NBA Jam titles remain the gold standard. NBA Playgrounds had good intentions, but in terms of becoming the NBA Jam of a new generation, both the original and the sequel came up short. Here are five reasons why NBA Playgrounds ultimately failed to equal or surpass the best NBA Jam games.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #601 of the NLSC Podcast!

A couple of weeks ago, it was announced that Electronic Arts will be going private after being acquired in one of the biggest deals in the history of video games. This week, we share our thoughts on the news, and what it might mean for the future of basketball gaming (if anything). We also note some of the reactions that we’ve seen from the wider gaming community on social media. Needless to say, it’s proving to be quite a controversial move! To that end, we also touch once again on the effectiveness of video game boycotts, and how much the average gamer realistically cares about who owns the companies that are developing their favourite titles and series.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 34:06 — 23.8MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at NBA Jam Extreme.

I remember the excitement I felt when I saw a promotion for NBA Jam Extreme in a magazine. NBA Jam Tournament Edition had already solidified my love of Jam, so I was naturally keen on the prospect of a new game with updated rosters. The promo used the game’s cover art: a shot of Shawn Kemp soaring to the rim and throwing it down over Hakeem Olajuwon. The Reignman was actually my cousin’s favourite player growing up and thus I’d become a fan of him as well, so making Kemp the face of NBA Jam Extreme gave it some extra coolness right out of the gate.

And then of course, there’s the name itself: NBA Jam Extreme. Back in the 90s, the word EXTREME often implied that something was cool with a capital C (or a capital K, because again, it was the 90s!). In short, twelve-year-old me had ample reason to be hyped for a new NBA Jam game. As it turned out though, I never got to play NBA Jam Extreme back in the day, as I instead moved on to NBA Hangtime. Honestly, I’d have to say that that was for the best! Nevertheless, it was interesting to finally get my hands on NBA Jam Extreme all these years later. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at NBA Jam 2010 by EA Sports, with a video retrospective.

Since April 2023 marks the 30th Anniversary of NBA Jam, I was intending to post this feature last week, rather than my look back at the golden presentation of NBA Live 96 PC. However, due to a couple of things getting in the way, it took a bit longer to produce. Of course, I was already well overdue to profile NBA Jam 2010 here in Wayback Wednesday! It’s a game that’s surrounded by some controversy owing to its connections to NBA Elite 11, which is tremendously unfortunate as EA’s NBA Jam was a fantastic reboot of the series. Let’s take a look back…way back…

As you can probably guess, this mini-celebration of the 30th Anniversary of NBA Jam will be going into overtime, as next week – barring any unforseen circumstances – I’ll be profiling NBA Jam: On Fire Edition! In the meantime, I hope that you enjoyed this video retrospective. Don’t forget to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel for more great basketball gaming content!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #464 of the NLSC Podcast!

After some messing around, we were able to connect to play a co-op session of NBA Full Court Press. Although it isn’t one of the all-time classics, it’s nevertheless an intriguing game to revisit today. We’ve also got some further progress reports on modding projects, including the revival of the All-Time Teams roster for NBA Live 96. With the 30th Anniversary of NBA Jam upon us this year, we’re itching for a new release, and we’re not alone in that regard! We discuss our ideas for a hypothetical new NBA Jam, as well as the community’s responses of what they’d like to see. Finally, we make some plans for our basketball gaming rotations through the rest of February.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:10:14 — 48.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at the PlayStation version of NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC.

Although I grew up playing both simulation and arcade basketball games, by the late 90s I’d lost interest in the new arcade titles. This was partly due to finding the sim games more appealing, but the arcade genre also seemed to be losing steam. I still loved NBA Jam Tournament Edition and NBA Hangtime, but Acclaim’s NBA Jam games weren’t impressive, and I didn’t keep up with Midway’s titles. It’s unfortunate, because there were some good arcade basketball games being released in between the original classics by Midway, and the launch of EA Sports’ NBA Street series.

The good news is that running Wayback Wednesday features gives me an excuse to track down some old games and check them out all these years later. As I’ve said before, some games are gems, while others were worth skipping the first time around. They’re all fun and interesting to sample though, but the better games always make for more exciting additions to the collection. This week I’m covering a game that I would have liked to have played more of when it was released: Midway’s NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at the Space Jam video game.

Happy 58th Birthday to my all-time favourite player, Michael Jordan! You know, it kind of blows my mind that I’m now older than MJ was when he won his final title with the Chicago Bulls in 1998. Appropriately enough, that was 23 years ago; a fact that’s also difficult to wrap my head around! In any case, I figured that since it is His Airness’ birthday today, it only makes sense to cover something related to him. The problem is that I’ve already covered The Jordan Challenge (from several angles, too), as well as Michael Jordan in Flight, his history in games, and his comeback in 1995.

What else is there? Well, how about the Space Jam video game? Yes, there was a lot of merchandise related to Space Jam when it came out, and like so many movies in the 90s, there was a video game tie-in for PC, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn. I didn’t actually play it back in the day, but I’ve since added it to my collection. We got a real jam going down, so let’s take it into overtime…I mean, let’s take a look back…way back…

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at NBA Hangtime.

One of the benefits of Wayback Wednesday is that eventually, everything becomes “retro” enough to talk about. As it is, I’ve bent the rules slightly with some more recent games from time to time, but generally speaking, I’ve preferred focusing on titles that are several years old. To that end, I’ve tried to cover many of the classics before touching on more recent nostalgia. However, there are several titles from the early days of basketball gaming that I still haven’t covered, but definitely mean to get to. NBA Hangtime is just one of the games that are overdue for a retrospective.

Perhaps it’s only fitting that I’ve yet to cover the game, going on five years of running Wayback Wednesday features. As popular as it was with basketball gamers in its day, it does tend to be overlooked when we discuss the best arcade hoops titles. It was a strong follow-up to NBA Jam Tournament Edition – one of my personal favourites – and a game that I really enjoyed on the Nintendo 64. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Episode #280 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Dare I say it, this week’s episode is ON FIRE, as I had an opportunity to chat with the legendary voice of NBA Jam himself, Tim Kitzrow! It was a lot of fun talking to Tim, who was very generous with his time and stories. Be sure to follow Tim on Twitter, and hit up Who Said What Now to order your own custom audio messages from the Baron of Boomshakalaka!

The voice of NBA Jam, Tim Kitzrow, joins the NLSC Podcast this week for an extended interview. Tim provides an insight into how he went from classically trained actor and improv artist with The Second City in Chicago, to being the voice of one of basketball gaming’s most iconic series. From the origins of the word Boomshakalaka and fascinating tidbits about NBA Jam and other games Tim has worked on, to Tim’s recent projects and a bunch of other fun stories, this week’s show is a must-listen for all NBA Jam enthusiasts!

Tune in below!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:16:27 — 52.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

I hope you enjoyed my interview with Tim Kitzrow! Sound off with your thoughts on the NBA Jam series in the comments section below, or join in the discussion here in the Forum! Additionally, feel free to hit us up with any feedback on the episode, as well as suggestions for topics that you’d like to hear us discuss in future episodes. For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki.

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at College Slam.

College Slam is a 1996 title that a lot of basketball gamers may not remember, if indeed they’ve ever heard of it. I personally wasn’t aware of it until years later, since as is the case with all college basketball video games, it wasn’t available in PAL regions. Essentially an NCAA version of NBA Jam, it was developed by Iguana Entertainment and published by Acclaim, the companies who brought NBA Jam to home consoles and PC. Unlike NBA Jam, it wasn’t released in arcades, and never achieved the same level of popularity, largely due to its more limited release.

In many ways, College Slam is a re-skin of NBA Jam with NCAA licensing, but that is selling the game a little short. It did introduce a few new features that set it apart from its NBA licensed predecessor, and make it an interesting game to revisit. If the 2003 release from Acclaim is the forgotten NBA Jam, then College Slam is surely the forgotten spin-off. It’s another game worth remembering however, so let’s take a look back…way back…

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