Review: NBA Jam – Tournament Edition (PS1)

This series announces its long-awaited return with a review of NBA Jam: Tournament Edition for the Sony PlayStation. Released on September 4, 1995 for the console in question, this port does, in a way, stand out among its peers. Anyway, let’s take a look…

Graphics

In this reviewer’s opinion, this version of NBA Jam has the most polished graphics of all the home ports (excluding PC and Jaguar). This is evident from the first boot-up of the game as the pixilation present in the Genesis and SNES versions is all but gone here, allowing for a (mostly) smooth presentation. The graphics on-court look just about arcade-perfect as well. Even the digitized player sprites look more recognizable in-game than their 16-bit counterparts.

Sound

On the audio front, the sound quality is pretty top-notch. Every catcall from the announcer is clearly understandable, as are the various noises you’d expect from an NBA Jam game. In terms of the OST, though, it’s hit or miss. Simply put, it’s “the 90s”, through and through. The quality of the tracks is, again, top-notch.

Gameplay

To get this out in the open out front: prepare for about five to ten seconds of loading transitioning to/from a game and between quarters. They pepper this game, unlike any other version I’ve played (that is, versions on the arcade, SNES, Genesis, GB, GG).  Aside from that, this is NBA Jam. You pick a team from the 1995-96 NBA season and jump right into some fast-paced, 2-on-2 arcade basketball action. This game is pick-up-and-play by nature. However, mastery of the game depends on how you are able to manage and capitalize on the skills and abilities of players on a given team. To note something else, the timer, on its normal setting seems slower than other versions, which is worth keeping in mind.

Replay Value

With many secrets to unlock, reasonably short game lengths, and teams to try out, this game will hold attention for a while in spite of its dated nature.

Recommendation

In summary, this is NBA Jam with more polish and load times. I get quite a bit of mileage out of this game myself, but it’s an arcade game, for better or worse. If what you’ve read incentivizes you to give it a play, then by all means, go for it.