NBA Jam Tournament Edition

Le jeu

An update of NBA Jam video game named NBA Jam Tournament Edition (commonly referred to as NBA Jam T.E.) was released in arcades in 1994. NBA Jam T.E. included updated rosters, new features and Easter eggs combined with the same gameplay of the original. Jon Hey created new music specifically for NBA Jam: T.E. to replace the original NBA Jam music. Teams now consisted of three players (though only two could be on the court at any time; in practice, the extra player meant greater variety in lineups), with the exception of the new 'Rookies' team, which consists of five players, all picked in the 1994 NBA draft. NBA Jam T.E. (GameBoy) Players could be substituted into the game between quarters. The game also featured new hidden teams and secret playable characters. Early versions of the game included characters from Midway's Mortal Kombat games. Players were also assigned more attributes, including clutch and fatigue levels. In addition, the game also introduced features such as a 'Tournament' mode that turned off computer assistance and on-court hot spots that allowed for additional points or special slam dunks. The test version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition included eight hidden characters which were taken out of the final version at the request of the NBA: Elviscious, Grim Reaper, Kongo, Raiden, Reptile, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Tim Coman. Midway also stated they would update all test version cabinets to remove these characters. In addition to the arcade version, NBA Jam Tournament Edition was ported to the Super NES, Genesis, 32X, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Atari Jaguar, with the PlayStation port serving as a North American launch title. Reviewing the 32X version, GamePro opined that people who already own the Genesis version should not bother with the 32X one, but summarized that 'Despite some sloppy rough edges, Jam's classic run-n-gun gameplay brings much-needed excitement to the cart-starved 32X.' The two sports reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly said the 32X version was the most accurate conversion of the arcade game to date. Next Generation reviewed the 32X version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that 'NBA Jam T.E. is a good game, but it is just as good on the Genesis and SNES, and shows no signs of 32-bit gaming. While there have been some decent games for the 32X, this is yet one more of the many disappointments.' In 1995, Total! ranked the game 8th in its 'Top 100 SNES Games'.