NBA Jam — stories left

In one of Midway's original pitch videos to the NBA, they stated that they planned on including various additional features.

Midway also stated they would update all test version cabinets to remove these characters.

The four reviewers of Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Super NES version a unanimous score of 9 out of 10 and their "Game of the Month" award.

EGM rated the Game Gear version as weaker than either the SNES or Genesis versions, chiefly due to the removal of most of the jams, but said it is still worthwhile for Game Gear owners.

Next Generation reviewed the Sega CD version of the game and stated that "It's good, but it could have been so much more.

In 1996, Next Generation listed NBA Jam at number 99 in their "Top 100 Games of All Time", commenting that "Despite it having been flogged to death by Acclaim at home and now in the arcades, NBA Jam is still a terrific game, especially in the arcade with four players.

They praised the game saying: "Professional basketball has never been as much fun as in NBA Jam".

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.

In 1995, Total! ranked the game 8th in its "Top 100 SNES Games".

In 2018, Complex named NBA Jam Tournament Edition 44th on their "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time."

The NBA Jam script was written solely by Jon Hey, although Kitzrow has stated that the lines were largely improvised.

The 2010 game features a nod to this particular piece of commentary, when the commentator (Kitzrow reprising the role) sometimes exclaims "It's gotta be the shoes!" under similar circumstances.

Funkadelic's 1979 "(Not Just) Knee Deep" shares the most similarity with the music of NBA Jam but was recorded more than a decade before NBA Jams music was written.

This game was not released as part of the NBA Jam series, but apart from featuring college teams it is exactly like NBA Jam, down to the graphics, the sound and the feel of play, and various magazines panned it as "a degraded copy of NBA Jam".

It was the second best-selling home video game of 1994 in the United States (below Donkey Kong Country), with the Genesis version outselling the Super NES version.

They praised its graphics, sounds, and the four-player mode, and remarked that the gameplay is easy to pick up and incredibly fun even for people who don't like sports games.

GamePro praised the Sega CD version's updated roster, more intuitive controls, and improved audio with "more voice samples, more music, and more sound effects than any other home version.

However, they criticized the graphics as much worse than in the Super NES and arcade versions, complained of long load times, and concluded that the improvements were not enough to make the game worthwhile for those who already had a home version of NBA Jam.

They praised the game saying: "Professional basketball has never been as much fun as in NBA Jam".

They also praised the secret playable characters.

Electronic Gaming Monthlys two sports reviewers highly praised the PlayStation version as a precise conversion with good enhancements.

He particularly praised the reliance on timing and precision over complex button combinations, and the game's high playability in general, saying it "ensures a return for late-night rematches whilst the graphically-stunning games are gradually coated in dust.

It is the first entry in the NBA Jam series and the third basketball video game released by Midway, after TV Basketball (1974) and Arch Rivals (1989).

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.

The game grossed over worldwide in its first twelve months. , the arcade game has sold more than 20,000 arcade units and generated a lifetime revenue of .

Acclaim continued to use the NBA Jam name on subsequent console games until the company closed in 2004, although the games were only mildly popular.

In 2024, Raw Thrills, which was founded by former Midway employees, released the arcade game NBA Superstars, the first NBA arcade game since NBA Showtime, which includes many gameplay elements from the Midway series, and features NBA Jam announcer Tim Kitzrow.

Game magazinesIn the "Cross Review" of Famitsu it received 7, 6, 6 and 7 for a total of 26 out of 40, and in the "Game Report Card" based on reader voting in Family Computer Magazine it was rated as follows, 20.8 out of 30.

In the "Cross Review" feature of the magazine Famitsu,the game scored a total of 22 out of 40. In the "Game Report Card" reader poll run by Mega Drive FAN,it scored 21.8 out of 30, as shown below.

The game totaled 6 million units worldwide across SNES and Sega Genesis as of 2019, while the arcade cabinets shipped over 20,000 units as of 2012, totaling over $2 Billion in lifetime revenue.

Steve Merrett of Sega Saturn Magazine gave the Saturn version an 89%, declaring it "A perfect conversion of one of the most original coin-ops around.

In Japan, Game Machine listed NBA Jam on their August 15, 1993 issue as the fourth most successful upright arcade unit of the month.

Midway had also developed Power Up Baseball around 1996 based on the same concepts as NBA Jam, but it was cancelled as they found the game did not test well due to the large number of paid plays users would need to complete one game, among other issues.

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.

Midway had also developed Power Up Baseball around 1996 based on the same concepts as NBA Jam, but it was cancelled as they found the game did not test well due to the large number of paid plays users would need to complete one game, among other issues.