"This feels tired and isn't as good as versions on inferior consoles."

NBA Jam Tournament Edition appeared on the Saturn very early and I think was one of the first few games that appeared on the Saturn. It is a conversion of the 1994 arcade game by Midway of the same name.

The graphics for this game are much closer to the arcade than any of the 16 bit versions. The sprites are more detailed and have the realistic arcade style. The jams look great and there are plenty of over the top moves.

But there is a big problem. The view is just zoomed in to far and you can't see as much as you can in any other version and his makes the game very difficult to play.

The time on this version also seems to take ages for each quarter and even though I mess around with he speed settings it still seemed to take a long time to complete an entire match.

The controls are the same as before, with just three buttons; turbo, pass and shoot. I like this control style as it is very simple and it can get younger players into this game quickly and easily.

However playing the Saturn version with more than 2 people is slightly difficult because the multi player adapter is quite rare and expensive to get.

The sound for the game is actually better than the poor sound found in the arcade, which many people consider to be poor. The announcer has never sounded so good and his constant cries of funny words like "BOOMSHAKALAKA!" never fail to amuse.

All the teams in this game have the newest stats and teams (up to a few months before the game was released) and there are plenty of teams and players to choose from. Each player has their own stats. One player may be good at 3 point shots but bad at passing.

In the one player mode you can save your initials and then have to play every other team and beat them to unlock hidden stuff. There are also hidden characters to play as with the use of cheat codes.

But NBA Jam on the Saturn fells tired and due to you not being able to see much isn't as fun or playable as the 16 bit versions of the game. This may have faired better if you could actually see more of the court.

5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 06/10/05