NBA Jam Tournament Edition

"A great addition to any SNES collection"

Gameplay-9
Sound-7
Graphics-8
Fun Factor-9
Overall-8

This is one of the best sports game available for the SNES, and if you disagree, you are lying. There is no other game (at least to my knowledge) that will let you pair up Dennis Rodman and former President Bill Clinton, to take on Gary Payton and Mike-D of the Beastie Boys. The secret plethroa of secret characters should be reason enough to get this game, but thankfully, it isn't the only reason.

The gameplay is rock solid. Career Mode offers a challenge, and the game will keep track of your stats via a username and password. Every NBA team (at the time) is selectable for play, as are most of the star players, minus Michael Jordan. The controls are fair. You get use to them pretty quick. You can shoot, pass, use turbo, and push your opponent. Since there are no fouls, the pushing is a load of fun. If your character makes three shots in a row without the other team or your team mate scoring, them your character will be ''On Fire''. When your character has the ball, it will light on fire. Your accuracy will be greatly boosted and you'll have some cool jams at your disposal. This lasts until an opponent or tem mate scores.

The coolest thing that this game offers are the power ups and secret characters. They make for quite a fun time with your friends. If you turn the power ups on in the menu screen, you will notice shield shaped items that appear randomly on the court during games. These power ups can do a whole lot of neat and useful things such as, deadly accuracy, incredible speed, and the ''On Fire'' ability. Some other power ups are just for fun like the Strength and Jam abilities. When you pick up the Strength power up and push an opponent (or team mate), they will go flying about 3 times farther than normal. This is great for taking out the other team, or just annoying your friends. The Jam ability has to be the most memorable. When you pick this up, you have the ability to jam from anywhere on the court. There are few things cooler than Hilary Clinton doing a Tomahawk jam from 50 feet away.

The graphics are average for the time it was released, and you'll see some neat affects when you go ''On Fire''. The sound is ok, but the announcer gets really annoying sometimes. He'll say ''Ugly Shot!!'', ''Wild Shot!!'', and ''He's on Fire!!'' so many time you'll want to punch someone. Overall, this is one of my favorite SNES games, and is a great addition to anyone's collection.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/02, Updated 11/29/02