Wayback Wednesday: NBA Jam Extreme Retrospective
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at NBA Jam Extreme.
I remember the excitement I felt when I saw a promotion for NBA Jam Extreme in a magazine. NBA Jam Tournament Edition had already solidified my love of Jam, so I was naturally keen on the prospect of a new game with updated rosters. The promo used the game’s cover art: a shot of Shawn Kemp soaring to the rim and throwing it down over Hakeem Olajuwon. The Reignman was actually my cousin’s favourite player growing up and thus I’d become a fan of him as well, so making Kemp the face of NBA Jam Extreme gave it some extra coolness right out of the gate.
And then of course, there’s the name itself: NBA Jam Extreme. Back in the 90s, the word EXTREME often implied that something was cool with a capital C (or a capital K, because again, it was the 90s!). In short, twelve-year-old me had ample reason to be hyped for a new NBA Jam game. As it turned out though, I never got to play NBA Jam Extreme back in the day, as I instead moved on to NBA Hangtime. Honestly, I’d have to say that that was for the best! Nevertheless, it was interesting to finally get my hands on NBA Jam Extreme all these years later. Let’s take a look back…way back…
First of all though, I should talk about the situation with NBA Jam Extreme and NBA Hangtime. As a kid, I didn’t always play close attention to who was developing and publishing the games I was playing. Sure, I knew that NBA Live was from EA Sports, Donkey Kong Country was made by Rare, and that Mario and Zelda were first party Nintendo franchises. However, like many 90s kids I’m sure, sometimes I’d mix up the publisher with the developer, particularly if the publisher’s branding was displayed far more prominently on the box or during an intro. The fact that some studios developed ports of certain games, but not the original version, also contributed to this confusion.
To that point, because I was introduced to NBA Jam and Mortal Kombat through home ports rather than the original arcade releases, I associated them with Acclaim rather than Midway. This led to some confusion when I noticed that the Acclaim logo was conspicuously absent from the intro of the Super Nintendo version of Mortal Kombat 3! As recounted in a retrospective of the rise and fall of NBA Jam on the now-defunct 1up.com, Midway’s plans to develop games directly for the home market led to a split with Acclaim, who somehow – it’s been alleged through a connection in the NBA’s licensing department – covertly acquired the rights to the NBA Jam name.
The result was two competing 1996 arcade basketball games in the style of NBA Jam: Midway’s NBA Hangtime, and Acclaim’s NBA Jam Extreme. Also, while we’re on the subject of publishers and developers, Sculptured Software developed NBA Jam Extreme while Acclaim published it. Of course, Acclaim had acquired Sculptured Software in 1995 and later rebranded them as Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City, so they were basically the same company. Sculptured Software weren’t new to virtual hoops, having also developed NCAA Basketball (aka World League Basketball, aka Super Dunk Shot), Tecmo Super NBA Basketball, Looney Tunes B-Ball, and Space Jam.
With that back story out of the way, let’s dive into NBA Jam Extreme! Although Acclaim had the branding, Midway’s game was more faithful to the original style. Whereas NBA Jam Extreme made the leap to 3D, NBA Hangtime retained the 2D approach. History hasn’t necessarily been kind to many early 3D games, though even back in 1996 some reviewers had misgivings about whether or not it made NBA Jam Extreme better than NBA Hangtime. Both games received criticism for being too similar to their predecessors, though Hangtime has been cited as the “true successor” to NBA Jam Tournament Edition. I must wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment!
NBA Jam Extreme retains the basic NBA Jam style and staples. It features fast-paced 2-on-2 gameplay with ridiculously high-flying dunks. Quarters are three minutes long and there are no fouls or any other infractions apart from goaltending and shot clock violations. Three consecutive baskets without your opponent scoring will get you On Fire; or in this case, Smokin’! As before, it grants unlimited turbo, boosts abilities, and allows you to goal tend, but will be lost after you make four buckets or your opponent scores. Because there are no fouls, shoving opponents is a viable method of stealing the ball. An array of ratings is effective in giving players strengths and weaknesses.
In short, it’s NBA Jam, though there were a few new mechanics intended to take it to the EXTREME! This was achieved through the addition of the Extreme button on top of the regular turbo control. It can be used for super speed, at the cost of draining the meter faster. Both buttons are used to perform dribbling moves, and will toss or call for an alley-oop if tapped simultaneously. It’s also possible to be On Fire – excuse me, Smokin’ – by performing three consecutive blocks without an opponent scoring. As on offense, this provides unlimited turbo, boosted performance, and the ability to goal tend. Dive tackles and high-arcing shots are also performed using the Extreme button.
While the gameplay will be familiar to fans of the original NBA Jam releases, the jump to 3D does give NBA Jam Extreme a slightly different feel. Rather than a fixed sideline angle that pans left and right to follow the action, the camera in NBA Jam Extreme is angled higher, rotating and zooming in and out as possession changes and players soar into the air for dunks. The 3D player models with digitised cyberfaces more closely resemble games such as NBA Live 98 than the sprites of NBA Hangtime and the OG NBA Jam titles. Even though Shawn Kemp was the cover player, Juwan Howard – fresh off his lone All-Star season – provided motion capture for the game.
This is all good on paper, and indeed, the controls are deeper than what was on offer in NBA Hangtime. Once again, it’s certainly reminiscent of the original NBA Jam on the court, only now it’s in the third dimension. Unfortunately, it’s just not as well-designed, from the familiar mechanics to teething problems with the 3D perspective. To the latter point, like so many early 3D games, one of the biggest problems is the artificial difficulty added by the camera. Between the movement and the general perspective, it’s not always clear where you are in relation to other players. Your view will also occasionally be obscured by the indoor blimps floating around the rafters.
Needless to say, this makes gameplay challenging in a way that tends to be far more frustrating than enjoyable. So many shove, steal, and block attempts are thwarted by being out of position thanks to the aforementioned camera issues. Of course, the CPU suffers no such setbacks, deftly knocking you down and swiping the ball with ease! Rebounding is quite clunky and similarly favours the CPU at both ends. The dribbling moves require ridiculously quick taps of the turbo and Extreme buttons, and are mostly ineffective at eluding defenders besides. CPU teammates aren’t completely useless, but could stand to be smarter and more assertive offensively and defensively.
Overall, the gameplay feels unpolished and horribly balanced. In addition to the CPU shrugging off your defensive efforts while bullying you on D, it can shoot the lights out, even knocking down three-pointers with poor shooters. Meanwhile, you can expect to brick good looks and “conveniently” miss dunks, even when you’re trailing. That makes it way more annoying than the rubber-banding in the original NBA Jam or Tournament Edition, since that only kicked in when teams built up a big lead. Also, I’m sure that the CPU is able to get away with goaltending when using a really tall player like Rik Smits, though that may just be a trick of the disorienting camera angle.
Injuries have been carried over from NBA Jam TE. I’ve always liked that idea, as it gives the user and CPU a reason to substitute with the risk of diminished performance if you don’t rest players. They tend to rack up too quickly though, most likely due to the CPU’s adeptness at shoving. Like the dribbling moves, using the Extreme button to shoot a high-arcing shot doesn’t offer much of an advantage against the CPU’s shot blocking acumen. The turbo meter isn’t always fully replenished after a bucket, which defeats the purpose of delaying the inbounds pass. Basically, while the staples are there and the blueprint is generally correct, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
As such, even though it plays similarly to the Midway originals in many ways – albeit from a 3D perspective – it has some of the worst gameplay of any NBA Jam title! Even if you can overcome the CPU and win – no easy feat, as the easiest difficulty setting remains ruthlessly cheap – it seldom feels satisfying. In a way, it’s deceptively bad. The basic mechanics function as you expect them to in an NBA Jam game, but just don’t work as well or reliably as they should. There’ll be sequences where you think you’ve worked everything out and mastered the game’s idiosyncrasies, only for the CPU to petulantly throw all of the rules out the window in order to get the victory.
It’s frustrating because the gameplay is almost there. It’s not a complete technical disaster like NBA Live 07 for Xbox 360, or a shovelware-level effort like Kidz Sports Basketball. Still, it’s lacking the polish and balance that made Midway’s NBA Jam games so successful. Again, the leap to 3D didn’t help matters. NBA Jam Extreme exhibits many of the unfortunate hallmarks of early 3D games, from the camera woes to awkward animations. Unfortunately, 3D was seen as the future of gaming back then. As such, like drafting raw high schoolers with lottery picks, ill-advised attempts to implement 3D gameplay may be obvious blunders in hindsight, but were inevitable.
That’s just the way the winds were blowing at the time! And so, while the transition to the third dimension was rough in general, it did become clear that certain titles and genres worked much better in 2D. There’s something about trying to replicate the style and aesthetic of NBA Jam in 3D that just doesn’t feel right. The more realistic player models don’t really lend themselves to many of the more over-the-top, cartoony dunks. Spins and somersaults look phoney – like bad CGI – and rim interactions are generally poor. Despite it being a more technologically advanced title, the dunks in NBA Jam Extreme aren’t nearly as visually appealing as NBA Hangtime’s slams.
It should be noted that reviewers were pointing out this janky jump to 3D way back in 1996, along with some similar criticisms of the gameplay in general. To that end, this isn’t just a case of a 3D game aging poorly, as it wasn’t quite up to scratch even in its day! It’s simply nowhere near as good as its Midway predecessors. Had Acclaim and Sculptured Software opted for 2D gameplay, NBA Jam Extreme might’ve turned out a little better. However, I suspect that poor balance, ineffective dribbling moves, and an overall lack of polish would all likely remain major issues. There’s a reason that NBA Hangtime is often considered to be the true sequel to NBA Jam Tournament Edition!
Still, NBA Jam Extreme does show occasional flashes of being a better game. It has some creative touches, such as players celebrating after baskets and the big screen popping up with clips to punctuate massive dunks and timely threes. There are TV-style instant replays. Occasionally, when a player puts up a terrible shot, the ball will turn into a literal brick as it spins through the air! It obviously makes the forthcoming miss rather predictable, but it’s a fun and amusing detail. The colours are vibrant and while the detail on the jerseys is fairly minimalist, they’re more authentic than NBA Hangtime’s uniforms. They even have numbers, though they only appear on the back.
Speaking of presentation, NBA Jam Extreme features Marv Albert on the call rather than Tim Kitzrow. Although Marv is one of the greatest basketball commentators of all-time, he wasn’t a good fit for NBA Jam. Midway also opted to replace Tim with former Chicago Bulls announcer Neil Funk in NBA Hangtime, and he honestly did a much better job than Marv. Of course, it is cool to hear Marv’s famous “Yes!” in NBA Jam Extreme, but his take on Tim’s “Boomshakalaka!” sounds painfully unnatural! He also has to awkwardly declare “I smell smoke” instead of “He’s heating up”, though funnily enough he does refer to the Smokin’ power-up as “Fire” whenever it’s lost.
Notably, the home ports lack the in-game music of the arcade release. Instead there’s a handful of arena ditties including Hava Nagila and Mozart’s Serenade No. 13; odd choices, but it’s most likely because they’re public domain. The PlayStation version is particularly disappointing when it comes to music, since it’s missing from the main menu and team selection screens. Granted, the game has much bigger issues, but it still detracts from the atmosphere. On the bright side, the flames surrounding players who are Smokin’ is a nice touch, and Dennis Rodman has his changing hair colour. As in NBA Hangtime, you can choose the colour when selecting him or subbing him in.
Unlike its predecessors and NBA Hangtime, players are selected independently rather than as preset pairs, and you can even chose a duo of duplicates! The rosters also now feature six players per team. It’s a welcome expansion, though it admittedly resulted in the inclusion of a few benchwarmers here and there. Some of the default pairs are also strangely missing the team’s best player. Dennis Rodman and Toni Kukoc are the Bulls’ default duo, thus benching Scottie Pippen. The Kings’ first choice of players likewise bumps Mitch Richmond in favour of Olden Polynice and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. You can still pick those stars, but the default duos should’ve been chosen better.
Player ratings in arcade basketball video games generally take some liberties, but there are some wildly inaccurate attributes in NBA Jam Extreme. For some reason, Dikembe Mutombo is an extremely poor rebounder. Sean Elliott is a better three-pointer shooter than Reggie Miller. Latrell Sprewell has a low dunk rating, while Christian Laettner is close to maxed out in that category. Ervin Johnson is faster than former teammate Shawn Kemp. Midway’s games had some eyebrow-raising ratings too, and as in those games, these oddities fortunately don’t negatively impact player performance too much. All the same, the ratings really should’ve been more accurate.
On the plus side, the game was updated for the 1997 season, and includes a few of the Class of 1996 rookies, specifically Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Antoine Walker, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Unsurprisingly, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley are both missing, as is Shaquille O’Neal due to his deal with EA Sports that resulted in him being exclusive to NBA Live during the 1996 and 1997 seasons. Interestingly, the late Bison Dele is available on the Clippers, despite being a free agent. With all of the trades that went down during the 1997 campaign, the rosters also capture some short-lived stints, including Sam Cassell in Phoenix and Shawn Bradley in New Jersey.
NBA Jam Extreme supports up to four players – both co-op and head-to-head – with exhibition and tournament play. As in previous NBA Jam games, your progress and records are kept by entering your initials. Choosing not to enter any initials will set up an exhibition game – somewhat confusingly referred to as a “practice game” in the manual – with no recordkeeping. When playing against the CPU, an opponent will be chosen at random. In head-to-head games, both sides can play with the team of their choice. Although this was the standard for NBA Jam at the time, I’m glad that later titles and the NBA Street series have allowed us to select our CPU opponent as well.
Tournament play is a little different to NBA Jam and NBA Jam TE, as well as NBA Hangtime. Instead of simply facing all of the NBA teams in an arcade ladder, there are a couple of other challenges thrown our way. After defeating 20 teams, we must compete in a 20-second Shootout; a bonus level in which points are scored by making shots from different spots on the floor. The mode then continues to the Semi-Finals, which involves a best-of-5 series. Following a second Shootout level, the campaign concludes with a best-of-7 NBA Finals showdown. The campaign can be played co-op, and up to two other players can also jump in to take over as their opponents.
It’s still relatively straightforward and barebones compared to campaign modes such as Road Trip in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, but it’s a commendable attempt to change things up and add some more depth. The ability to play co-op, and have other users jump in to play as your opponents during the campaign, is definitely a fun idea. It’s an approach that deserves to be in a better NBA Jam game, though in all fairness, if you do enjoy the on-court experience in NBA Jam Extreme, there’s some replay value there. There are also some codes that unlock special teams, activate power-ups, and allow you to jump ahead to later stages of campaign play. There’s even a sound test!
In general though, NBA Jam Extreme is light on options. As mentioned, you can change the difficulty of CPU opponents, though it doesn’t make much difference in my opinion. The clock speed can also be changed, making the three-minute quarters run faster, slower, or in real time. CPU Assistance can be enabled or disabled, and there are basic audio and volume settings. You can also change the configuration of the controllers, though I’d suggest the default layout is fine; it’s certainly not one of the issues that I have with gameplay! There are also file management functions, and you can change which player numbers are assigned to each controller if you wish.
Loading times are definitely a weakness with the home console ports. This is another criticism that was made of NBA Jam Extreme at the time, so it’s not just me holding fifth generation games and consoles to the same expectations as modern releases and hardware! The console versions are faithful ports of the original arcade release, but this does have some drawbacks. The timer while selecting teams and between quarters is unnecessary in a home port, though admittedly NBA Hangtime left these arcade-oriented mechanics in its PC and console releases as well. I know it’s nitpicking, but I’ve actually been annoyed with home ports of arcade games doing this since the 90s!
So, how would I sum up NBA Jam Extreme? Well, the only thing that’s extreme about it is the disappointment! Snark aside, there’s a reason that gamers and reviewers alike tended to consider NBA Hangtime the true successor to the original NBA Jam games, and it wasn’t just some snobby “Only the Creator Does It Right” mentality. Midway knew what they were doing, and while NBA Hangtime may not have been quite as ambitious, it was a far more polished game with a couple of new mechanics, updated rosters, and Create-a-Player. Acclaim and the newly-acquired Sculptured Software opted to join the 3D revolution, and NBA Jam Extreme definitely suffered as a result.
Once again though, it wasn’t just the jump to 3D. The balance that made NBA Jam so fun, even with its infamous rubber-banding, just wasn’t there. Allowing players to get Smokin’ via defensive stops was overkill for a power-up that’s intended to be effective without being overpowering, as well as simple to attain and prevent. The dribbling moves are less elusive than the basic spin in NBA Hangtime. While the Extreme button is an interesting idea and useful as a modifier to perform dribbling moves and alley-oops, it didn’t greatly improve upon the NBA Jam formula. It’s not the worst basketball game I’ve ever played, but frankly, it’s not worthy of the NBA Jam name.
I can only imagine how disappointed I would’ve been with NBA Jam Extreme back in the day, though it makes me glad that my choice of console – the Nintendo 64 – meant that I played NBA Hangtime instead. Of course, all these years later, it was definitely still interesting to see what NBA Jam Extreme was all about. While I didn’t miss out on a classic release, I can appreciate some of the creative concepts. It can be fun in spurts, but as I said, even when things go well, it feels more like you’ve survived the clunky mechanics than masterfully outplayed the CPU. To that end, it might hold up better as a multiplayer game, though I wouldn’t ever rank it ahead of NBA Hangtime.
Still, I must give credit to Acclaim and Sculptured Software for trying new things and attempting to join the 3D revolution. They made an effort to capture the spirit of the original NBA Jam games; not just through gameplay boasting over-the-top dunks and a power-up based on having the hot hand, but also the vibe. The introduction with a stylised NBA Jam logo being drawn in chalk on the blacktop set to an upbeat theme, only for the ground to crack open to reveal the actual logo with flames flickering in the background, absolutely screams NBA Jam! The attitude is there along with the basic staples, but that’s just not enough when the overall quality is ultimately subpar.
In a way, it reminds me of 3D Lemmings, which tried to update the classic puzzle game for a new generation. Much like NBA Jam Extreme, the original studio wasn’t involved, and the concept didn’t translate well to the 3D approach. There’s a reason that Acclaim and later EA Sports imitated the original gameplay, with EA’s efforts being far more successful. It’s proof that not every game needed to make the jump to 3D, not to mention that NBA Jam was more than just crazy dunks. It has its moments, but NBA Jam Extreme was a disappointing sequel, and one of the weakest NBA Jam releases. It’s not the worst NBA Jam from Acclaim, but that’s a story for another time.
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