History VideoGame / MichaelJordanChaosInTheWindyCity

* ArcNumber: "23", fittingly, since it was Jordan's playing number for his time with the Bulls. The "23" hoop makes TimeStandStill, and '23' Icons are extra lives.

* MadScientistsLaboratory: Dr. Cranium's Laboratory is the second main area Michael visits, you start to see the extent of the horrific experiments the Doctor has been working on.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[SincerityMode Not a]] ''VideoGame/NBAJam'' [[SincerityMode clone. Trust us]].]]

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Emphasis on "loosely". A couple months before the game's release, Jordan, still retired at the time, really did participate in a charity game hosted by Scottie Pippen, which was the last basketball game ever hosted at the Chicago Stadium, before it was demolished, and the Chicago Bulls moved to the current United Centre. Of course, there were no mad scientists or weird experiments going on prior to the game.

* BigBoosHaunt: The Haunted House in Riverview Park, where bats and animated skeletons lurk.

* BigBad: Dr. Maximum Crainium.

* ChestMonster: An robot enemy that disguises itself as one of the Basketball power-ups. When you approach it, it drops to the ground and starts to attack. Defeating it awards you with the Power-Up.

* AmusementParkOfDoom: Chicago's Riverview Park is the final area and Dr. Cranium's base of operations.

* BigBoosHaunt: The Haunted House areas in Riverview Park, where animated skeletons lurk.

* BigBoosHaunt: The Haunted House area in Riverview Park, where animated skeletons lurk.

The overall plot is slightly RippedFromTheHeadlines: The game takes place right before Jordan is set to participate in a charity exhibition game organized by his former teammate Scottie Pippen. However, when Jordan arrives at the arena for practice, the arena is empty despite the players' gear being in the locker room. as Jordan mulls over what could've happened, a basketball crashes through a skylight. Picking it up, he sees a note scrawlled on it from [[MadScientist Dr. Maximus Cranium]], telling Jordan to head to the Egyptian exhibit in the Field Museum of Natural History at midnight if he wanted to save his teammates, and to [[ComeAlone come alone]]. Lacking any other options, Jordan manages to convince a security guard to sneak him into the museum. Once inside, finds a hidden door in the wall of the exhibit, and stumbles upon an underground prison. What follows is Jordan going all around Chicago and the surrounding areas to save his fellow players from becoming part of Maximus Cranium's experiments.

LogoJoke: in the game's intro, a basketball becomes the sphere in Electronic Arts' 1990s logo.

* ProductPlacement: And ''lots'' of it, particulary from Wheaties and Gatorade, both of which Jordan was endorsing at the time. Boxes of Wheaties and Gatorade bottles appear throughout the game as health pickups.

You see, right around the time the original ''Jam'' was in development, Jordan had not only gone into his first retirement, but the NBA had changed its rules to allow players to individually pull out of the NBA's blanket licensing. This meant that as soon as Jordan opted out, he could easily charge an arm and a leg to appear in any media; prompting Midway to abandon the idea of including him, and consequently led to the removal of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal from later revisions of ''Jam'', due to them also pulling out of the association's licensing.[[note]]A very rare version of ''Jam'' features Jordan on an "all-star" team with rival and Seattle Supersonics star Gary Payton, but that particular rom was mostly made for Jordan and Payton's personal use, and wasn't widely distributed.[[/note]]

* RobotMe: [[spoiler:The FinalBoss is a giant robotic version of MJ, piloted by Dr. Crainium himself; complete with Jordan's moves arieal abilities, but not his speed.]]

* SlipperySlideyIceWorld: An unusual case case, as they can be ''player-made'' here. Slamming a Freeze Basketball will cause the ground under you to freeze, and if Jordan touches it, he immediately loses his traction, and slides all over the place. A decent way to fast travel on some stages, and slip up some enemies, but it can just as easily bite you if you accidentally send yourself careening towards a bottomless pit.

You see, right around the time the original ''Jam'' was in development, Jordan had not only gone into his first retirement, but the NBA had changed its rules to allow players to individually pull out of the NBA's blanket licensing. This meant that as soon as Jordan opted out, he could easily charge an arm and a leg to appear in any media; prompting Midway to abandon the idea of including him, and consequently led to the removal of Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal from later revisions of ''Jam'', due to them also pulling out of the association's licensing.[[note]]A very rare version of ''Jam'' features Jordan on an "all-star" team with rival and Seattle Supersonics star Gary Paton, but that particular rom was mostly made for Jordan and Payton's personal use, and wasn't widely distributed.[[/note]]

But while Midway wasn't willing to pony up the extra cash for Jordan's likeness, Creator/Electronic Arts ''was''. And the end result was ''Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City'', a [[{{Metroidvania}} Metroidvanian-esque]] platformer for the UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem, released on November 21, 1994. This was EA's third game to feature Jordan, and the second after getting the rights to his likeness, succeeding both ''Jordan vs. Bird: One On One'', and ''Michael Jordan In Flight''.

It's 1994. Creator/MidwayGames' ''VideoGame/NBAJam'' was ''the'' dominant basketball game of the mid 90's, and was quickly [[FollowTheLeader followed by a slew of rival imitators that tried to ride off its success]], to the point where NBA superstars like Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley, after appearing in ''Jam'', ended up getting their own basketball games, to mixed success. However, despite the stacked and accurate rosters of ''Jam'', there was one glaring omission: UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan. Indeed, despite unquestionably being the most famous and popular basketball player in the world, Jordan never officially appeared in ''NBA Jam'', its sequels and spinoffs, or any other basketball sim in the 90s, with a handful of exceptions.

Although the game ultimately bricked in sales, it actually got mostly decent reviews, with the only major complaints being the difficult controls, annoying ProductPlacement, and an overall waste of Jordan's licensing, the latter of which got it put on ''Magazine/NintendoPower'''s 1997 "Ten Worst Games of All Time" list. Coincidentally, EA also published ''Videogame/ShaqFu'', another game featuring an NBA star that made that same list, nearly a month before ''Windy City'' was released.

SmartBomb: Two variants appear, and will kill all enemies on screen:

* HarmlessFreezing: Subverted: While first contact with a Freeze Basketball won't hurt an enemy when it freezes them, [[KillItWithIce getting hit with a second one will shatter them]].

** This also serves a pratical purpose: Throughout the game, basketball hoops are littered across levels for Jordan to dunk on. Most of these hoops grant items, while certain ones will either act as a checkpoint, or as a dunk-activated SmartBomb.

It's 1994. Creator/MidwayGames' ''VideoGame/NBAJam'' was ''the'' dominant basketball game of the mid 90's, and was quickly [[FollowTheLeader followed by a slew of rival imitators that tried to ride off its success]], to the point where NBA superstars like Scottie Pippen and Charles Barkley, after appearing in ''Jam'', ended up getting their own basketball games, to mixed success. However, despite the stacked and accurate roster of ''Jam'', there was one glaring omission from the roster: UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan. Indeed, despite unquestionably being the most famous and popular basketball player in the world, Jordan never officially appeared in ''NBA Jam'', its sequels and spinoffs, or any other basketball sim in the 90s, with a handful of exceptions.

* AsHimself: Jordan not only provided his likeness, but actually recorded voice clips for the game
* HarmlessFreezing: Subverted: While first contact with a Freeze Basketball won't hurt an enemy when it freezes them, getting hit with a second one will shatter it.

** EA had the rights to Jordan ''himself'', but not the Jordan ''brand'', which was used for his shoe and clothing line. As a result, whenever the "Jumpman" logo appeared, it was modified to resemble Jordan's in-game jumping sprite.
** Same thing applies to the players you rescue. They're clearly modeled after various real-life players Jordan played against, but no names are given at any point during the game.