History YMMV / NBAJam

** Midway also applied the ''NBA Jam'' formula of "loose adherence to the rules and fast-paced gameplay" to other sports games. The best example of this is the ''VideoGame/NFLBlitz'' series (with 7-a-side teams and 30-yard first downs and [[WrestlerInAllOfUs suplexes and leg drops on downed players between plays]]. After EA gained exclusivity of the NFL license, Midway succeeded it with ''Blitz: The League'', which ramped the violence aspect of ''NFL Blitz'' up to eleven[[note]]EA would later release their own classic-formula ''NFL Blitz'' in the wake of the success of their ''NBA Jam''[[/note]]). Midway also did it with hockey (''NHL 2 On 2 Open Ice Challenge'', ''Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey'', and ''NHL Hitz''). More Midway-style interpretation of other sports includes soccer (''Red Card Soccer 20-02'', in which Zidane can headbutt players a few years before he committed the deed in real life), baseball (''MLB Slugfest''), golf (''Skins Game''), combat sports (''VideoGame/Ready2RumbleBoxing'', ''VideoGame/WWFWrestleManiaTheArcadeGame'') and motorsport (''CART Fury'').

* AntiClimaxBoss: Shaq in the 2010 version. You have to stop him from breaking the backboard within three minutes. And it's pathetically easy: steal the ball, do crossover, repeat crossover ad nauseum for an easy win.

** In the 2010 version, "Dr. J" Julius Erving. For the other boss battles, there's clear strategies to beat them. The Dr. J boss battle though, due to the rules of the match and lack of clear strategy, is incredibly difficult. Beating him requires you to pace yourself while scoring and to be good at blocking for when he ''does'' have the ball.

** Free for all for the Arcade - in which four players try to repeatedly knock each other over. Because this makes them weaker, a player would them find it harder to play the actual basketball game, so in order to remain competitive they have to swap. First person to swap loses, or person who swaps the ''least'' loses.
*** Alternatively, first half of the game is everyone just repeatedly ganging on each other... then the second half is played "Clean", but with the weakened players from the first half brawl.

* HilariousInHindsight: Midway was forced by the NBA to remove the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' characters from the arcade version due to the gory content of that franchise. The 2010 game freely features [[VideoGame/DeadSpace Issac Clarke]], whose home series is '''''[[{{Hypocrite}} just as violent]]'''''.

** Saber Interactive followed the game up with ''VideoGame/NBAPlaygrounds'' which included equally cartoony gameplay and physics.

* MemeticMutation:
** "BOOM SHAKALAKA!"
** "He's heating up... He's ON FIRE!!!" The latter has even been recreated as [[http://www.buzzfeed.com/moerder/all-time-greatest-beer-pong-house-rules a rule in Beer Pong]].

** In the 2010 version, "Dr. J" Julius Erving. For the other boss battles, there's clear strategies to beat them. The Dr. J boss battle though, due to the rules of the match and lack of clear strategy, is incredibly difficult. Beating him requires you to pace yourself scoring and, for when he ''does'' have the ball, to be good at blocking.

** If you want a major challenge, try playing against Dwayne Wade and [=LeBron=] James. ''They will kill you''.

** In the 2010 version, "Dr. J" Julius Erving. For the other boss battles, there's clear strategies to beat them. The Dr. J boss battle though, due to the rules of the match and lack of clear strategy, is incredibly difficult. Beating him requires you to pace yourself scoring and, for when he DOES have the ball, to be good at blocking.
** If you want a major challenge, try playing against Dwayne Wade and Lebron James. THEY WILL KILL YOU.

** The boss battle music for "The Mailman" Karl Malone, Shaq Diesel, and Dr. J for ElectronicArts' game.

* FridgeBrilliance: The Phoenix Suns' roster in the recent game is like that because the real life Suns are known for playing "small-ball" and since they're NBA Jam 2010 line-up will have Steve Nash, Grant Hill, Jason Richardson, Kevin Johnson, and Dan Majerle (who are all guards in the NBA)...
* MemeticMutation: "BOOM SHAKALAKA!"
** "He's heating up... He's ON FIRE!!!"
*** The latter has even been recreated as [[http://www.buzzfeed.com/moerder/all-time-greatest-beer-pong-house-rules a rule in Beer Pong]].
* [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome Music of Awesome]]: The boss battle music for "The Mailman" Karl Malone, Shaq Diesel, and Dr. J for ElectronicArts' game.

* ThatOneBoss: In the 2010 version, "Dr. J" Julius Erving. For the other boss battles, there's clear strategies to beat them. The Dr. J boss battle though, due to the rules of the match and lack of clear strategy, is incredibly difficult. Beating him requires you to pace yourself scoring and, for when he DOES have the ball, to be good at blocking.

* AndTheFandomRejoiced (The recent announcement by [[ElectronicArts EA Sports]] that they're bringing back the franchise for the Wii. Series co-creator Mark Turmell was hired by EA Sports, too, mainly to work on the VideoGame/MaddenNFL franchise, but also to provide advice for the EA Vancouver team making the revival.)
** On top of that, [[http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/29354 it has been confirmed that Tim Kitzrow will be back]] to do the AnnouncerChatter that he made memorable.
** For a strange subversion, an announcement by EA revealed that the NBA Jam game for the Nintendo Wii would ''also'' be for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, but there would be a catch: you had to buy NBA Elite 11, which gives out a code to play NBA Jam. But even with that, it would only have 3 modes: Play Now, Classic Play, and Online. And the fandom raged, especially from the Wii fandom because they not only lost ''another'' exclusive game, but the other versions would be confirmed to get online, while the Wii version ''still'' wasn't confirmed for online play.
*** Recently confirmed not to have it.
**** Oddly enough, the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3's versions will end up being released as a stand-alone title instead of as a throw-in for NBA Elite 11.
**** And in yet another subversion, NBA Elite 11 has been shitcanned, leaving this title to be EA's only basketball release of the year and released under its own auspices.

*** Recently confirmed not to have it. See RuinedFOREVER.

* RuinedFOREVER: The Wii version was recently confirmed to not have online multiplayer. Cue massive raging. [[http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=135417]]
** You know, people were already complaining that it's ruined forever when NBA Jam not only lost exclusivity, but also people had to buy a DIFFERENT GAME (NBA Elite 11) in order to play NBA Jam for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.
*** However, the recent news of NBA Jam being available for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 as a stand-alone title made this return to AndTheFandomRejoiced for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 users all around.
** It turns out that the reason why the Wii version won't have online is because it can't, "[[WildCardExcuse Run at 60 Frames per second, the director doesn't want to make a "half assed Wii game thing" because it's not at full 60 fps when online is going on]]"
*** Which is funny because there are online games like ''SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' and ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter Tri'' on the Wii and yet they don't even have any known FPS problems.

* AndTheFandomRejoiced (The recent announcement by [[ElectronicArts EA Sports]] that they're bringing back the franchise for the Wii. Series co-creator Mark Turmell was hired by EA Sports, too, mainly to work on the JohnMaddenFootball franchise, but also to provide advice for the EA Vancouver team making the revival.)

* ThatOneBoss: In the 2010 version, "Dr. J" Julius Erving. For the other boss battles, there's clear strategies to beat them. The Dr. J boss battle though, due to the rules of the match and lack of clear strategy, is incredibly difficult. Beating him requires you to pace yourself scoring and, for when he DOES have the ball, to be good at blocking.