10 Most Mourned Sports Video Games Franchises

The NBA 2K games have received their fair share of criticism in recent years, stemming from an over-reliance on microtransactions, buggy releases, as well as an unimaginative narrative in MyPlayer. In many ways NBA Jam was the antithesis of this, with the original 1993 release offering fast paced two-on-two arcade style basketball action, complete with superhuman power ups and endearing animation, made with the same system used to develop Mortal Kombat’s digitised fighters.

Although not really a direct rival to to an annualised sports simulation game, many have noted the correlation between the demise of this series (along with the NBA Live games) and a lack of significant evolution from game to game at 2K. Interest in the Jam series did dry up by the early 2000s, as the quality of subsequent releases dipped. A fairly well received revival in 2010 suffered from a very competitive basketball game market and lack of online play on certain platforms. With conditions now different, could it be time for a return for NBA Jam?