The only sports video game I ever loved is coming back. The new game is being developed by EA SPORTS (in collaboration with the original game's lead programmer/designer), and came about after EA had started planning a different basketball game that started to feel an awful lot like the old NBA Jam from 1993:

Six or seven months passed after [their initial concept, "Bounce"] was conceived. The game wasn't greenlit yet, but a meeting happened. And in this EA meeting, Smith "kind of freaked out." Listen, he told everyone: "We're going to be compared to NBA Jam, so we might as well be NBA Jam."

The original NBA Jam is legendary. It was an arcade and cultural phenomenon when it was released by Midway in 1993. Its over-the-top two-on-two super-charged, flaming-basketball version of one of America's favorite sports was a transcendent hit, popularizing phrases such as "He's on fire!" and "Boomshakalaka."