Sports videogames are fantastic. They are a magical place where 3,000 yards rushing and 100 HR’s in a season is an attainable goal. One of the things that certainly is not fantastic about them, is the mind-numbingly drab and repetitive announcing. I swear I have nightmares that just consist of Kirk Herbstreit repeating his Kirkism’s from the NCAA football series. One of the lone standouts that I have never had to mute is the NBA Jam series, and a new one is out later this year for the Xbox, PS3, Wii and Virtual Boy featuring the same announcer.

Considering “Boom-shaka-laka!” and “is it the shoes?” have been consistent in my lexicon for about 15 solid years now, I’m very excited to see what the new one brings.

This is unrelated to the spectacular announcing in NBA Jam…but I think it needs mentioning that NBA Jam Shawn Kemp is one of the greatest videogame athletes of all-time. My top 3, in no particular order, would have to be Bo Jackson (Tecmo Bowl), Michael Vick (Madden 2004) and the Rain man.

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