Jammit

Also known as: N/A

Developer: GTE Entertainment

Well, Jammit…Jammit all to heck. This is a basketball game looking to capitalize on the popularity of NBA Jam, but one that fails in nearly every way. Lacking an NBA license, the game focuses on "street hoops" instead…and as a result, instead of having a large cast of players to choose from, you've got three. Yes, three. Also, likely due to the small roster, games are one-on-one rather than two-on-two. Gameplay-wise, Jammit plays like if someone shocked you with a cattle prod for a good 30 seconds, then asked you to try to play NBA Jam while the feeling in your arms still hadn't returned. A positive, however, are the nifty "animations" when attempting a dunk…unfortunately, it's also a positive that will probably be seen as a negative by the time you wrap up your first game - unless you're never dunking, you're going to see those screens a lot. You'll go from saying, "That's pretty cool," to saying, "This again? Is there a way to turn this off?" in a matter of minutes. Jammit isn't the worst basketball game that I've ever played, but it's still not very good and still not anything that I'd recommend…but god Jammit, I wish it had more redeemable qualities so I could say better things about it.

Review added: 02/04/2025

Jesse "The Body" Ventura Wrestling Superstars

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Human Entertainment

Jesse “The Body” Ventura Wrestling Superstars never actually saw a release in North America, like it was planned. Ads had been put out in magazines…but ultimately, it just never happened. At the time that “The Body” had signed the deal for this game, I believe Ventura was employed by the WWF (now WWE) and despite being classified as an independent contractor rather than an employee, the ol’ WWF did not like the fact that Mr. Ventura had made a business deal of his own without including them…plus, the WWF had a deal with Nintendo to release their games, so they didn’t think it looked good to have one of their stars appear on Sega’s console…which, oddly enough, WWF games started appearing on Sega’s consoles shortly after this anyway. Ventura supposedly left the WWF, in part, due to the fact that he refused to back out of this game. Then he went to WCW, and I believe that they had similar feelings about the situation…and somehow or another the game was completely scrapped for a North American release. That was a long-winded history lesson, eh? Anyway, the copy of Wrestling Superstars that’s available is a prototype, but it’s playable. Essentially, this game was repackaged, improved upon, and had the difficulty ramped up, then was released in Japan under the name Thunder Pro Wrestling Retsuden. The reason I have them under separate entries is because despite many of the visuals being identical, the gameplay is very different between the two. If it had been released as-is, this still would have been a solid wrestling game for us fans in North America who never got a game in the Fire Pro series until 2001…for those wondering, Thunder Pro plays like Fire Pro – same developers. But, compared to wrestling games available in Japan at the time, including Thunder Pro, Jesse Ventura’s variation of the game kinda falls flat, even if it would have been a great release for fans outside of the Land of the Rising Sun.

Review added: 01/27/2022

John Madden Football

Also known as: John Madden American Football (Europe), Pro Football (Japan)

Developer: Park Place Productions

I've never been a huge football fan. I probably never will be, either. I just find the sport to be very boring. That said, I still found the first Madden game, John Madden Football, to be a very enjoyable experience. Everything about it, from the gameplay to the presentation, may seem crude these days, but for its time, it was quite good. It should also be noted that while the Madden franchise has become a juggernaut video game series for the NFL, this game did not have the NFL or NFLPA licenses – so no real teams and no real players. Just 16 teams based on city names and an “All-Madden” team…which is basically an all-star team without the stars, due to the lack of the NFLPA license. It should also be noted that at this time, Electronic Arts also had Joe Montana Football under their umbrella…and the call was eventually made to drop the Joe Montana license and stick with Madden since, quite frankly, it was simply the better game. While not quite the same quality as Tecmo's football outings, it's still a very solid start for the franchise on consoles that (like it or not…I learn towards not) has pretty much has had a monopoly on the sport in the world of video games for the last 15 years.

Review added: 08/06/2019

John Madden Football '92

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Park Place Productions

The original John Madden Football was a solid football game, but it was also basic in terms of what fans of the franchise would later come to expect. The improvements in this second game in the franchise include the inclusion of instant replays, more plays to select, and the chance for players to get injured…complete with an ambulance driving onto the field to pick up the injured player. Also new is that all 28 teams in the NFL in 1991 are represented in this game - the original game only included the 16 best teams for that year. Since the game lacks any licensing (aside from the use of Madden, of course) it does not include team names, player names, or team logos…but with the color schemes, city names, and player numbers, if you're a football fanatic, you can pretty much figure out who's who without 'em. The other thing that this game contributed is the fact that I believe it started the annual sports game releases from EA that continues to this day. Overall, this was a solid continuation of the groundwork created with the first game, resulting in a better game of football than the original…and basically cementing the Madden franchise as the go-to football game for most football fans, a title that it still holds today.

Review added: 02/13/2022

John Madden Football '93

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Looking Glass Studios

The original John Madden Football laid the groundwork for later games in the franchise. John Madden Football '92 improved on just about everything in the formula. The third game in the series, John Madden Football '93, continues the trend with more improvements to further tweak everything and cater to fans of watching burly men throw an oddly-shaped pigskin ball around. While the game includes a few new features, there are three that are the most notable. First, is that despite being named after a football commentator, the first two games lacked any commentary. That's solved in Madden '93. Granted, the commentary is basically just a sound clip sprinkled here and there, but it's still a nice touch. Another notable addition is the inclusion of classic teams - eight teams that the developers determined were the best ever. The last notable addition is that the password system of the previous games is retired and progress is now recorded with a battery save feature. Unfortunately, the game still lacks any NFL or player licensing…but EA would remedy some of that with the next annual game in the franchise.

Review added: 02/13/2022

John Madden Football: Championship Edition

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Looking Glass Studios

Back in the 1990's, video rental stores (most notably Blockbuster Video) were on fire. Every now and then, these stores would get exclusive games to rent out that were not available for retail. John Madden Football: Championship Edition is one of those games. Essentially the same game as John Madden Football '93 in terms of gameplay, there's one thing that makes this a different game, and quite possibly a game worth hunting down for anyone that loves football history. Madden '93 introduced 8 classic teams to the roster of modern teams. Championship Edition removes all modern teams, and increases the classic team count to 38 teams in total. So, if you ever wanted to see who would win in a game between the 1985 Chicago Bears and the 1976 Oakland Raiders, you can do that. I'm not a big fan of football, but I do enjoy sports history, and history in general, so seeing roughly 25 years worth of championship teams represented here makes this one of my favorite 16-bit football games I've ever played...even if it lacks the licensing for me to know who most of the players are.

Review added: 02/13/2022