NBA Jam Memories

A revamped version of NBA Jam is being released today for the Wii. This time around, it will include characters for President Obama, Vice President Biden, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Sarah Palin and President George W. Bush.

I don't have a Wii, but hearing about EA Sports bringing this game back sure brought back some great memories.

So many of the phrases from the game became part of pop culture. Most of the following list came from the NBA Jam Wiki-pedia page. Remember these?

• "Boom-shakalaka"
• "He's on fire!"
• "The Monster Jam!"
• "Jams it in!"
• "A spectacular dunk!"
• "Wild Shot!"
• "Slam-a-jamma!"
• "From Downtown!"
• "For Three!"
• "Get that outta here!"
• "Baseline leaner!"
• "From long range!"
• "Grabs the rebound!"
• "The nail in the coffin!"
• "Whoomp, there it is!"
• "Puts up a brick!"
• "Can't buy a bucket!"
• "Is it the shoes?!?"
• "Count it"
• "Tenacious D"
• "Razzle Dazzle"

My little brother and I used to sit in front of the TV and play the game on Sega Genesis for hours. It was originally released in 1993, so he would have been around 10 years old when we first played it. When we dunked on each other, we screamed, "Boom-shakalaka!" And when we blocked a shot we said, "Get that outta here!" It sounded even better when the announcer said it at the same time.

As competitive as it sounds, it actually brought us closer together. I eventually picked up a copy of the game for him to play at his house. I told him it was so he could practice so he might have a shot at beating me next time. He's not so little any more and if we ever played on Wii he'd probably crush me as payback.

I'm going to see him tonight and I'm going to ask him if he remembers playing the game with me. But I might keep the fact that it's coming out on Wii a secret.