Do you guys remember when Mortal Kombat and NBA Jame were coming out?

[Manga4life]

I was thinking about this the other day and I remember there being a huge buzz between late 1993 until early 1994 when Mortal Kombat was about to hit the SNES and Genesis during the back to school through holiday season of 1993 and how anyone and everyone was talking about it. I remember magazines were publishing stories about it, I would see commercials on television, the lunch room in school was filled with kids talking about the game, and there was just a huge buzz about it and which system people were getting it on as well as the blood, characters, codes, and other factors that were brewing among the gaming crowd. I remember when it did launch sometime in September that some kids had already received it while others were waiting until Christmas but the end result was the same: EVERYONE was excited about it.

Same thing was going on some time after Christmas when NBA Jam was about to be released onto home consoles, everyone had played it in arcades and absolutely loved the game and the buzz was strong for NBA Jam to come to the SNES and Genesis. When it came out the same thing happened, everyone was talking about it and trying to figure out codes to make the players heads big, or to look like chickens, or other such fun stuff and the game was all magazines were talking about, it was quite a fun time then and I don't get that feeling anymore when discussing video games with people.

Any which way, that September-March was a really fun time for video games for me and I don't think I played any other game for almost a year aside for Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam, the hype and the fun of it all kept me well satisfied and glued to my SNES.

[Cloud121]

Yep! I know exactly what you mean. I was 7 years old at the time, and still remember all the hype and everything.


The first time I ever played NBA Jam though was father's day (June) 1994, at my grandfather's house. My favorite cousin had bought the game for Super Famicom, and we played it in the bedroom. I remember only shooting from half court simply because I could. Also being a huge basketball junkie back then certainly helped too, long before gaming and collecting took over my life some five years later.


Go Magic!

[densho]

I remember when first discovered to get Smoke out and this was done by mistake, it was a colossal joy. I love Mortal Kombat 2 and I still play it from time to time. Back in my childhood I would know the fatalities and the special moves of all the characters involved and my favorite one was SubZero.

[buzz_n64]

I remember when both came out. I especially remember watching the first Mortal Kombat commercial. I was shouting "MORTAL KOMBAT!!!" on the playground.

[tom]

Hell yeah, and I remember all those poor people who were dissapointed with the SNES version.
Lucky i bought the 'right' version at the time

[Manga4life]

Hell yeah, and I remember all those poor people who were dissapointed with the SNES version.
Lucky i bought the 'right' version at the time

Actually, I knew more people who were turned off by the Genesis version more so than the SNES version. The SNES version looked closer to the arcade version than the Genesis did and the audio was leagues better than the Sega version too. For Instance: When the word "Fight!" came on the screen to begin the fight the SNES version had a voice that actually said "Fight!", same when you won a match it would actually say "____ Wins!", the Genesis version had no speech and you were just left with a little theme that played when you won or lost a fight. Sure, the Genesis had blood and the cooler fatalities if you knew the code, but I (and many) would gladly give that up in favor of a better audio/video experience.

Either which way the time surrounding the release of Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam circa September of 1993 through March of 1994 will always live on as one of the funnest times in gaming history for me, it'll only be contended by being an NES owner during the Super Mario 3 time period and by a couple of other instances for me.