NBA Jam turns 25 this year, and according to Tim Kitzrow, the game’s iconic announcer who introduced catchphrases like “He’s on fire” and “Boomshakalaka” into sports vernacular, this silver anniversary could help spur a return of the arcade basketball series. While talking with ESPN about the LA Clippers’ NBA Jam night, where he’ll be sitting in as a guest announcer, Kitzrow said he is involved in some capacity with an unannounced Jam revival. “I can’t speak anything to the specifics, but I can tell you there is movement in the works to get it done for the 25th year,” Kitzrow told ESPN. “So I’m hoping that we get a remake that does justice to the original.”
According to ESPN’s story, “Kitzrow is working with Microsoft” for this mysterious anniversary project, but it’s Electronic Arts that likely still owns the series. EA rebooted Jam in 2010 and even hired Kitzrow and original designer Mark Turmell to work on the game. It was a solid new take, but it failed to set the world on fire and the series has laid dormant ever since. Turmell departed EA shortly after its release, and he told ESPN he would not be involved in whatever this new Jam project might be. Unless it’s a barely upgraded version of the original game with current NBA teams and players—which sounds pretty awesome, actually—it’s hard to imagine a game going from “movement in the works” to a finished product within a single year, but here’s to hoping we’ll once again get to enjoy some glass-shattering dunks some time soon.
[via Uproxx]