
Gotham City. The decadent abode of violence, murderous crimes, mad supervillains and never-ending darkness and gloom. Ever occured to you that even the very name suggests a certain gothic connotation? Once again our DC hero in black cape and mask must save the day and this time his target is The Riddler along with his disfigured accomplice Two-Face, formerly a good friend of Bruce Wayne aka Batman, but now a sick nutjob with multiple personality disorder. Their henchmen are a good old bunch of cold-hearted goons, thugs and various trick-or-treaters gone loony. Well, Batman, that sounds like right up your alley!
In the remote advanced morrow things are as usual out of hand. Mega City One is engulfed in corruption, violence and mayhem. The streets are potentially unsafe and menacing for innocent law-abiding citizens (are there any left really?). The police can no longer suppress the overwhelming crime wave, and so a new institution is created combining the remaining police officers and the forensic authorities into a solid law enforcement organization whose members are simply called The Judges. You are Judge Dredd, the roughest toughest kid on the block authorized to promptly arrest or execute perpetrators on sight. Your job is to serve the law, keep the city clean and abolish crime one way or the other.
Many sports games are usually followed by at least yearly but unimproved sequels (like FIFA or NHL). NBA Jam is the first part of such a series, so I chose this one for the sake of originality.
NBA Jam simulates (you guessed it, did you?) ghetto sport #1: basketball. To make things clearer the teams are reduced to 2 players, so it's more like streetball than basketball. You can choose from the original NBA-teams, represented by their best (= best known) 2 men. Up to 4 human players can compete simultaneously. In solo games the computer takes control of your partner, but you can still request him passing or throwing. You can also select to always control the player who has the ball or to team up with a friend. Difficulty level and length of a game can be set as well.
WWF Wrestlemania - The name says it all. The official license has both its advantages and disadvantages for the game designers. Much room for creativity concerning character design and playing modes does not remain, but these are of course advantages, either. Because well-known fighter "personalities" already exist to whom the followers of this "sport" connect different cliché attributes, the typically ridiculous plot of an average fighting game can fortunately not be found. Another point is that potential weaknesses of the playability will be easier looked over by the players because of the disciples' emotional link to their idols. The designers could therefore put all their efforts in a conversion as "realistic" as possible.