Charles Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden

We’re used to hating bad indie games. What we weren’t ready for was a game that’s bad to the point of being badass. On the surface, Charles Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden looks like the usual worthless fan-made Super Nintendo Final Fantasy garbage. But its self-deprecating humor, 16-bit cheesiness, and ridiculous premise gives this title that so-awful-it's-awesome quality usually reserved for things like Mystery Science Theater flicks or the All your Base Are Belong to Us song.

Developed by the ragtag group of coders and ballers at Tales of Games, Shut Up and Jam begins by regaling you with the tragic story of the Great B-Ball Purge of 2041. Thousands of the best ballers across the globe were hunted down and killed during this frightening period due to the discovery of the Chaos Dunk, a jam so powerful and deadly that it could rock the very foundations of the world as we know it.

Unfortunately, this hateful anti-balling movement couldn’t stop the Chaos Dunk from striking when the mighty move eventually devastated the city of Manhattan 12 years later. 15 million people died that day and the world would never be the same.

Jan 30, 2008