Jammer Time

I'm delighted how much the boys, especially Nathaniel, enjoy NBA Jam. The cabinet includes the three original games in the series, the last of which, NBA Hangtime, has a feature that allows you to create custom players. Of course, we've already created a bevy of our own ballers: my slick shooting guard Ace, Matthew's sharpshooter Dwayne (an obscure Simpsons reference, not a reference to actual NBA player Dwayne Wade), Nathaniel's elderly (yet somehow still quite spry) super-dunker Grandpa Nuker, and Nathaniel's lanky shot-blocker Cornelius D. Nide (get it?). We also have plans to create the main Globetrotter characters from Futurama: Bubblegum Tate, Sweet Clyde, and Curly Joe. The characters may be wacky, but the game gives me a great opportunity to teach the boys about basketball, which had kind of fallen off my radar in recent years.