EA Sports dishes out some details on NBA Jam’s ’Boss Battles’ and the cast of basketball legends who will join the game’s roster.

The upcoming remake of NBA Jam isn’t just relying on its visual style to deliver the nostalgia, as there will be a cast of legendary basketball players who are coming out of retirement for the new arcade sports game. The always entertaining Dennis Rodman will appear alongside more than 30 other luminaries in the game, which includes Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Hakeem Olajuwon, Spud Webb, James Worthy, Kevin McHale, Detlef Schremph and Manute Bol.

Of the list of legends, 10 will be appearing as ’boss battle’ adversaries in the game’s single-player mode. EA Sports’ Trey Smith spoke to ESPN about the game’s boss encounters. "We have ten boss battles. Some legends, some current superstars, and really for us, it was about identifying the biggest personas. We identified what these guys do really great then took it to superhuman-like levels. Every boss has an intro, and we really play it up."

Smith described that the boss battle face-offs help to keep the atmosphere of the game cheeky. "We’re not taking ourselves too seriously, the original ’Jam’ didn’t take itself too seriously, and this is where we get to play around a little bit."

And no, before you all start asking about fan favourite Michael Jordan, it looks like he didn’t make the cut (or simply cost too damn much).

Source: ESPN