As someone who has played Barkley Shut Up And Jam on the Genesis, I was pleasantly surprised by the indie game that took the lore (as much lore as a street basketball game can have) and added a Japanese RPG flare. This resulted in the popular Barkley Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden.  After learning of a sequel being funded through Kickstarter (and its subsequent release date of early 2016), I was intrigued to find any new information on the game.  A few weeks ago at PAX Prime in Seattle, a playable version was shown and here’s what we have to go by now.

Before hitting the break, the actual FULL TITLE of Barkey 2 is this:

The Magical Realms of Tír na nÓg: Escape from Necron 7 – Revenge of Cuchulainn: The Official Game of the Movie – Chapter 2 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa

Got that? Don’t worry; I’ll be referring to it as “Barkley 2” from here on in.

I expect the sequel to Barkley Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden to double-down on the weird and insane, but I was STILL taken aback by the new, turn-based approach to playing basketball. Even though Barkley Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden was full of basketball references and famous players of the 90’s era of the NBA, there were never any part of that game that involved actually playing basketball. Barkley 2 addresses this, all while implementing its own take on basketball with this mini-game, that uses some of the similar JRPG elements that influenced the first game.

This means that shooting, passing, and other moves are based on player stats, class, and percentage chances, even with a few flares of strategy RPGs (SRPGs). While this creates a much slower approach to the fast and quick game of basketball, but it allows the player to set-up some really ridiculous strategies that you’d NEVER see in a basketball video game or an actual game of basketball (probably not even streetball or And1 mixtapes). Essentially, when a player is selected, the few options available are: move, act, post, and done, with that last option concluding that player’s current turn.

[Thanks Kotaku]