From "razzle-dazzle" to Clark Kellog’s dry voice, basketball gaming is about to go full circle.

With the recent announcement of EA Sports’ NBA Jam, the future of basketball gaming is finally coming to a dead end. I am a huge fan of the original NBA Jam, and possibly more excited than anyone else to see the new Wii title, but at the same time I am disappointed in what basketball gaming is coming to.

NBA 2K10 and NBA Live 10 both faced lofty expectations (yes, the expectations for both games were on different levels), but surprisingly, Live was the only one to meet them in my mind. NBA 2K9 was a fantastic game. It made major improvements upon its predecessor, and the only real problem I had with it was the fact that the Seattle SuperSonics were no longer a team. So of course 2K10 would be way better right? Well, not quite. While it was still a good game, some nagging problems and a slow patch process hampered my enjoyment with the game -- but that's not really the point here.

To dig deeper into the 2K world, a few points need to be made. After Mike Wang announced that he was leaving EA and returning to 2K, the first thought that crossed my mind was that 2K11 would not disappoint. When Wang was at 2K, the game was great on a consistent basis, and I always noticed improvements that helped to make the game a better basketball sim.

When he left, 2K dropped off a bit -- only because they did not do as much to improve the gameplay on a yearly basis. However, I guess there is no need to fix something that is not truly broken, right? Next year we should see a much more refined game with a couple new features, but I would not expect anything huge.

Continuing on with Wang, he left EA after he made the Live series relevant again. And it was not because he just loved 2K that much better, he also had a reason to leave.

"After NBA Live 10 wrapped up and we started going through the pre-production planning phase for '11, we held several meetings to discuss the future of the franchise," Wang said to Operation Sports. "After going through those meetings, it became very clear that the vision I had for the game was different from where the leadership wanted to take it."

Ever since these statements were made by Wang, a lot of assumptions have been made. Everyone, myself included, was expecting Live 11 to possibly surpass the NBA 2K series with Wang leading the charge. Nevertheless, something went wrong here, and next fall EA’s PR representatives and development team will have to work overtime to quell the questions.

But even if both development teams are on their game next year, how many more improvements can we really see in the two major titles? Do you want to spend an extra $60 for the right color headband? How about an alternate jersey or perfectly realistic simulation stats? Sure, those additions would be nice and are expected each year, but can you continue to rationalize spending the money each year?

People want to see perfect player models and movements on the court, but I feel those will never be up to people's standards -- simply because no engine can perfectly mimic the human body. People also want to see more depth in the Dynasty/Association modes, which in my opinion is the only area in either game that really can continue to be built upon on a yearly basis.

Now, some will say that companies will be saved by the next generation of gaming. When the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 (hypothetical names) hit store shelves, graphics will once again be the new thing everyone looks at. The graphics will distract some gamers enough that they will not notice the flaws in the games -- remember NBA Live '07 (do not bother mentioning NBA Live '06, I loved that game) and the joke that it was? Well, NBA Live '07 was a byproduct of the new systems being released. This process has to inevitably happen again, right?

But now let me return to NBA Jam. As I said earlier, I am both excited and disappointed. I cannot wait to play the game, but if a company as big as EA is revamping an old arcade game, this means EA has to be running a little low on ideas and gimmicks to add to its realistic counterpart, NBA Live. NBA Jam is and forever will be my favorite basketball game -- beating down friends in the third grade and full-court jamming with my college roommates are the highlights of my gaming life. In fact, just remembering back to how many times I had to play those damned Minnesota Timberwolves even brings back good memories.

That is the good of the situation, but what is the bad I keep talking about? NBA Jam is simple. I hope the new player models are the only upgrade the Jam series is getting. I want the arcade-style, ladder-climbing system back. I want it to play exactly how it did in its glory days. But the bad thing about that scenario is the fact that it would just be the arcade-style, ladder-climbing game we grew to love.

This scenario, though, is very similar to the one simulation titles are also in today. Simulation basketball games seem to be reaching the ceiling, so what do the big boys do? They remake an old game everybody loved in hopes that consumers will be content with the past.

Still, maybe that is too big of a conspiracy theory to buy into -- I am not really trying to say NBA Jam is coming out to make people forget about the simulation titles, more just making a correlation between the two hoops genres.

Beyond the big boys of the basketball genre, I also know plenty of people are praying that Sony will come out with NBA 11 this year on the PS3. However, while the Sony baseball game is possibly the best sports game on the market, maybe people should just hope the game is announced before placing expectations on it.

I realize I have been ignoring the college side of the game, but that is only because basketball gaming sucks now for people who are not fans of the NBA. With the recent announcement of EA’s NCAA Basketball franchise getting put on hold, college basketball gaming may have bit the dust for good. After all, 2K has not shown any interest in a college game, even though College Hoops 2K8 is one of the best basketball games ever.

OK, so I realize this article has been kind of doom and gloom. Yes, I have said I think basketball gaming is coming to a dead end in the sizable improvements category, but my love for the game will always supplant my wallet. I hate when these games come out every year. I tell myself to wait, that I cannot afford it, and then I go out and buy NBA 2K and $60 vanishes for another copy of NBA 2K8 with some improvements. Do I still enjoy it? of course. But do I also realize many gamers are not going to keep buying the same game year after year? Of course.