I am going to do some short stories on a topic that is close to my heart…hair. Videogames don’t do a great job with hair but they do a terrible job with black hair. I want to highlight some games through out my life that have had some influential hair styles.
The first game that brought black hair to life for me was NBA Jam Tournament Edition! I had this game for Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis, and Sega Game Gear (I loved it ok…). I grew up in the suburbs. While my other black peers were getting high top fades in the nineties, I was surrounded by bowl cuts and white boys (great people, seriously). Cable TV and videogames were my window into the black hair as a youth. I would watch Wild n’ Crazy Kids Omar Gooding and then pop in some NBA Jam TE.
I’m seeing high top fades, caesars, that part shaved into the hair line. Players are bald, players have buzz cuts, it’s a veritable buffet of black hair (and white hair too!). The best part about this game is that on Sega Saturn they used player photos on the models to have the faces and hair look accurate. The most iconic style for me is Patrick Ewing.
These aren’t just players in the game for me, this is my window into black culture beyond Centerville, Ohio. Games today still can’t produce good looking corn rows but we can have a Ferrari F40 look photorealistc. I wasn’t watching BET growing up, I had my family and my friends but the cartoons I watched didn’t have any black people in them either. The fact that NBA Jam TE took so much pride in replicating the style of the game is monumental. The NBA is defined by its style and hair is such is a big part of that. You can look at the length of a players shorts and his hairdo and know exactly what season you’re watching…. Look at Grandmama below and tell me you don’t know exactly what year this game is from….
Somehow in 2014 few games have done black hair better than NBA Jam and NBA Jam TE. Also, the most iconic image from that game….and the coolest! (his hair changed color every game!!!!)…
Dennis Rodman! and the Admiral….. hair don’t get blacker than that. Peace
J3Blackgamer 