I was concerned I couldn't give this game its due respect in review form, considering how odd an overall package it is and how much of its appeal lies both in- and outside of its nostalgic 16-bit JRPG trappings and absurd sense of humor. I believe I have found an angle that works:
Everybody Get Up, It's Time to Slam Now
Barkley, Shut Up & Jam: Gaiden (occasionally referred to as Charles Barkley, Shut Up & Jam: Gaiden, using its irascible protagonist's full name) is an RPG Maker-derived fan game from fledgling Indie studio Tales of Game's. As far as I can tell, the typo in their name is deliberate. In fact, much of the game's rough edges are deliberate, as its spoof humor is as much in service to its contemporaries of the RPG Maker community as it is to such cultural cornerstones as the never-more-popular mid-90s period of basketball and its superstars, Squaresoft JRPGs and, definitely not least of all, the 1996 Michael Jordan/Looney Tunes movie Space Jam.
We Got a Real Jam Goin' Down, Welcome to the Space Jam
In fact, the importance of Space Jam to the overarching narrative the game spins cannot be understated. It's a curious idea even beyond the confines of a parody game such as Barkley, Shut Up & Jam - that of the video game sequel to a movie. There are plenty of games that are made with the conceit that the players are at least familiar with its motion picture source material: This is especially true of movie licenses, of course, but also of games like Visceral's Godfather duo and Telltale's Back to the Future series, which follow independent storylines that either take place concurrently with the movies they pertain to or shortly thereafter. While it might seem almost inappropriate for a video game to request their players have an awareness of a piece of entertainment from an entirely separate medium, it also exhibits an odd kind of respect for an audience by asking it for this additional investment which, while as silly as all this Space Jam business may be, is still an interesting direction for a video game narrative to take.
Therefore it's recommended, though not compulsory, to catch a viewing of Space Jam before playing Barkley, Shut Up & Jam, if only to familiarize yourself with several aspects of the movie that the game focuses on, such as Barkley's role in the film and the origins of the "Ultimate B-Ball", as being aware of these elements beforehand can be highly conducive towards understanding the game's already complex plot. On the other hand, it is equally possible to pick up the context of the events of the movie as you play, as several playable characters are happy to churn expository dialogue about this "post-cyberpocalyptic world", its various political factions and the historical events leading up to Barkley's fateful "Chaos Dunk".
Here's Your Chance, Do Your Dance at the Space Jam, Alright
The player assumes the role of Charles Barkley, and to a lesser extent the other members of his party. As with many RPGs, the protagonist is the one that the player guides around, chooses dialogue options for, and so on, and the connection between the player and main character is enhanced by Charles Barkley's own attitude towards his role in the story: He's not entirely cognizant of the many forces at work in the world he's found himself in, so he acts as a useful audience surrogate for his two more knowledgeable partners - a magic sword-wielding descendant of LeBron James and an extra-terrestrial dwarf with basketball rubber for skin - to fill him (and the player) in on the various rules, important people and other necessary knowledge about the world.
Charles Barkley will at times be both invested in the events that follow, due to the involvement of his fictitious young son Hoopz Barkley, while also being entirely apathetic towards many side-quests and other distractions. This also works in the favor of Barkley being the audience surrogate, since it's likely the player is keenly aware of the unfortunate tropes being referenced in any given sequence and might share a similar sense of frustration or indifference to being asked to write a poem for a lovestruck snail fursuiter or deduce the mystery behind an island of anti-sugar cultists, for example. It's a testament to how incongruously well-written the game is that it's so able to empathize with its likely audience of JRPG veterans, as well as those who have no idea what is going on.
Hey You, Watcha Gonna Do? Hey You, Watcha Gonna Do?
The player is given a lot of agency in Barkley, Shut Up & Jam: Gaiden, to an extent that is perhaps unusual for a game based on 16-bit JRPGs, which were on the whole generally more linear than their PC RPG equivalents. That isn't to say BSU&J:G doesn't railroad you in odd (but entirely congruent) ways that befits a JRPG that has a particular path to follow. Many story choices basically amount to a classic Dragon Warrior-style "but thou must!" non-decision, while others might suggest a realm of side-questing that never actually transpires. There are hints that a door will open up after completing a late stage dungeon, for instance, but there is no way to actually return to that region of the game once the aforementioned dungeon is complete. Similarly, the game teases a "Hunter's Board" series of optional boss fights in the vein of Final Fantasy XII's expansive side-quest, but doesn't deliver beyond the single boss fight that is required to progress the game. These are, much like every other "fault" of the game, entirely deliberate jokes at the player's expense. It's generally best to just walk on by whenever you hear a rumor of a fantastic secret weapon or any instance that might involve backtracking for a reward.
Rather, then, the lion's share of player agency rests in its combat. The player can choose from various attack "modes", all of which require the player to perform a timing-based mini-game of sorts. Each playable character (barring one very temporary party member) has a commendably large assortment of such attacks, and they can range from hitting a gauge at the right time to do the most damage, moving an attack cursor around to damage multiple opponents in a short period of time and entering a string of combination attacks a la Sabin Figaro of Final Fantasy VI or Zell Dincht of Final Fantasy VIII.
Party People In the House Let's Go - It's Your Boy Jayski, A'ight, So
It's worth taking a moment to talk about the other members in the group. I don't wish to delve into anything or anyone more specifically than I have done already, because a lot of the game's better jokes work as reveals - especially when regarding new party members. However, the way they tend to be incorporated and occasionally dismissed is one of the best examples of the flexibility of a JRPG party since Final Fantasy IV: Though there are more than four characters, the player only ever has four at once, so there's a few cutscenes that involve one character leaving to be replaced by another. The game manages to expertly tie this in with its narrative, and it's an aspect I hope this eventual sequel will continue to employ rather than provide a surplus number of members the player might not consider even using. That said, several vital characters tend to stick with the party for the majority of the game, so the player has ample chance to get to grips with the idioscyncrasies of their particular attack methods and their strategic role in the party.
Pass That Thing and Watch Me Flex
The party's equipment is a fairly standard assortment of weapons and armor that the player finds either lying around in dungeons or sold by vendors; they contain the standard incremental boosts to various eccentric statistics such as "basketball points", which fuel the special attacks of each member of the party. These special attacks are learned upon leveling up or reaching certain points of the story, and don't require the special player actions the regular attacks do, making them far more reliable (though, of course, limited). There are also the standard consumable items for ailments, though one of the game's unique touches is having these ailments be far more down-to-earth everyday impairments such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes and Asperger's Syndrome. Whether these ailments in particular were chosen due to the curious nature of a world where tobacco can cure diabetes and Parkinson's, or if real-life afflictions are more worrisome and truer to the reality of BSU&J:G's Neo New York setting than the usual fantasy fare, it's impossible to ascertain. Probably best to chalk it up to the game's keen sense of absurdism.
Behind My Back, You Know What's Next
As I stated earlier in the review, much of the game's core appeal is in the odd and unpredictable directions the story will take the player. The dungeons of a "Celtic space pirate", the tombs of long-dead b-ball stars who pass on their powers to Charles Barkley after he atones for his mistakes, a quick and entirely optional trip to the "b-ball dimension", the customary sewers level, J Allard's underground body transformation cosmetic surgery clinic, the inscrutably futuristic ruins of the Spalding basketball production facility - it's hard to mention a single point of this game (either in or out of context, really) without garnering bewilderment from anyone to whom you're trying to explain what's going on. Paradoxically, this makes the game hard to extol without ruining what makes it work in the first place. Hopefully that above list (merely the tip of the iceberg, trust me) is sufficient to whet one's interest in the game without despoiling too much of the impact when encountering the game's many instances of ludicrousness.
To The Jam, All in Your Face - Whassup, Just Feel the Bass
A special note must be said for the game's excellent use of music. One aspect that is unfortunately common with RPG Maker projects is how the software will allow a creator to liberally borrow sprites, photos and music from extant sources with its robust import tools, and the frequency with which less skilled designers opt to utilize these tools. BSU&J:G in particular takes the opportunity and fully exploits it, which can either be seen as an indication of the game's sense of humor by using mangled and badly artifacted jpeg photos to represent the various real-life basketball personalities it features, or it could be viewed as a satirical statement on how awful and unprofessional the practice is among RPG Maker games. The latter might be reading too much into the matter - the game is clearly a low-budget production that took whatever measures it could get away with - but the added context that comes with the news that the sequel plans to create all its artwork from scratch would seem to suggest that the original game's artistic direction was a deliberate jab at RPG Maker user tendencies. Either way, the outside music and graphics comedically enhance the entirely acceptable artwork and musical compositions created solely for the game.
I did mention the music specifically: Beyond its use of a remixed Space Jam theme from the Quad City DJs, the single instance I'm aware of in which BSU&J:G takes a different game's song and imports it wholesale is this one. If that's not ample indication that the game is taking the mickey, I don't know how else to convince you.
Drop It, Rock It, Down the Room - Shake It, Quake It, Space Kaboom!
At this point, I'd like to wrap up my review, before it becomes longer to read than the game is to play. The - dare I say intelligence? - of the game's design is that while it will happily embrace many of JRPG's worst clichés and overindulgences for the sake of a knowing wink of a gag, it refuses to linger too long on any one of them. The game is so tightly-paced that it might be hard to recognize its excellent sense of timing with the amount of goofy tangential missions and side-stories it chooses to throw your way. If you're not a huge fan of long JRPG dungeons, no single instance in this game will take over half an hour to complete. It has dungeons that require keys to progress, dungeons that require navigating a maze and, of course, the much despised jaunts down the local sewer system - however, not a single one of these scenarios wear out their welcome. I might mention a certain other developer of 16-bit JRPG parody games that will often fall into the same traps of the titles they ostensibly spoof, creating long stretches of nothing but constant battles and maze-like environments. BSU&J:G is keenly aware of the player's time and their interest in reaching the next snippet of insane story or absurd humorous interlude and keeps things mercifully brief.
Overall, it'd be easy to recommend this game without caveats if it was sitting on XBLA or Steam with a ten dollar price tag. As it's currently free on the developers' website and will remain so for the time being, it's a hard thing to pass up if it's somehow managed to evade you this long. Obviously a keen interest in that older style of JRPG, basketball or movies where cartoon characters play sports with real-life personalities is a boon when coming into something like this, but it's ultimately unnecessary in order to appreciate Barkley, Shut Up & Jam: Gaiden for its inscrutable charms.