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It's been a
little while but welcome back to the world of NBA Jam. Before you
cringe I am pleased to tell you that after the debacle of the last
time a Jam title was on the shelf, they have fixed a lot of
problems and overall this is a much more polished title.
There have
been a number of changes made to the game and one of those is that
the title is now three on three and you can expect gameplay to
have the same sort of flow that titles like NBA Street gave you.
The games mixes it up with a roster of past and present stars so
you have a large selection of ballers to choose from.
Jam focuses
on the extreme rather than the strict game of ball and personally
I like this approach, though truth be told, we've done it in NBA
Street Vols 1 and 2 now, and in some cases even done it better.
One thing I did like better with Jam was how easy it was to get
straight into the game and start showing off skills. There are
only a small number of combos to press to achieve some brilliant
moves and floor the opposition and they look good in their
execution too.
Graphically
the game looks a bit simplistic in comparison to the impressive
representations in the EA games, the players in this title all
looked a bit cartoony to me, albeit accurate in their depiction of
the player. Courts look good and there are some effects used
such as light's reflected on the playing surface that are nice.
Nothing new but nice. Animations are smooth and everything runs
very well in the game, although the way that some players actually
move does look odd.
One of the
sweetest things that I saw in this title was when you play in
Legends mode. The game runs in black and white! As you progress,
you eventually get to play again in colour. This was a brilliant
innovation and one that I had not seen done before, it's stuff
like this that helps the game be a little bit more than just
another basketball game crowding the shelves.
Playing
well with a player also has it's rewards in NBA Jam if he can make
three hoops in a row that will fill all your players statistics
and basically makes you all super players. This effect lasts till
you put another five shots home or the other side manages to put
one through. You are pretty much invincible when you are on fire
and would have had to screw up badly for the other team to take
possession.
The game
has the same over the top calls that I remember as well which
sounded great however I was disappointed to note that the call
can't keep up with the ongame action with some calls beginning
even after the ball has left your possession and in the hands
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