No, not the original NBA Jam for the SNES. I'm talking about the new one for Wii, PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.
I'm surprised that this one flew under my radar. I remember putting many hours into the original NBA Jam (well, TE anyway), and loving every minute of it. Only in the last week did I hear about the new Jam, which was released only months ago in October 2010.
At first, it took a little getting used to. The controls were familiar yet mapped out differently. I was playing on a 360 so that could have played a part. Still, it only took a couple of sittings to get it worked out.
The cool thing about the new Jam is that it feels a lot like the original. It's back to basics, fast-paced 2 on 2 street ball. The graphics have obviously improved, but it's easy to see that wasn't the focal point of this game (or the original, for that matter). Gameplay comes first, and that's what a good game is all about.
Still, they did manage to fill in a lot of the gaps that were seemingly missing or lacking in the original. The original Jam left a lot to the imagination. There was no in-game music. The players were basically pixilated blobs and didn't represent the likeness of the players they were supposed to (at least not in great detail). In the new NBA Jam, they've worked out a lot of these issues. There's in-game music. The players not only look like the real ones, even their personal eccentricities have been captured. Of course, the awesome commentary is back too.
I wouldn't even necessarily call this an update of the original Jam. I would say this is NBA Jam in its truest form. There's a lot more they could have done with this game, but instead they captured the essence and fun gameplay of the original and kept to the basics. In some ways it's more realistic, but the ridiculous acrobatic dunks are still there, players still go "on fire" after making 3 consecutive shots and you can still perform ridiculously high jumps towards the hoop inside the 3 point line.
This game didn't stick right away for me, but the more I played it the more I liked it. I found myself addicted after a few solid match-ups with friends. It's cool that they've added achievements to the game which in my opinion gives you a reason to keep coming back. I haven't had the chance to play the other modes yet, but I would certainly be curious to see what they're like.
All in all, I think this is a solid release. Sure, NBA Jam has seen many ports and updates, and even sequels (for lack of a better word). Even so, I don't think there's been this good of a release since the original. I remember playing NBA Jam for the N64 and although some of the color commentary was funny, it just wasn't the same. It was 5 on 5 basketball and most of the outrageous antics were gone. This, however, is the real deal.
