![]() “Smash Mode” has teams of two-players attempting to shatter their opponents backboard (which has its own “health” meter on the bottom of the screen) by nailing wild slam dunks or alley oops. The “remix” mode simply dumps randomly generated power-ups or detrimental picks ups on the screen, some of which will speed up your baller or make him smaller, for example. In the “Remix Tour” you’ll participate in a variety of new game types and modes which tweak the NBA Jam formula ever so slightly. The game’s “Remix Tour,” however, switches things up and it’s not always for the best. In the “Classic Campaign” you’ll pick a team and work your way through the game’s entire roaster in two-on-two games. ![]() For those interested in a more authentic NBA Jam experience, “Play Now” and “Classic Campaign” will allow you to play the game exactly as it was originally created. The result is a game that looks good, but not great, yet completely serviceable and exactly what fans of the original are probably hoping for.ĮA Sports has added a handful of new gameplay modes and features to the game, most of which are welcome, while a few fall flat. In reality, Electronic Arts has updated the visuals while maintaining the same vibe and feel of its predecessors - players now feature 3D-style bodies with photo-realistic animated 2D heads. NBA Jam also looks just like you remember it, which is to say this is probably how you think the arcade game looked through those rose tinted glasses you’re wearing. The game also sounds just like you remember it, with original NBA Jam announcer Tim Kitzrow back and hollering old favorite lines like “He’s on fire!” along with a handful of updated catchphrases. There’s also something to be said about physically slamming down your hand, nailing a wild dunk, and then turning to your friend for the ever-important shit talking. It sounds gimmicky and possibly even annoying, but the actions are subtle enough that they don’t get tiring. For dunks, you lift the Wii Remote as you approach the net and then slam it down to complete the action. Motion controls come into play for shooting - you simply raise the Wii Remote and “flick” to release the ball. Players are moved using the analog stick on the Nunchuk, with various well-placed buttons for passing and turbo. But I’d ask those players to give the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination a try, as I surprisingly found myself having the most fun with that setup.Īs corny as it sounds, this particular control scheme actually “got me into the game” more than ever before. If you’ve ever played NBA Jam on a console, you know exactly what to expect with the first two, and many players may skip the third option in favor of familiarity. There are three control options for NBA Jam Wii - Wii Remote only, Wii Classic Controller, and Wii Remote and Nunchuk. It feels great too, with controls that are responsive, regardless of how you decide to play the game. All of the basic mechanics from the original are here, from the “Turbo” to the dunks to “heating up” to sink a flaming basketball through a net. Every quarter is a high-energy, fast-paced, in-your-face dunk-fest that doesn’t let up from start to finish. While the latter isn’t likely, the bottom line is that NBA Jam for the Wii feels and plays like NBA Jam. ![]() So let’s get it out of the way right now - Electronic Arts either figured out what worked so well or just copied code over from the original game and dumped it on a Wii disc. It’s NBA Jam for the Wii, and in most ways (for better or for worse), the thrills are exactly as you remember them. Oh, and it was a hell of a lot of fun to play.ġ7 years later, the former arcade giant Midway has shuttered its doors and Electronic Arts has swooped in to bring the classic arcade basketball game back from the dead. It’s a game that also managed to boil down some of the most exciting aspects of the sport - the speed, the neck-and-neck scores as the clock runs down, the over-the-top showmanship of dunks - and crammed it into an easy to digest experience, even for the sports illiterate. The hook was that the game was so flashy and so garish, with its big-headed characters models and hyperactive announcer, you simply couldn’t ignore it. I was just entering high school, having avoided sports for some 14 years in favor of defeating master robots, rescuing princesses, and memorizing Cannibal Corpse lyrics. The game was Midway’s basketball game, NBA Jam, and the year was 1993. With almost no desire to watch or participate in sports as a child, it was a dusty arcade machine in a low-rent video store that let me experience the rush of sinking my first three-pointer.
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