3-Mar-2010 Whoomp, there it is - it's like 1993 all over again... Few games achieve mainstream success only to vanish completely from the public eye, but it's a feat NBA Jam managed. A big noise in 1993, it had all but outstayed its welcome by 1996 despite appearing on multiple consoles. While its style of over-the-top arcade action has infl uenced many subsequent sports games, NBA Jam's day seemed to be over a long time ago.
However, somebody at EA (their accountant, perhaps) reckons the NBA Jam concept is too good to consign to retro history, and after buying the rights to the game they've signed its creator, Mark Turmell, to reinvent it on today's mainstream console of choice.
Like the original version, it's an extremely simple two-on-two game where the laws of physics are dispensed with, along with most of the basketball rulebook, meaning players can leap 20 metres in the air to dunk the ball from the halfway line. The only foul is for goaltending - sticking your hands over the hoop to stop somebody scoring - so a typical play involves multiple physical assaults.
EA have turned out several similar games in recent years, under the NBA Street banner, and it'll be interesting to see how the resurrected Jam can differentiate itself from those. We suspect an even simpler control scheme and the odd waggle-based slam-dunk may be involved.
HE'S ON FIRE! It certainly looks different from other basketball games. Digitised cutouts of the players' faces pasted over the top of 3D models give it a style that's quite surreal and very much in keeping with the 1993 version. There's a whole lot of gurning going on in these preview screens. The photo shoot for this must have been fun.
Although each team has only two players on court, there are several to choose from.1 It's possible that the game may go the way of NBA Jam Tournament Edition and include modes with teams of three or five.
Repeating the success of the original won't be easy. It was so popular in its day, Orlando Magic star Shaquille O'Neal reportedly bought two full arcade machines - one to keep at home and one that travelled with his team during extended road trips. It would be set up in his hotel and shipped on to the next city after the game.
Transporting a Wii should be a lot less effort for him.
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