NBA Jam: Fun, Frustrating, and Fun. THE AI SUCKS. And to make things worse, it's an obvious flaw that stands out from the moment you begin playing an actual game.
However, that's the ONLY flaw in this game. And while it's tough to overlook this flaw, since you are reminded of it game in, game out, it's possible. If you have the patience...and a few extra controllers in the event you lose a couple (thanks to the ever-so-popular "frustrated flying controller death"), NBA Jam's positives far outweigh it's negatives, and is a game which is truly a blast to play.
The best way to describe the game? Well, it's like being a die hard hoops fan at an actual NBA game. When your team loses a close game, chokes, or gets beat bad...you yell, you scream (and yes, you WILL scream), you toss your hands into the air, make gestures...you get the idea. But when your team wins, you raise your fist into the sky, feel like a king, and yell "Praise the lord! Hallelujah!!!"
THE BAD
I'll just get this out of the way right now, because the bad element in NBA Jam is the make-or-break point for some folks wondering if they should fork over the $50 for this game.
THE AI SUCKS. Plain and simple. In every way you could imagine. You have 2 teammates. Yet for some reason, they don't help you at all, don't D-up, don't rebound, run a tad slower than the CPU players, and are just duds on the court for the most part. You'll find yourself screaming "DO SOMETHING!" Sadly, they don't.
In direct contrast, the CPU players are basketball gods. For inexplicable reasons (I shall place the blame solely on the idiotic AI programmers), a lackluster team like the Jazz, at times, will look like the original Dream Team. It is this blatant unevenness in the competition which is frustrating over anything else. You will lose games, sure, but that's not the problem. You can't expect to win every game after all. The problem lies in the fact that this unevenness is so OBVIOUS.
For example, when a hotspot (a spot on the court where you can go for a monster jam worth 3 points or more) opens up for your team, the CPU players crowd the hotspot and do everything and anything to prevent you from getting to that hotspot. On the other hand, when a hotspot opens up for the CPU team, they make a B-Line straight to that hotspot, and your chances of stopping them are not nearly as close as their chances were of stopping you (especially since your meatbag teammates don't do jack to help you).
Also, you'd think that Midway's ever-so-famous "rubber-band AI" would not be present, especially with Acclaim running the show now...alas, it's still there...and more blatant than ever. Like if you're up 11 points in the fourth, with 1 minute left, the game is far from over. Somehow the CPU will find a way to get the ball from you, and go on a 10-0 run within a span of 10 seconds...and no, I'm NOT kidding.
THE GOOD
Frankly, just about everything in NBA Jam is done the way it should be. If you have hungered for a game like NBA Jam since NBA Jam, the modern day version will have you re-live those days when you walked into the arcade, and saw the only B-Ball game surrounded by 10 or more people. You'll remember those moments when you 1st heard the phrase "OOOOOOOOH! Boom Shakalaka!" as Tim Kitrow once again repeats those classic words.
Graphics: You can't really say much about the graphics. They don't push the envelope for the Xbox (or probably even the PS2 for that matter), but they're good enough. Player models are a mixture of real and super-deformed, with exaggerated limbs and huge extremities. The players look like their real-life counterparts during the game, like Shaq being a fatass, Shawn Bradley being a walking toothpick, and Earl Boykins being a dwarf to every other player in the game. However, it's pretty obvious they plastered the portraits onto the polygon heads, because some players have an odd fish-eye look on the player selection screen.
All of the arenas and outdoor courts are rendered in great detail, and the audiences are probably the most impressively animated audiences of any hoops game to date. The wide assortment of dunks themselves are animated in a spectacular fashion, with exploding, fiery visuals at times. All in all, the graphics are nothing to rave about, but with a quite different, exaggerated style, they do a game like this justice.
Sounds: Definitely one of the strongest parts of the game is the audio. Both the sound effects and the commentary are top notch and add a lot of flavor to the game. First and foremost, Tim Kitrow once again assumes his original role as the quite colorful and humorous commentator. Unlike prior games (Blitz, Hitz, and Jam) where he'd repeat the same things over and over again, he has a much wider assortment of comments in NBA Jam. Comments like "That must be jam because jelly don't shake like that!" when you pull off a shake-and-bake spin move, or "Say hello to Mr. Floor!" when you push someone, will have you going "TSSSSSHHHHHH!" every time, but you'll also smile when you do that.
Another cool thing about NBA Jam's commentary is that it changes depending on what era you're playing in. When you play the old-school pre-70's teams in the Legends Tournament, not only will the camera filter to black-and-white, but Tim Kitrow's voice will have a different tone, as if he was younger and as if the sound equipment he was using was more shanty. And instead of saying modern-era things like "Boom Shakalaka!" he'll say things like "That was real jim-dandy stuff-bucket, I tell ya!"
When you play the 80's teams, Tim Kitrow is relieved of commentating duties by none other than Bootsy Collins, whose voice you may remember from the "Keep that funk alive!" commercials. The diversity between both Tim Kitrow and Bootsy Collins' commentating styles is a very nice and welcome change, as it keeps the commentary from getting old fast.
As with the commentating, the music itself changes as you go from era to era. When you play pre-70's teams, they play bits from pre-70's songs during the game (ie after shots, dunks, etc) like "Go, Johnny Go! Go!" When you play the 80's teams, the songs are more funk-like (think George Clinton). And when you play the modern game, they play bits of hip-hop/rap sound bits. Overall, the sound works to keep the game strangely authentic yet still exaggerated.
Presentation: Another strong aspect of the game is the presentation. The default camera angle is essentially the same as the original NBA Jam, just "3D-ized." You will be treated to instant replays on just about every spectacular dunk, and if not, you can always manually "force" a replay by pressing the BACK button.
Also, as the sounds change when you go into the pre-70's and 80's, so goes the overall presentation. Pre-70's, the game uses a black-and-white filter, the court appearance changes with no 3-Point line (so no 3-pointers), and you play on a gym court (instead of an arena).
There are quite a few unlockables, such as extra codes, more arenas, more teams, more props to give your created player (and I must point out, the create-a-player feature in this game is definitely the best of any NBA game out there...EA and Sega need to copy this), and even concept art. You can unlock all these things by getting "Jam Points" which are attained through various means.
One innovative aspect which has been instilled in NBA Jam, is that after every game, there is an "NBA trivia" segment where you can accrue more Jam Points by answering one trivia question correctly. And the questions range from "Which team during the 2002-2003 season was the only team to start at least the same 4 starters for all 82 games of the season?" to "Who was the 1st player to record a triple-double?" Not only is it another way to gain Jam Points, but it also gives the common NBA Jam player, and NBA fan, more insight and appreciation of NBA history.
OVERALL
NBA Jam does have it's flaws. But these flaws can be overlooked with a certain level of patience. The stupid AI is the main flaw, but as with most "stupid AI'ed" games, it becomes generally predictable. From this predictability, you can learn how to prevent the AI from TOTALLY screwing you over...and it would have been nice to see Acclaim utilize Xbox Live in this game for competition, rather than simply downloadable content. A game like this was made for online competition, especially with EA's crap out on Xbox Live, so it's disappointing in that regard.
However, if you were a fan of the original, classic NBA Jam, and you've always wanted a game that recreated that magic of the original with some enhancements thanks to the technology of the next-gen consoles then this game should be your cup of tea. And although I've ragged all over the cheap-ass AI in this game, think about this: as a multi-player game, NBA Jam would be a BLAST to play. If anything, it should tide you over for the while until the real slew of NBA games comes out (ie ESPN NBA Basketball 2K4).
Create an Account
Member Login
