Retro Review - NBA Jam
Updated
Editor’s note: I originally authored and published the below post on a now defunct site called “The Cool Ship,” where it ran on December 11, 2011. Enjoy this reprised content!
Boomshakalaka!
Glass shattering, elbow throwing, high jumping basketball for up to four players—NBA Jam defines a genre and inspires some of the best moments us gamers have ever experienced.
Summary
NBA Jam has always been my basketball video game yardstick, to which all other basketball games and even sports games must be compared.
Why?
It takes all the fun of playing ball in the driveway and puts it on the screen and in your hands, no sweating necessary. Well, there might be a little sweating in the brawls that break out post game among your friends, but this game is otherwise very family friendly.
This game is a perfect recipe for fun and a proverbial slam dunk for the high def, ADD gamer of today (like myself). The recipe starts with mechanics.
No I don’t mean robots, although they will soon be taking over the world. The running, passing, shooting and camera angles are as simple as possible, giving new players an easy learning curve. As for dunking, blocking, stealing, graphic effects and sound, it’s all exaggerated beyond belief . Despite 20-foot high dunks and ridiculous amounts of shoving, the mechanics, or the way it plays, are butter smooth.
Ingredient two: NBA all stars in full court two on two action, plus insane dunking. Forget realism. Jam throws the NBA greats (except Jordan, he was too expensive) of the 90s against each other like Super Street Fighter for basketball. Did I mention the ball can catch fire? Make three baskets in a row and your player becomes an unstoppable super-dunker, capable of slamming it home from the three point line. No kidding.
The last fun ingredient is a no-brainer. Get three of your friends to play with you and crowd around that 20-inch CRT tube to make some memories. I’m telling you, NBA Jam has everything a game needs.
The nostalgic perspective
I played this every chance I could get. Arcades, friends’ houses, enemies’ tree forts, I didn’t care where it was. This game was so easy to just pick up and play. Like a lot of games back then the learning curve was a straight line to a dopamine high and freedom from the tyranny of authority (down with the teachers!). Between this game and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, my childhood was complete.
As I remember it, there wasn’t much to the campaign. If there was I didn’t know it because I did the multiplayer most of the time. It wasn’t the kind of game anybody would want to sit and watch, in fact I think the cover had a big sign that said, “please touch.”
The now perspective
No anticipatory remarks today, this game is still awesome. If you’ve read this far and you haven’t whipped out your old SNES or Sega Genesis to play again with friends, you obviously don’t have friends. Don’t worry, #thecoolship has your back. Several consoles have remade versions that are even better than the original. I downloaded NBA Jam to my iPod and got sucked into the campaign for an indeterminate amount of time.
I will admit that the graphics for the original have aged a little bit, but with games like Minecraft and Terraria topping the charts, it doesn’t bother me at all. The pithy in game comments are still legendary, and today’s MMMMMOOOORRRPGGGG designers could take some notes from the robust UI that stays out of the way.
In a few words, I loved it then, I love it now.
Final conclusion
The best versions by far are the PSN and Xbox Live versions, which offer you online multiplay and a more varied campaign experience for under $20. Since Josh Smallridge already saved you $10 by keeping you from seeing Red Riding Hood in theatres and Tj Johnston kept you away from the cinema over Thanksgiving, you should easily be able to afford the version for your home console. Is it the shoes?
Jam away.