POSTED 4/6/11


NBA JAM

EA Sports
PS3 (also on Xbox 360, Wii)

Oh Jebus! Somebody ring 000! We‘re gonna need an ambulance. Erm, and possibly some fireys. Quickly, for fuck’s sake! Didn’t you hear the commentator guy? Can’t you see the dude there on the basketball court?! He’s on fire!

Woo! Yep, arcade wonder NBA Jam is now a lounge room wonder again some one, two, three... umm, 17 or 18 years after it first hit. Most everybody we know remembers the original fondly, but is that via rose-coloured glasses, or does the two-on-two redefinition of the term ‘over the top’ still hold up?

Whaddaya reckon? A great game’s a great game, no matter when you hit upon it. You wanna dis Pacman? Yawn at Galaga? We’d hope not. The only thing that can be fucked up is conversion – and this here Jam hasn’t just been given the full boomshakalaka, it’s had extra bits added. Stuff like first to 21, court domination, lowest score elimination, boss battles (one-on-one half court faceoffs – but not ice hockey kinda faceoffs, obviously), going the smash on backboards as its own sub-game and rudimentary onlineness.

Stuff the gimmickry though, what worked best with NBA Jam was getting two to four people together locally and going for it. As you’d demand that’s here, with wonderfully amped visuals – including the ace effect of 3D bods with 2D digitised heads (unlock ‘big head’ mode to amp the nutso fun) - up-to-date NBA players, classic commentary schtick, those insane leaps into orbit before slamming baskets home when ‘on fire’ and madder than Howard Beale codes that yield wacko bonus characters from team mascots to US political figures, including their answer to Pauline Hanson, Sarah Palin. Eep!

With all the aceness of the original and more, this NBA Jam revisiting rocks. Miss it and there’s no shoot for you!

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