It’s been 17 years since 1993’s Cultural Phenomenon NBA JAM was the talk of the world. Ever since I first heard that EA Sports had bought the rights and was going to bring it back I couldn’t contain my excitement, it was just too much to handle, dare I say, “Boom-shaka-laka!”. The big reason everyone loved the original NBA JAM for the arcade and console was that it was just about having fun.
I think one of the favorite parts of NBA JAM wasn’t just the basketball but all of the phrases. Who among us doesn’t say, “From Downtown!” or say, “For Three!” whenever someone is shooting a 3? How about saying, “”Razzle Dazzle” whenever something really exciting is about to happen such as a really good dunk. While reading this column it would be fair to say, “He’s heating up”, which leads me into one of my all time favorite phrases of NBA JAM, “”He’s on fire!”. And the best phrase of NBA JAM will and always will be when the game is tied with no time left and they yell, “OVVVERRR TIME”, as my friend, John Bayan, would yell whenever a class went longer than its allotted time. This new NBA JAM has all the classic phrases plus some new ones.
Obviously the second I put NBA JAM in my PS3 I was expecting to be blown away yet I was saddened. Maybe my memories were better than actuality but the graphics just looked weird, I realize they made a 2-D game into a 3-D game but it just looked off. After awhile you do get used to it though. But I couldn’t fully get sucked into the action.
The problem with all future NBA JAM’s after the original such as Tournament Edition and such was that it was more about pushing and shoving. I mean I am all for defense which is a part of basketball but just randomly getting shoved to the ground while bring the ball up court or in midair going for the jam? That has nothing to do with basketball. I mean it’s called NBA JAM, not NBA PUSH and SHOVE. It is just really irritating to get shoved randomly all game long. So what should you do if you want to play basketball and not get shoved, shoot the 3 ball. Yes, in order to win by more than 10 points and actually have fun you have to have a really good 3 point shooter on your team plus a bruiser. Basically you need one player to bring the ball upcourt and shoot mostly 3’s and another guy to do the dirty work such as rebound and block shots of course it doesn’t hurt if he can dunk, score, pass and bring the ball up as well. Needless to say Dwyane Wade and Lebron James isn’t the best one-two punch nor is Wade or James and Chris Bosh. The best two tandems I found so far are interesting enough from James’s former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers; Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison or Mark Price and Anderson Varejao, not the flashiest of duos mind you, but the best I could find so far.
There is one other huge problem with this game, you can’t control the other player. In the past you could toggle to control both players. So you better make sure you are controlling the player you want to control based on who you need control over more and that player is of course the one who brings the ball up and shoots the 3’s. The other player will be a drone so make sure the drone will know to push and shove, rebound and block shots without you having to tell them alas a bruiser. And your drone will hardly ever shoot 3-pointers even if that drone is Ray Allen oddly enough.
Even after telling you about all of its faults NBA JAM is a MUST RENT, it would be a must buy but the fact that you can’t play basketball and have to shoot 3-pointers 50-75% of the time to avoid getting pushed and shoved too much and win big plus you still can’t trade players, makes it more of a renter then something that you would want to buy. The original NBA JAM for the arcade and console is still the best, since it was the only one that was about having fun, you could shoot as little 3’s or as many 3’s as you wanted without a care in the world. But I will keep NBA JAM from Gamefly for at least a month, I got to get all the unlock-able players, especially Allen Iverson as a Philadelphia 76er and Shaquille O’Neal as an Orlando Magic. Now if only this game had Latrell Sprewell and Chris Webber (the Golden State Warrior team for the original NBA JAM for Sega CD (Genius) then it would be a MUST BUY!!!
Farhan Latif writes exclusively for CloudFantasy. Email him here
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