NBA Jam - Wii Previews - The Armchair Empire


	Platform Wii (Playstation 3, Xbox 360) Genre Sports Publisher Electronic Arts Developer EA Canada ETA October 5, 2010
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NBA Jam

One of the best hands-on demos I had at E3 was with NBA Jam with three other strangers. With a Wii Remote and nunchuck in my hands, it was two-on-two, side-scrolling b-ball action like I remember from way back in 1993. That is, I was grinning and having a great time within about 10 seconds of picking up the controls.

Though it definitely felt like some finesse might be better than vigorous waggling to perform a few of the moves, for the most part this is how you remember the

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arcade version of NBA Jam, complete with original announcer John Kitzrow providing one-line color commentary. (Remember “Boooooom-shaka-laka!”? Of course you do!)

Performing insane dunks and alley-oops, and flaming basketballs is par for the course with the single-player multiplayer games, but the developers are

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implementing other modes, which will showcase specific challenges. There was mention of boss fights against Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. That might help break-up any “monotony” of playing the regular games over and over.

NBA Jam looks very good on Wii, but with the recent announcement from EA stating that a download code “that will enable users to access three modes of NBA Jam” will be included with new copies of NBA Elite 11, it’ll probably look even better in high-definition.

Online play for the Wii is stated as being “in development” or words to that affect. It’s explicitly stated that Online will feature prominently in the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 “limited” versions, so it’s a little disconcerting that online play for the Wii is not touted front and center. Other games have successfully implemented online play for Wii without all sorts of Friend Code red tape – like Mario Strikers Charged – but I have to admit that good-natured jostling with friends (or my kids) on the couch might make any online play a moot point.

NBA Jam returns October 5, 2010 and I’m looking forward to it.

- Aaron Simmer

(August 4, 2010)