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This thread has been linked to the game 'NBA Jam: On Fire Edition'.
FIFA 2012 has made it another triumphant year for EA selling around one million in the UK alone in its first week and continuing to dominate even now! The new tackling system, improved visuals and sheer depth in the game is enough to get any footballing fan excited. Sadly though I’m not a football fan and in terms of sporting outings there wasn’t really anything that caught my eye this year. That is until EA did the unthinkable and released a brand new NBA Jam that not only compliments the older SNES game that I had, but somehow makes it even crazier than ever.
NBA Jam is not a sim but rather a fast paced, over the top arcade version of the American pastime. Here you’ll find two on two matches with some of the sports best ballers, both past and present. Controls are narrowed down to passing and shooting with a few tricks available to confuse your opponents. It’s simple but hugely addictive as sinking three points and nailing trick shots never grows tiresome as you mock the other player doing so. Alley-oops and slam dunks look absolutely amazing in action and are simple to execute requiring just a little timing. Becoming ‘On Fire’ is still present with three baskets resulting in said player literally running in a blaze of flames and becoming more skilled. A new addition is also the ability for your team to become ‘On Fire’ via three unanswered alley-oops. It’s very satisfying to be granted these abilities and creates a great sense of fear and panic should the opposing team earn it too. Overall the game mechanics are still very ‘NBA Jam’ but with more animations and a few little tricks here and there which is by no means a bad thing.
The ’Road Trip’ mode sees you touring the US taking on every team from the NBA league. Every team has four difficulties to complete with some even offering variations on the game. For example you may play one quarter with turbo maxed out or have slam dunks count as one point and three pointers count as four. It’s these little changes that stop the game becoming overly repetitive too quickly. With the added option of playing co-op both on the console and online is and added bonus. The one issue I do have is in the game’s sometimes unfair difficulty. Even on silver my brother and I had a ridiculously hard time gaining the upper hand resulting in a lot of frustration and cursing. When NBA Jam is fun, it’s majorly fun, but when it’s unfairly punishing it becomes too much to take.
If computer controlled players aren’t your thing then playing online works really well with next to no lag at all. The leaderboards and online community are also brilliant offering joint challenges to beat with your friends list and weekly milestones to topple. Best option of all though, is the ‘Jam Now’ feature where up to four of you can play on one console. This IS how NBA Jam is meant to be played and after extensive play with my three friends over the weekend, it’s easily the most fun I’ve had with a multiplayer all year.
It’s hard not to be taken in by NBA Jam’s unorthodox visuals boasting almost South Park-esque characters. The body animates wonderfully while the head is simply a real life cut-out of the star’s head. It’s odd and perfectly suits the style of the game. The announcer too is Tim Kitzrow from the original Jam game which only adds to the overall quality of this product. Not only is he hilarious but the commentating is never mistimed and keeps up with the pace perfectly. The music is also a nice mix of retro and modern tracks too.
While the tour mode, online options and exhibition mode are bulky enough to keep you playing, challenges are spread over everything you do and play that can range from scoring a certain amount of slam dunks to breaking the backboard on the court. Furthermore these challenges are stackable taking you from bronze which may be ten or so dunks right up to diamond which could be in the hundreds. It gives a nice sense of progression and more importantly adds to your credits.
In terms of content NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is packed with it. Every game you play earns you credits which can be spent on titles and backgrounds for your tag, players, unique ball types, teams and more wacky tweaks. The teams are hilarious and include the likes of Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, President Obama, The Beasty Boys, Stickmen and more. Trust me when I say that you’ll want to unlock them all, as seeing each and every one is always a delight. Overall there is a ton to do with promise of DLC in the near future.
NBA Jam: On Fire Edition stays true to the original while bringing it flawlessly up to date for 2011 and more high profile titles. Unfair AI aside NBA Jam may be the best sports title I’ve gotten my hands on this year. Sorry FIFA but I prefer my sports over the top with ridiculous amounts of fun. Boomshakalaka!!
9/10
NBA Jam is not a sim but rather a fast paced, over the top arcade version of the American pastime. Here you’ll find two on two matches with some of the sports best ballers, both past and present. Controls are narrowed down to passing and shooting with a few tricks available to confuse your opponents. It’s simple but hugely addictive as sinking three points and nailing trick shots never grows tiresome as you mock the other player doing so. Alley-oops and slam dunks look absolutely amazing in action and are simple to execute requiring just a little timing. Becoming ‘On Fire’ is still present with three baskets resulting in said player literally running in a blaze of flames and becoming more skilled. A new addition is also the ability for your team to become ‘On Fire’ via three unanswered alley-oops. It’s very satisfying to be granted these abilities and creates a great sense of fear and panic should the opposing team earn it too. Overall the game mechanics are still very ‘NBA Jam’ but with more animations and a few little tricks here and there which is by no means a bad thing.
The ’Road Trip’ mode sees you touring the US taking on every team from the NBA league. Every team has four difficulties to complete with some even offering variations on the game. For example you may play one quarter with turbo maxed out or have slam dunks count as one point and three pointers count as four. It’s these little changes that stop the game becoming overly repetitive too quickly. With the added option of playing co-op both on the console and online is and added bonus. The one issue I do have is in the game’s sometimes unfair difficulty. Even on silver my brother and I had a ridiculously hard time gaining the upper hand resulting in a lot of frustration and cursing. When NBA Jam is fun, it’s majorly fun, but when it’s unfairly punishing it becomes too much to take.
If computer controlled players aren’t your thing then playing online works really well with next to no lag at all. The leaderboards and online community are also brilliant offering joint challenges to beat with your friends list and weekly milestones to topple. Best option of all though, is the ‘Jam Now’ feature where up to four of you can play on one console. This IS how NBA Jam is meant to be played and after extensive play with my three friends over the weekend, it’s easily the most fun I’ve had with a multiplayer all year.
It’s hard not to be taken in by NBA Jam’s unorthodox visuals boasting almost South Park-esque characters. The body animates wonderfully while the head is simply a real life cut-out of the star’s head. It’s odd and perfectly suits the style of the game. The announcer too is Tim Kitzrow from the original Jam game which only adds to the overall quality of this product. Not only is he hilarious but the commentating is never mistimed and keeps up with the pace perfectly. The music is also a nice mix of retro and modern tracks too.
While the tour mode, online options and exhibition mode are bulky enough to keep you playing, challenges are spread over everything you do and play that can range from scoring a certain amount of slam dunks to breaking the backboard on the court. Furthermore these challenges are stackable taking you from bronze which may be ten or so dunks right up to diamond which could be in the hundreds. It gives a nice sense of progression and more importantly adds to your credits.
In terms of content NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is packed with it. Every game you play earns you credits which can be spent on titles and backgrounds for your tag, players, unique ball types, teams and more wacky tweaks. The teams are hilarious and include the likes of Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, President Obama, The Beasty Boys, Stickmen and more. Trust me when I say that you’ll want to unlock them all, as seeing each and every one is always a delight. Overall there is a ton to do with promise of DLC in the near future.
NBA Jam: On Fire Edition stays true to the original while bringing it flawlessly up to date for 2011 and more high profile titles. Unfair AI aside NBA Jam may be the best sports title I’ve gotten my hands on this year. Sorry FIFA but I prefer my sports over the top with ridiculous amounts of fun. Boomshakalaka!!
9/10
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FIFA 2012 has made it another triumphant year for EA selling around one million in the UK alone in its first week and continuing to dominate even now! The new tackling system, improved visuals and sheer depth in the game is enough to get any footballing fan excited. Sadly though I’m not a football fan and in terms of sporting outings there wasn’t really anything that caught my eye this year. That is until EA did the unthinkable and released a brand new NBA Jam that not only compliments the older SNES game that I had, but somehow makes it even crazier than ever.
NBA Jam is not a sim but rather a fast paced, over the top arcade version of the American pastime. Here you’ll find two on two matches with some of the sports best ballers, both past and present. Controls are narrowed down to passing and shooting with a few tricks available to confuse your opponents. It’s simple but hugely addictive as sinking three points and nailing trick shots never grows tiresome as you mock the other player doing so. Alley-oops and slam dunks look absolutely amazing in action and are simple to execute requiring just a little timing. Becoming ‘On Fire’ is still present with three baskets resulting in said player literally running in a blaze of flames and becoming more skilled. A new addition is also the ability for your team to become ‘On Fire’ via three unanswered alley-oops. It’s very satisfying to be granted these abilities and creates a great sense of fear and panic should the opposing team earn it too. Overall the game mechanics are still very ‘NBA Jam’ but with more animations and a few little tricks here and there which is by no means a bad thing.
The ’Road Trip’ mode sees you touring the US taking on every team from the NBA league. Every team has four difficulties to complete with some even offering variations on the game. For example you may play one quarter with turbo maxed out or have slam dunks count as one point and three pointers count as four. It’s these little changes that stop the game becoming overly repetitive too quickly. With the added option of playing co-op both on the console and online is and added bonus. The one issue I do have is in the game’s sometimes unfair difficulty. Even on silver my brother and I had a ridiculously hard time gaining the upper hand resulting in a lot of frustration and cursing. When NBA Jam is fun, it’s majorly fun, but when it’s unfairly punishing it becomes too much to take.
If computer controlled players aren’t your thing then playing online works really well with next to no lag at all. The leaderboards and online community are also brilliant offering joint challenges to beat with your friends list and weekly milestones to topple. Best option of all though, is the ‘Jam Now’ feature where up to four of you can play on one console. This IS how NBA Jam is meant to be played and after extensive play with my three friends over the weekend, it’s easily the most fun I’ve had with a multiplayer all year.
It’s hard not to be taken in by NBA Jam’s unorthodox visuals boasting almost South Park-esque characters. The body animates wonderfully while the head is simply a real life cut-out of the star’s head. It’s odd and perfectly suits the style of the game. The announcer too is Tim Kitzrow from the original Jam game which only adds to the overall quality of this product. Not only is he hilarious but the commentating is never mistimed and keeps up with the pace perfectly. The music is also a nice mix of retro and modern tracks too.
While the tour mode, online options and exhibition mode are bulky enough to keep you playing, challenges are spread over everything you do and play that can range from scoring a certain amount of slam dunks to breaking the backboard on the court. Furthermore these challenges are stackable taking you from bronze which may be ten or so dunks right up to diamond which could be in the hundreds. It gives a nice sense of progression and more importantly adds to your credits.
In terms of content NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is packed with it. Every game you play earns you credits which can be spent on titles and backgrounds for your tag, players, unique ball types, teams and more wacky tweaks. The teams are hilarious and include the likes of Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, President Obama, The Beasty Boys, Stickmen and more. Trust me when I say that you’ll want to unlock them all, as seeing each and every one is always a delight. Overall there is a ton to do with promise of DLC in the near future.
NBA Jam: On Fire Edition stays true to the original while bringing it flawlessly up to date for 2011 and more high profile titles. Unfair AI aside NBA Jam may be the best sports title I’ve gotten my hands on this year. Sorry FIFA but I prefer my sports over the top with ridiculous amounts of fun. Boomshakalaka!!
9/10
NBA Jam is not a sim but rather a fast paced, over the top arcade version of the American pastime. Here you’ll find two on two matches with some of the sports best ballers, both past and present. Controls are narrowed down to passing and shooting with a few tricks available to confuse your opponents. It’s simple but hugely addictive as sinking three points and nailing trick shots never grows tiresome as you mock the other player doing so. Alley-oops and slam dunks look absolutely amazing in action and are simple to execute requiring just a little timing. Becoming ‘On Fire’ is still present with three baskets resulting in said player literally running in a blaze of flames and becoming more skilled. A new addition is also the ability for your team to become ‘On Fire’ via three unanswered alley-oops. It’s very satisfying to be granted these abilities and creates a great sense of fear and panic should the opposing team earn it too. Overall the game mechanics are still very ‘NBA Jam’ but with more animations and a few little tricks here and there which is by no means a bad thing.
The ’Road Trip’ mode sees you touring the US taking on every team from the NBA league. Every team has four difficulties to complete with some even offering variations on the game. For example you may play one quarter with turbo maxed out or have slam dunks count as one point and three pointers count as four. It’s these little changes that stop the game becoming overly repetitive too quickly. With the added option of playing co-op both on the console and online is and added bonus. The one issue I do have is in the game’s sometimes unfair difficulty. Even on silver my brother and I had a ridiculously hard time gaining the upper hand resulting in a lot of frustration and cursing. When NBA Jam is fun, it’s majorly fun, but when it’s unfairly punishing it becomes too much to take.
If computer controlled players aren’t your thing then playing online works really well with next to no lag at all. The leaderboards and online community are also brilliant offering joint challenges to beat with your friends list and weekly milestones to topple. Best option of all though, is the ‘Jam Now’ feature where up to four of you can play on one console. This IS how NBA Jam is meant to be played and after extensive play with my three friends over the weekend, it’s easily the most fun I’ve had with a multiplayer all year.
It’s hard not to be taken in by NBA Jam’s unorthodox visuals boasting almost South Park-esque characters. The body animates wonderfully while the head is simply a real life cut-out of the star’s head. It’s odd and perfectly suits the style of the game. The announcer too is Tim Kitzrow from the original Jam game which only adds to the overall quality of this product. Not only is he hilarious but the commentating is never mistimed and keeps up with the pace perfectly. The music is also a nice mix of retro and modern tracks too.
While the tour mode, online options and exhibition mode are bulky enough to keep you playing, challenges are spread over everything you do and play that can range from scoring a certain amount of slam dunks to breaking the backboard on the court. Furthermore these challenges are stackable taking you from bronze which may be ten or so dunks right up to diamond which could be in the hundreds. It gives a nice sense of progression and more importantly adds to your credits.
In terms of content NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is packed with it. Every game you play earns you credits which can be spent on titles and backgrounds for your tag, players, unique ball types, teams and more wacky tweaks. The teams are hilarious and include the likes of Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, President Obama, The Beasty Boys, Stickmen and more. Trust me when I say that you’ll want to unlock them all, as seeing each and every one is always a delight. Overall there is a ton to do with promise of DLC in the near future.
NBA Jam: On Fire Edition stays true to the original while bringing it flawlessly up to date for 2011 and more high profile titles. Unfair AI aside NBA Jam may be the best sports title I’ve gotten my hands on this year. Sorry FIFA but I prefer my sports over the top with ridiculous amounts of fun. Boomshakalaka!!
9/10