EA bring back NBA Jam with explosive 2-on-2 and dunks from outer space. The arcade-mythos presentation tastes great, the heated commentary stays a cult favourite, and couch nights with friends guarantee a hearty collective laugh.
Your verdict
Category
Sports4 players3+
Co-op
Description
Arcade basketball by EA Canada and EA Sports, November 2010. Legendary NBA player duos - Magic and Kareem, Jordan and Pippen - clash in overpowered unrealistic two-on-two matches. Supersonic dunks, spectacular alley-oops and humorous commentary. Reboot of the 1990s classic NBA Jam arcade game in a modern version.
NBA Jam review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
4/5
Music
★★★★★
"Excellent"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
EA revives the arcade cabinet through one distinctive device: the faces are cut-out photographs, hinged and pasted onto modeled bodies, with jaws that move like paper puppets. Blazing hoops, fire trails and flaming balls take up the iconography of 1993, and the camera stays bolted to the side as on a cabinet.
The commentator's voice is the true instrument: every feat triggers an exclamation that has become proverbial, and the sound design accompanies the heat-up with a rumble that grows as a player strings baskets together. Around it, nineties funk and hip-hop run in short loops, cut for the length of a two-minute quarter.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
Basketball boiled down to two-on-two, no fouls and no half-measures: superhuman dunks, a ball on fire after three baskets and frenzied commentary. Arcade excess takes over from realism, for instant, explosive fun. Snappy, funny and supercharged, it turns the court into an unbridled playground and guarantees hilarious evenings, especially with several players.
