NBA Jam Review: Catching Windows Phone on fire!

Way back in the eighties and nineties, Midway, the developer most remembered for creating the Mortal Kombat series also introduced a couple of sports serial into arcades. Showtime came Arch Rivals (basketball game) in 1989 and then Loftier Impact (American football game) in 1990. Both games enjoyed some popularity, but it was their league-licensed sequels that really defenseless on burn down: NBA Jam in 1993 and NFL Blitz in 1997.

NBA Jam became a staple of the 16-scrap era (right alongside Mortal Kombat), thanks in function to a bevy of home console ports. The series had largely died out by the mid-2000s, soon before Midway itself went bankrupt. Jam could have ended there, but Electronic Arts (in what some would call a rare deed of benevolence) rescued the license in 2022 and published a new version for home consoles, followed by an even meliorate XBLA sequel, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition.

EA Mobile as well ported NBA Jam to iOS in 2022. Now that version has finally fabricated its way to Windows Phone 7 and viii as a Nokia exclusive Xbox game. What gives this slightly former port of a classic arcade sports game such staying power? "Is it the shoes?"

Arcade-way b-brawl

I of the reasons NBA Jam has always been so popular is its approachability. Far from a serious sports simulation, the gameplay here is streamlined to such an extent that anyone can learn to play information technology in a affair of minutes. The main change is that each team only has ii players on the court instead of five. This keeps the game moving at a fast footstep without sacrificing the cadre basketball mechanics.

NBA Jam also benefits from super simple controls. In fact, the phone version's controls are much easier than those of the Xbox 360 games, both of which use more buttons than the arcade original. Players can choose between Arcade or Swipe controls. The arcade-mode controls are so practiced that I didn't bother with swipe; there is such a thing equally as well much simplification.

A virtual stick handles running while three buttons perform the various moves:

• Red button: Turbo. Hold this to run faster, which depletes your turbo meter. In one case the meter runs out, you must release the push button before it volition fill upward again.
• Light-green button: On crime, this button shoots the brawl when far from the internet and dunks it when close. Yous tin can as well perform alley oops by property the push button when your partner has the ball. Yous'll jump for it and he'll toss you the ball for a dunk. On defense, information technology jumps and blocks the opponent's shots.
• Blue button: On criminal offense, bluish passes the ball. On defense, it steals. Combining blue with turbo will shove an opponent down – a legal move in this series.

Interacting with 3 virtual buttons (and particularly pressing 2 buttons at one time) tin can be touch on on impact screens. Thankfully EA Mobile came up with a perfect solution. Basically, players hold the turbo push 90% of the fourth dimension in NBA Jam, so that push is the default position for your thumb. To combine turbo with the greenish or blue buttons, simply slide your thumb from red to one of those colors. Information technology quickly becomes second nature, right in keeping with the outgoing essence of Jam.

Larger than life

Besides ease of play, NBA Jam appeals to even not-sports gamers thank you to its exaggeration and humor. Sometimes a well-made dunk shatters the backboard, and you don't even get sent to the principal'southward office like in the Amazing Spider-Man movie.

Fifty-fifty better, whenever you score 3 shots in a row without your opponent scoring a basket, your player becomes "on fire." Y'all'll know because the 3rd basket actually catches on the brawl on burn, called-for the net off the basket. On burn players accept unlimited turbo and can't be called for goal tending. You lose fire when your opponent finally scores a point, which never takes long, but the fantastic element however adds more excitement than you'd find in a realistic sports game.

The graphical manner besides imbues some well-appreciated humour. Players have realistic polygonal bodies instead of sprites similar in the original, simply their faces are still enlarged photographs. This captures the look and personality of the NBA players while giving the game a fun and slightly cartoonish appearance. Enable the Big Head privilege and their heads go even bigger, which I honey.

Original Jam announcer Tim Kitzrow'south phonation samples volition make y'all grinning as well. He makes all of the classic expressions, including the e'er-essential "Boomshakalaka." Some of the Xbox 360 version'due south many phrases didn't make the cut, but Jam still has the all-time announcing y'all could hope for in a smartphone game. I simply wish the game had a subtitle option so that we could enjoy the announcing with the book turned downwardly.

Oh yeah, Kitzrow shows upwards every bit a secret character, along with other dizzy players like team mascots, U.s. presidents, stickmen, and the Beastie Boys. Check out our Achievement Guide for codes and strategies to unlock every secret squad.

The long game

Most of those secret characters can't exist used in the Archetype Campaign mode, the heart of the unmarried-player experience. In the campaign, y'all'll take on a series of 37 games against all thirty NBA teams (even the one you're controlling) and some classic players like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

Quarter fourth dimension can be set to as footling as 2 minutes, so each game takes eight minutes at minimum. That'due south non bad, particularly since Jam saves your progress if y'all accept to leave a game early. But I would have liked the option to conform the number of quarters similar in the console game. All told, ane career playthrough will take v hours – a fairly substantial single-histrion feel.

Multiplayer

Jam supports local Wi-Fi multiplayer. The multiplayer feature is annoyingly buggy though, just equally information technology is in the other two EA games that launched alongside this ane: Tiger Woods 12 and Real Racing two. A second player had no trouble joining the entrance hall I hosted, merely near every time the host game would crash as soon as the second player joined. Switching hosts had no effect on the crashing.

That said, after about 15 failed attempts, I came back to multiplayer once more while shooting my video review. That time multiplayer worked and the game commenced. Each of you can choose to play on the same squad against the CPU or against each other. Multiplayer looks like a lot of fun, but information technology's difficult enough finding another local Windows Phone user who owns the same game every bit you. Having to deal with the crashing problem would probable continue most people from getting to savor multiplayer at all.

Achievements

The original NBA Jam for arcade (left) and Sega Genesis didn't have no stinking Achievements :-)

Several Achievements involve pulling off a certain number of moves or getting a high score in a single game. Nigh are tied to Classic Campaign, however.

None are likewise difficult, but to get them all, you'll have to complete the campaign a whopping half-dozen times. It wouldn't be then bad if campaign lasted a reasonable number of games like 8 or 10. Simply 37 games six times equals 220 games – a 30 hour time investment. I wish EA had only asked united states to complete the campaign in one case or twice. Anyone who completes all six run-throughs is bound to go sick of the game past the stop of information technology.

For more Accomplishment details, don't miss our sectional Accomplishment Guide.

Overall Impression

NBA Jam is that rarest thing: a sports game that sports fans AND non-sports fans tin can savor. The core gameplay has a great pace and rhythm equally players the ball from 1 end of the court to the other at exaggerated speeds. Other than the semi-broken multiplayer, EA has done a fantastic job of capturing the look, sound, and feel of NBA Jam on Windows Phone. It works and it works well.

Ane slight caveat: this version shares the aforementioned rosters as the iOS game. Those rosters date back to 2022 and were non updated in the transition to Windows Phone. It barely hurts the game considering Jam is a throwback feel (the original arcade game is still fun after all these years) and non a serious sports game (not serious at all) to begin with. Likewise, information technology's not similar yous'll discover a basketball game with more than accurate rosters on Windows Phone.

NBA Jam is currently exclusive to Nokia Lumia phones. Windows Telephone 7 devices with 512 MB of RAM can play the game, simply Windows Phone 8 devices will require 1 GB of RAM.

NBA Jam– $2.99 – 211 MB – Store Link

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/nba-jam-review

Posted by: cerronebropeat1974.blogspot.com

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