Reviews

NBA Jam Review

By Ron Burke

Posted on October 29, 2010

Midway was always a favorite publisher of mine, partially because of the arcade games they created. I remember playing many more NFL Blitz and Mortal Kombat games than I

While you can use the Classic Controller or turn the Wii Remote to its side to play NBA Jam to emulate the arcade experience. NBA Jam is really meant to be played with the Remote and Nunchuk. Your first stop on the main menu screen is Jam Camp. This is a short tutorial that shows you how to control your player. After you finish Jam Camp, you get one of the best unlockable features of the game, Big Head. I would recommend using either the Classic Controller or the Nunchuk/Wii Remote combination. Using the Wii Remote on it

Other than gun games, NBA Jam uses a mechanic that is one of the best implementations of the Wii Remote. When you have the ball, you raise the Wii Remote to jump and then move the Remote down to shoot the ball. If you lower the Remote slowly, it performs a gentle shot. If you slam the Remote down hard, RAMALAMADINGDONG!!! You get a hard slamming dunk.

If you want to get a feel for the game or just jump in like you would playing the arcade game, just select the Play Now option. Here you will be treated with a two-on-two game where you select which team you play as and who your opponents will be. You play four quarters of two minutes each and the team with the highest score wins. This is a lot of fun and a great mode when you have friends over since you can have up to four playing at the same time. There isn

EA has added a few modes to increase the replayability of NBA Jam. The first mode is the Classic Campaign. You select a team and then play through all of the teams in the NBA. Here you will earn Jam Challenges, which are kind of like Trophies or Achievements. While you won

The best of the Remix Modes would be Smash. Trying to perform dunks and alley-oops makes the crazy game of NBA Jam even crazier with even more dunks and crazy moves. Domination isn

If your Wii is connected via component cables, then NBA Jam is presented to you in widescreen. Unfortunately, you are still stuck to a max of 480p unless you go through some kind of up-conversion. The jaggies are evident, and I couldn

Ron Burke

Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief | [email protected]

Ron Burke is the Editor in Chief for Gaming Trend. Currently living in Fort Worth, Texas, Ron is an old-school gamer who enjoys CRPGs, action/adventure, platformers, music games, and has recently gotten into tabletop gaming.

Ron is also a fourth degree black belt, with a Master's rank in Matsumura Seito Shōrin-ryū, Moo Duk Kwan Tang Soo Do, Universal Tang Soo Do Alliance, and International Tang Soo Do Federation. He also holds ranks in several other styles in his search to be a well-rounded fighter.

Ron has been married to Gaming Trend Editor, Laura Burke, for 28 years. They have three dogs - Pazuzu (Irish Terrier), Atë, and Calliope (both Australian Kelpie/Pit Bull mixes), and an Axolotl named Dagon!