Seriously, it plays almost exactly like NBA Jam, NBA Showtime, or NBA Hangtime. The game, when played with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk, maps the shoot button to the Remote, so you'll flip it up to jump up for a shot, then flip it down to release. This also applies to dunks, where you'll essentially slam the Remote downward to drive the ball home, and on defense, where you'll attempt to time your jumps to block shots. Beyond that, the game utilizes the same control scheme that Midway's arcade games did. In fact, you can go for the Wii's Classic Controller, if you're not into the whole "physical movement" thing. I played with the Remote and Nunchuk configuration, and found that the slams had a good, visceral feel to them, like you're slamming down the domino at the end of a match or... uh... like you're slam dunking a basketball.
Visually, the game looks like it's running at or near 60 frames per second, and it has that same unrelenting speed that drove the previous games. Meanwhile, it's got a unique style to it that recalls the digitized faces of the old game while using different facial expressions for each player to make the whole thing look like a cool, animated cut-out. This is especially noticeable when big head mode is enabled, which is just one of the many throwback cheat codes and additional "features" that will find a way into the new game. A bunch of secret characters are also scheduled to be in the game, though I'm not sure how you'll access those. I tried entering MJT as my initials, but I didn't get Mark Turmell. It sounds like he'll be popping his head into the game one way or another, now that he's officially on the EA payroll. Though he's not directly working on this project, he's given the team some pointers and it sounds like he was the driving force for getting the game up to 60 frames per second.
In addition to the basic form of two-on-two basketball that you'd expect from NBA Jam, this new release will have additional modes. There's a multigame season mode in place, and these will occasionally break out into full-on boss fights. The boss fights take place on a half-court and give you a different view of the action--it's a half-court camera pointed at the basket, essentially. You'll take on some of the NBA's finest, like a giant Yao Ming, in one-on-one battles. There will be other types of boss battles, from the sounds of things, though reps for the game were hesitant to get too specific.
Though it seems like staunch nostalgists will be the ones that get the most out of NBA Jam, that same pick-up-and-play mentality is still there in the new game, and if you've got other players nearby that want to hoop it up with you, it's a winning formula for multiplayer, regardless of your familiarity with the franchise's history. The real question is can EA succeed where Midway failed? Translating this kind of coin-op magic to the home platforms proved tricky for Midway during its final years as an arcade game manufacturer, largely because the games lacked meaningful solo components and you don't need to buy an arcade sports game every single year, essentially making them early versions of what we now call party games. With that in mind, perhaps the party-friendly Wii is the perfect spot for NBA Jam to call home when it launches later this year.
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