Basketball is forever
Note: I don't play online, so that part and "meta" balance isn't covered here.
At this point, where I've unlocked everything twice (didn't do cloud saves on 360, oops), went through the single player tour mode as much as possible (more on that later), and spent entire weekends playing with a friend in town visiting, NBA JAM OFE will live on my Xbox hard drive forever, whatever name Microsoft comes up with next.
It's essentially the same formula from the good old days. 2-vs-2, shove, swat without regard for goaltending, and heatup. Even the announcer is back with some new and old lines. One new addition is 3 consecutive alley-oops now also trigger a different heatup. Unlockables include classic players, secret teams, big head mode, and a bunch of other stuff to spice up the action. The game runs smoothly, and the presentation is flashy with a unique pasted photo look that ages well (of course, this also means no X-enhancement, oh well). My friend and I especially loved seeing crybaby LeBron as we shoved him.
The main draw on the single player side is a campaign tour mode, where the US map is divided by each division, with each team offering multiple levels of challenges (default players, legend players, and finally "bots"), sometimes with modifiers like dunking counting more points. Everything up to the bots are enjoyable, but the jambots are so hardcore at shoving, revealing one major issue with the game - while catching inbounds passes the player is helpless from being shoved and turning the ball over, that the game devolves into a precision shoving match. Some may be really bothered by not 100%ing the mode, but I was satisfied with the time I put in and then walking away before being driven insane.
The game got one last hurrah of an update in 2013, so that's the roster frozen in time. If you are a fan of say Anthony Davis or Damian Lillard, this was a needed addition, but the update also was a bit messy, shuffling player around to new teams without changing their headshot jerseys, and the new players don't get called out by the announcer. But hey, there's always the legend players, or Beastie Boys. (Some may roll their eyes at out-dated references like the Honey Badger, but come on lighten up, the old Jam games were cheesy too)
My main complaint is that the UI is a bit confusing to navigate. Every time coming back I'm fumbling around to find all the options and even the in-game unlockables store. But the issue fades away once I get onto the court, and stay there for longer than I had planned.
Can't say if it's "objectively the best" basketball arcade game out there, but it's solid, great fun, filled with content, and fantastic entry or return point. I've played it with basketball junkies, 12-year-olds, people who rarely touch a controller or watch basketball, and yet the final result is the same - everyone loves throwing it down (and shoving Miami LeBron).