Forum > Gaming Discussion > NBA Jam Wii - All You Need To Know
NBA Jam Wii - All You Need To Know
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Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:44:00
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NBA Jam, the arcade classic that also had much success on the 16 bit home console scene is back in the form of a Wii exclusive.

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, it is an arcade-style (read over-the-top) basketball game with two-on-two action.  It's roots are with the now defunct Midway company, which took their Arch Rivals engine and applied digitized images of real-life NBA athletes to the sprites.  Mark Turmell was the creator of the game with John Tobias (of Mortal Kombat fame) working as the art director.  Turmell had hired Tobias as an art director for the arcade classic Smash TV.

Okay, so what do you need to know about EA's iteration of NBA Jam?

#1 -- It's using an artstyle that has not been seen in gaming before.  Keeping true to NBA Jam's heritage actual photo's will be used for each players face (seven per character - 3 for running, 2 for dunking, a sad face and a happy face).

#2 As seen above there will be a big head mode.

#3 While motion controls will be the predominant interface there is a Wii-mote only option with no motion controls (YES!)

#4 The developers, while being respectful of NBA Jam's past (by consulting with Mark Turmell, the series creator) are pretty disdainful of the Wii following, saying of the typical Wii user, "They're looking for a 15 minute fix or a situation where they've got a bunch of people over and they want to play together."  Fuck you Trey Smith.  This is why third-party games fail on the Wii.  Some Wii owners aren't trying to cram 15 minutes of gameplay in between pilates and picking up the groceries.


Edited: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:53:48

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Sat, 13 Feb 2010 07:38:02
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Everything about this game seems to be being done right.  I hope it pays off.

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Sat, 13 Feb 2010 08:34:55
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What I am most interested in is the new art style.  This is a first, just as Jet Set Radio was for cell shading (or Wacky Racers if that was first).  This will be the first time since the 5th gen that digitized pictures have been used as the primary form of graphic (on consoles) and I suspect that it's not going to be the last.

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Sat, 13 Feb 2010 09:44:03
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I will admit that the graphics also have me interested.

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Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:23:02
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aspro said:

#3 While motion controls will be the predominant interface there is a Wii-mote only option with no motion controls (YES!)


Hells yes if true.

Needs on online mode too and a cheapish price.

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Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:01:21
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It's funny in a way that it too so long for collage to be used in a game, especially seeing how much people have been doing photoshops online. Going with this style  makes a lot of sense, should be a very popular look. I think I'll whine again about wanting a hockey game like this. Sad
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Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:36:01
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gamingeek said:

aspro said:

#3 While motion controls will be the predominant interface there is a Wii-mote only option with no motion controls (YES!)


Hells yes if true.

Needs on online mode too and a cheapish price.

 That's according to Trey Smith (who told Nintendo Power), I guess he is the creative lead on the game.   Pricing, if it's $39 that sounds about right.

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Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:25:30
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Let's hope EA advertise it.

I think if its done just right and has wi fi play it could do really well.

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Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:07:48
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I'll be curious to see how this does. When I was in college half the people in the game room lined up for this game, and the other half lined up for Street Fighter Alpha (and then there were a few douchebags who were playing Mortal Kombat 3 and we laughed at them).
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Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:48:44
i must be the only one here who hates that artstyle.  i've never liked the use of pictures as graphics without even smooth frame transition.  hated pit-fighter and mortal combat etc.

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Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:52:18
bugsonglass said:
i must be the only one here who hates that artstyle.  i've never liked the use of pictures as graphics without even smooth frame transition.  hated pit-fighter and mortal combat etc.

The games then were using it as a trick to try to make their visuals look more advanced, and it did look kind of crappy artistically.  Here it's a stylistic choice that I think really works.

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Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:46:40
^Yeah, what Yoda said.  This is clearly a choice, one that no-one else has done so far, and I think it will match the herky-jerky style of streetball.  True test will be seeing it in motion.

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Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:38:19
I want to see what it looks like in motion. The pics do look good, though.
Edited: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:40:13

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Sat, 06 Mar 2010 21:22:42
So the scuttlebut is that now this is not a Wii Exclusive, but will be DL on PSN and XBL?  The official site says nothing.

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Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:44:49
It's just wishful thinking by people who whine every time Wii gets a promising announcement (even for far from proven titles like this one), yet they still don't want to pay full price for it (even though they still don't know what it includes!) but instead want it downloadable, as if the publisher would profit more like that.

If it was made multiplatform I don't see why it would be a downloadable title for XBLA and PSN. They'd be destroying the sales of the Wii version like that, why would people pay $50 or even $30 if the game's real value is only $15 as seen on the download services? It would be a pretty crazy price difference.

I see no real reason for it to not go multiplatform eventually, but I don't think they would handle it in this way, especailly when the project was first started with Wii in mind. Why end up killing it completely on the platform with such choices? I suppose it shouldn't surprise us if it still happens considering how publishers have handled the Wii.

It would only really be justified if it's both a great game and it fails horribly (I doubt it would help gain profit all that much), similarly to Dead Space Extraction, except that game wasn't worth the $50 as good as it may have been, so the download release might help it gain some momentum by finally showing its real value to the customer - it should have been at least half price on Wii as well from the start to say the least, it's not replay friendly like other shooters.
Edited: Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:15:45
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Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:45:09

Agnates said:
Dead Space Extraction, except that game wasn't worth the $50 as good as it may have been, so the download release might help it gain some momentum by finally showing its real value to the customer - it should have been at least half price on Wii as well from the start to say the least, it's not replay friendly like other shooters.

Yeah, its good, but just too short and not replayable because you sit around listening to chit chat when you want to be blasting on replays and the chit chat free mode sits you in a single environment and gets old after 2 minutes.

NBA jam does seem to be in development for multiplatforms, but really having it as a cheap download on PS3/360 makes no sense and would just kill sales of a retail wii version.

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Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:59:37

Okay so nothing confirmed yet... that's good, as I thought it was seriously degraded it's chances on the Wii.  I don;t think Nintendo Power would have given them the cover if it were not exclusive (though now they are run by Future Publishing and not Nintendo itself they may).

Serious sour grapes from the non-Wii community for putting out there it's going to be DL on there systems (the underlying message being that wii games = baby games and if a wii exclusive comes to their manly systems it had better be in the form of an inexpensive, downloadable baby game).

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Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:19:56
It'll show up on all consoles. I bet Wii  only gets a 3 month window. The only way this would be exclusive would be if motion was more integral and if it didn't have people freaking out about it. Like grand slam tennis.
And I bet it'll be download only for cheaper but the wii version will be said to have more features.
But those features will probably just be mii integration and motion.

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Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:34:06
+1

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Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:16:33
I want to get this and I've never bought a basketball game before. Damn, why can't this be hockey.
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