Back in the early and mid-90s, NBA Jam exploded in popularity in arcades and on home consoles everywhere with its over-the-top take on NBA basketball. Throwing down monster dunks, catching fire, and trash talking your opponent were all things that made NBA Jam such a blast back then, and that core entertainment was successfully transitioned into the franchise reboot that hit consoles in late 2010. Now an iOS version of NBA Jam [$4.99] based on the 2010 console version has hit the App Store, and despite a couple of omissions it overwhelmingly satisfies in every way if you were ever a fan of the original NBA Jam series.
The familiar NBA Jam gameplay returns here featuring a relatively rule-free game of 2-on-2 basketball with an emphasis on pulling off insane physics-defying dunks and ridiculous shooting sprees. Besides adhering to a 24 second shot clock and a no goaltending rule, pretty much anything goes in NBA Jam. Any player that makes 3 consecutive shots will then be “on fire” and during this time will make a higher percentage of shots, have unlimited turbo, and be immune to the goaltending rule. If you’ve played NBA Jam in the past, not a lot has changed here, but that’s most likely for the best.
Visually the game looks stunning on iOS. The original NBA Jam was the first sports game to use character sprites that were digitized versions of real life players. The new NBA Jam takes this a step further, using 3D polygonal models for player bodies but high resolution photographs of the actual players’ faces for the heads. The effect is hilarious, and a bit creepy, as the various NBA stars make an assortment of funny or intense faces during play. The player models are fluidly animated and the overall performance is fairly smooth, though there is the occasional stutter. The game is also optimized for Retina Displays, and looks especially crisp running on these devices.
The iOS version of NBA Jam uses a smart control system that works incredibly well. There’s a virtual stick for movement, a turbo button in the opposite corner, and based on if you’re on offense or defense a button for passing/stealing and another for shooting/blocking. Using your limited turbo meter not only increases your player’s speed but also enhances your other moves, like turning a simple steal attempt into a full-blown shove of an opponent. This is cleverly and elegantly handled by holding down turbo and then sliding to one of the other two buttons, which works great in practice. There’s a training camp mode which will run through all of these controls, as well as an alternate gesture-based control option, but the default controls were easy to pick up and are my preferred method.
The meat of NBA Jam is the Classic Campaign mode that has you choosing your favorite team and taking on the 29 other NBA teams as well as several additional hidden teams. You can choose 2 players from a pool of at least 3 current NBA players from every team, and some teams have 4 or 5 players to choose from initially. Every team also has at least one unlockable player, which typically includes classic players from the respective franchise and even some mascots. Besides the Campaign mode there is also a Play Now option that will throw you into a one-off game just for fun.
Sadly there is no sort of multiplayer component to NBA Jam on iOS. As fantastic as single player is, any multiplayer-centric game like NBA Jam is always best with human competition. An online multiplayer mode would be ideal, and even a local multiplayer option would suffice, but sadly it isn’t in the cards for this initial release. Also missing are any of the Remix modes or mini-games from the console releases, which is a shame as they would seem a perfect fit on this platform.
At the end of the day, NBA Jam on iOS is just what you would expect it to be – a wonderfully updated version of the classic arcade game. It’s missing some features, most notably a multiplayer component, but the single player offering is more than competent and a lot of fun. There are a ton of in-game achievements to earn which unlock loads of hidden players and special features like “Big Head” mode or alternate basketball styles. There’s also an option to purchase these hidden goodies via IAP if you’re unwilling to work for them through regular play. Players in our forums are loving this game as well, and if you were a fan of the original or just a fan of arcade-style sports games then NBA Jam is an easy recommendation.
Hell ... yes.....!!!
hmmm play it for free 1st online...its hard an quite boring, i was going to buy it untill i played it again and realized how old and hard it was.
You sound young.
haha no im 38 i played it the 1st time around and loved it infact, my friend was one of the 1st in the uk to collect all the pieces and complete the game, he went on to meet the maker of the game and was given gifts and a trip round the factory/studio etc.
i was exited to see it come to ipad but when i played the game online i realised within 10 mins it wasnt so much fun and decided not to buy.:)
Then you're probably like me -- either your hand/eye coordination isn't quite what it used to be, or we're looking at our erstwhile coordination through slightly rose-tinted glasses. Either way though I still enjoy playing the classics like this. I may not be as good at them as I used to (or used to think I was) but it's still a wonderful blast of nostalgia and the games themselves are still entertaining.
i think thats it, rose tinted glasses, in the past i had the same experience with movies and music i loved as a youth also, listen/watch now they are dated and old, not as kool as i remember.
I think there's a difference there though. I can't quite put my finger on what, but even I feel that way. I used to love The Greatest American Hero when I was a kid. a few years ago I bought Season 1 on DVD and watched it -- and I couldn't stop cringing at it. It was so damn cheesy! Games, though ... somehow despite their age, I still enjoy every aspect of them.
Dunno why they're releasing it as a standalone first. I'd rather just wait 'til it's available for DLC in the proper emulator, since it'll be the same price and come with other games.
I won't begrudge the Brits for their seemingly endless reruns of ancient Spectrum stuff, but I sure wish someone would bring back Vectrex, Odyssey 2, and more Intellivision and Atari memories. I want to like these Sinclair apps, but it's tough without any nostalgia for the machines.
I think we may see some vectrex stuff from llamasoft, if anyone does it.
I'd love to see an Atari emulator show up, though I certainly wouldn't turn down Vectrex. I'm ambivalent about O2. During my classic console collecting years some years back, I had one with a whole mess of carts, and frankly it just wasn't that entertaining. For me, I never owned a Spectrum -- it was released briefly in the US as the TS2048 (through Timex) but it never made it to Canada that I'm aware of, and never sold well in the US anyway. Still, I got a Speccy emulator for the Atari ST in the mid-90s and I discovered a whole new popular system with some really fun games -- even if the graphics were tile-based and sound (on the 48) was a piezo buzzer. Still, I had a lot of fun exploring the many games for the system, so it's kind of nostalgia-by-proxy for me.
You didn't like the O2 because you came to it later, without nostalgia or sentiment, much like I approach the Spectrum.
My first home system was a secondhand Odyssey 2 with a stack of "master challenge" games like Pick Axe Pete, Freedom Fighers, Attack of the Timelord, and K.C. Munchkin. Awesome ... at the time ... to me.
I dunno. I mean, I grew up during the O2's time -- owned an Atari 2600, Colecovision and Coleco Gemini, played on friends' Vectrex and Intellivison, even played an O2 back in the day. But the O2 just didn't really strike me the way the other systems did. I can appreciate a system even if I didn't grow up with it (like the Spectrum), but I think my problem with it was just that despite the keyboard, it just seems to have lacked a lot of the "magic" other systems did. I did like a few of the games, but on the whole I didn't really dig it.
$1.99 is a little steep tbh for a single emulated game
Someone please bring Miner 2049'er and bounty Bob Strikes back from Big Five Software
> And, after the first few minutes, *you're* eyes will stop bleeding, I promise.
Such a shame to see that kind of typos on my lovely toucharcade. Feelsbadman :(
The original was literally impossible to complete due to a bug. Is this one?
The bug was easily fixed in the original, so I'm guessing (but can't confirm) that Elite would have implemented the simple fix for this release. It's not as though they have to perform a quirkafleeg or anything.
By the looks of it, Elite have used the version of JSW that was on the compilation They Sold a Million, which I'm pretty sure had the bugfix applied. Unfortunately it also means the iconic ear-splitting rendition of If I Was a Rich Man has been replaced with the music from Manic Miner, In The Hall of the Mountain King :(
classic game but prefered jsw2, seemed a bit faster and easier to get into.
also watched a documentary on matthew smith, poor guy is as spaced out as ya like. think he spent a looong time at a hippy commune in holland ..
Do we have to enter the colour key before we can play? :)
http://jswremakes.emuunlim....
Kind of hilarious to think that this was any kind of protection just because color photocopying was so expensive at the time. I feel old.
Back in the day I enjoyed JSW but a price of 1.99USD for an emulated game is pretty rubbish really...
This is a classic old game for the Speccy. Great to see it available, was always a very difficult game to play but back then as kids part of the thrill was just to find new rooms ! Going to be interesting taking my time to complete this game though properly.
Legendary 80's Spectrum game, great to see is on iOS
Doubt any of you guys out there would of heard of an MSX but this was even out on that. Was an enjoyable game so may just give it a crack.
"iPhone smashed by users" = + 135 % . C'mon , this game is beatiful as is difficulty. It's so fucking hard !!!