Nba Jam New Video Game - 10/5/2010

Thus far we've seen Yao Ming make an appearance as a boss in NBA Jam on Wii and Magic

Johnson was recently revealed as another rival, but today a new challenger joins the mix. And his hair is huge. Yes, that's right, on a recent trip up to EA's Vancouver-based studios I got the chance to sit down with a new Remix Mode called Domination and take on none other than Dr. J, the former 76ers star who's best known for his aerial stunts that seemed to defy gravity back in the '70s.

If you've read any of our past Jam coverage, I'm sure you know by now that Remix Mode is a collection of challenges that need to be completed in order to progress. The Wii version has a whopping 91 challenges that are divided into different tiers (gold, silver, bronze) of difficulty.

The new challenge type I was shown was a hot spot-style variant called Domination. I was forced to make one shot from each of the several spots on the court. Each shot I sank lit up that spot on the court in my color with the end objective being to turn every spot to your color. Of course, if I was a bit off with the placement of my feet, the shot wouldn't count for a damn thing, so I really had to make sure that I picked my shots carefully.

My opposition for this challenge was one of the bosses in the game, Dr. J. As with every other boss in NBA Jam, Dr. J displays a fairly obvious pattern that can be followed in order to beat him. For Mr. Erving (Dr. J's real name is Julius Erving) that means that he'll always go to the closest player-owned spot and try to capture it for himself. Despite knowing that fact, Dr. J was able to beat me in two straight games of Domination, though both were pretty darn close. I think I would've won the first one if I had just ten seconds longer as time expired just as I was trying to claim the last spot for myself.

The wrench in this otherwise simple and straightforward mode is the "on fire" ability that everyone knows and loves. If you make a shot in Domination while on fire, every single spot on the court turns to your color. It's just up to you to hold more of them than your opponent when time expires. This can be both fantastic and frustrating, depending on whether it happens for you or against you.

I had a blast in my two losing efforts against Dr. J. Seeing the classic '70s player back on the court again was great and all the action was delivered with the typical NBA Jam flair. Next up was a 2-on-2 game of Domination. The mechanic changes a bit in that it's no longer just about claiming territory. Instead you'll have to worry about attaining more points than the other team by using the same set of spots from one-on-one domination. When you light up a spot it will give you three points at first, but it will dwindle down from there if you don't make another shot from the same spot. If you're lucky enough to nail a shot right before the spot switches back to neutrality, all of your hot spots will refresh to stay in your control a bit longer.

Since my time with NBA Jam's Domination mode on Wii was my first experience with the game on Nintendo's system, it really left me wanting to play more and find out the rest of the seven bosses and challenge modes in the game. The gameplay is vintage NBA Jam with a nice, new look and a few added control mechanics as well. Players now have both a spin move and a cool crossover dribble, each of which is nicely balanced with the appropriate moves on the defensive side of the ball. Little touches like being able to alter your dunk to a layup in mid-air adds a nice layer of strategy as well. It's fast, it's frenetic and the plethora of challenges means that you'll have new content to enjoy for some time to come. NBAJamGame.com

by Nate Ahearn

by: JLScruggs

Nba Jam New Video Game - 10/5/2010

Thus far we've seen Yao Ming make an appearance as a boss in NBA Jam on Wii and Magic

Contact

www.yloan.com

Products

Our Solutions

Press Room

Resources