June 17, 2010 by Paul Curtin
When first hearing about NBA Jam being remade, I was excited, that excitement quickly faded when hearing that it was going to only be on the Nintendo Wii. But after playing NBA Jam on the Wii at this year’s E3, dare I say it, I liked it even more and had more fun than during my childhood days of playing the game against others in local arcades.
Jam on the Wii looks and plays exactly like the original with all the same gameplay mechanics such as turbo, spin moves, ally-oops, shoving and going on fire. The only difference with the new Jam is the controls, which on the Wii are still simple, yet, feel perfect. When on offense players flick the controller up to jump and then slam in a downward motion to jam. Shooting also works similar to the jamming mechanics as players once again flick the controller upward to jump, then stop their motion and flick the controller forward when their player is in the air to release the ball — the same movement is used when on defense and trying to reject somebody. All the other controls like running, tricks and stealing are assigned to the buttons and joystick on the Wiimote and nunchuk with a combination of buttons being used together to pull off more advanced moves.
Maybe it was the fact that the game we played was the final game of E3 2010, right before the expo shutdown or that we were playing as the Lakers and won with a buzzer beater jam, just minutes before Game 7 of the NBA Playoffs started across the street; but even without all the added excitement going on around us while playing, NBA Jam was still one of the most fun games we played at E3 and is a great reason to dust off the Wii.
