Submitted on: 01/28/2011 by
NBA Jam is a patch and a roster update away from being a modern classic.
There has been speculation that a roster update may appear after the NBA’s February trade deadline, but that’s all it is: speculation. What we know is that NBA Jam, to date, has received no post-release support, and there is no word from EA Sports on the future of the game.
And that’s a shame because NBA Jam could be a future all-star with a few tweaks to its game.
Fixing CPU AI
On defense, your CPU teammate proves incapable of defending dunks because of an AI glitch. As of now the CPU jumps to contest the slam after the ball has gone through the rim.
On offense, your CPU teammate has an added "delay" to his release whenever you tell him to shoot. As a result, telling your teammate to shoot results in a block 90 percent of the time.
The "delayed release" on CPU jump shots is much worse for CPU teams. All CPU teams release jump shots on the way down, making it far too easy to block the other team’s shots.
CPU defenders also exhibit strange behavior on defensive rebounds; they run to stand at the free-throw line while the ball is in the air, leaving the paint unguarded. This AI tendency makes offensive rebounding too easy.
Option For "Tag Mode"
The return of "tag mode" could be a simple workaround for NBA Jam's poor teammate AI.
Previous home versions of NBA Jam gave users the option to control the ball handler at all times rather than having a permanently uncontrollable AI teammate.
NBA Jam on the Xbox 360/PS3 does not include this feature.
Shove Should Affect Jump Shots
It’s hard to play defense in the latest version of NBA Jam, and the inability to shove jump shooters is part of the problem.
Older versions of NBA Jam allowed the defender to shove the jump shooter, and for smaller players who could not jump high enough to contest shots, this was a much-needed defense.
Little guys have also lost their ability to shove dunkers at the rim, as the number of dunk animations that can be "shove blocked" is small compared the original NBA Jam.
NBA Jam for the Xbox 360/PS3 has turned the once-reliable shove into a generally ineffective defensive move.
Overcomplicated Controls
NBA Jam's classic three-button control scheme did not need tweaking, but for some reason EA Sports has added a number of new functions to NBA Jam’s controls.
Dunking the ball now requires two button presses: one to jump, and another to finish the jam. Blocking uses the same two-button setup: press once to jump, then again to swat. Both commands feel awkward, and in a fast-paced game are difficult to correctly time.
Defense is further complicated by jumping” (X) and rebounding” (Y) (360 version) being split -- for no good reason -- into two separate buttons. Is this NBA Jam or NBA Live?
On offense, new jukes and spin moves are accessed with a single button (B) and a direction (up/down for "spins," left/right for "jukes"). Their addition to the game feels unnecessary, and with so much diagonal movement going on in the game, it's easy to perform one move when you meant to use the other.
Ultimately, these new controls have made NBA Jam less accessible and more frustrating.
It is not fun to miss a dunk because of a mistimed “finish,” or to get shoved to the ground because you accidentally “juked” straight into a defender instead of “spinning” around him.
Lack of Controller Configuration
If EA Sports wanted to introduce new controls to NBA Jam, the developers could have at least allowed gamers to design these controls to their liking.
Instead, gamers are stuck with a control setup that causes hand cramps after a few games of play, mostly because “turbo” is forced onto the left trigger/left bumper.
Two buttons for turbo, neither of which is the right trigger. EA Sports hates your hands.
Source: pastapadre.com
Previous home ports of NBA Jam allowed for full customization of the game's controls; NBA Jam for the Xbox 360/PS3 does not.
Option To Turn Off Computer Assistance
If gamers want to blow out the CPU on easy difficulty, there should be nothing stopping them.
But on all of NBA Jam's difficulty settings, once the player gets a decent lead on the CPU, the player's shots magically stop falling, and the CPU defense becomes superhuman.
Meanwhile, every shot the CPU throws up seems to go in. In older home versions of NBA Jam, there was an option to turn off these "computer assistance” shenanigans. It is an option that’s sorely needed in the 360/PS3 game.
Nothing is dumber than seeing Yao Ming breaking ankles and popping step-back jumpers just because all of his stats got an instant boost from computer assistance.
Selecting Two of the Same Player Online
Want two sharpshooting Larry Birds on the same team? Feel like clogging the paint with a pair of Shaq Diesels? You can do either if you take NBA Jam online.
Bugs like this should have been found in beta testing, or if not, fixed in a timely title update.
Online Quits Don’t Count as a Win
Pull the plug on the other guy, and he gets robbed of a win.
The oldest trick in online gaming is one that most sports titles figured out a long time ago.
NBA Jam, like on many other fronts, remains behind the times.
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