NBA Jam Wii!

[Nester the Lark]

According to ESPN, EA has purchased the rights to Midway's classic arcade basketball franchise NBA Jam, and will be officially announcing a new installment of the series later this month exclusively for the Wii. In addition, they've supposedly hired original Jam creator Mark Turmell as an adviser for the new game.

As a fan of the original games (I'm embarrassed to admit that NBA Hang Time was probably my most played N64 game), I'm looking forward to learning more about this new version. Hopefully it'll be a quality title, and not another Cruis'n.

[Wildcat]

Yes, I read about this myself. Apparently this was EA's big annoucement for January. It's good to see the series reborn - I enjoyed it myself back in the day.

[Dances in Undergarments]

I read this, and immediately thought of Hang Time for 64. I hope its like that, that was good stupid fun.

[Nester the Lark]

If there was any doubt that EA was working on a new NBA Jam, then this ought to clear things up.

Here is a blog post at the EA Sports web site confirming that Mark Turmell is now the Senior Creative Director at EA Tiburon. There's also an interview with him.

And here is a post at GoNintendo about a blocked link to EA's official NBA Jam message board.

Now we just need some confirmation that it is, in fact, for the Wii, and we'll be all set.

[Flip]

Man, I killed so many Saturday mornings playing this game on the Genesis back in the mid '90s. I remember College Jam was one of my most played PSX games back in the day too. Here's my vote for more "NAIL IN THE COFFIIINNNN!!"

...do you think they'd have a playable Obama like the old games had Clinton and Gore? XD

[parrothead]

NBA HangTime is probably my favorite basketball game. I think I still have the N64 version. It was so good, even Michael Jackson had the arcade version at his home. To prove it, click here and find it.

I wonder if Will Smith and anyone from Arch Rivals will also appear in this game?

[Dances in Undergarments]

New Nintendo Power is out with info. Players have photos for heads. 2 on 2. Playable mascots and secret characters still in. Cheats (ie big head mode) back in. Something something. Whatever. I want.

[Nester the Lark]

Here is a scan of a screenshot from Nintendo Power, as well as some details which DWU has sort of already covered:

• Player faces switch with a blur effect, as to keep them from being too jarring when they rotate
  
• When they pull off a good play, they run back up-court with a smile/goofy face
  
• When they do poorly, they have a sad face
  
• Players can be substituted at halftime
  
• Unlockable mascots
  
• Old school legends (Larry Bird and more)
  

Isn't it about time Jordan made an appearance in a Jam game?

And I have to post this because it's been irreversibly burned into my brain from having played hundreds of games of NBA Hang Time.



Sorry.

[Wildcat]

Hey, are you back officially, Nester? If so, may I be the first to welcome you back! ^_^

To make this somewhat on-topic, I want to see the face transition in action. The graphic design in this is unique sounding, and I'm curious to see how it looks.

[Nester the Lark]

Yeah, I think I'm back.

And thanks.

[Nester the Lark]

EA's official NBA Jam site is allowing people to vote on which three players they would like to see on each team. Three different teams will be featured every week.

[Nester the Lark]

Triple post! He's on fire!

Here is an interview with Mark Turmell at Gamasutra. He mentions the new NBA Jam game a bit, as well as experiences with developing the original game.

At Tiburon, Turmell will primarily work on the Madden and NCAA franchises, but he's consulting on the new Wii-exclusive NBA Jam (pictured), which is in development at EA Vancouver: "I'm looking at that product every week," he says. "I've sat with the team extensively, and I'm close to the product."

The original NBA Jam team was just ten people. At the time, Turmell coined the title's signature over-the-top basketball gameplay just by experimenting.

"For the first dunk that I put into the game, I had to do the calculation on jumping into the air and having the hand meet the rim," he explains, "and based on that calculation, I could change the different parameters. I changed the height of the animation, and I kept increasing speed... and people continued to be more and more excited."

"That's what led to the over-the-top kind of action in NBA Jam and in subsequent games like Blitz -- just trying to get reactions out of people," continues Turmell. "It's cool to see a dunk, but it's cooler to see a 7-foot spinning dunk."

Something else I liked about the original game was being able to shatter the backboard. It added a lot of drama, but it's one of those things the NBA made them remove because they thought it was too violent.

[Nester the Lark]

More screenshots from NeoGAF.

It's funny how screens from this game look like they were made in Photoshop. I don't mean that in a bad way, as that's kinda what NBA Jam looks like. Still, I'm curious to see what this game will look like in motion.

[Wildcat]

Me as well. It looks unique, that's for sure, but I'd really like to see it in motion to see how well the faces switch around and how solid the animation is.

[Nester the Lark]

Teaser footage from Nintendo Everything. We don't get more than a glimpse, but a full trailer will be shown tomorrow on GameTrailers TV.

It's kinda ridiculous to be shown a teaser trailer for a teaser trailer, tho. It's like when publishers announce that they're going to make an announcement. What's the point?[/digression]