Do you ever get nostalgic for the good old days? The days where you could (while controlling a character) jump 10 meters in the air, do about 4 somersaults, come back, down, get the ball through the hoop and shatter all the glass? Well come on! Don’t we all? That’s why I was so excited to review the newest iteration of NBA Jam: On Fire. but is the game a nostalgic blast from the past? Or a relic that should have stayed buried? Let’s find out.

NBA Jam came to us over 15 years ago, thanks to a small company called Midway (you may remember it as the company that brought us Mortal Kombat). It was something people had never seen before (some might say, the inspiration for Slamball). Sure the graphics were choppy, but did anybody really care? We were in it for the fun, for the dunking, and for the prize of humiliating our opponents/friends.

Fast Forward to today. After years of not having NBA Jam in our lives, we finally got On Fire. As soon as I picked the game up, it was like I was back in the good old days, except now I didn’t need to invite my friends over, since we could play online… or we could if the internet wouldn’t lag as much!

The controls are really easy to get into. Within minutes I was flying up to the roof, doing alley-oops, and elbowing my competition out of the way… a SIM this is definitely not!

The graphics… well they look OK but the players’ heads were a bit misshapen. Not a tragedy by any means but you’d have thought they’d work out the kinks in the graphics by now.

Also, let’s face it, there’s no story… at all… All there is, is a career mode where you pick a team and try to demolish other teams… but hey, that works for the Superbowl and Baseball, as well as all other sporting games, so if you’re a fan of those, you won’t mind.

But will this game leave you wanting more? That is the main question. The short answer is yes… but since I haven’t fulfilled my word quota, I’ll give it to you in more detail

While playing, the main objective isn’t just to win, it’s to do special moves like Alley-oops (which is a little hard to explain). Doing three of those in a row unlocks team fire, turning your team either blue or red, and letting you do the slam dunks that NBA Jam has been famous for! But what about after you finish? Then there’s tag team, online, road trip… the sheer number of modes is hard to describe.

You get so many new teams, so many un-lockables, and you have to do certain moves to unlock those. It’ll keep you busy for hours on end, and make you remember WHY you used to love NBA Jam, or for a newbie, it’ll convert you to Basketball for life.

This rabid gamer truly couldn’t put the controller down until his eyes almost fell out. I give this game a 9 out of 10 (Only reason I’m deducting is cos the graphics could have been so much better!)

See ya next time.