NBA Jam HD Review

With developers cashing big on nostalgic games, the focus has been mainly on the days of 8-bit consoles and arcades. There is plenty of room to remember the early 90's arcade experiences and EA hopes to start filling this void with NBA Jam HD. Current Gen Xers spent a lot of time in the arcades and in friend's basements talking trash and yelling "Boomshakalaka!" The classic fast-paced 2 on 2 battles with cartoonish dunks and secret, unlockable celebrity players is back and updated for your ipad.

There are 3 modes of play offered: Play Now, Classic Campaign and Multiplayer. Play Now is a quick way to jump right into an exhibition match. You just enter your intials, choose your difficulty, select the teams and you're off. The Classic Campaign offers an excellent 1 Player mode that has you choose your team and work through the rest of the NBA with your favorite squad. Unfortunately for me that team is the Washington Wizards...still though it was an amazing feeling unlocking Manute Bol. While fun, the season can drag on with really only the goal of unlocking some classic player left as the main incentive to keep chugging along.

The gameplay is a very faithful recreation of the fore mentioned arcade classic. You move your player with a virtual control stick and have 2 buttons that allow for passing, shooting, stealing, jump/blocking and even calling for alley-oops. The controls work as well as any virtual controls which means passable. The fling control stick did help me break more ankles controlling John Wall. The graphics look great and set the bar for sports video games by really focusing on creating great character models with hilarious expressions, but also paying attention to the stadium and crowd and creating a fun and dynamic environment. You also have a few display options including normal or big head and different skins for the ball. My choice: big head + globe ball. The audio is another component that this game does right with the classic commentary that fans will all remember as well as fun sound effects that help liven up the game.



While the gameplay is fun and it feels like the old arcade game, some more variety would have strengthened this title. I know that having more unlockable characters for each team would have kept me more motivated. Also a few more game types, while differing from the original, would have fully rounded out the experience. I could have used some wacky h.o.r.s.e. or dunking competition. The challenges are a decent reward system that helps unlock players (I beat the computer without shoving and won the gentleman challenge. reward: mark price. sweet!) Still this is a great package for any fan of the nba or the classic arcade game.

game dev story review

introducing...

game dev story takes you through the life of a game development company. you create your company, manage staff, develop games, make various decisions and guide your company to glory, failure, or somewhere in between.

does it spit hot fire?

in 2 words: like dylan. as a gamer who generally gets bored of sim management games within about 10 minutes; the first time i played it, i did not put it down until about 2 hours later. when i did go on to other tasks in the real world, my mind was still going, thinking about new ways to improve my games and get the most out of my company's abilities.

the strength of this game is how addictive the gameplay is and how embarrassingly fulfilling it is to succeed. there are various components to manage and consider that have major effects on the quality of your games. having the freedom to choose genre and then deciding what area of the game (fun, creativity, graphics or sound) to focus on is surprisingly engaging. not only that but you have to consider advertising, popularity, various game systems (funny takes on actual consoles from the past), the skills and energy of your staff, hiring and firing, training, leveling up, game conventions, awards, game reviewers...i could go on. there's a lot going on and the subtle balance that this game achieves is that you never feel overwhelmed and are rewarded for taking risks.

on a personal note, one component that seemed to amuse me endlessly, was the simple fact that you could name the games you are creating. so when you find yourself banking on an animal simulation game called animal hug to sell millions of copies on the gds equivalent of the playstation 2, it just makes the whole experience seem more fun and silly.

did you just get served?

not at all. there's not too much trash you can talk about this game. yes, the graphics and sound are pretty lo-fi. i was initially concerned about that affecting my experience at first. once i got going, it never became an issue and even added to the charm of the game. in fact the sounds seem to deliberately set off some sort of pavlovian response in me. it can be gratifying like the winning sound on a slot machine. so gamblers might want to beware. the game does limit you to a 20 year period, which works out to about....oh i don't know...5-6 hours of game play? time flew by and i wasn't really keeping track. you can keep playing beyond this mark, but your high scores will no longer be recorded. also, by then your company is pretty stacked, you will be filthy rich and the sense of challenge is pretty much gone. if anything, this will give you a chance to start up a new game and your new company and see if you can outdo the last one. one minor gripe i would make would be that it only allows for one save file, thus deleting your records if you want to start a new company.


and the winner is...

you, if you buy this game. adequately, but not super value priced at $3.99, game dev story is a very polished game that has that something special in it that keeps you coming back for more. it's very gratifying and pretty addicting in many regards and offers up a lot of variety and options. the graphics and sound might be considered sub par by some, but did not detract anything from my experience. overall this game is a shining example of how to execute sim management games correctly. it's well worth your time and 4 bucks. i'm already looking forward to the sequel that i am imagining they are planning...right....now.

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