It’s difficult to overlook Trey Smith, producer of the upcoming Wii-exclusive NBA Jam.
As a six footer, I stand a wee bit taller than the average geek; Trey stands a wee bit taller than me. As such, when the Thomas, Valkor (of The Other View), and I were making our way through EA’s E3 2010 booth in search of NBA Jam, I knew we were headed in the right direction when I saw his beard hovering over a few geeks’ heads in the distance.
As we approached, his eyes sparked. He remembered Terry and I from a NYC EA Sports event. Trey is a gamer’s developer; he has a passion for the craft that evident in his words, demeanor, and work. When he speaks about NBA Jam, his baby, he becomes animated: laughing, smiling, and nodding positively. NBA Jam is doused in his enthusiasm.
The gem of a sports game takes everything that we loved about the early, arcade NBA Jam titles, and updates them with slick HD visuals, a cross over move, and a chatty announcer that drops an incredible amount of commentary.
Trey gave us a quick run down of a few of NBA Jam‘s new characters, which include Detlef Schrempf, Kevin McHale, Clyde Drexler and Dennis Rodman (complete with crazy hair). He touched upon the power ups and boss battles featured a special gameplay mode included on the disc. Afterward, naturally, he invited us to play.
The great thing about Trey is that whenever he demos a game, he never just hands you a controller and wanders off–he gets in on the action himself. Terry and I Pistoned up against Trey and some random dude’s Lakers, and it was marvelous.
NBA Jam is one of the few Wii games that doesn’t make me want to fling the Wiimote (purposefully) into the TV. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that i couldn’t imagine using a standard controller with the game, as flicking the wrist to shoot feel so natural.
Between the four of us, we blocked shots, drained threes, threw down monster dunks, broke backboards, and smack talked. Terry and I squandered a double digit lead (we lost by almost the same amount), but we didn’t care. That is the true testament to NBA Jam‘s fun factor: winning or losing is irrelevant–it’s how you play the game.
Thomas would state later that night it was fun simply watching us have fun with NBA Jam. I think Trey would approve of that statement.
