Bulls vs. Kings, September 3^rd in Seattle, Washington.  60,000 people in the arena, the players looked intently at their opponents.  This was going to be epic.  This was going to be the first time Farva and Fisherman played NBA Jam at PAX.

NOTE: This is not a video of our play, we shot this after we were done.

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We played as the Kings, our Dallas-based opponents the Bulls.  I’ll save you the suspense: It was never even close.  We ended up winning 61-31.  I think the entire game hinged on the fact that we grasped the control scheme at the opening tip, and our opponents struggled with it throughout. We also played as a well-oiled machine.  We were playing man defense, sticking with our man instead of running after the guy with the ball.  We were stealing and setting each other up, feeding the ball into the paint and alley-ooping.

The new NBA Jam is the old NBA Jam. Just like you remember it.

One concern I’m still left with is how online multiplayer will function. This match was epic and loads of fun, but most of our enjoyment came from the fact that we were standing next to each other, and could talk smack to our withering opponents.  Without that, the game may feel empty and hollow.  The online experience will undoubtedly be better on the 360, but the controls for this game were natural and intuitive on the Wii.  Everything except shooting, dunking, and blocking was controlled with buttons, and those three actions were controlled with a swing up/swing down motion.  It felt right. This is definitely one for the shipheads to keep their eyes on.