NBA 2-on-2 Slam

NBA Jam was once the definitive name in basketball gaming. It didn’t have a great legion of sequels like the games it inspired down the road (NFL Blitz, NHL Hitz, etc.), but it was a good enough game to unite players at arcades and in front of their television sets across the country. We were in awe of the no-holds-barred style and so deeply engrossed by the gameplay that it could only be called an addiction.

Basketball games are long past that era. To be a serious contender, you have to design a game that can rival NBA 2K in gameplay, featured content, and graphical realism. It’s a tough game to beat, which is why it doesn’t have more than a couple of annual competitors.

Mobile gaming is the last place on Earth where you’re allowed to be raw. Designing an NBA Jam-style game for one of the newer consoles or handheld machines means having to squeeze out every ounce of power available from each device. Mobile phones, however, don’t have much power to spare, making it perfectly acceptable to create a game that looks like it was made in the 90s.

NBA 2-on-2 Slam is a straightforward, three-point-heavy basketball game that’s driven by the Ping Pong effect. The game goes back and forth pretty quickly: you score, they score, repeat. But with fast gameplay and functional controls that anyone can utilize, regardless of the phone you’re playing the game on, NBA 2-on-2 Slam is a slammin’ good time.

Not surprisingly, the game comes equipped with two primary button configurations. The first uses the arrow keys: push the arrows to move (just as you would with a game controller’s D-pad) and press the select key to shoot. The other configuration is based around the number keys, with 1 through 4 being dedicated to upper movements, and 6-9 assigned to the lower batch. The 5 key – your middle or “select” button – is used to shoot.

Both work well, but that has little to do with the button’s placement. This is the setup that most mobile games use. Slam’s success is due to the game’s response times, which are super quick. With unrelenting controls in place, the developers were free to make a game that would deliver a bit of satisfaction within the first few seconds of play – an essential ingredient to any mobile game that aims to capture the attention of any potential cell phone user. Also, games are saved if you have to exit. That’s a great feature for those times when a call or some other interruption prevents the skirmish from having a proper conclusion.

Players won’t need skill (or patience) to score a point. The game doesn’t have a specific way of separating good shots from bad ones, so it lumps them together and randomly selects which shots will miss. The outcome is usually in the shooter’s favor. Generally, the path goes something like this: shoot, score. Miss, score. Miss, miss, score. Score, miss, score. Repeat. It’s not rocket science, and if this were a console game – or if players were expecting something deeper from a mobile phone – they’d be disappointed. But it’s actually a fun time killer.

The last piece of the NBA 2-on-2 Slam puzzle is what the game refers to as a “puzzle” slam-dunk. As points are racked up, you’ll notice that a red meter (called the Slam Meter) has begun to fill up. Before you have the chance to realize it’s full, a Slam Move Activator will appear on the court. It’s a small, oval-shaped design with the word “SLAM” inscribed on top. If you run over to the Activator before it disappears, a four-button (minimum) combination will appear on screen. Its buttons consist of the four arrow keys; enter the visible pattern within a few seconds and kick back for a brief show. Your player will run around the court, get into position, leap into the air and slam the ball through the net. It may not be much of a puzzle, but for a Simon Says-type feature (which I usually hate), this is solid and works well in the game’s purposely-simplistic context.

On the down side, none of the three game modes offered in NBA 2-on-2 Slam – Play Now, Play Game, and Challenge – provide a substantially different gameplay experience. The only difference between the first two is that Play Game allows you to select your team and players (two out of the three offered per team); Play Now does not. In Challenge mode, you compete against four, six, or eight different teams. But again, the gameplay is the same. Player differences are virtually nonexistent. You’re picking a name, nothing more.

Gameplay: 7.2
A fun, quick game to kill those times that never go by fast enough.

Graphics: 6.0
Consistent, fast-action gameplay with bright colors and a handful of dunk animations.

Sound: 1.0
A whistle…a backboard…a buzzer. You got anything else in there?

Difficulty: Easy
Anyone can play. Anyone can win. My average score topped 80, even though my opponent could barely reach 30.

Concept: 6.0
More polished than most mobile sports games, but it’s not a new or refined concept by any means.

Overall: 7.0
If you want an arcade-style basketball game to make your boring phone more exciting, there aren’t many games that will do that as well as NBA 2-on-2 Slam.