It’s not such a shocker for the game’s creative director, Trey Smith, though - the arcade feel of two-on-two basketball action, coupled with the light-hearted presentation and silly faces, makes this the perfect candidate for the online space.
EA Sports is seeing On Fire Edition as a true sequel to the last iteration of Jam, with advanced AI and a more streamlined focus on fun. And there’s no shortage of carefree Jammin’ either - spectacular stunts, crazy mascots, even US Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush as playable characters. I talk to Trey about the nature of the digital distribution move, and what it means for EA Sports as a whole.
SPOnG: Is this an update from last year’s version on the Wii, or are you treating it as something more?
Trey Smith: I think it’s a sequel. I really do. We’re very proud of what we did on the Wii. We were given a specific challenge to make a basketball game on the platform, and when the opportunity came up to bring Jam back it was a no-brainer. We had lots of fun with the motion controls, because there are just so many shitty waggle games out there. Being a developer that really made good use of the system was satisfying for us.
But I think to truly take this into the modern day, it’s all about online. I personally underestimated that-- a bunch of people hanging out on a couch just doesn’t happen as much as it used to.
Trey Smith: For us, it was really... I’ve been pushing to try and get into this digital distribution space, on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. For me, as a gamer, I play every trial version of every single XBLA game out there. I love discovering new stuff, and the platform as a whole is awesome. You get to rent every game that comes out, and three new games come out every week! I’ve been able to try games that I’d never have thought of playing before.
I always saw NBA Jam as an impulse game. You can have your friends over, start downloading it and within ten minutes you’re playing the game. I love the price point that we’re at, under £10 or €13, in the US it’s $15... that’s a drop in the bucket. That’s a movie ticket. Knowing just how much fun we’ve had playing this in the office - how many hours - it’s my hope and the team’s hope that at the end of this year and with all the big games coming out, people will look back and think ‘you know, that £10 I spent on NBA Jam was probably the best gaming spend I made all year.’ That’s the goal for us.
SPOnG: I remember the Wii version coming out last year and having lots of fun with it, but... maybe this is a third party issue, but it didn’t seem to be a very high profile release on the console. Did the game sell particularly well for you guys?
Trey Smith: I think we learned a lot that first time round, and it’s not often that you bring a game back after almost 20 years and hope that it picks up the exact same audience. It was never meant to be an iterative title. I know that was the fear of a lot of people when EA picked up the license - that we were going to continue to bring out NBA Jam every year. There was even some hesitation over bringing it back this year.
But I think we had enough in terms of features, as well as stuff gained from fan feedback, to warrant a true sequel - an enhanced version that brought it all back. The AI for instance - you remember playing against the AI on the Wii... I watched people play that game, and it hurt because your AI teammate would just take the ball and score for you. If you weren’t doing it, he’d snatch it! The opposing AI was pretty punishing too, especially for new users, when the AI would just keep shoving you into the ground.
The fans give us plenty of feedback. Especially when it comes to online functionality, boy will they show you. I was happy that there weren’t any major exploits online - a lot of times you play some of our sports titles and you’re just like, “really?” - so that was good, although we have learned a lot from the online features in the last version we made for Xbox 360 and PS3.
There were places in the game where you could rage quit without punished for it. Unfortunately if something like that gets out there, then everyone starts doing it. That was really hard and really frustrating to endure. You couldn’t finish a game online because if someone was losing, they’d just quit and were able to slip past the penalty that we put in there. A lot of our work was focusing on making sure stuff like that never happens again.
Trey Smith: That was the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, there. For the Wii, it was all about that ‘four people on a coach’ play and motion controls. I was big on responsiveness, actually. If the controls aren’t there and the actions you’re doing don’t match up in a game like NBA Jam, it’s game over.