The selling points for NBA Jam include three gameplay modes, pick-up-and-play controls and the "on fire" mode. In NBA Jam, you can choose from one of three gameplay modes: exhibition, tournament and legends. The exhibition mode is your basic game with three-on-three play, while tournament mode has you fending off all 29 NBA teams to become a "Jam Champion." The legends mode, which is the most interesting of the three, lets you take a modern team back in time to face off against some of the best NBA old-schoolers around. Along with these three gameplay modes, there’s the Jam Store, which allows you to customize players and teams using a pretty simplistic "point" scale to increase basic skills including speed, strength, passing, rebounding, two point shooting and about a half dozen other stats. As you earn Jam Points during gameplay, you can also visit the store to purchase unlockables, including special outdoor courts that help keep the gameplay fresh.

The gameplay in general is about as simple as you can get. It’s just six guys on the court playing a game that takes about two minutes to learn. Players have the usual repertoires of moves, from shots and fakes to spins and alley oops. Being an arcade title, Acclaim made sure to include a turbo button, which powers up players for a short period of time, allowing them to run faster, shake defenders and shoot better while powered up. And for the player that manages three consecutive shots without giving up a basket to the other team, there’s the "on fire" effect. When a player is on fire, he gets maximum stats, unlimited turbo and sixty seconds to use it all up before he returns to normal. If the other team makes a basket at any time during the on fire period, the fire will vanish. To really shake things up, there’s also a "hot spot" feature. A team has to first fill the Jam Meter by blocking, passing and stealing the ball a certain number of times, at which point you can hit the R3 button to activate the hot spot. Once the spot is activated, you have to get a player with the ball to it and then take a shot, which will cause a wild action super shot to occur. Shots from the hot spots vary in value, starting at one point, and increasing cumulatively up to seven points. As the hot spot increases in value, so to does the number of moves required to fill the Jam Meter, thus making it more difficult to call up a hot spot.

Where NBA Jam succeeds in selling us on its gameplay options and short learning curve, it fails miserably in most other areas, especially in the graphics and AI department. The graphics are what you could only call "passable." The character models are overly cartoonish and the motion of players could only be considered acceptable on Bizarro-world. Chunky, choppy and sloppy, the graphics make this title feel like it was released two years ago, and what’s worse is that they are so inconsistent. One minute, things look pretty good (not great) and the next it’s just a mess.

Along with the fractured graphics engine, there’s the AI, or lack thereof. A good "twitch" player can crush even the best team in the league. So long as you can move a stick and hit two buttons in a row, you’ll blow past the AI-controlled teams.

The sound in NBA Jam is middling, as the commentary is funny at times, and excruciatingly repetitive at others. The music is good but not great, and offers some urban tunes that you’ll hear for just a few minutes each round.

Because of the limited AI, the only real long-term enjoyment you can expect from NBA Jam comes in the multiplayer modes. You and a friend can either play against one another or as a team against the AI. To be honest, though, two human players versus the AI is going to end up in a rather dull game, as the AI will just get crushed.

Hardcore basketball fans should probably avoid NBA Jam, as it’s just too simplistic. If you’re a fan of arcade sports titles, I’d recommend renting this title before shelling out the $40 for it, as you’ll probably bore of it rather quickly.