Jamdat has had a good track record with regard to producing quality sports games for mobile phones. The company's newest effort, Jamdat Sports NBA 2005, continues that fine tradition by offering a fast-paced game of basketball that's reminiscent of Midway's venerable NBA Jam series for arcades and consoles.
Jamdat's basketball game is a two-on-two affair, rather than a standard five-on-five match. All 30 NBA teams are represented in the game, and generally the developers have done a good job of choosing the two best players from each squad to represent their team in the game, by default. Pick the Houston Rockets, and you'll control their impressive duo of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. The Los Angeles Lakers take to the court with Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom. You're free to pair up other players from each team if you prefer.
The gameplay in Jamdat Sports NBA 2005 is fairly simple. You can move about the court in eight directions using the standard number keys. The 5 key is used for shooting or blocking shots. The asterisk passes the ball and switches players on defense, while the 0 key is used for attempting a steal while on defense. Each game is divided into two-minute halves, and each possession is timed by a 24-second shot clock. There are no fouls in the game, and therefore no free throws. You also don't have to worry about going out-of-bounds, or about most other real-life NBA rules like three-second violations or the eight-second rule for advancing the ball into the front court. These simplifications distill the game down to basketball's core essence--scoring the ball and defending your basket.
While the in-game tips suggest that each player's shooting ability is commensurate with his real-life field-goal percentage, we didn't really notice this to be the case in our play testing. You'll find, for example, that it's just as easy for a lumbering center like Ben Wallace to drill a three-pointer as it is for a sharpshooter like Allan Houston. In practice, your shooting percentage in Jamdat Sports NBA 2005 is affected much more by how closely you're guarded than by the game's hidden player ratings.
The offensive players in the game have a ring underneath them that signifies how open they are at that given moment. Red signifies that the player is being closely guarded, and is therefore unlikely to make a shot. A yellow ring indicates that the player is being partially guarded, while a green ring means that he is open and has a good chance of making a shot. It's possible on offense to simply dribble around and try to free yourself for a shot, but those who are interested in passing the ball will find that your teammate will actually make cuts and move around the court to try to get open. While playing defense, you can double-team the man with the ball to ensure he has a red ring, but the AI is generally smart about passing out of the double-team to the open man.
The defensive AI in the game isn't so great, unfortunately. It won't take you long to find cheesy plays that allow you to score almost at will. It's possible, for example, to run toward the corner and then immediately turn around and run back to the wing. More often than not, the computer defender will get lost or stuck in the corner, leaving you open for a three-pointer at the wing. On inbound plays, there's an easy way to get a quick basket: Just inbound to around the half-court area, wait for the other player to run past his defender, and then hit him with a pass as he reaches the free-throw line. He'll be open just about every time at that spot for a dunk.
Rebounding the ball is an intuitive affair in Jamdat Sports NBA 2005. On missed shots, you'll see a shadow on the court that shows you exactly where the ball will land--this allows you to just run to the shadow to chase down the ball. Blocking shots is also fairly intuitive. If you position yourself in front of the shooter and time your jump just as the shot goes up, you'll be rewarded with the swat more often than not. Again, actual player ability or size doesn't seem to be a factor here, so even the diminutive Damon Stoudamire can send back an offering by a 7-footer like Tim Duncan.
The addition of a chargeable power meter adds a small wrinkle to the game. Score three consecutive baskets as a team, and one of your players will then be "on fire," which allows you to execute a special move. Defensively, you can unleash an automatic block, which will block the opponent's shot every time, no matter how far away you're standing. On offense, you can uncork an unblockable dunk or an unstoppable alley-oop play. One of the problems with this meter is that you can continue to fill it even if the other team scores during your run, or if one of your shots is blocked. In fact, you can get your shot attempts blocked repeatedly, and if you score on the final attempt, your power meter will continue to fill up. The only thing that empties your meter is if one of your shots rims out. These quirks make it too easy to charge up your power meter, but since a full meter is worth only one free basket or one free stop, it doesn't affect the game that much.
Jamdat Sports NBA 2005 includes a season mode in addition to its single-game mode. In practice, however, the season mode is just a long series of games against the other teams--there are no league standings to worry about. It's also unfortunate that if you're in the midst of a season, you can't play a game in the single-game mode without erasing your season in progress.
On the sound front, Jamdat Sports NBA 2005 is pretty sparse. Each made basket is punctuated by a simple stadium tune, and there are sounds for blocked shots, dunks, and steals. But other than that, the game sounds pretty empty--there's no crowd noise or sound of the ball bouncing on the floor.
Graphically, the game fares a little bit better. Players on the court are represented by simple sprites. Aside from differences in skin tone, the player names displayed below each sprite are the only way to determine who's who, since every player in the game is the exact same height and build. The good news is that the game animates well, as players can unleash a variety of different dunks and scooping layups. Sharply rendered logos and text in the menu screens also add to the overall graphical shine of the game.
Despite the shortcomings in its defensive AI, Jamdat Sports NBA 2005 is still fun for what it is--a simple, fast-paced basketball game. It's not the deepest game you'll ever play on your mobile phone, but if you're a basketball fan it should easily keep you occupied for a few minutes at a time.
Editor's note 10/22/2004: The review originally stated that only the two default players per team were available, which is incorrect. GameSpot regrets the error.
