The journey of last year's "NBA Jam" reboot on 360 and PS3 was a bit of a strange one. At one time it was only going to be released on those platforms as a downloadable extra for those that purchased "NBA Elite 11." But with the cancellation of "Elite," "Jam" shifted into a full-on retail release, akin to its Wii counterpart. Seems EA isn't giving up on the downloadable "Jam" model, though, as they're planning on re-releasing the remake (go that?) as "NBA Jam: On Fire Edition."
"NBA Jam: On Fire Edition" will be coming to PS3 and 360 this October as a download-only title for XBLA and PSN. The core of the game seems to be pretty much the same as what was released last year, but with several small improvements.
For one thing, EA is adding an online, co-op friendly campaign mode for those who thought slogging through the campaign on solo just to unlock characters was a chore. The AI is also boosted and will supposedly "learn" from your tendencies as a player.
Another nice improvement is the ability to support roster updates, which is something the current, boxed versions of the games can't due to the expense of title update certification. (Ironically, the $5 iPhone version of "NBA Jam" has already updated its rosters.) Since the game is launching in October, the hope is that we'll get roster updates throughout the rest of the 2011-2012 NBA season.
The announcement also mentioned that EA is planning on returning to the basketball sim market with a new title in 2012. Here's hoping they manage to dodge the same pitfalls that felled "NBA Elite 11."
