Introductions can be telling, and the first thing you'll see when starting up NBA Jam are the poorly conceived player models decorating the menu screen - not a good start. If you're going to use a player standing around and fidgeting or idly playing with a basketball as decoration for a screen, and that player is going to be switched out with others at random, you should make sure he looks good, at least while standing still. They look like poorly stuffed beanie babies and their movements are jerky - these basketball legends appear uncoordinated.

But I can look past that. It's just a menu screen, after all. Getting into the actual game, you'll have your pick of any NBA team and their three most marketable players (more are available, but the initial suggestions are obvious). Each threesome is given letter grades in defense, offense and overall. Very few teams have low grades because NBA Jam is all about dunking and knocking each other over - not about scrappy play from the bench warmers.

At first glance, the game looks and feels exactly how it should. The players are huge and barely fit on the court. Dunks are exaggerated and pretty easy to pull off. The only defense being played is the occasional knockdown, block or steal. It's fast break basketball all the time. The only thing higher than the turbo-charged dunks are the numbers on the scoreboard.

The more daring your buckets the more juice you'll build up in your Jam meter. Once it's full, take your player to a Hot Spot on the court and shoot. He'll do an even more over-the-top dunk from the three point line, posing all the way up and down to the rim. You can also "catch fire" by scoring three unanswered buckets, temporarily making that player almost impossible to stop and immune to goaltending.

But somewhere on the way to the store this little lane camper lost his way. Playing against the computer gets boring faster than a Bulls/Wizards game. The CPU will almost never stop you, whether you're trying an alley oop or a straight drive to the hole. There's really no reason to move the ball around. Bring it up court and dunk. Over and over. The computer will pull off just as many moves as you, but once in a while you'll get a steal or a block - that's really the only difference.

It's also bewildering to watch your players get back immediately after a made basket. You can't even attempt to cover the inbound pass and try for a steal because you don't have control over your player until your opponent brings the ball to half court. It's hard to imagine the reason for this, but it takes away the opportunity for one of the most exciting plays in the old NBA Jam games - a steal and dunk on the inbound pass.

Making matters worse is the camera. None of the angles are quite right. The low one is far too low to see anything (ever been courtside?) and the high one is way too high (ever been in the rafters?). And the one in the middle is just low enough so you can't really see the floor and not high enough to enjoy any of the action. From this perspective the whole thing is a garbled mess of six lanky, goofy-looking figures running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

From any angle, if your selected player's name wasn't highlighted in the upper corner of the screen there's no way you'd know the difference. Beyond the obvious, like skin color or a shaved head, they all look the same. You won't confuse Yao with Shaq, but everyone else is up for grabs. There's little to no personality in any of the players during the game. They vary slightly in size and weight, but not much. The details are just far too hard to pick out during play.

At least the jams look cool. You have nearly unlimited use of the turbo button and it makes any dunk or lay-up that much better. Shooting stars, fireballs, jumps into the rafters and slow-mo replays of everything are faithful improvements on the classics. Even though they're easy to pull off, they're fun to watch.

The play-by-play is done by Tim Kitzrow, the same voice from the old arcade game. The only strange decision about presentation is the 1970's theme sprinkled throughout. There is music from other eras, but the whole game seems inspired by the 70s retro trend - which is a mystery. This is the game that kept arcades open in the early 90s, not the 70s. The heyday of the NBA began in the 80s, not the 70s. If anything, the 70s were one of the darkest times for the league. It's great to have Bootsy Collins tunes in the soundtrack, along with lots of other licensed music, but why so much focus on an irrelevant decade (as far as NBA Jam is concerned)?

NBA Jam does, however, include an enormous amount of game options and unlockables. There are quick exhibition games, the JAM tournament and the Legends tournament (with almost every historical basketball icon represented). There are several courts, uniforms and cheat codes to unlock, and a pretty deep create-a-player option.

Multiplayer is fun and is really what NBA Jam has always been about. Playing against a human opponent removes all the predictability of the game and makes you work a little harder and the dunks more rewarding. Unfortunately, online play is not included. Online play might have taken NBA Jam off the "rent for nostalgia" list and put it on the "must-have" list. As is, there are better basketball alternatives - several of them.