Disc Jam is a Party Game with a sports theme, developed by High Horse Entertainment and released for Playstation 4 and Microsoft Windows PCs on March 7th, 2017, then ported to Nintendo Switch on February 8th, 2018.
The titular game is a unique futuristic sport that uses a hi-tech disc, tossed between the players with rules that mix air hockey with tennis. It is played in 1 vs. 1 or 2 vs. 2 matches with up to four players, either locally or online. There's also a roster of six distinct characters for the players to choose
Tropes present in this game:
- Acrofatic: Stanton, the mascot character on game's cover, is far bulkier than the other characters. While it does slow down his regular movement, his sliding is ridiculously fast.
- Deflector Shields: Players can generate such a shield directly in front of them to quite simply deflect the disc away at a minimal speed. In doubles mode, this is often used to allow your partner to line up a great shot at a suddenly-slow disc.
- Fictional Currency: The so-called Jamoleons, used to purchase the various cosmetics.
- Gameplay Grading: Every match affects the player's ranking - even if it is played offline against the A.I.s, since they are based on the behavior of real players. The only exception are local multiplayer games, and those on private servers.
- Jack of All Trades: Lannie and Gator are the two characters with largely balanced stats, while the other four are more specialized.
- Meta Multiplayer: It is possible to download AI players and fight them offline. The trick is that their behaviour is based on the analysis of the real players' data.
- No Plot? No Problem!: It's a sports game, make up all the story you need yourself!
- Revenue-Enhancing Devices: This commercial game features the ability to spend real money in order to quickly obtain loads in-game currency regardless.
- Rule of Cool: Everything about the titular disc runs on this. It leaves a highly charged purple trail whenever it's thrown, will outright blow up if the other players fail to catch it and it lands on the court, and it gets shot down by automatic turrets if it is thrown out of bounds. Given that two of the developers used to work on the Call of Duty series, this is hardly surprising.
- Scoring Points: The match is won by the first player to win 50 points in 2 out of 3 rounds.
- Timed Mission: Averted. Any given round will keep going until a player scores 50 points, with no regard for time.
