NBA Live 99

"I broke the backboard, and it wasn't even a dunk! Ya-haa!"

The game plays almost exactly like basketball. You shoot, pass, defend, and all the other B-ball mumbo-jumbo. Most of the NBA players are in there; the only ones who aren’t are the really crappy backups on the injured list.

The game has a few good modes, including regular and 3-point shootout, which is where you see how many 3-point shots you can make in a set amount of time. Regular plays like the regular 82-game NBA season, and the chance to enter the playoffs. But you can choose what teams you want to play as anytime in the season, meaning that you can play as all teams in all games. The create-a-player mode allows you to make your own player and customize almost everything about them.

You can play in any team arena, and they look like the real deal. However, the game plays much faster if you turn off some of the detail in the arena. The graphics look like the exact players, except at times the player’s faces look cut out of a picture and pasted on. Not much to gripe about, but still a nuisance nonetheless. Some of the player’s individual moves are put in this game, and it’s really quite cool. Except I wanted more of Kobe Bryant’s kick-ass dunks.

The music doesn’t quite copy real basketball sounds, but that’s because they can’t easily get licensed songs such as Who Let The Dogs Out in there easily. But, they crowd is vibrant and loud, and sounds exactly like a regular stadium crown, except without those stupid rainbow-haired guys holding those signs that say John 3:16. The sound effects in this game are good as well, and really emulate basketball sounds well.

The game can be quite difficult at times, but that’s only on All-Star difficulty. Otherwise, it’s pretty nice. The rules can be changed greatly, going from NBA rules to Street Ball rules at your choice. I always turn off goaltending and then use Shaq to goaltend at the hoop every time.

Here comes some bad parts: the game has hardly changed from NBA Live ’98. Excluding a minor graphics lift and some minimal roster changes, this is ’98 all over again. The rosters have barely changed, with the exception of the 97-98 season’s mid-season trades and signings. The draft picks were not in here because of the NBA Lockout, which should’ve delayed the game to when the season began. The game also retains the same control problems and button setups as last year’s version, where a slip of the finger could send you to the windows desktop and make you lose your game.

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Score Rundown-

Game Play-8/10
Control-6/10
Music-6/10
Sound Effects-7/10
Graphics-8/10
Enjoyability-7/10
Originality-5/10
Replayability-5/10
Difficulty-8/10
Value-5/10

Score-65/100

Overall-7/10

Doodleheimer’s Recommendationitivity-

If you want to buy this game, let me make you aware that you’re just buying NBA Live ’98 all over again.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/02/01, Updated 05/20/02