NBA Courtside 2002

"An impressive game, for the most part."

INTRODUCTION
If you're looking for a great basketball game, look no further than here. NBA Courtside 2002 offers a great and realistic experience to all basketball fans.

GRAPHICS: 9
Impressive. The players look sharp and the courts are built to look exactly as they do in real life. The lighting effects are great – they give a nice glimmer on the wood and players. From a distance, the crowds look great, although if you zoom up on them, they look paper thin.

SOUND: 7.5
The sound was decent. The crowds react appropriately depending on the situation and sound pretty good. The commentary, for the most part, does its job, but didn't impress me much. Of course, if you don't want to hear them, you can turn commentary off.

GAMEPLAY: 9.5
The gameplay for NBA Courtside 2002 is great and is where the game stands out. It simulates a true game almost to perfection. The public address announcer announces the starting lineups, the instant replays are shown from angles that capture the detail, and substitutions are easy to perform (as well as Time-Outs). The motion of the players in-game are fluid and smooth – a turnaround shot isn't an immediate spin and a slam dunk doesn't result in arms or legs going through the hoop. After the game, you can see the final score, along with stats for every team and player.

CONTROLS: 9
The controls are simple, but also expand for those who want more options. For the beginner, the basic moves are easy to perform, and for those looking to be more advanced, you can use special techniques, that vary from making a behind the back pass, to finishing an alley-oop.

SAVING AND LOADING - 9
For the most part, saving and loading just about anything is quick. The game files take only seven blocks of your memory card, and that's a minuscule amount on the current memory cards Nintendo has available.

REPLAY VALUE: 7
The game has several available modes of play, most of which will last you for a couple of months, but after time it will all become extremely repetitive and you'll probably throw the game to the side for a while.

OVERALL: 8
The first basketball game for the Nintendo GameCube turned out to be pretty good. The game is worth buying, and if you're still not convinced, you can rent it to try it out.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/21/02, Updated 08/16/05