NBA

"Lacking, Normality, Commonality, Functionality, and more"

Have you ever played a basketball game before? If you have you will certainly be familiar with the normal tap, or tap and hold shooting methods. You also likely are used to player's names being announced by an in-arena PA announcer or Broadcast voice for introductions. You should also be familiar with the ability to update rosters, and do general roster management so that you can play with a team of players you wish in any mode.

NBA has none of this! That's right zero, nada, zip, zilch, absolutely none of those features that we expect to find in every game. NBA is a very odd game that has many faults and if it had been released with direct competition in the NBA realism market, it would, in all likelihood, already be in the bargain bin. The shooting method is very different than what the norm for basketball games is. In NBA, a new system in which the user must tap the shoot button, and then tap it again when the halo around the ball becomes green. This may seem easy but when you consider that you have to do this for all shots (except seemingly random dunks), even lay-ups, it becomes extremely difficult and tedious.

The roster management capabilities are downright useless. NBA lacks Create-A-Player ability in any mode and also lacks roster management capabilities, except for the limited trade capabilities available only in season mode. Because of this you cannot edit a player to make him better or worse, create a player who is not in the game or make a trade for use in playoffs or season mode. Trading is available only in season mode and only effects that specific season. If you like to tinker at all you will definitely be disappointed.

The lack of features does not end there. There are few in any sliders that you will find affect game play, the ones that effect game play are simple "yes or no" and "on or off" options. The worst thing is that you cannot change the shooting type to allow you to shoot with a more common method; you are basically forced to use the settings that come with the game. Again, people who like to change sliders will be completely disgusted with this game, as will anyone who expects this to be a decent game.

NBA lacks decent announcer commentary and most of the time your player's will be referred to as 'the veteran'. Also the introductions with player's names being announced by an in-arena PA announcer voice or game play commentator are not in the game. During introductions you are shown a picture of the player and their name, position and other info, none of it announced by the game announcer. If you can get over that I doubt you can get over the fact that you have to be completely open to take an outside shot, if you aren't it will be blocked.

This game does not deserve a place in your PSP or in your possession unless you are able to get over the many severe flaws. If you want a good NBA game, skip NBA and wait for next year and hope that NBA Live is released for PSP, for now though, NBA Street is the best basketball game on the market. Oh and by the way, don't expect any innovative features in NBA, if there was one, besides the supposedly innovative shooting method, I would have told you about it, but you can't say good things about a game if they are not there.

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 02/09/06