A lack of depth makes me feel like EA is forgetting about me as a gamer and is looking at me as an ATM.
I will review this game based on game play, graphics, audio, Features, and Lasting ability(replayability).
(Skip this paragraph if you want to get straight to the review)I will make comparisons to 2K basketball not that i am a fan boy of them but they have set the standard to what i expect to see when i start playing a basketball game just like how madden of '07 set the standard in football and tiger of '05 set the standard for golf, and i figure that will make people interested in certain areas how the games compare if lets say like me a couple years ago hadn't played a basketball game for 4 years and wanted to know what one i would like more then i buy one and realize i don't like it so i buy the other and then I did like it. Though my comparison's are from 2k6 to live 08 so they are a bit dated but all i have heard for the past 2 years about 2k is they have gotten much better. and as far as Live '08 a couple things got better but several things are just getting worse and worse. I mention the older games as the standards set because on the newer ones i have often been finding more wrong than right when compared to past years.
(Game Play) I played the game almost all day yesterday looking for bright spots. Their were a couple. I got to play 1 online game since their was a lack in players and it was better than Madden 08's online as far as control lag goes. But the game in general feels like it has some major lag issues off line included. Their is no interupting moves in this game so you want to shoot you have to finish your motion and then an extra dribble before you can actually put your shot up and the major issue with that is you raise your controller to shoot and then you swing it down to finish your shot and sometimes your guy with just stand their the whole time then right after he finishes his motion he will put up a wild shot. And then sometimes the controls feel very touchy like the slightest twich will make you chuck the basketball as you cross have court. Now if you are just standing around not moving much and you want to shoot the ball your shots go up how you would hope it just always feels a little at random if you will actually put up a shot how you want. The dunk and layup system is easy to handle. Though their is no way to go from a dunk to a layup or anything but you can pass out of your shots. Passing is controllable but at the same time feels completely at random. You can push A and pass the ball to the nearest person but the D-pad passing seems to always pass to the person with the gray circle under then and i just haven't figured it out to much feels very random though the more i played the more i got the ball where i wanted it. The games controls overall are limited compared to madden. you don't get many ball control options all you can do while dribbling is a basic cross over though than is normally enough to get by the computer on the lower difficulty settings. Play calling is nice and easy though its also not customizable so you get your set 4 plays and thats what you get on both Offense and Defense. (around a 6 out of 10)
(Graphics) Now when i do graphics i will make comparisons to the previous gens games and to wii graphics specifically since they are kinda in their own imbetween category. though MP3 proved to be much more current gen same with twilight princess. most of the games are just slightly better than previous gen. As far as the Presentation goes its pretty good. Character models are fairly smooth and look like the person they are supposed to look like but its certainly not going to win even a previous gen graphics contest with games like 2K basketball out their and i would say it actually doesn't quite compare to most of the wii games out their but since i have not basketball games out their its hard to make a comparison but it doesn't look as good as madden of 07. It still has the same NBA Live feel though the spacing on the court is a bit better. Its still kinda like your players at times are like giants which can really muddle up the middle of the lane especially to the point you have no idea where your guy when till the group departs. Overall though graphically and the way the graphics cause it to play is actually one of the better parts of the game. Its much better than past NBA lives in recent years. ( around a 7 out of 10)
(Features) This is where the game takes a nose dive off a 300 hundred foot diving board into a pool with no water. They do have some party mode games which are ok but provided me and my brothers entertainment for about a half hour. It has your basic play now option. Then for game modes its severly lacking. It has Season Mode, All-Star Weekend, Rookie Challenge, Playoffs, and a superstar mode but not like the superstar mode in madden its a superstar mode in which you must accomplish what players accomplished in real games in the NBA in a fashion similar to the way they finished it. Its like the old Madden challeges for Madden 05 Special edition on PS2. I went through a couple of them but the problem is their is no real benefit to playing through them other than to just play through them. Their are no unlockables this year again just like in this years madden which is pretty disappointing especially since their is no dynasty mode. Season mode is awful. Its so very basic it generates an 82 game schedule for you to play then you play it or sim it and then if you want you start all over you can trade whateever player for whatever player and all that fun stuff no strategy at all to it. I mean they did throw in the all star weekend making it just like days of yore back in the 99 NBA live days. just no depth to it. No kind of fantasy drafting even to spice things up a little. Another feature that was disspointing not to have in madden 08 but they made it even worse for NBA live 08 is their is no create a character, and what makes it worse their is no character editing option. So players play their postion and only their postion you can still sub people in for what ever position but you can chage attribs at all. Or in my case with madden i took 3 sorry young players and changed their names positons at times and attributes and turned them into me and a couple of my brothers. So thats not available what so ever. Which means their is basically what their is to the game and you as a user have no customizing ability which is pretty sad considering the lack of other features you would of thought they would put that back in to satisfy people. Their are the other features like all star weekend which takes you to the all star game the rookie vs sophmores game, the dunk contest, and 3 point contest. well i mean the first coiuple of things are just games they play normal. the dunk contest is very weak i mean its nice some of the dunks they have but are very limited in the total number of dunks and give the user no way to do any customized dunks of their own. Its basically a rtyhm game you do the controler motion it shows on the screen when it pops up. Some of the motions are fairly un responsive like twisting the wii mote to the left or right most of the time feels like luck or rotating your arm in a full circle. but the basic lob ,up, down, over the shoulder motions feel fine. IT got old fairly quick but it lasted longer than the 3 point contest just cuz their were dunks i wanted to see like off the big screen throw it down windmill jam. The 3 point contest well that lasted about 3 tries for me and my bros cuz on the 3rd attempt we all got 30's i mean its easy to get 30s every time because its all based on the shooting rythym and it was easy not to mess up. They did add fifa teams but with no fantasy draft or tournment set ups its really doesn't matter you can only use them in play now so their wasn't much of a point in adding them. One thing i don't get is the team rating systems either i mean they are innacturate right off the bat which teams like cleveland being an 85 and teams like the Hawks being a 90 which when you look at the line ups their is nothing to merit the hawks being a 90 considering they have no players rated about the mid 80's. The rosters are up to date right off the bat so teams like cleveland who have verajao and Pavolivic not signed are 2 unsigned players.. So thats how all that stuff went making the features entirely underwhelming and certainly lacking a lot compared to the base standards of todays sports games. March maddness will be pointless to pick up also if you want to import draft classes because with their being no drafting well you get the picture. Online is a good feature and 4 users vs 4 users is cool but how often will you have 4 of your friends over at the same time as someone else's 4 user team almost never soo that makes it a bit lacking Online is what Online is though and if its your thing then maybe its enough of a feature for you.(around a 4 out of 10)
(Audio) Audio is a high point the Announcers are good. they are loud and yet not to annoying and they say pretty indepth things such as if you score a lot of points with lebron which some covered 3's and what not they make a comment on how lebron did this to detriot when he scroed 48 points in game 5 of last seasons playoffs. The song list is long and good. the sound effects are so so but they in no way hinder the game i which i could hear more trash talk on the court though. The players i don't think say anything if they do i couldn't hear them. I don't know if you played the past couple years of 2k basketball but if you have you will understand what i mean when i say the announcing is much better but the court audio is terrible when compared.
( around an 8 out of 10)
(Lasting Ability) This game is lacking the depth it would need to really cause it to have the lasting ability you expect out of a sports game. I mean for the most part sports games are different than the majority of games out their in recent standards since normally you accomplish modes by making it through 30 seasons in madden. or 10 seasons and becoming a hall of famer. Not quite cut in dry like a normal game such as you finish the game by beating the main bad guy. This game not only doesn't do sports right it doesn't accomplish what a normal game does either. Their is no start or end to anything i mean you can do a season but that doesn't complish much i mean you can't have a bad season then get a good draft pick and try to improve your team because at the end of the season your team is done and you have to start over. And with no accomplishments to earn like cheats or dancers or anything like that their is no reason to play this game by your self really. I supopse if your in a dorm room and you got it to where you often can get at least one person to play with or against you could get some use out of the game but in a general gamers situation i wouldn't count on it being worth while in that way.. I mean if online is your thing its your thing but as far as online sports go right now Mario Strikers has set the standard and is keeping it until i would say Medal of honor heroes comes out since that game is pushing out 60 fps. ( about 4.5 out of 10)