NBA
Hands-on with Sony's first PSP roundball sim.
Published: March 7, 2005
When the PSP hits in just a few weeks, there will be two flavors of basketball available. EA will offer their portable take on the NBA Street franchise with NBA Street: Showdown, and Sony will counter with something decidedly more sim-like. The simply titled NBA offers everything you'd expect from a licensed basketball game, but the PS2 port isn't without a few series upgrades.
For starters, 989 added a handful of mini-games, including the deceptively fun Paint Mode, where roundball wannabes can square off against the computer in a THUG 2-style game of horse that paints parts of the court a player's color with successful shots. PlayStation Skills Challenge Mode plays a bit like an obstacle course gauntlet, testing a player's ability to shoot, dribble, pass and react to incoming defense. 3-Point Contest Mode is exactly what it says it is, a simple test of a shooter's ability to sink shots from the behind the arc.
Actual league games give you the option of play a full 82-game season if you wish, though there are truncated 29- or 58-game chunks to digest, or the normal quick game option to just get into the meat of the experience. All of the games are quite fast and fluid, and when two players get into a rhythm (especially playing wirelessly either locally or, like all of Sony's sports efforts, online across the country with the network that'll be live right out of the box), the game feels impressively real.
All modes of the game center around "Clutch Shooting," the new shot mechanic, which we never really got used to, but seems to provide an interesting level of timing-based challenge for every single shot. While dribbling, the circle around a player's feet will change from red to yellow to green as the shot percentage gets better, tapping the shoot button once will plant and send skyward a player, and tapping again at the top of the jump gives the best chance of making a shot (like the player's feet, the ball will glow the appropriate color as the chances of making a shot get better). It's harder than it sounds, which explains why we got completely spanked in our online ad-hoc match last week.
It's easy to pass off most sports sims as average looking until you start to notice the smaller stuff or pay attention to the level of detail in the modeling, and after just a little bit of close inspection, NBA is damned impressive in the graphics department. Aside from the quick pace of the game (though the framerate in the build we played was a bit suspect), the actual detail during close-ups is easily the best thing ever seen in a handheld basketball game (which isn't saying much, we know).
Facial details were enough to pick out players by face alone during close-ups (which arrived with a slightly cheesy graphical snapshot effect), and the animation, particularly between moves, was nice. Dunks had serious weight behind them and the swish of a long range cotton kiss was quite satisfying both visually and to our headphoned ears.
The crowd roar and normal squeaks and grunts were solid, though we'll have to give the game a better listen in a place that was quieter than the Sony event space we played the game in. At the very least, the game certainly feels like a modest and unpretentious offering for PSP gamers needing a basketball fix come launch time. We'll have the full review soon.
For starters, 989 added a handful of mini-games, including the deceptively fun Paint Mode, where roundball wannabes can square off against the computer in a THUG 2-style game of horse that paints parts of the court a player's color with successful shots. PlayStation Skills Challenge Mode plays a bit like an obstacle course gauntlet, testing a player's ability to shoot, dribble, pass and react to incoming defense. 3-Point Contest Mode is exactly what it says it is, a simple test of a shooter's ability to sink shots from the behind the arc.
Actual league games give you the option of play a full 82-game season if you wish, though there are truncated 29- or 58-game chunks to digest, or the normal quick game option to just get into the meat of the experience. All of the games are quite fast and fluid, and when two players get into a rhythm (especially playing wirelessly either locally or, like all of Sony's sports efforts, online across the country with the network that'll be live right out of the box), the game feels impressively real.
All modes of the game center around "Clutch Shooting," the new shot mechanic, which we never really got used to, but seems to provide an interesting level of timing-based challenge for every single shot. While dribbling, the circle around a player's feet will change from red to yellow to green as the shot percentage gets better, tapping the shoot button once will plant and send skyward a player, and tapping again at the top of the jump gives the best chance of making a shot (like the player's feet, the ball will glow the appropriate color as the chances of making a shot get better). It's harder than it sounds, which explains why we got completely spanked in our online ad-hoc match last week.
It's easy to pass off most sports sims as average looking until you start to notice the smaller stuff or pay attention to the level of detail in the modeling, and after just a little bit of close inspection, NBA is damned impressive in the graphics department. Aside from the quick pace of the game (though the framerate in the build we played was a bit suspect), the actual detail during close-ups is easily the best thing ever seen in a handheld basketball game (which isn't saying much, we know).
Facial details were enough to pick out players by face alone during close-ups (which arrived with a slightly cheesy graphical snapshot effect), and the animation, particularly between moves, was nice. Dunks had serious weight behind them and the swish of a long range cotton kiss was quite satisfying both visually and to our headphoned ears.
The crowd roar and normal squeaks and grunts were solid, though we'll have to give the game a better listen in a place that was quieter than the Sony event space we played the game in. At the very least, the game certainly feels like a modest and unpretentious offering for PSP gamers needing a basketball fix come launch time. We'll have the full review soon.