Summary Save your money!

Pros: Solid Graphics Decent Mini-games
Cons: No create a player option No franchise of any type No announcers? Odd physics sloppy controls Occasionaly choopy graphics

Reviewer's Comments

First of all I want to say that I am a huge Basketball fan. I wanted to really get in to this game, but I couldn't it's just that bad.

Graphically the game is impressive when it wants to be. The problem seems to appear when you actually try to play the game. The game gets really jittery when there are more than 4 players on screen at once. That is a problem since there is normally 10 on the screen at once. The ball has a habit of just vanishing whenever it gets near the hoop. Passing the ball is pretty spot- on as long as there is no one in the passing lane. Players seem to just stand around when they should be setting picks for you, or trying to get an open look for a pass. The players dunk animations are really off when you get within 4 feet of the basket, it's like they just hit a wall it's really funny looking if you ask me.

The sound is the lone bright spot. They do a really accurate job of capturing the sound of a ball hitting a hardwood floor. Kinda hard to mees that up. The squeaking of the sneakers is there occasionally. My question is, where are the announcers? Did they just forget to add them? The players don't even try and interact on the court.

The control is also fairly decent, but it still sould have been a lot better. THere seems to be no solid cross-over dribble, so good luck on losing your defender. You cannot even call for a pick from any of your teammates.

THere is just no real energy coming from this game at all. The lack of the aforementioned announcers really and truly hurts the game. The crowd only seems mildly interested in the game (Not that I can blame them) I did not know a Basketball videogae was supposed to put you to sleep. BORING!!!

There is abolutley no motivation to even get through this game once, not to mention twice. If you have nothing else to do with your time, then by all means go for it. But be ready to have yourself committed, because you have to be out of your freakin' mind to even consider subjecting yourself to this game more than once. unless of course you are a masochist.

Overall the game is barely above unplayable. It has it's good parts (It's Basketball) and it's bad (nearly everything else) If you are a die-hard hoops fan, and need your fix of sim hoops then go for it since yu have no other options at the moment. (Hint hint EA) Otherwise just go haead and play NBA Street. Or maybe even avoid the entire NBA genre entirely until something good comes out.

Oh and by the way, what's with the lack of a even a small create a player mode? Every sports game out there has this basic standard feature. I'm not looking for the kind of detail as seen it Tige Woods, but at least give me something. Geez.

Overall score: 4.5/10 not the worst game I have ever played but it's pretty damn close. Your money is best used for something more handy, like say um food or clothes.