By Philip Dunkley
I would just like to start this review by saying something. I played basketball at school. I was pretty good too, due to my height and physical superiority, and my lighting fast reflexes. Hehe. No really, I was quite good, and I could slam a ball, I didn’t get the nickname, Philip “Slam†Dunkley for nothing. Now that that’s out of the way, I can’t back to the job at hand here.
Firstly, as South Africans, we generally know very little about this sport and the sales numbers of the various franchises of games, or lack of them, point to exactly that. But I know something about it, I like to think (American culture was very cool when I got to High School as Nike and Reebok had just entered the country, and the basketball boom started and faded just as quickly). So I think back to the various versions of the NBA Live Series from EA over the last few years, and I actually look quite fondly back as I remember the thrill and pace of the game.
Now I got the Mobile Version from EA recently, and was rather wary of how they were going to adapt the pace and complexity of the game to a mobile platform, and I was really surprised at just how good the game was.
It captures the pace of the game by having a set of very intuitive controls. Simple yet intuitive.
Basically you pass the ball around via the keypad with certain colours coming up on the screen to show you the situation of the player you’re about to pass to, allowing for rapid choices to be made on exactly who the right person is to pass to. This concept works the same for shooting, showing the specific situation and when the right time is to shoot. Release the key at the right time and “Swooshâ€. Hold it down and “SLAMâ€. It’s very gratifying.
Now we also need to be realistic here. Basketball games rely on Stats and Management in a huge way. More than most sports games. This is absent in this version, except for the ability to make subs at half time, so don’t go expecting a simulation here people. But it’s a lot of fun nonetheless. In fact I’m going to going go with that this could be one of the best sport’s games I’ve played on a Mobile.
From a graphic point of view, it actually looks quite good for a mobile game, and the sound is also quite realistic. The menus are very easy to navigate through, and you always seem to be able to get where you want to go almost instantly. Another feature I found very helpful, was the inclusion of a really good tutorial at the beginning of your first game.
If you like fast paced sports games for any platform, this is great. If you like Basketball, this is even better. If you’ve never tried either, you can’t go wrong starting right here.
Scoring:
Overall: 80%
To get this game right now SMS 1766649 to 40978, NBA Live 08 will only set you back R50… well worth the effort in my opinion
Last Updated: May 8, 2008
