Reviewed: April 17, 2005
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer
989 Sports

Released: March 24, 2005
Genre: Sports
Players: 1-2
ESRB: Everyone

6
8
8
5
7.1

Supported Features

But that is the “real” sport, and thankfully a lot of things I normally don’t like get a whole lot better when they come on a disc and require a game controller. The PSP version of NBA marks our second 989 Sports review ever and the first basketball simulation available for the handheld system. Until now we’ve only played EA, ESPN/Sega, Microsoft, and of course, Midway’s wacky variation of the sport.

NBA delivers a pretty package but once you get past the ribbon and the fancy paper there is very little inside other than the very basics of the sport. Worst of all, gameplay is hampered by poor A.I. and funky shooting controls that are more hit and miss than skill based.

Season mode is obviously where you will spend most of your time. You can choose the length (29, 58, or 82 games) and then from the menu you can either play a game for real or have the computer simulate the game. Management options are simplified. Trading players or dealing with free agents is just a few button-clicks away and money has been removed from the equation.

I dived into the practice mode for about the first hour just trying to get a feel for movement and shooting. Movement was pretty solid using the A-pad but the shooting interface which relies on you hitting the circle button to start the shot and a second (precisely timed) push to release the ball seemed a bit random. Just when I thought I had the timing down it wouldn’t work anymore.

I’m guessing they are tying in my skill with the attributes of my players, so if they have good stats my timing doesn’t have to be quite so precise. Unfortunately, during a real game you aren’t always sure who has the ball and you don’t want to be calling up their profile to see how good a shooter they are. Also, the type of shot (jump, dunk, lay-up) seems to influence the timing.

The type of shot your player will make is based on their location and movement toward the net. If they are standing they will make a traditional jump shot; if they are under the board they will go for a lay-up and if they are charging the goal they might attempt a slam-dunk. You can also call up advanced shots like the alley-oop.

Shot quality is indicated with a halo around the ball that can be green, yellow or red. It’s your job to hit the release portion of the sequence when it’s green. Yellow might make it into the net and red is clearly a miss. While this color-coded shot system works when you are lobbing three-pointers from downtown it become unwieldy when you are working under the net, surrounded by other players.

All the other moves you would expect are provided and expertly mapped to the PSP controls including crossovers, spins, and special offensive plays like alley-oop, pump fake, and juke. You can either do directional passing by aiming toward the player to pass to or call up the icons (face buttons) by holding L+R then pressing the button that corresponds to the player you wish to pass.

Other than twitch shooting mechanics, the game suffers from some inexplicably poor A.I. I’ve never played 989’s PS2 offering so I don’t know if this is specific to the PSP or just their basketball franchise in general but players act like they were on a elementary school team; not multi-million dollar professionals. Don’t be surprised when you see players step out of bounds, pass to players who are clearly not paying attention (one guy was looking into the crowd), and this isn’t just the opposing team. Your own team will ignore your plans, ignore their man or zone and allow players to stroll up to the hoop and lovingly place the ball in the net.

The court gleams and reflects and the camera tracks the action from the sidelines between the two goals like just like network coverage. When the replays kick in the camera will swoop in for some impressive close-ups that you just can’t do in real-life. This has all the presentation value of a full-sized console game.

Commentary is lacking. There is no play-by-play. You’ll hear only the sound effects until one team does something (make a basket, go out of bounds) and then you’ll hear the announcer say the name of the team. Players are not singled out and there is no emotional commentary.

There is Wi-Fi support so you can challenge any nearby PSP owner with a copy of the game or play over the Internet via wireless access. The multiplayer mode partially makes up for the weak A.I. in the game but the computer still has to control eight of the ten guys on the court, even in two player games.