IGN gamescom studio day 2
NBA 06 makes a valiant attempt at meeting these contemporary gamer expectations, but still misses the boat on a few key concepts -- most notably, the gameplay. Though clever new features help flesh out the rich basketball experience we all want, the traditional mechanics still need work.
NBA 06's main menu has three partitions -- The NBA, The Life, and Online. NBA takes you to a mode selection menu where you can choose a quick game and jump right into the action, or play an entire season. You can manage a team where you're given all the responsibility of a general manager too, and this means you can trade players and sign free agents all day long. When you're looking to bask in your own success, there's a Trophy Room where you can view jerseys unlocked and mini-games are available from here as well.
When regular basketball gets little dull, you can get a fill of "Own the Court," where you play a shooting contest with up to three other players. The idea here is to nail shots from various locations around the court. The harder the shot, the more points earned. It's a simple little formula that works well if you just want a quick pickup to toy with. Other games like Skills challenge offer up a nice set of drills that sharpen your skills with the controls and these kinds of challenges are both fun and educational to make them worth your time.
There's a nice online suite here too. There are a ton of tournaments to play in, as well a leader boards that rank you according to your performance. In between games, you can hangout in the Chat Area and talk a little trash or download rosters to keep everything up to date. When I played over the Net, the game itself was a little choppy in parts but fast enough to keep me roughly entertained.
The introduction of Showtime Gameplay is a cool feature in NBA 06. It's designed to get you to focus on teamwork, instead of using one guy to score all the points. By making assist plays and making good passes, your teammates will actually play better. If you hog the ball with one guy, take hard shots and miss, your team will get disinterested in what's going on and play weaker. This is smart because it actually teaches the user how to be well-rounded. Calling plays, making successful picks, and real strategy is important here, and that makes the game a bit closer to the simulation experience that's so hard to nail down.
NBA 06's crowning achievement is the shot meter. This idea was conceived on the PSP version of the game, and makes a nice entry on the PS2. The idea is to release the circle button at the top of your jump, and at that point, the colored halo around your ball turns green, indicating that the ball is sure to go in. If your timing is off, the meter will either turn yellow, meaning it might go in, or red, telling you it's way off. For the folks that don't have much experience with basketball games, haven't played for a while, or are even b-ball aficionados, this is a great feature to have. It refines you understanding of timing, and makes you and a better shooter. Interestingly enough, it can even train you to play better in other basketball titles that aren't NBA 06.
Sadly there's an overarching problem in the remaining gameplay. Responsiveness is weak thanks to a combination of how CPU reads the controller, and how the game prioritizes animation over button commands. This meant that I could sit there mashing away at the square button, trying to get the player to steal the ball (or hitting triangle to jump for the block), and he'll just stand there and watch other players fly right by. It doesn't happen all the time, but happened enough to really make a negative impact.
When an especially cool dunk or swat is about to take place, the camera switches to another angle (a more cinematic angle), and lets the scene play out in slow motion as a highlight-reel. All too often, I had to sit there and watch myself get dunked on. I tried to participate in the scene with my player, but the lazy response coupled with the slower movement made that nearly impossible. When it's my teammate that's about the pull off the dunk or swat, it's somewhat to cool to watch. But when I'm trying to deny the opposition from doing the same thing and can't because of input issues, it's not so fun.
Additionally, there are weird mechanics with guarding where the player doesn't make swats when he squares up. Instead of swinging at the ball or at least putting his hands in the face of the opponent, he makes a "steal attempt" by pressing a button. This means that being defensive almost always involves throwing your body at the ball to knock it loose, giving the opponent a chance at an open lane. When the "steal attempt" works, it's sweet -- clumsy looking, but sweet. When it fails (which is often) and the opponent is left undefended, I'm cursing up a blue storm. But even when you can knock the ball out of an opponent's hand, your recovery is so clumsy that it's hard to pick up even when right in front of you. This really hurts the experience because you can never really feel skilled on defense. It comes across as sloppy and desperate instead.
The Life mode is designed to bring a new wrinkle to sports video games. I want to point out that I think this a good idea. I like what it's trying to accomplish. It's meant to give you an introspective look into the life of an up and coming NBA star. You sharpen your skills in the Pre-Draft training camp, and move on to your favorite team to start a career. All the drama of the NBA draft is there right after you make it through the workout camp. At that point, the story begins to take on the nature of a feature film. All the gameplay is bridged together by cutscenes that tell the story of the player you create. You'll get your own crib and sign autographs for adoring fans. You get endorsements for playing well and earn respect in the league. You also have to deal with things like trades, getting injured and other pivotal events in the life of a NBA star. It's a great idea.
The first issue with The Life is that you can only play as a point guard, so that makes things limiting. Yeah, you can select other players on the court when you play, but you're not giving the initial option when you create your character, which takes away from the customization aspect. You can select everything from the color of your skin to what kind of tattoos he has, though, but let's face it -- the position you play is a lot more important than any facade and the users deserve control of that.
The other problem with The Life is that a lot of its gameplay actually centers on the weaker mechanics of the game and its goals can be unbalanced. At one point you're given five minutes of play in a Pre-draft scrimmage. Not only are you required to win the game, but you also have to make a dish assist, score 8 points, and make a steal with you main guy. If you don't meet all of these criteria, you lose the scenario. Imagine my frustration with 30 seconds left in the game, and I have all the criteria met except for one lousy goal - making the steal. I'm mashing away at the square button like a mad man, trying to force the steal from someone. I'm running around the court, looking absolutely ridiculous, lunging at the ball to accomplish this one stupid goal. The clock ticks down, and I lose. This happened over and over again. I had to walk away for awhile from the game before I freakin' lost it. It was driving me crazy.
Cover Athlete Amare Stoudemire When it came time for the 2-on-2 scenario, I was hurting. The holes in the defense really stick out. Granted, it did seem a little easier to make the steal happen, but when the opposing team got on a run, it's was over. It's only setup at half court, but once the guys are on their way to the hoop, there's just no stopping them. They have an animation for the lay-up that seems untouchable. I couldn't get my guys to stick to them and get aggressive. All they could do was follow the opponents around like idiots and makes those desperate lunges for the ball. The button response was infuriating and the AI started to grate on my nerves. I watched my unselected player, on several occasions, merely watch a ball bounce by him as if he had nothing invested in what was going on. He didn't reach for the ball or anything. Of course, the CPU team is passing to one another beautifully, with the precision of the Harlem Globe Trotters, and whooping me in the process. This was another scenario I had to play repeatedly and it wasn't much fun.
On another note, when I got to the one-on-one scenario, I was perplexed by the fact that my player had a rough time sprinting and jumping up for the ball at the same time. By rough time I mean he couldn't do it. What's worse is that when he misses a shot and you want to go for the rebound, he can't seem to break out of a canned animation (like standing there after making the shot). This means that an opponent can easily grab the ball and run away with it. It was just another example of where I felt that I was constantly fighting to control my player, whether it was in a plain NBA game, or in The Life. It needs more work.
