Full Review

Another Milestone Passed Too Quickly
Thus far, here at Epinions has been a short road, with 20 intersections. Yes, I have now already compiled 20 reviews in just under 2 months. Impressive you ask? There has been better and worse, but I'm proud. Anyway, I decided to celebrate such an occasion with a fine bottle of Champagne. Wait no, I'm not old enough for that yet, but I did decide to celebrate this occasion with a fine disc of basketball pleasure.

I was beginning to fear that my Gamecube was loosing its share in my limited quantity of time all together. Aside from a game of Madden here and there, and A melee or two when my buddies came to visit, the ps2 had all but kicked the Gamecube right out the door. I was worried, very worried. Nintendo had always been the favorite of mine in any comparison; it shouldn't, wouldn't, and couldn't change here. Sadly, for weeks there was nothing I could do about it. Nintendo had been slow at the end of the year to release any games worth even glancing at. But it all changed on January 13th 2001. I was headed again to Target to go out on a journey to find a spice orange controller. Did I find one? No, I still have no spice. But during my brief presence at Target, a friend who works there notified me that they had received their shipment of NBA Courtside 2002 that morning, one day early. Naturally, I used my superior tact, and boyish charm (*Cough* Bribe) to get my hands on a copy earlier than regular civilians. I went home, wiped off the dust and disassembled the cobwebs that had formed on the old GC, and began to once again play.(I was just kidding about the bribes)

Game Modes: Franchise.... Where are you?
If any of you remember NBA Courtside for N64, these will look mighty familiar to you. You got all the basics here. There is a quick play mode, a season mode, a skills mode, and an arcade mode. In the quick play mode, as in every other sports game, you set up a basic exhibition game. Decide the game length; change the skill level, pick the teams and you're ready to go. The season mode is again pretty general. Pick a team and go through a full year of the NBA schedule. Trade players, sign free agents, and make players unemployed. In the skills mode, you have two options: Practice, or 3-point contest. Practice mode is pretty self-explanatory. You go out there, and learn the game. It's a good feature for newbies. The 3 point mode is OK, but it is far too easy. You'll have no trouble hitting about 50% of your 3 point attempts with a horrible shooter like Shaq. If you have a pure shooter like Reggie Miller, you'll come very close to hitting everything. The arcade mode, on the other hand, is a mix between NBA jam, and NBA Showtime. Here, all the general physics of both science, and basketball are broken time after for your enjoyment. Perform Harlem Globetrotter like ball handling moves, jump dozens of feet into the air, and throw a monster jam that wouldn't be possible to mimic even if you could fly. There are also added hot spots, similar to those of The NBA Jam series. Here, a spot on the screen will light up with a number in the middle of it. You, with your player, run over to that spot, and throw up a prayer. If it goes in you will get the same number of points that appeared on the hot spot before you shot the ball. This makes the game interesting because often times, players (Humans) will sit and wait until a hot shot appears, and then they will shoot. Some may call it interesting, while others may consider it to be boring.

If you haven’t already noticed, this game has no franchise mode. If I’ve said it once, I’ll say it 1000 times. Franchise mode is the key to sports games currently. Having a franchise mode adds a lot of time onto the replay value, and adds a lot of fun onto the game play. In defense of this game, it is a first effort on a next generation console. I can suck it up and deal with it for next year, but would hope that the sequel will in fact include some sort of a franchise mode.

Controls: Shaq Fu Never Felt As Good
From a control standpoint, this game deserves the good marks that I give it. For one, it only took about 10-15 minutes to learn and master. Another great thing is that this game uses the great GC controller to its full capabilities. Move with the analog stick, call plays with D pad, Pass with B, shoot with A, box out with the trigger buttons, and use the rest to perform some cool dribbling moves. That's all good, but the best thing about these controls is the use of the all-new C stick. The C stick in this game is used a substitution for the B button, which is pass. This let's you take advantage of a full 360-degree radius when aiming and throwing passes. Push the stick to the right, you pass to the right, push it to the left, you pass to the left, and ECT. This mode also makes for some great no look and behind the back passing unmatched in any other Basketball video game. This game also seems to feel a lot more like the NBA than say NBA Live 2002. Here players scurry back and forth on the court in a high paced environment. They Jump up and down, sprint to the ball, and seem to play at a higher energy level. It's just good to feel like you’re in control of a real NBA game rather than just a simulation. Lastly, as always, I am not a big fan of Shaq, and that's an understatement. Making Shaq look like an idiot has never been more fun. Run around in endless circles, throw up bricks for way down town, shoot free throws Shaq style at 40%, and let far less dominant centers like Shawn Bradley run right past you and throw one down. (If you thought I was too hard on Shaq, remember Kazaam?)

Graphics: Nintendo Knows How To Make Things Look Good
In the graphics department, NBA Courtside is second to none. Everything in this game basically looks perfect. First off, this game has the best player animation ever seen in a basketball game. Just watching the game's intros, seeing the players faces, and comparing the look to real life is uncanny. Also, the stadiums look stellar. Sometimes, if you let your mind drift for a second, you will think that you have front row seats in the NBA arena that you playing in.(but then you will remember that you can’t afford those) All the correct logos, paint, and signature styles of each stadium look nearly perfect. The in game animation is very nicely done as well. There is a plethora of different dribbling, passing, dunking, and lay-up animations, so you won't get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. The game's lighting is just about perfect, and the game runs at a quick, but steady framerate.

Sound: Can No One Do This Right
The sound in this game is not a letdown, because I had no high expectations for it. I have still yet to see a sports game with superior commentating and or music, and I bet I never will. The play by play announcer is decent, but still lacks any kind of excitement of surprise while doing his job. He seems to be well in touch with the background information of all the players, and wants to tell you as well. Every game, he'll tell you the same story, over and over again, until you'd like to surrender. The color commentator is also just as mediocre as the number 6 in the series: 5,6,7. He sometimes gives off a witty comment, and when you hear it the first time, it's fine, but he likes to make sure you know what he says, by heart. He does, on the other hand, make good use of the players nicknames. As for the crowd noise, it gets the job done, but is nothing special. The crowd will rise up and quiet down based on what's going on in the game, but it seems a little overdone. The sound effects in the game are done pretty well. They're neither overdone, nor too underused. The thing I wish that I would have seen is some talking by the players. It would have given it that extra sound flavor, and the game could have used it. Overall, I'm pretty critical of sports games sound, but it doesn't weigh heavily in my rating, because it isn't THAT important.

Computer AI: This Computer Was A B Student
The games AI is not as bad I've seen, but isn't perfect either. First off, rebounding is again not as realistic as it should be. There are way too many offensive rebounds, and boxing out can be impossible. Also, when you go to play in the post on defense, it does nothing but hurt you and your team. When you try to hold your ground in the paint on defense, you automatically get a lot slower, and the offensive players easily run by you. This generally results in first, a slam-dunk by you’re opponent, and second, you throwing your controller against the wall in disgust. Also, the computer player can be an idiot at times. Often times, the computer will pass up wide-open shots, and instead pass the ball to a man that's covered in the post. The computer's offense seems to be all about inside play. They pass it around to the inside, drive inside, post up inside, and shoot inside. Generally, they'll only throw it up from down town in desperation like situation. (That rhymes) The worst problem about this game's AI may be in the fact that the developers forgot to update some things. It really angered me when I found out that zone defense are still not allowed in this game. Zone is now a major part of NBA defense, and it's just annoying that it can't be a major part here. Overall though, these problems are minor, and they don't REALLY take away from a good playing experience. As always, the makers of this game are human, and do make mistakes, none of which are on a large enough scale to really affect this game.

Other Notes/Wrap Up
One thing that I left out is the great create a player mode that this game features. There are tons of options here, and the range of player look is huge. It's also fully customizable, and down right fun. I always enjoy making another Shaq. This time, he's 5'10, 150 lbs, and white. But either way, you can have a lot of fun with this and it's worth a look. Another thing that I failed to mention is that this game is a multiplayer game, and can be played with 1-4 people. Overall, I would surely recommend going out and renting this game. If you like realistic basketball games, this is the game for you.

But now it's time to go back to the prison like conditions that are studying for school finals. Or maybe I should just go to bed. I don't know, and you don't care. So I'd like to finish off by saying thank you for reading this review. I will write again tomorrow, and then I'm going to consider taking a break for a couple of days. (I know I can't do it, as do you)

-"Pav"