Submitted on: 10/07/2008 by
Steven Bartlett
Look at the EA cover above. The year was 1994 when that game released. Bring back memories? These were the days of Hakeem "The Dream" and the Rockets -- a team that swept my beloved Orlando Magic powered by Shaq and Penny Hardaway. I was just a young one back then, but these were the glory days for the NBA. His Airness, fresh off 3 championships, managed to catapult the NBA to another level throughout the '80s and early '90s. The culture of hip-hop and hoops were slowly becoming intertwined, and flair, style, and grace were represented by a pair of Air Jordans and a swoosh on a shoe. The game of basketball in the United States would never be the same.
Enter Showtime and Jordan. Magic Johnson added the entertainment value to the sport, while MJ revolutionized the game with his iso-play in the post and raw skills.
Jordan was what the NBA needed: an athlete who made us believe that maybe he can fly. He was truly above the rim. Revenue from attendance in the league began to grow steadily and TV ratings were up during the '80s to the early '90s. The NBA was growing.
EA’s Celtics vs. Lakers and Bulls vs. Blazers titles would be the first to really emulate five-on-five action in a video game -- no offense Double Dribble and Tecmo NBA Basketball. The games were eventually brought over to the Sega Genesis (originally Lakers vs. Celtics was only on DOS) and allowed you to play as Jordan in his prime -- it was a feat to even have Jordan in the game.
During this era, there was little competition among simulation titles. Games such as David Robinson’s Supreme Court did not hold any officially licensed teams or players, but soon EA would have to reinvent its basketball series to compete with an upcoming smash hit arcade title.
NBA Jam was the first NBA game to make a big splash on consoles in 1994. Acclaim's arcade hit emphasized and exaggerated the high-flying stars of the Association. Unlike its competition, such as NBA Showdown and Bulls vs. Blazers, NBA Jam delivered sick jams with light commentary and fast-paced arcade action. You had players catching on fire -- turning the ball literally into flames; players were soaring from the free-throw lines doing triple-windmills like they were in an all-star jam session; and the Dream Team players were selectable as tag teams so you could make it rain from the outside with your favorite players.
You could shatter the glass too, which was wild. Take a look: NBA JAM GLASS SHATTER!
A two-on-two approach by Acclaim proved to be a successful formula for an NBA title. Having all 29 teams selectable and a tandem of players to choose from, the game had captured the basketball crown.
NBA Live would become EA’s new simulation title in 1994. It would establish a quality simulation, while mixing in some arcade elements that made NBA Jam successful.
The Live series would really take off when Sony decided it wanted a piece of the growing video game market share. When the Sony Playstation was released, EA took its Live series and elevated it from 16-bits to 32-bits. EA capitalized on this with the creation of 3D rendered stadiums, better detail, ball physics, and rounder player models on a CD-ROM. The dunks, swishes, alley-oops, and sounds were that much sweeter.
Better yet, the CD-ROM allowed developers to incorporate musical tracks on the soundtrack of the game with unprecedented quality. The menus of the games and the presentation took on a whole new feel with funky and jazzy beats of '90s delivering a cool and smooth vibe –- a true representation of the hip-hop trends of those times.
Live 98 introduced the split screen 3-point contest. The 3-point contest would take on the feel of the NBA All-Star weekend. How could you not fall in love with hoops during this era? The announcer in the arena would count down 3-2-1 and you would start launching 3s at will, as you battled against your friend.
This screenshot shows the points meter, detailing how many shots you drained.
NBA Live 98 through 2000 would be released on various platforms competing against rather average competition -- though, the NBA license would be featured in many titles. Each year, EA’s Live franchise would make slight improvements over its predecessor. One year, Live implemented a TNT-style broadcast to imitate the TNT NBA Thursdays -- man, those were the days. Thursdays would come and I would sit and watch the likes of Jordan, Penny, Shaq, Zo, Tim Hardaway, Sir Charles and KJ, among other favorites.
The NBA brand had successfully branded me -- I wanted to identify with the Association in any way possible. This included the apparel, videos, games, and equipment. I lived the slogan, "I love this game."
NBA Live on the Playstation 2 would never be as highly rated as it was in the previous generations, and a now familiar opponent would enter the arena with its own basketball title during this time. Sega Sports and Visual Concepts (VC) would release the NBA 2K series on the short-lived Sega Dreamcast and fill the void left by EA -- remember EA Sports games did not release on the Dreamcast.
The Dreamcast offered online play in NBA 2K1, long before any other consoles had even started planning the implementation process. OS poster FedEx227 brings back memories by talking about his online experience via a comment on the OS article Five Reasons Why the Dreamcast Ruled Sports Gaming: "Haha, the keyboard trash talk, I remember those days. The dude you're facing would have a huge play, then there'd be a delay then a little box at the bottom 'Take that, bitch.' It was so awesome."
Awesome it was. I’d break out the keyboard from time to time after a nice play. (Then my mom would yell at me to get off the phone line.) Anyway, while Sega Sports revolutionized gaming as we know it, NBA Live was reeling, trying to get the series back into shape during most of the PS2's lifetime.
NBA Live 2005 would ship with an all-new All-Star Weekend mode, which meant there was an updated 3-point contest and an all-new TNT-style slam dunk contest to master. This mode was very fun and appealing because of the learning curve. Once you mastered the control scheme, the styles of dunks available were very creative and seemingly limitless. This successful feature, along with some finally solid gameplay, brought reviews for the Live series back into competition with the NBA 2K titles -- 2K was struggling a bit towards the end of the PS2's life-cycle, which also played into the competition.
NBA Live on the 360 and PS3 has been OK thus far, but most would argue that the level of detail is lacking in comparison to NBA 2K’s series. NBA Live has taken on a bit of an arcade-like feel, while 2K is true simulation at its best.
This leads me to 2008’s NBA games. NBA Live 09 could quite possibly have the most intriguing feature in a sports title in quite some time -- who knew that history repeated itself. Being updated “fresh daily,” the Dynamic DNA in NBA Live takes team and player data and inputs it into the individual player’s and team’s makeup in the game to power and guide the core gameplay.
Synergy Sports Technology is a scouting and data service analytics provider that tracks an amazing amount of data from every game so coaches and GMs can use these stats for scouting -- Synergy Sports is powering the new NBA Live feature. Dynamic DNA is broken down into three segments, the first is player tendencies: this determines a player’s tendency to drive to the left, right, shoot or pass in any given situation in different zones on the court.
The second part is the player DNA on how they score. The player DNA is broken into percentages under the categories of: isolation, pick-and-roll ball handler, pick-and-roll roll man, post up, spot up, off-ball screen, and basket cuts. Kobe, for example, has a 34 percent isolation scorer’s mentality and a 28 percent pick-and-roll ball handler scoring mentality. And if you watched the NBA Playoffs, you would have noticed Kobe running many more high pick and rolls with Gasol on the court than he used to. The data doesn’t lie, and his DNA numbers are taken straight from Synergy Sports’ player tracking.
The third piece of the pie is the team DNA. This represents how the players on the team work as a unit on the court. The sweet part is how the new player you sub in will affect the team’s strategy and game plan on the court. Take, for example, Phil Jackson’s inability to recognize the mismatch of having Sasha Vujacic on Ray Allen throughout the NBA Finals. Maybe if he put in a better defender the Lakers could have slowed the Celtics down a bit. At the same time, if Phil benched Sasha, the Celtics would probably have collapsed on Kobe in the lane –- thus making the DNA of the Lakers makeup much different without a key spot-up shooter. Ideally, Live 09 will be able to use this data and implement it into NBA Live.
A final note is that Live 09 will also track your personal profile DNA, imitating the likes of NBA 2K’s VIP trackers.
So now we have come full circle. From the Lakers vs. Celtics in the '80s, to the 2008 Celtics vs. Lakers in this year’s NBA Finals, NBA Live 09 looks to transcend its Sega Genesis roots. Now, the anticipation is building for the fresh NBA titles to be released.
The fall is here, the leaves will soon be changing colors, so that crispness in the air can only mean one thing: a fresh NBA season is about to be upon us, and I couldn't be more hyped!
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