EA Sports made it a point to make players loyal to their sports games by unlocking things in different games with a file saved to the memory card. As a result, I bought both of the EA Sports basketball games for the PS2, one for pro basketball (NBA Live 2004) and one for college basketball (NCAA March Madness 2004). This is maybe a little more interesting than most of my Reviews of other sports games, as I've never really thought that game developers were able to get a basketball game right the way I've seen football, baseball, hockey, and golf games that are of top-quality. This is the first time I have played either of the EA Sports basketball game series, as the college basketball game I reviewed last year was made by Sega Sports.
This Review is rated on a 0-4 star scale. This Review also follows the format from my football game comparison, as I'll give an edge to one side or the other.
Graphics:
NBA: ***
NCAA: ***
The graphics are practically identical.
They are good, and there's not much bad to say about them. They
aren't really blow-away graphics, either,
so I can't give them a four-star rating. The players look pretty
realistic, though I can't say they
can match the players in the EA Sports football games. The basketball is
round, fortunately, which I say jokingly, if you remember the days of the
N64, when nothing was round.
Edge: Even
Sound:
NBA: **
NCAA: ***1/2
I'm not a fan of rap, so the menu music
of NBA Live doesn't interest me much. I like the menu music found
in March Madness more, which has all
kinds of college fight songs. Now if you pick your favorite school, the
game will play the same song over and
over again, and these are 30-second songs. So don't pick a favorite
school.
As for the more important sound features,
the announcing, I think both games have adequate sound. NBA Live's announcers
are pretty good, sounding very real, much unlike the horrible announcing
I heard in
that college basketball game I reviewed
last year. March Madness has an even better announcing duo, with
love-him-or-hate-him announcer Dick
Vitale. I happen to fall into the love-him category, so his excited voice
and his funny catch phrases make the announcing really good.
All in all, March Madness's only real
fault in the sound category is the repetitiveness of the fight songs if
you choose a favorite school, but not choosing one is an easy answer. It
easily wins here.
Edge: NCAA
Difficulty:
NBA: **1/2
NCAA: ***
The difficulty curve is not that easy
if you're a true beginner, for either game, in fact. In NBA Live, your
players usually have enough skills
that you can survive early games when you're not so skilled, and then build
up your skills as you go on. However, I can't say that you'll find the
game easy... I stocked my Golden State Warriors team with all kinds of
stars, including my own character with perfect stats, and almost lost to
the Los Angeles Lakers, though I came away with a win after an awesome
comeback.
As for NCAA, the difficulty curve is much, much harder. The game not only requires you to have skills, but you also can't just go with a team with little talent like Navy and except to push around the big boys like Duke. If you learn the controls and game situations well, you can get used to the game enough to be able to win big games. My South Florida team is probably a middle-of-the-pack team in the NCAA, but since I know who to get the ball to in certain situations, and who to use on defense, I am able to come away with big wins.
So, if you're new to basketball games,
these games will be incredibly difficult to get used to. It will take much
practice to get the hang of playing. Once you do, though, you will find
that the difficulty is good, because it stops you from blowing out opponents
constantly (and thus making the game repetitive).
Edge: NCAA
Controls:
NBA: ****
NCAA: ****
EA Sports corrected a huge error I have
seen in other basketball games, which is the fact that the game
wouldn't differentiate between a dunk
and a jump shot. You'd go to the hoop, hit the shoot button, hoping for
a dunk which is an automatic two points, but your player would instead
pull up for a jumper from a foot
away from the basket, and miss it!
This would happen multiple times, costing your team precious points. It's
all over now.
Both games have two separate buttons
for shooting: one is dunk/lay-up, the other is for jump shots. With
square (on the PS2), with a big player
you dunk, with a little guy you go for a lay-up, both which are almost
automatic (lay-ups occasionally miss). With circle (on the PS2), you shoot
a jump shot, holding down the button to jump, then letting go when you're
at the height of your jump for the best chance at making the shot. Basically,
you will dunk or lay-up from close range, and jump to shoot from everywhere
else. You may be wondering what would happen if you try to dunk from half-court,
and the answer is that you toss up a one-handed shot which hardly ever
goes in, if ever.
Also, there is "Freestyle Control",
which allows you to use the right control stick to make moves. These
moves, such as dribbling the ball between
your legs, can fake out defenders, and then give you a clear lane
to the hoop. If you use this move too
much in one possession, however, you may end up losing the ball, so be
careful. I really like this added feature, which is in both games. I'm
so impressed with the improved
controls over anything else I've ever
played (and they are new to this year's versions) that I have to give
them both four stars. Impressive...
most impressive.
Edge: Even
Gameplay:
NBA: ***1/2
NCAA: ***1/2
In basketball, I can't really distinguish between all sorts of types of gameplay like I could in football, as you can go from offense to defense to offense in a matter of seconds in basketball. I'll just tell how the gameplay flows, and first of all, I'd like to say I am pleasantly surprised.
When there are turnovers, the players
do not "pull up" and come to a halt like they did in NCAA College
Basketball 2K3, the basketball game
I reviewed last year. This leads to more flowing gameplay. Also, shooting
is not automatic from certain spots around the three-point line, as I found
to be true in the
aforementioned game. Players can also
make shots from further back, whereas in the game I just spoke of, if
you're not a couple of inches behind
the three-point line or anywhere closer, you miss pretty much automatically
(save for the once-in-10,000 long shot). This makes the game very more
real than I've ever
experienced in basketball game. Keep
in mind that I still thought NCAA 2K3 was a pretty good game, and
much better than past efforts I saw
on the Sega Genesis and the Nintendo 64.
Gameplay is not perfect, as you occasionally
have times where the camera doesn't change positions fast
enough, and thus you run out of bounds.
You'll have those moments where you want to do something basic,
and your player will do some hot-shot
move and end up giving the other team the ball. But the fact of the
matter is, these moments are few and
far-between, and they make both games very fun. I really can't say one
is better than the other, as both share
the same style of gameplay. Maybe that is a minor fault, that there
isn't much of a difference in the two
games, whereas in Madden NFL 2004 and NCAA Football 2004, there was a pretty
big difference in gameplay, which served both games well. All in all, though,
I'm not complaining.
Edge: Even
Menus, etc.:
NBA: no stars
NCAA: no stars
Here, I am talking about the time it
takes to travel around on menus and stuff like that, and the game is
super-slow with that. It takes about
10-30 seconds for you to go to the next menu if you hit X on a selection,
such as "Game Modes" or "Options". Now just imagine if you want to make
a season, which takes several selections. We're talking about two minutes
or so to get to a place I could get to in NCAA Football 2004 (for example)
in about 10 seconds. It's crazy. Imagine if it took that long for you to
go from "Start Game" to the number of players menu in Mario Kart: Double
Dash. This is absolutely outrageous, considering how basic this stuff is.
I don't know why it is this way, and I don't know why it's like this in
both games. All I can tell you is that it's extremely annoying, and sometimes
you'll wonder if you even hit the X button, then press it again, and select
something you didn't want. There's also the fact that this game's controls
on the typing screen are opposite of the ones in the football games. This
is the second-biggest complaint I have with this game. You know what that
means...
Edge: Even
Season/Dynasty Mode:
NBA: *
NCAA: *1/2
I want to make things very clear: my
opinion on the modes themselves is reflected in the scores above.
However, the fact that you can't have
more than one team in the Dynasty Mode of either game really, really
hurts. Why? That means you can only
have multiple teams in Season Mode, not in the Dynasty Mode which
has so many more options. What's so
bad about this, you may ask? Well, the fact of the matter is, my sister
and I both play most sports games. In the NCAA Football games, for example,
I have six teams, and so does she. That makes for all kinds of interesting
stories, like my Penn State team trying to win the national championship
and her Connecticut team trying to make it to a bowl. This is not an option
in Dynasty Mode, thus forcing us to play Season Mode, with considerably
less options. Are these the days of the Sega Genesis, when you could only
have one team in a season? Even the N64's All-Star Baseball 2000 allowed
a multiplayer Season Mode (at the time,
there were no Dynasty Modes).
As for the mode itself, I'll be talking
about the Season Modes, since I'm not playing the Dynasty Modes.
I'll start with NBA Live. This mode
allows you to trade players, sign players, cut players, etc. This isn't
too bad, but it's kind of dull. It's not much improved off anything you
could play on the N64. There are more options in Dynasty Mode, but the
lack of multiplayer play kills that right off the bat for me.
NCAA March Madness is a little bit better
since it allows you to make half your schedule, though you may
not be able to play certain good teams
if your team is pathetic (thus my poor Navy team can't even play an
awesome team like Duke). It has a Sporting
News section which gives you covers and rankings of teams,
like NCAA Football 2004 did with Sports
Illustrated. March Madness's Sporting News section, however, is a
lot smaller, with mind-boggling rankings
and not much else to see. How did my sister's Connecticut team lose its
first three games and yet keep its #1 ranking? This mode is not that deep,
either. Maybe in Dynasty
Mode there's more, but in this mode
you don't get the interesting stuff like coaches getting on the hot seat
or getting rewarded, or anything like
that.
Thus I'm disappointed with both modes,
as they really don't offer much. It really is a shame, considering
that the gameplay itself is a lot of
fun, but there's not any of the behind-the-scenes action that goes on in
the EA Sports football games, which have as much going on outside of the
games as in the games themselves.
Edge: NCAA
Play Now Mode:
NBA: ***
NCAA: ***
This is just a single game, between
any two teams you want, wherever you want. Since the gameplay is good,
so is this mode. There's not much to this, of course, so winning this game
gives you nothing more than
bragging rights. I'll give NCAA a slight
edge for having more teams to choose from.
Edge: NCAA
1-on-1 Mode (NBA only): **
This mode is one player vs. another
player, with adjustable rules. This mode can be pretty fun, with all kinds
of cool moves and stuff, but the fact of the matter is, even the best players
can't really play good enough defense to prevent your opponent from scoring
90 percent of the time they have the ball. Basically, what I mean is that
you score 90 percent of the time. You get one lucky break, and you win
the game. It's fun in
some ways, frustrating in others, and
should only be depended on as a mini-game, not as a major mode.
Tournament/Playoffs:
NBA: **1/2
NCAA: ***
In Live, you can set up who you want
in the playoffs and play it through. You can also set up the playoff
format, like how many games you need
to win in order to move on to the next round (the default is four wins).
This isn't a bad mode, really, though of course it's nowhere near the length
of a season. Why does it get a better rating than the season, then? Because
I expected much more out of the Season Mode than I got, and this is just
about what I expected from the Playoffs Mode.
This is probably the best mode in March
Madness. You can set up whichever teams you want in the tournament, and
whether you want it to be 8 teams or 64. This makes playing normal games
more exciting, as there is a real point to winning games. A big problem
with this mode is that saving a tournament takes up a lot of memory card
space, specifically space that I don't have. This means I have to play
the entire tournament before I turn off the PS2, and unless it's a vacation
weekday (i.e., a day with no school and no football), I usually don't have
the time to do this, especially if you're using more than one team (if
you're only
using one team, then it definitely
is possible to play a 64-team tournament in about an hour or so, simulating
all computer games). All in all, though, it's an enjoyable mode.
Edge: NCAA
Practice:
NBA: **
NCAA: **
This is simple: just practice shooting
and dunking, from anywhere you want, with your player being the only one
on the court. The good thing about this mode: you can practice your shots
and moves so you know what
to do in some situations. A couple
of bad things about this mode: there's no substitution for real defense
if
you want real practice, and it can
get awfully boring awfully quick. I'll take NBA slightly just because players
are more skilled in the NBA.
Edge: NBA
Mascot Mode (NCAA only): ***1/2
What's great about Mascot Mode is that
not only do the players look absolutely hilarious on the court, but
that the players' skills are basically
equal, so you get a very fair game in which whoever is the better game
player will come out the winner. My favorite NCAA March Madness 2004 experience
came out of this mode,
with one of my Ohio Bobcat mascots
making a long-range three-point shot with one second left to beat the Pitt
Panther mascots by one point.
Rivalry Mode (NCAA only): ***
Truth be told, this mode isn't really any different from playing a normal game. Yeah, sure, you can find rivalry matchups easier, but you can still play rivalry games in Play Now Mode. You're not gaining a trophy if you win (a la the NCAA Football series), so I don't see how it's really any different from a normal game, other than the fact that it is more fun to win with Penn State over Pitt (the big Pennsylvania rivalry) than over Central Connecticut State or wherever.
Unlockables:
NBA: **
NCAA: no stars
In NBA Live, you can unlock stuff like
throwback jerseys (i.e., the jerseys teams wore in past decades) and shoes
(which really don't look that much different from each other). They turn
out to be all right, though not really that great. They are at least better
than what you get in NCAA March Madness, which is absolutely nothing. How
about unlocking the mascot teams to be played against human teams? How
about "cheat" pennants or cards? That's a real shame.
Edge: NBA
Replayability:
NBA: *1/2
NCAA: **
The lack of a multiplayer Dynasty Mode
really, really hurts again. This means after one season, if I want another
multiplayer season, I have to start Season Mode all over again, with no
stats carrying over. If I
played Dynasty Mode, it would get pretty
boring, being just me against the computer every single game.
Seasons in basketball are longer, though,
so the game does last longer. I prefer the Tournament Mode in
NCAA, and the Mascot Mode as well,
which give NCAA a longer lifespan.
Edge: NCAA
Fun Factor!:
NBA: **1/2
NCAA: ***
Basketball at times can be very emotional
and exciting, especially in the fourth quarter or overtime. The problem
is that basketball can also turn into a snoozer if one team has a whole
bunch of unlucky breaks early on, and a game can go from close to a blowout
within a minute. I think both games are pretty fun, though I'd like to
see some more excitement thrown in, like player reactions and coach reactions.
Better Season and Dynasty Modes would serve this game well too.
Edge: NCAA
OVERALL:
NBA: ***
NCAA: ***
You may start to wonder if I'm a real
scaredy-cat, considering I gave all three N64 Mario Parties the same
score, I gave both 2004 EA Sports football
games the same score, and now I give both of these games the
same score. Although NCAA got a lot
of edges, they were very slight edges. I really have to say these two
games are very similar to each other,
and too similar for me to really give one a huge edge on the other. If
I rated on a scale of 1 to 100, sure, I'd probably give these two games
different scores. But that doesn't work here with a four-star scale, so
both end up with the same three-star score. As for recommendations... I
only really recommend these games if you're a real basketball fan, or maybe
if you're a general sports fan. If you don't like basketball, skip it for
sure. Both are great when it comes to actual gameplay on the court. Off
the court, the game is really iffy, which is a place where I expect all
sports games to excel. That's what stops both from getting a higher score.
I'll give NCAA a slight edge, but that's nothing against NBA, which is
also a game that's almost just as good.
Edge: NCAA
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