NBA Live, recently released by Electronic Arts, is the first 5-on-5 basketball game to grace the app store. While likely to suffer the same derision from console fans that Madden and FIFA have endured, NBA Live should be more than satisfactory to gamers who are aware of the limitations of the iDevice and embrace the efforts of companies such as EA who choose to bring popular sports franchises to the platform, however stripped down they may be.
NBA Live brings with it several game modes, as well as three difficulty levels (a notable omission from Madden that irked some gamers). Exhibition allows you to set a few parameters and jump right into the action. Season sets you up with the team of your choice as you play through an entire season’s worth of games, up to a full 82-game schedule. Playoff mode allows you to skip the regular season and enter into a “best-of” tournament. All 30 NBA teams are represented and all of your favorite players are available. NBA Live incorporates several user-defined options, including quarter length, AI difficulty, commentary on/off, NBA music/user playlist, camera angle, button layout, accelerometer use, and more. If you’d like, you can trade players, sign free agents, and toy with your starting lineup. Within the actual basketball games, you have the ability to make substitutions and alter your offensive and defensive strategies on-the-fly. While this does require the momentary pausing of gameplay to select these options, it really doesn’t pull you out of the rhythm and flow of the game as you might expect.
The game itself can actually be quite challenging. There are times where it feels like every shot falls and every lane is open for driving, but there are those spells where you’ll miss 3 or 4 in a row and can’t convert on several possessions. The game has a good flow to it, especially on the easy mode where few fouls or violations are called. As you ratchet up the AI and difficulty levels, you’ll start to see stricter rules enforced, which makes your every movement that much more important. Despite there being 10 players running around the court at any given time, the game suffers very minimal lag, though it can sometimes be confusing trying to decipher which team comes down with the rebound or which player you are currently controlling when everyone gets bunched up. Outstanding plays will often lead to an auto-replay, though this can be skipped with a simple tap on the screen.
The graphics are pretty good, especially given the need to render 10 players on-screen without slowing down the game. Player body types differ enough that you can often determine which player is which just by looking at them. Player stats do affect how each plays, as Kobe will hit 3’s easily, while Bynum’s attempt looks like he’s shooting a medicine ball. The game screen makes you feel like you’re watching on tv, with the score, time remaining, shot clock, and quarter displayed across the top of the screen. The pause/menu button is in the upper left and a clipboard is in the upper right. Tapping on the clipboard gives you access to play calling options or defensive strategies. Sounds are pretty good. There are the usual game sounds (ball swish, dribble, horn, etc.), but the nicest touch is Marv Albert’s commentary. It’s just not authentic without hearing “YES!” after a great play. EA also included several cool music tracks from some fairly big name artists, another signature move that enhances the experience.
Controls are minimal, but effective. There is a virtual joystick on the left side of the screen that controls player movements. The right side has a red button and a blue button. The red button controls shooting and rebounding/blocking. The blue button controls passing and stealing. Depending on whether you tap or hold the buttons, you can also change their functionality to initiate dunking, perform special dribbling moves, pump fake, bring up icons to choose which player to pass to, and switch defenders. Swiping a button in different directions allows you to perform different dribbling moves or different dunks. It all feels very natural and works surprisingly well. Foul shooting is interesting. To shoot, you tip the device toward yourself, then flick it away from yourself. The straighter you perform this action, the better chance the ball has of going in. You can change this in the options menu if you don’t like it, but it’s not as bad as it sounds.
In all, NBA Live is a terrific addition to the EA family of sports games, and it finally gives gamers a real basketball game on the go. Replayability is good, especially if you play at higher difficulty levels where the AI is more challenging. NBA Live follows the same pricing model as EA’s other sports offerings, with a $9.99 price tag. NBA Live picks up a solid 4-Dimple score, as it is enjoyable and gets many things right, but there is still plenty of room for improvement.
NBA Live gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating:
