NBA Live 2001 (PlayStation 2)

Pretty much every other review of NBA Live 2001 for the PlayStation 2 gives it low ratings. I really don’t understand why, although I am writing this from the viewpoint of a new player. I’ve not played any of the other NBA Live games, or any other basketball games for that matter. Well, I think I used to have the Basketball game for Atari 2600, but its only one on one, so that doesn’t quite count.

NBA Live 2001 is a basketball game from EA (Electronic Arts) Sports. They’ve been making NBA Live games for several years now, and it is a very popular series. EA Sports also makes Madden 2001 football games, baseball games, hockey games, and so on. You get the picture. It’s a safe bet that EA makes the best sports titles for any system.

Like every other sports game, you can play practice games against whatever team you want, or you can go into a season mode and play just like you were in the NBA. You can adjust the time limit for games to end quickly or to be regulation length. Its all up to you.

The game is pretty straightforward – its just basketball. You select your team, change the options like game time or player lineup, then you play a game. The camera angles follow along the sidelines during play, and you occasionally get an instant replay whenever something cool happens, like when somebody slam dunks a ball or pulls some kind of quick maneuver.

The controls are easy to use and you can figure out how to play the game without having to read the instructions. One button jumps, another shoots, another steals the ball, and so on. When you are covering another player, your man moves in a sort of semicircle around him, which is a nice feature. The only problem I have is things can get a little bottlenecked under the hoop, and its kind of hard to see what you’re doing.

The graphics are very nice and the players actually look a little like the real people. One of the nicer elements of the graphic system is the reflection on the floor. Also, the people in the crowd do actually have faces, rather than blurs. The game moves along very fluidly and the animation is realistic.

I was very impressed with the sound system in the game, especially how you get an accurate running commentary as you play. It’s just like the real thing. The players do interact with each other on the court, but the voices are not very loud and it’s often hard to understand what they are saying. The ambient crowd noises and basic game noise (bouncing balls, etc.) are all nicely done.

All in all, NBA Live 2001 is a very fun game and I enjoy playing a quick match on the PlayStation 2. I don’t know how it compares to other basketball games, since I’ve not played any others recently. It is a step up from the 2600 game though.