But that's where Live 2003's other enhancements kick in because you've got to use some serious basketball sense against your opponent in this game, especially when you're playing against humans. When it comes to gameplay, you'd think the freestyle controls would give you an extremely unfair advantage against the CPU. And we haven't even told you about how the right analog stick is used on defense to swipe with your left or right hand, crouch down into defensive position and to passively stretch your player's hands up to avoid the foul on a shot. The creativity shown by the developer's at EA Canada is reflected in the fact that many moves are intuitive and reflect of how you'd move a basketball with your hands in real life. Try all of the quarter circles and half circle moves you remember from Street Fighter in a variety of different situations and then start doing them from south to north instead of east to west. Let's just say you'll still be discovering new moves weeks after you've initially picked up the game. We could spend this entire review going over the moves and situations available to you in Freestyle control, but we won't. You pull that one off by moving the right analog in a semicircle from 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock on the left side if the ball is in his left hand, on the right side if it's in his right.
And neither one of those is like the spin move where the ball stays in the same hand but the player himself whirls around in a circle like one of those moves from the Nike Freestyle commercials. That spin move causes him to plant, set up the defender and whirl all the way around 360 degrees so that he's traveling in the same direction when he comes out of it. Quickly tapping up on the right analog stick when your player is moving will make him pull off a quick spin move but it's not the same spin move you get when you hold the right stick up. Moving with the ball, in the triple threat position or with his back to the basket are the three main situations your player will be in, but then again you can quickly go from one to the other and string moves together. Furthermore, you have different moves available depending on the situation. And when we say dozens of moves, we're talking about four versions of the crossover, three kinds of spin moves and all kinds of hesitation dribbles that can be performed with either hand. But the satisfaction comes from knowing that even when you're throwing down impossible reverse alley oops from behind the backboard you know you're still within the rules and conventions of the NBA.įreestyle control is revolutionary in that it allows the player with the ball to pull off a variety of offensive moves in the blink of an eye and that you determine the direction and variation of the move.
The arcade fun comes from the exaggerated speed of the game and the dozens of new moves you can pull of with players using the right analog stick. Live 2003's attention to NBA details, rules and style of play is completely legitimate, yet gamers are given the freedom to repeatedly create exciting highlight-worthy plays that would keep the crowds cheering and coaches stressed out. Nine times out of ten schizophrenic sports games that try to force-feed wild over-the-top antics into an obvious basketball sim with rules and dimensions and everything end up pissing off fans of either type of game. The most interesting aspect of NBA Live 2003 is that it somehow brings blatant arcade and simulation elements together to coexist peacefully in one game.
#Nba live 2003 xbox 360 plus
Plus the new Freestyle control system on the right analog stick could actually be the gaming revolution that EA's marketing types have been hyping up so much. This latest version of NBA Live succeeds because it allows gamers to focus on the most exciting and entertaining parts of NBA basketball but with all of the rules and realism you'd expect from an all out NBA simulation.
#Nba live 2003 xbox 360 series
With Sega's popular NBA 2K series making the jump to all three next generation consoles last season, NBA Live 2003 pretty much had to do something great to keep EA in the game.
#Nba live 2003 xbox 360 professional
The last time we checked in on EA Sports' NBA Live franchise, the 2002 edition was choppy, devoid of any basketball artificial intelligence and had too much focus on the flashy, more superficial elements of professional basketball.
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