Dribbling for Dullards: NBA Live 08 (Wii) Review
Posted on
Friday, February 15, 2008
by Gary A. Ballard
I am not a fan of the current incarnation of the NBA and am not a fan of basketball in general. My first exposure to the game in over a decade came during last year's NBA Finals, and only because my favorite player LeBron James had made it to the championship series. As a result, a "casual-focused" NBA action simulation game should be right up my alley. The Wii version of NBA Live 08 from EA Sports should be that game. The fact that it isn't highlights the defects of the EA Sports' overall design philosophy for Wii games. In short, they are designing dumbed down, barely-interactive imitations of their popular series from other platforms, and doing it quite badly.
This review will be similar to the review I gave of FIFA 08 last year, because that game shares so many similarities with this one, as well as with Madden 08. Though NBA Live 08 does not share the bugs of Madden, all three games use the exact same menu system, a menu system that blows like Orca. While the menus are pretty, they are horribly slow, and often deliberately short of necessary information. For instance, during season mode, trading a player or signing a free agent is an exercise in frustration. The player cannot sort the columns of information, so that searching for a Point Guard with an overall rating of 70 or higher means sifting through every single player until that point guard is found. For the free agent list, that is over 50 players to sort through, with a painfully slow scroll feature. Once a player is selected, there is no additional information about that player beyond his name, position and overall rating. No biographical information, no age, no breakdown of his skills, just an overall rating. The information is there, as it shows up on team roster screens, so why isn't it available when scouting the player?
Like FIFA, the game is incredibly light on the typical game modes expected of an EA Sports title, or any "serious" sports title for that matter. There are exhibition games, the casual "Party" mini-games, season, playoffs and tournament modes, as well as online games. Unlike the other versions of the title, there is no dynasty mode, which is what most fans of this type of game will want to play. What's so galling about the exclusion of Dynasty mode is that there really is no design needed on such a mode, since it's been in previous versions of the title for years as well as current versions on other platforms. It's an infuriating design decision. Just as with FIFA 08, the target audience for this type of game is going to be fans of the previous games in the series and people who are NBA fans. Dynasty mode is exactly what those fans will come to expect, and any game that does not contain it will be considered inferior. It's almost as if the designers at EA don't want people to purchase the game for the Wii, which is ludicrous and bordering on tinfoil hat territory.
But beyond all the extra modes expected of a franchise such as this, how does the on-court action perform? That's a mixed bag. On the one hand, the game is fun, more so than FIFA 08 and with fewer bugs than Madden 08. Here to, the game fails at the fundamental design level. Like the other EA Sports titles, NBA Live includes a "Family Play" option, something EA Sports has touted as a means of balancing the game among different skill levels. Younger kids or less accomplished gamers can use the Family Play controls, which only use the Wiimote to pass, shoot and play some defense, while more skilled gamers use the advanced controls which adds the nunchuk and the ability to control the players' movements. I applaud the concept. However, the actual design and execution falls well short of the stated goal. Rather than evening the balance, it hamstrings the more accomplished player by removing options. The advanced player feels disconnected from the actions on the screen, mainly because there are so few actions the player can perform when compared to other games of this type on other platforms.
Motion-sensitive controls are supposed to be about immersing the player deeper into the game by mimicing real-life motions. Mapping the game's controls to the restrictive nature of the Family Play set of controls actually makes the player feel less immersed, because of how little freedom with shot selection, shot skill and juke moves the controls allow. Once the basic controls are mastered, there don't seem to be anywhere else for the player to improve, and his actions feel divorced from the actions the players are peforming onscreen. FIFA 08 suffered from the same problem, and it is a fundamental flaw of the Family Play design. If EA wishes to target sports games to a younger, less savvy audience, it would seem to make more sense not to use the existing "hardcore" NBA Live franchise to do so. For myself, it leads me to prefer to purchase the game on the PS2, which is disappointing in the extreme. Motion controls are supposed to make the Wii version preferable, because of how much more immersive they can make the game, and EA Sports has failed miserably time and time again.
It's high time that the EA Sports Wii division be replaced from the top-down with those who understand that existing franchises come with expectations that are not being met. I shudder to think of how badly this design philosophy would diminish the NHL franchise. Sports gamers who want serious sports games on the Wii are being criminially underserved. I would rate NBA Live 08 a 6 out of 10, only worth purchasing in the bargain bin by people who care nothing about NBA seasons and just want a midly fun, 30-minute basketball-flavored diversion.
This review will be similar to the review I gave of FIFA 08 last year, because that game shares so many similarities with this one, as well as with Madden 08. Though NBA Live 08 does not share the bugs of Madden, all three games use the exact same menu system, a menu system that blows like Orca. While the menus are pretty, they are horribly slow, and often deliberately short of necessary information. For instance, during season mode, trading a player or signing a free agent is an exercise in frustration. The player cannot sort the columns of information, so that searching for a Point Guard with an overall rating of 70 or higher means sifting through every single player until that point guard is found. For the free agent list, that is over 50 players to sort through, with a painfully slow scroll feature. Once a player is selected, there is no additional information about that player beyond his name, position and overall rating. No biographical information, no age, no breakdown of his skills, just an overall rating. The information is there, as it shows up on team roster screens, so why isn't it available when scouting the player?
Like FIFA, the game is incredibly light on the typical game modes expected of an EA Sports title, or any "serious" sports title for that matter. There are exhibition games, the casual "Party" mini-games, season, playoffs and tournament modes, as well as online games. Unlike the other versions of the title, there is no dynasty mode, which is what most fans of this type of game will want to play. What's so galling about the exclusion of Dynasty mode is that there really is no design needed on such a mode, since it's been in previous versions of the title for years as well as current versions on other platforms. It's an infuriating design decision. Just as with FIFA 08, the target audience for this type of game is going to be fans of the previous games in the series and people who are NBA fans. Dynasty mode is exactly what those fans will come to expect, and any game that does not contain it will be considered inferior. It's almost as if the designers at EA don't want people to purchase the game for the Wii, which is ludicrous and bordering on tinfoil hat territory.
But beyond all the extra modes expected of a franchise such as this, how does the on-court action perform? That's a mixed bag. On the one hand, the game is fun, more so than FIFA 08 and with fewer bugs than Madden 08. Here to, the game fails at the fundamental design level. Like the other EA Sports titles, NBA Live includes a "Family Play" option, something EA Sports has touted as a means of balancing the game among different skill levels. Younger kids or less accomplished gamers can use the Family Play controls, which only use the Wiimote to pass, shoot and play some defense, while more skilled gamers use the advanced controls which adds the nunchuk and the ability to control the players' movements. I applaud the concept. However, the actual design and execution falls well short of the stated goal. Rather than evening the balance, it hamstrings the more accomplished player by removing options. The advanced player feels disconnected from the actions on the screen, mainly because there are so few actions the player can perform when compared to other games of this type on other platforms.
Motion-sensitive controls are supposed to be about immersing the player deeper into the game by mimicing real-life motions. Mapping the game's controls to the restrictive nature of the Family Play set of controls actually makes the player feel less immersed, because of how little freedom with shot selection, shot skill and juke moves the controls allow. Once the basic controls are mastered, there don't seem to be anywhere else for the player to improve, and his actions feel divorced from the actions the players are peforming onscreen. FIFA 08 suffered from the same problem, and it is a fundamental flaw of the Family Play design. If EA wishes to target sports games to a younger, less savvy audience, it would seem to make more sense not to use the existing "hardcore" NBA Live franchise to do so. For myself, it leads me to prefer to purchase the game on the PS2, which is disappointing in the extreme. Motion controls are supposed to make the Wii version preferable, because of how much more immersive they can make the game, and EA Sports has failed miserably time and time again.
It's high time that the EA Sports Wii division be replaced from the top-down with those who understand that existing franchises come with expectations that are not being met. I shudder to think of how badly this design philosophy would diminish the NHL franchise. Sports gamers who want serious sports games on the Wii are being criminially underserved. I would rate NBA Live 08 a 6 out of 10, only worth purchasing in the bargain bin by people who care nothing about NBA seasons and just want a midly fun, 30-minute basketball-flavored diversion.
Labels: Basketball, EA Sports, NBA, Nintendo, Sports, Video Games, Wii
posted by Gary A. Ballard @ 9:56 AM
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