NBA training camps haven't even opened yet, but that hasn't stopped Electronic Arts from shipping the latest iteration of its NBA basketball franchise, NBA Live 2005. Live 2005 offers a number of new features, such as a full implementation of all-star weekend, complete with the slam-dunk contest and three-point shootout. There's also been a revamp of the franchise mode and some tweaks made to the basic gameplay. But, as with an NBA team, a game is not just the sum of its parts. NBA Live 2005 plays a solid game of basketball, but even the flashy new features can't hide the fact that it isn't a huge step up from last year's edition.
The biggest addition in NBA Live 2005 is its inclusion of the all-star weekend. You'll be able to play through four events from the real-life NBA All-Star weekend, including the rookies vs. sophomores game, the actual all-star game, the three-point shootout, and the slam-dunk contest. The three-point contest allows you to pick up to eight NBA sharpshooters to compete against each other. Each player must take up to 25 three-point shots within 60 seconds to earn points, with five specially colored balls counting for two points instead of one. In practice, this mode really isn't that exciting, as it boils down to pressing the same two buttons over and over again.
The dunk competition is more interesting. In this mode, the buttons on the controller are remapped. Each of the four face buttons corresponds to a different type of takeoff, such as one-footed takeoffs or 360-spin takeoffs. After you move toward the basket and jump, you can press one of the face buttons again in midair to execute one of a host of different tricks, such as a double clutch, a tomahawk, and so on. During each of these two phases, you can press one or two different shoulder buttons to slightly modify the move your player is executing. Since the moves are contextual depending on your position relative to the basket, there are dozens or even hundreds of possible dunks. Combine these moves with the different optional tosses you can execute before your takeoff, and there are even more possible permutations. Not all the dunks are entirely realistic--it's theoretically possible to have your player kick the ball off the shot clock, do a running cartwheel, catch the ball in the midst of a 360 spin, switch hands between his legs, and then throw the ball down. It's physically impossible even for Tracy McGrady to do such a thing in real life, but you can do it in NBA Live 2005's dunk mode. And if you expect to get a high score from the panel of five NBA legends (George "Iceman" Gervin and Clyde "The Glide" Drexler among them) who judge the dunk contest, your dunks better be outrageous enough to straddle the line between fantasy and reality.
So is it any fun? That all depends on your idea of fun. Getting the timing down to perform the more complicated dunks is quite difficult. Even executing a "simple" toss off the backboard and catching it for a standard dunk (à la Tracy McGrady in the 2002 All-Star game) requires a lot of practice. Those who do have the tenacity to learn complicated dunks will find that performing them is pretty satisfying, and thankfully a practice mode is included. But in the end, a lot of folks will probably mess around with the dunk mode a little bit, get frustrated, and forget about the mode entirely.
