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Preview  NBA Courtside 2002
- By Rob Schlicht
Neal Gittens' Impressions
This past weekend, I managed to make the three hour trek to the vast expanses of the Mall of America and enjoy the phenomenon that is the Cube Club. I was priveleged enough to get my hands on a GameCube controller and take in a game of NBA Courtside.
In all, the game played solid. The animation ran smoothly, while providing a pleasant graphical engine for the eyes. At times, the control seemed a little slow and clunky, but this, I believe had more to do with my inexperience with the controller and my lack of knowledge of the control scheme than the actual game itself. I was constantly hitting the shoot button when I meant to pass, which gave me ample numbers of full-court shot opportunities (the Cube Club employee who I was playing against threw up many more full courters than I did, oddly enough). As a whole though, the game played as well as any other video basketball game I have picked up prior to this one. While only playing one short game (3 minute quarters) was hardly enough for me to grasp every subtle nuance of the game, it was enough for me to get a feel for the controls and the pace and tempo of the game.
The most unique feature I found was the use of the new "aggression" button. It's similar to a turbo button from most other basketball games, but it doesn't just make everything you do faster, it makes everything you do a little more spectacular. If you do a cross over or spin move it is flashier. If you run, it is faster. If you throw down a jam, it is prettier or more powerful. It is something quite new, and I like the way that it plays out in the game. Thumbs up on this one all the way.
My impressions from this game were, I must say, good. It took a little time to get used to, but so does any game. After the initial phasing-in period it played well, and it looked good the whole time, too. As a basketball fan and former player, I am definitely looking forward to playing much more of this game when it is released. The view from Courtside looks quite nice to me.
(By the way, I beat the Cube Club employee 48-28.)
-11.07.2001
NBA Courtside 2002 debuted very briefly on video today, in very mixed fashion. The game is once again endorsed by Kobe Bryant, and with the Lakers contending for the championship, this game should once again be getting a great amount of push from it’s starpower.
The video opened with a great shot of Kobe Bryant on court, rendered in thousands upon thousands of polygons, and is nearly photorealistic. The camera spiraled around him, showing it off, then jumped into actaul gameplay for a few seconds, which is where the title became very disapointing.
If NBA Courtside 2002 has been in development for very long, I hope that the media I saw today was just not recent, because it was very poor. Animation was on the whole pretty stiff, and the graphics were not very overwhelming. Although the press release claims that you’ll be able to “watch the rotation on the basketball change as it’s blocked” I find that hard to believe when the net doesn’t even move after Kobe drills a three-pointer.
It’s worth pointing out, however, that both Kobe Bryant games on the N64 came out as very polished and very solid projects. At the very least, we should see more of this game, in a more recent build, on video, and it may possibly be playable, during the rest of the week. Check back for info then.
Rob
-5.16.2001
- 11.7.2001 |
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Release Date:
12.15.2001
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