The Bottom Line
Pros
- NBA Live 06 has gotten a face-lift and the players look sharp
- NBA Freestyle Superstars brings much improved player specific control
- Much improved fast break and transition playing
Cons
- Bumped up difficulty means that button mashers face a frustrating experience
- Animations still lack smooth linking, thus players sometimes look jerky
Description
- Graphics: 4 Big improvement, but player's still look doe eyed
- Sound 4.5 Excellent play-by-play and solid a solid hip-hop soundtrack bring the NBA feel to life
- Concept: 3 It's the same sports sim story, lots of options and a deep dynasty mode
- Control: 4.5 The new Freestyle Superstars control brings a new level of depth and fun the NBA 06
- Difficulty: 4.5 Easy to pick up, but if you want to win you need to spend some time with NBA Live 06
- Replay: 5 Like most good sports sims the multiplayer and dynasty mode make it a high value title
- Multiplayer: 4 It's an amazing one on one game, but get four people together, and it's on
- Rated: Everyone, No language or violence, unless you are offended by hip-hop it's fine for all
Guide Review - NBA Live 06 Review - PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC
Alright, the visuals are better. Players look ripped and the moves are smooth. Unfortunately, the sheer number of moves make it nearly impossible to create clean animation between all of them, thus moving from blocking to running or stealing to defending sometimes looks jerky. It's a vast improvement over last year, but still leaves us begging for the next-next-gen systems.
The biggest improvement of the year is the Freestyle Superstars control system. Yup, the skill stick is still there, but now certain players can show off their specific skills with a new L1 and button combo. Thus, someone like Chauncey Billups gets labeled a 'stopper' with a small hand on his indicator circle. This means that he, like all special characters, can access special, improved moves to steal, score, block etc. I do feel bad for the large number of players who didn't get special treatment though.
With improved graphics, improved transition game and the new Freestyle Superstar system it's quite easy to recommend NBA Live 06, even if you have last year's. NBA Live 06 still isn't perfect, and may be a bit difficult to some, but it's still the deepest NBA videogame out there.
