PlayStation 1
Released in 2000 by EA Sports
Grade: C
It’s another one of EA’s free-flowing basketball games offering lots of dunking at the cost of shallow strategy, slippery control, and spazzy AI.
Where it falls in the series
It’s the sixth of eight editions on PS1, and it coincides with the first editions on the next generation.
Praises and gripes
The logic favors offense. Speedy guards can get to the basket often, and big men can sink little jump-hooks consistently. The game does a nice job placing players in a different set-up on each possession, and there’s always some open space out there, so you can safely ignore playcalling duties.
On the flipside, defense is maddening. The control feels too loose to keep up, plus your idiot teammates guard the wrong guy much too often. (I thought they fixed that in NBA Live 2000, what the hell, EA?)
And those classic Live problems are here again: bad rebounding controls, a too-reliable headfake, and random fouls (and turning fouls off results in wonky gameplay). And despite a smoother framerate than its predecessors, certain movements are jumbled and indistinguishable.
I’ve reviewed the previous five Live games for PS1, and it seems like EA never improved certain gameplay aspects without messing up others. Instead of getting better and better, each version has a different combination of flaws.