Let me just get one thing out of the way right now - I am not getting any kickbacks whatsoever from Electronic Arts for this review. That being said, I'll continue. NBA Live 95 from EA Sports is beyond a doubt one of the greatest sports games ever made, if not THE greatest, and I'm including basketball, baseball, football, whatever. I know the term instant classic gets overused, but it has never been more appropriate than with NBA Live 95. The designers, Hitmen Productions, have managed to incorporate almost everything about good about NBA basketball into Live. The look, sound, feel, play, everything has been done to near perfection, and never before has a professional sports organization been so faithfully recreated on the PC as the NBA is in Live 95. It's good to see a game that really utilizes the power and ability of a CD-ROM.
The first thing folks want to know about a sports game is how it plays. That's fine, since that is the most important part of a sports sim, and the answer to that about NBA Live 95 is: perfectly. In fact, play is the thing Live does best. The designers put in the most work where it was most needed, and it really paid off. If you've played a game that puts more emphasis on the look of a game rather than the play, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The players, while not exactly photo-realistic, dribble, move, guard and shoot like actual players. When compared to something like NCAA 2, where you had to control so much stuff it became impossible to play, the simple two-button play system makes for maximum playability.
That's not saying that the player isn't in control of the game. The controls have been narrowed down to a super-simple pass and shoot interface, which makes playing a no-brainer in which you shoot and pass offensively and position your player correctly defensively. The computer handles actual stealing, but you determine how aggressively your players try to steal, and you also jump to rebound and block opponent's shots. You also set the types of offenses and defenses your team runs as well as substituting players. The incredible thing is how well play has been balanced between what the player controls and what the computer controls. For example, when one of your teammates makes a move to the hoop and you get a pass to him, the computer might automatically make an alley oop. This means that when a play is called, you really have to make an effort to work with your team on offense and defense. If you run a defense and don't work within that plan, the rest of the team will run into and around you, causing havoc with the set play. The same goes for the offense - if you don't run the play that you've called, you won't be able to get any good open shots or those awesome highlights plays.
While Live plays better than any other basketball sim and most other sports games, its look is also second to none. There are digitized photos for all of the players, and all of the arenas have been faithfully recreated. The players themselves, while not being striking portraits of the originals, still resemble the actual players. All of the art is above first-rate, with postcard style photos of the host city flashed on the screen during the intro to each game. The opening video of NBA players and the rendered sequences are wonderful. How often does a game with unmatchable playability actually get matched by its graphics?
As long as I'm drooling, the sound of the game is absolutely incredible in and of itself. First off, the music is great. You'll be groovin' in your chair to the catchy beats and driving hooks. As far as the sound effects go, in 16-bit stereo, if your player is dribbling on the left side of the screen you hear it on the left side of your speakers, and as he dribbles to the right, the sound follows it. You can hear the squeaks of the shoes as the players stop and start, and you'll wince in pain as you hear a player get fouled hard. And during the intro and ending of the game, the announcer says the team names and cities so seamlessly, it sounds like a recording was made for every combination of teams that could play each other. It seems that nothing was overlooked.
But to keep from getting put on EA's marketing payroll, there are a few things that I thought could be done a little better, even in a game that's as great as Live. First, and most annoying, is the time it takes to go from the playing screen to the coaching screen. Changing defensive and offensive strategies as well as subbing players requires a few seconds wait as the screens change. When you're in the heat of battle, this wait gets more than a little irritating after a while.
Speaking of subbing players, the NBA rule states have to wait for a break in the action to substitute. This isn't quite how it works in NBA Live 95, since you can't substitute until a player is actually touching the ball. So if you hear the whistle while, say, the ball is rolling toward the other end of the court and you go straight to your coaching screen, you'll have to exit out and wait for a player to grab the ball, then enter the coach screen again. And remember, each time you switch screens makes you wait a few seconds each time. After a while, I got to the point where I didn't want to have to sub players because I didn't want to suffer through the screen transitions. And when I made it through these annoyances and reached the end of the game, the lackluster game endings seemed out of place. I wanted toilet paper to fly and fans to rush the court, but instead I got nothing - not even crowd cheering. The final buzzer goes off and the game sits there quietly until it transitions into the wrap-up screen. Unimpressive.
OK, now that I did the obligatory finding of petty problems, I have to say again that NBA Live 95 is one of the finest games of any genre to come down the pipe in a while. I don't care if you're not too crazy about watching basketball, if you enjoy well-done PC games you simply have to get NBA Live 95. Everything about it is remarkable, and will be the benchmark for basketball, as well as sports games, in the future. Not only is it a very impressive game, putting the capabilities of the CD-ROM to great use, but it is also very, very fun and addictive. The only sports game I can even fathom right now that would be better than NBA Live 95 is NBA Live 96.
