2008 Woodie Awards
NBA LIVE 2006: Big Moves and Big Fun
NBA LIVE 2006 is better than last year but still has lots of room for improvement.
Juan Bernal
Issue date: 10/28/05 Section: Arts & Entertainment
- Page 1 of 2 next >
With all the controversy surrounding video games the past two years, NBA Live 2006 is a blast for anyone that plays it. EA Sports, which makes NBA Live, bought exclusive rights to NBA logos and products, so it will be the only NBA video game of any kind this year. With criticism in the past that it has been too unrealistic, and with the brief emergence of the popular ESPN video game series, NBA Live's popularity was a bit stagnant for a couple of years.
In NBA Live 2006 there are a couple of sweet new innovations. The first is freestyle superstars. Here there are six different freestyles with six superstars that best resemble them.
The first one is scorer, in which you can virtually score at will. Scorer is resembled by Allen Iverson. The second one is highflyer. Resembled by Cavalier superstar LeBron James, as a highflyer you can (in the words of nbalive06.com) "ride an escalator to the basket." The third characteristic is power, resembled by Detroit Piston superstar Ben Wallace. Power gives you the ability to be a force in the painted area.
Whether it's dunking over the smaller, weaker defender or owning the paint with blocked shots, I think this is the most useful of all the freestyles. The playmaker freestyle is for guys "who make plays." It's for guys who make plays that lead to easy points, whether it be a key steal on defense or a layup in transition. There is no better player to resemble that than reigning MVP; Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash. The fifth freestyle is the three point specialist. These are the players who can drain the long range bomb consistently. Ray Allen of the Seattle Supersonics is the featured star for this intangible. The final intangible is the defensive stopper.
When you need a key stop on defense late in the game, you want a guy with the defensive stopper label guarding the opposing player to get your team the victory. Kevin Garnett is the player who resembles this. The freestyle features an enhanced transition game, in which the player can do whatever you want him to in the open court.
In NBA Live 2006 there are a couple of sweet new innovations. The first is freestyle superstars. Here there are six different freestyles with six superstars that best resemble them.
The first one is scorer, in which you can virtually score at will. Scorer is resembled by Allen Iverson. The second one is highflyer. Resembled by Cavalier superstar LeBron James, as a highflyer you can (in the words of nbalive06.com) "ride an escalator to the basket." The third characteristic is power, resembled by Detroit Piston superstar Ben Wallace. Power gives you the ability to be a force in the painted area.
Whether it's dunking over the smaller, weaker defender or owning the paint with blocked shots, I think this is the most useful of all the freestyles. The playmaker freestyle is for guys "who make plays." It's for guys who make plays that lead to easy points, whether it be a key steal on defense or a layup in transition. There is no better player to resemble that than reigning MVP; Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash. The fifth freestyle is the three point specialist. These are the players who can drain the long range bomb consistently. Ray Allen of the Seattle Supersonics is the featured star for this intangible. The final intangible is the defensive stopper.
When you need a key stop on defense late in the game, you want a guy with the defensive stopper label guarding the opposing player to get your team the victory. Kevin Garnett is the player who resembles this. The freestyle features an enhanced transition game, in which the player can do whatever you want him to in the open court.