A look back at NBA Live 97
by Andrew Begley

NBA Live 97 featured more realistic player models

NBA Live 97 saw the first major graphics overhaul in the series, from the player models to the frontend menus. It introduced features that would remain in the series and be improved upon year after year including better roster management and the ability to save and re-load different roster files. However, NBA Live 97 was not a complete improvement over NBA Live 96.

After expanding the roster management functions in NBA Live 96, EA Sports made further improvements in NBA Live 97, namely the addition of a 15th roster slot, more spaces for created players (100) and the ability to release more than 14 players into the Free Agent Pool. Create-a-Player was also expanded with more facial features and the ability to designate Years Pro. Users were also able to trade up to six players at once.

Another roster management feature that was introduced in NBA Live 97 was the ability to save and re-load rosters. This feature has since become an important aspect of roster patching, allowing users to alternate between several different saved rosters.

Jerseys were now realistic and detailed, while faces had a little more variety

NBA Live 97's graphics were greatly improved from the first two games in the series. In NBA Live 95 and NBA Live 96, team jerseys were simple designs with accurate colours but no team logos; now they had more accurate designs and although they lacked some detail, were fairly accurate representations of the real NBA team jerseys.

The players themselves looked more realistic with new player models and more detailed faces. While the faces still only vaguely resembled their real life counterparts with somewhat generic facial features, the hairstyles and beards were more detailed and the players' eyes were more distinct; they no longer appeared as two small black dots.

Although the player models were a little too muscular and bulky, it was a huge improvement over the first two games. The players still seemed too similar with little difference between John Stockton and Shaquille O'Neal, but the models still looked much more realistic.

Dunks still pushed the limits of realism, even for high flyers

Although some improvements were made to the gameplay, NBA Live 97 was not the improvement over the two previous titles that fans had hoped for. One of the main problems was the domination of centres on offense. When the CPU team had a weak centre it wasn't too much of an issue, but All-Star centres such as Shaquille O'Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon were simply too dominant at the offensive end. It was not uncommon for Shaq to score 60 or 70 points on All-Star difficulty when the CPU was controlling him.

It was also difficult to perform dunks and layups. Even under the basket, 7 footers would take jumpshots rather than laying it in or throwing it down. Although the jumpshot animation looked much more realistic, the jumpshots themselves did not fall as often as they should especially around the basket.

Blocks were virtually impossible in NBA Live 97, at least for the human player. While the increased difficulty made the game more challenging, it also made the statistics somewhat unrealistic for the user's team. Averaging a single block per game with a good shot blocker was actually quite a feat. Because players still jumped too far and often in the wrong direction, rebounding could be quite difficult and often the guards grabbed more rebounds than they should.

The illegal defense rule was added which made the game a little more realistic. Users had to play man-to-man defense or risk being assessed a technical foul. Unfortunately big men still handled the ball as easily as the guards and were still a threat to score when driving from the perimeter. The problem of strange defensive switches was still present, and users still had to rely on their players automatically swiping at the ball to knock it loose rather than being able to use a steal button.

While the gameplay had not improved significantly, presentation certainly had

All in all, the gameplay was very similar to the first two games, which did not make the game terrible but was a little disappointing considering some of the other improvements that had been made. The game was still fun, though the lack of blocks did make playing defense a little boring, and certainly not as realistic as it could have been.

Although NBA Live 97 did not feature a commentary track, it did feature a PA Announcer and TNT analyst Ernie Johnson provided audio for the pre-game and the quarter/halftime break screens. The PA Announcer would call nearly all of the default players by name when they scored or made an assist, and would also announce infractions and the two-minute mark of each quarter.

NBA Live 97's Season Mode was the first to feature the NBA's annual awards, though they were presented at the end of the playoffs rather than the end of the regular season. The game awarded the Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year trophies as well as naming the All-NBA Team, the All-NBA Defensive Team and the All-NBA Rookie Team. The game generally made wise selections although Allen Iverson's simulated performance wasn't as good as his real life counterpart.

Although NBA Live 97 showed a great deal of improvement in terms of graphics and roster management, the lack of significant improvement to the gameplay was definitely a little disappointing. However, it was still the best game of the series at the time it was released and introduced some features which have been improved in the titles that followed and can still be found in the latest NBA Lives. It is an example of the continued improvement that took place during the first few instalments of the series.

Did you know?

• While every other NBA Live contains an accurate representation of the All-Star court design for the season it is set in, NBA Live 97's All-Star court is San Antonio, the site of the 1996 All-Star Weekend.
• The "Special Moves" option refers to the ability to hand-check opponents when tapping the turbo button. When this option is disabled, tapping the turbo button on defense has no effect (though running into an opponent while holding down turbo will generally commit an intentional foul).
• NBA Live 97 was the first game in the series to feature automatic replays. As with all the games that have followed, the frequency of the automatic replays could be toggled.