A look back at NBA Live 98
by Matthew Damian
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| Michael Jordan returned as a Roster Player |
As mentioned before, the 3 Point Shootout made its debut in NBA Live 98, and it comes nothing short of EA's usual level of detail. You have the option of split screen, select from 2-8 participants, the skill level varies from rookie to superstar and the choice of watching your CPU opponents shoot or just taking your turn.
The 3 Point Shootout is played on the All-Star court in New York and features the authentic Shootout countdown and music. What really impressed me was some of the CPU players actually hesitated on certain shots while shooting other shots without hesitation. The crowd also gets quite involved in a contest. If a shooter runs a rack and hits the money ball, the crowd will roar in approval. In the final round, if the last shooter wins he will pump his fist and celebrate.
The 3 Point Shootout is a fun mode and can also be used to improve your shooting. But the flagship mode for NBA Live remains the Season mode. For the first time in season mode, teams reject trades and even offer a brief explanation. For example, if you try trading Jaren Jackson for Michael Finely, Dallas will respond with "Dallas rejects this trade as it is not to their advantage". Also, it's not easy to coax CPU teams into giving up superstars as you can in later versions of Live. You can't offer 2 role players to Detroit and hope to receive Grant Hill in return.
NBA Live incorporates the TNT/TBS games into the NBA schedule of the Season mode, so when your team has a TNT or TBS game the presentation is beefed up a little bit and the commentator will specifically say "Welcome to this TBS (or TNT) broadcast, I'm Vern Lundquest".
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| The All-Star game returned with individual team jerseys and the NY98 All-Star court |
Before a game in Season mode begins, Ernie Johnson will review the season series between the two teams and where each team is standing in their conference. After the game he will update the standings for both teams. This is a small feature, but it shows the level of presentation that NBA Live 98 had, and exactly how ahead of it's time it was.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Ernie Johnson returns from NBA Live 97. But the addition of Vern Lundquest and his play by play was arguably the biggest addition in NBA Live 98. It was the first time in the series a play-by-play guy was introduced into the game and he did an excellent job, describing every play accurately and on time. You get the feeling that you could just listen to the commentary and know exactly what was going on. There are some small drawbacks with the commentary though, one being that Lundquest only refers to players by their last name, and he does eventually become quite repetitive.
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| Dunks such as these sent the crowd into a frenzy |
The graphics took a huge step in the right direction in NBA Live 98 with the introduction of cyberfaces. Each player's face closely resembles his real life counterpart. The detail on the court has also been improved. You can see the reflections of the arena lights on the hardwood and the crowd also looks better.
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| NBA Live 98 was the first game to feature realistic player faces |
The player movement is generally better than in NBA Live 97, especially in the dunks. Windmills, 360s, players hanging on the rim for half a second after throwing it down…it all looks good and the crowd really responds to them. The shots are also improved. The variety is there to try and master many different styles. You can shoot hook shots from either block, there are also tipiins, leaners, fadeaways, effective lay-ups and of course jumpshots. The lay-ups impressed me as you can use your body to shield a defender and prevent him from getting close to blocking your shot.
Defensively, Live has also improved. The number of blocks is realistic, but the way you can alter shots also is very impressive, and it truly rewards great defense. However, the AI struggles defensively. It often leaves players open, and the strategy is hurt at critical parts of the game. For instance, if you are up by 1 with 19 seconds left in the game, the CPU doesn't foul you and lets you run the clock down…which leads me into the biggest bug in the game: the foul bug. The CPU will almost never foul you, which is disappointing as fouls are a big part of the game. Fortunately, it doesn't ruin the game, but I think this bug could have been easily avoided. (EA did release a patch that corrected this problem in the PC version -- Andrew)
The game also boasts a halftime show, which consists of a brief clip of the home team's highlights from the previous season as well as some shots of cheerleaders. The key players of the half are also displayed. During the game there are plenty of on-screen displays, from the teams' rebounding numbers to the current scoring run.
Overall, NBA Live 98 was a big success on certain features. The presentation, the groundbreaking cyberfaces, the play-by-play commentary and the 3 Point Shootout made it one of the better NBA Lives. If the gameplay didn't have as many bugs, it would have perhaps been the best Live ever released.
Did you know?
- NBA Live 98 introduced a new level of difficulty: Superstar. It has been in every NBA Live since.
- This was the first NBA Live to feature Charles Barkley. Previously, he had been included as a "Roster Player".
