Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five reasons that NBA Live 06 PC is the best game in the NBA Live series.

I can’t stand manufactured, hot take-driven, performative debate, whether it’s about basketball, basketball video games, or anything really. I prefer nuanced discussion, though when it comes to basketball gaming, I don’t have many controversial opinions to begin with. However, I do have one opinion that you, my fellow virtual hardwood enthusiasts, might vehemently disagree with. Specifically, NBA Live 06 PC – and that’s an important distinction – is my pick for the best game in the NBA Live series. All personal enjoyment and nostalgia aside, I believe that it has a strong case.

Yes, even stronger than NBA Live 10, NBA Live 2000, NBA Live 2005, NBA Live 2004, NBA Live 95…you name it! It’s not that I don’t think those games rank among the best releases in the NBA Live series. They’re also all personal favourites, as I’ve previously discussed. I also won’t pretend that NBA Live 06 PC is perfect, because that’s an impossible expectation of any basketball video game, be it NBA Live, NBA 2K, NBA Jam, or another series. Once again though, I do believe that there are some compelling arguments for NBA Live 06 PC being the best game in the NBA Live series, and to that end, here are the five main reasons why it deserves that distinction.

1. It Resolved Issues With NBA Live 2005

Don’t get me wrong. NBA Live 2005 is a great game on the sticks. It retained features such as retro jerseys and the revamped Dynasty mode, and introduced a full All-Star Weekend. It was also a huge graphical leap over NBA Live 2004, and it generally improved upon its predecessor across the board. If you revisit NBA Live 2005 today however, you’ll notice some key flaws. Fast break logic leaves much to be desired, with players failing to properly cut to the hoop. It doesn’t help that they stop dead in their tracks to catch passes, bringing the break to a screeching halt. Even if you do keep your momentum, defenders are too adept at catching up for chasedown blocks.

These are all issues that NBA Live 06 resolved. You can still chase down players on the break, but it’s not as easy. Your CPU teammates do a much better job of filling the lane, cutting and running to the rim when you’re pushing the tempo. At the same time, NBA Live 06 also retains the strong points of 2005’s gameplay, thus it avoided taking major steps backwards while addressing some key issues. I’d still rank NBA Live 2005 and its gameplay as being among the best in the series, but NBA Live 06 offers a more polished on-court experience. It also added some new animations, as well as more advanced controls and improved player differentiation. Speaking of which…

2. Freestyle Superstars

This is the most controversial argument in favour of NBA Live 06, because opinion is divided when it comes to Freestyle Superstars. To that point, I’ll acknowledge some of the common criticisms. The moves can be overpowering, which doesn’t always suit the sim style the game is striving for. The requirements to gain the movesets aren’t ideal across the board requiring ratings to be fudged, players with multiple movesets can’t switch between them on the fly, and it’s obviously mostly focused on stars. All fair points! At the same time, Freestyle Superstars was a vital stepping stone towards advanced player control, signature styles and animations, and player differentiation.

Versatile wing scorers such as Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady now had spectacular moves at their disposal. Marksmen like Ray Allen and Michael Redd could shoot with precision thanks to an array of shots that had a higher chance of going in. Powerful players like Shaquille O’Neal could be beasts inside, while high-flying showmen had superb slams on top of the ones in the regular fancy dunk animation package. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it made players stand out more than before, and created some fantastic highlights. Also, if you didn’t like it, you could disable everyone’s movesets! Freestyle Superstars was ultimately an important step in developing deeper gameplay.

3. Dynasty Received Some Crucial Updates

NBA Live 2005 provided a robust franchise experience with the second iteration of Dynasty mode, but I did have some gripes with it. Specifically, it was still a very “video game” approach, wherein completing in-game tasks earned points that were used to purchase upgrades. That isn’t necessarily a bad concept, and it’s absolutely a serviceable approach to a franchise mode. It doesn’t really represent the experience of being an NBA GM in a deep or realistic way, though. NBA Live 06 phased out that system in favour of adding team staff that must be hired: an assistant coach for player development, a trainer to take care of player health, and a scout to…well, scout!

All of the staff members had their own ratings, and some specialised in certain areas. For example, a scout may have more knowledge of prospects in Europe, while an assistant coach may yield better results developing big men. Therefore, successfully developing your team, avoiding injuries, and effectively scouting new talent came down to hiring the best candidates with your available budget, rather than earning points and buying upgrades. Sadly, future Lives would return to the more dumbed-down video game approach to franchise play, while NBA 2K’s modes became the gold standard. Still, NBA Live 06 was taking Dynasty mode in the right direction.

4. Moddability

There’s a reason that I’ve specified the PC version of NBA Live 06 as the pinnacle of the series. While the Xbox 360 version is frequently underrated in terms of gameplay, it’s been rightfully criticised for lacking modes and content that can be found in the prior gen version. To that end, you can find those features in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions of NBA Live 06, but the PC version has one distinct advantage over every console release: moddability. The game was released during the heyday of NBA Live modding – or patching, as we were calling it then – and our community produced a plethora of rosters, faces, jerseys, courts, and countless other updates.

Obviously, it’s not the only NBA Live title that’s been enthusiastically modded. It’s one of the most flexible and modder-friendly releases in the series, though. Unlike later releases, it doesn’t crash with upscaled textures, allowing for some incredible updates. It retains the use of DBF files for roster saves, as well as a folder for custom art files. There are some leftover speech files for missing Legends, which disappeared in NBA Live 07 and 08. Outside of hardcoded aspects such as roster size and Playoff format, there’s not much that we can’t change. NBA Live 2003, 2004, and 2005 are also very moddable, but they’re not quite the same total package. That brings us too…

5. It’s The Deepest NBA Live With The Fewest Issues

As I said, I won’t pretend that NBA Live 06 PC is flawless. Primacy recalculation – while well-intended – was an issue. Oddly, the jersey files don’t properly utilise the front number textures, instead reusing the ones for the back numbers, resulting in kerning and colour errors. While I do see it as a net positive for the game, Freestyle Superstars wasn’t to everyone’s liking. These are fair criticisms of NBA Live 06 PC. With that being said, it’s the most complete NBA Live title, with the best all-around quality. Enjoyable gameplay, a full complement of modes and features, additional content, moddability, even a memorable soundtrack…NBA Live 06 PC has it all.

That’s not to say that other games don’t come close, or surpass NBA Live 06 in some respects. NBA Live 10 arguably has it beat in gameplay, but it lacks the full All-Star Weekend mode, and its Dynasty mode has issues. NBA Live 2005 is close, but again, 06 cleaned up some gameplay quirks. NBA Live 2000 is a classic and I still enjoy playing it, but it’s more primitive compared to 06. When weighing up the pros and cons of the best games in the series, NBA Live 06 PC has the most benefits and the fewest (or perhaps, the least impactful) drawbacks. As for the seventh generation NBA Lives…well, they have their strong points, but they’re not in the same league!

So, are you convinced that NBA Live 06 PC is a contender for the best game in the NBA Live series? If it isn’t your pick, which NBA Live would you nominate, and why? Have your say in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.