NLSC Your source for basketball video games.
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the freeze-frame player introductions in seventh gen NBA Live 07 and NBA Live 08.
For all the talk about how as we grow older we also grow more close-minded, I have to say that when it comes to basketball video games, I’ve had the opposite experience. When I was a younger basketball gamer, I was very particular about certain aspects of the virtual hardwood. Not only did I struggle to enjoy sim titles that felt different to NBA Live, but I had some rather strict criteria and a few petty gripes when it came to critiquing my favourite hoops series. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with having strong preferences, but I definitely took some things way too seriously!
To that end, while I do stand by some of my criticisms all these years later, I have lightened up about other things that used to bother me. An obvious example is the comedic cutscenes in NBA Live 2003. While I still think they went a little overboard with them and they’re not the tone I’d prefer in a sim game, I can find the humour in them nowadays, and appreciate how they gave the game character. The freeze-frame player introductions in NBA Live 07 and NBA Live 08 are another example of a stylistic choice that I’ve warmed up to. Let’s take a look back…way back…
Although the NBA Live series stumbled in its leap to the seventh generation, it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Sure, the gameplay left much to be desired – especially in NBA Live 07 for Xbox 360 – but there was an undeniable attempt to make the game look and feel “Next Gen”. That had begun with the very first sweaty teaser screenshot for NBA Live 06, and indeed even today perspiration is held up as the hallmark of a jump in visual quality! NBA Live 06 also brought us The Temple, and the creative concept of not only hitting the court before seeing a menu, but the ability to shoot around as the game was loading. The setting and approach both carried over into NBA Live 07.
While the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 06 is often remembered as a turning point for the worse – and it certainly had its issues – NBA Live 07 was far more damaging. Though seventh gen NBA Live 06 had been panned for its lack of depth, reviews did praise its graphics and presentation, and did acknowledge the gameplay was solid. In contrast, NBA Live 07 brought back some of the much-needed depth, but the on-court experience was a disaster, marking a truly massive setback for the series. As such, it didn’t matter that NBA Live 07 had better player faces than NBA 2K7, a full All-Star Weekend mode, and some cool presentation. 2K’s game was far superior on the sticks.
With that being said, it’s still possible to appreciate the good parts of a bad game. On top of that, vibe and tone is important. Again, it’s why NBA Live 2003’s Courtside Comedy Cutscenes were one of my biggest pet peeves with the game. The tone that I wanted for NBA Live was to be a serious NBA simulation. That didn’t mean robotic and emotionless, but I definitely didn’t want to see Harlem Globetrotter-like antics in the midst of a Playoff game! Obviously such gripes are secondary to gameplay issues, and if NBA Live 2003 had played far more realistically, that silliness would’ve been much easier to ignore. Instead, the entire game wasn’t quite what I’d hoped it’d be.
That brings me to the freeze-frame player introductions in NBA Live 07, a concept that was also used in NBA Live 08. During each player’s introduction, there’d be a freeze-frame as they struck a pose or interacted with a teammate, and their name was displayed on-screen. More accurately, NBA Live 07 had the players go into super-slow motion whereas NBA Live 08 was a completely still freeze-frame, but the idea was basically the same. Additionally, in NBA Live 07 there was an ethereal blue hue as the slow-mo kicked in, while NBA Live 08 featured a sepia tone during the freeze-frame. It was employing some creative license for the sake of unique presentation.
And, I hated it! Why? Because it wasn’t “authentic TV presentation”! Now, I’m sure that at some point, some NBA broadcast has used somewhat similar post-production effects to spice up player introductions. There might be some footage on YouTube, and if so, I’d be interested to see it! However, by and large, it wasn’t mimicking the presentation of the NBA on ESPN, or any of the other networks whose broadcasts I was watching then. To me, it felt like a “video game idea”; that is to say, something that broke the immersion of the sim atmosphere. Commentary that breaks the fourth wall to reference controls and the user playing badly would be a similar example here.
Of course, it’s an ironic complaint considering that if anything breaks the immersion and realism in NBA Live 07 for Xbox 360, it’s the janky animations and frustrating gameplay that follows those freeze-frame player introductions! They’re way down on the list of things that one may take issue with in NBA Live 07, and even back then, I’d readily admit that. Still, the little things do have a way of bugging you, even in much better releases. Any stylistic choice is going to have an impact on our feelings about a game. If the tone and vibe aren’t what we wanted or expected, it feels as though we’ve been misunderstood as an audience, or that our feedback has been completely ignored.
This is why I was frustrated to see the freeze-frame player introductions return in the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 08. From a gameplay standpoint, NBA Live 08 made some extremely commendable and impressive improvements over NBA Live 07. Yes, the bar was low, but it still took huge strides towards at least being playable. It was also great to finally see Dynasty mode receive some significant upgrades. Still, the gameplay wasn’t quite where it needed to be, and ultimately that remained the most pressing issue. Nevertheless, that quibble with the presentation instilled a feeling that the developers may not have the same vision for the game as long-time fans like me.
It’s impossible to say that without sounding melodramatic, especially since NBA Live 08 was undeniably trying to be a sim game. It just fell short, in no small part because the animations and other tech weren’t as polished as they needed to be. All the same, when the general preference was to see TV-style presentation – not to mention the fact that EA Sports had recently partnered with ESPN – taking liberties with details such as the freeze-frame player introductions felt like they were missing the mark. It may not have been cartoonish or overly unrealistic, but it was employing creative license at a time when we desired more authenticity; something that NBA 2K was delivering.
With that in mind, much as I’ll still assert that the comedic cutscenes in NBA Live 2003 weren’t the right direction for the series in terms of tone, the freeze-frame player introductions weren’t necessarily the best choice for pre-game presentation. They’re not as egregiously out of place as some of those goofy antics, but they don’t capture an aspect of the NBA as authentically as one might hope. Once again, not to blow it out of proportion, but it’s one of those little things that make gamers wonder if our feedback is being listened to and understood. After all, the red flags that a series is heading in a direction long-time fans may well dislike are often small to begin with.
However, just as I’ve come to enjoy the quirkiness of NBA Live 2003’s cutscenes – admittedly a tad ironically – I’ve definitely softened my stance on the freeze-frame player introductions. Granted, they were never my biggest complaints about those games, but they were perhaps the final straw as far as not meeting my expectations. As I’ve revisited those NBA Live games throughout the years and re-evaluated their strengths and weaknesses with more maturity and insight, I’ve been able to put my more superficial criticisms and complaints into perspective. It doesn’t mean that my opinions have completely changed, but I’m past the knee-jerk reactions to those titles.
To that point, I have to admit that the freeze-frame player introductions are pretty stylish and well-done! Just as a few of the Courtside Comedy Cutscenes do amuse me, I can appreciate their visual effects and that epic feeling they were striving for. Maybe it’s something that networks broadcasting NBA games should’ve experimented with over the years; though, when it comes to the Chicago Bulls’ player introductions back in the 90s, no freeze-frame or any other post-production effect could’ve made them more goose-bumps-inducing! In any event, even if they’re not exactly authentic, they’re not completely out of place in a sim game, and I do kind of enjoy them now.
Moreover, there’s a certain amount of odd nostalgia with things like this. It’s kind of like the popular songs that we hate as teenagers that become guilty pleasures as we get older. They have a strange way of taking us back to youth and good times in our lives, even if we don’t associate them with our fondest memories the way we do the music we were obsessed with. It’s much the same with video games. NBA Live 2003, NBA Live 07, and NBA Live 08 don’t rank among my absolute favourite basketball titles, but I still have positive memories connected to them, from the heyday of NBA Live modding to excitedly anticipating the preview season and hoping for good news.
You might say that nostalgia is smoothing over some rough edges, though again, I have no qualms about criticising the gameplay in those NBA Live titles! I believe that despite the stereotype of growing stubborn with age, we can in fact become more open-minded, especially as we mature beyond youthful fanaticism. I’ve found that I can better appreciate games or specific aspects of them for what they are, while still critiquing them. If nothing else, I’m not sweating the small stuff over the real issues! For me, the freeze-frame player introductions represent that growth as a critic, and the open-mindedness to give basketball games – both old and new – a fair second chance.
