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 Go-To Moves in NBA Live 08.
These days, unique signature animations and a variety of animation packages are staple features of sim basketball games. We’re a long way from the days of every player having the same shooting form, the same dribbling style, and in some rare games, a handful of signature moves for star players. That’s not to say that every player in the game has unique mo-capped animations, but the most distinctive styles are usually accounted for. Of course, there were some intermediate steps between everyone using the same animations, and the signature styles of today.
NBA Live began taking steps towards player differentiation by including a second jumpshot animation intended for big men, as well as slower and simpler dribbling moves for weaker ballhandlers. The next step was Freestyle Superstars. Both of these forms of player differentiation were based on qualifying ratings, which sometimes made it difficult to assign players appropriate attributes and still have the desired movesets and animations. After signature jumpshot styles were added in NBA Live 06 for Xbox 360 and expanded upon in NBA Live 07, NBA Live 08 introduced Go-To Moves. Let’s take a look back…way back…
I’m sure that the name “Go-To Moves” is fairly self-explanatory, but for the sake of a comprehensive retrospective, they were basically the signature moves of star players. Examples include Kobe Bryant’s fadeaway, Steve Nash’s runner off the wrong leg, Shaquille O’Neal’s short hook, and Dwyane Wade’s hop step into a midrange jumper, just to name a few. These moves were animations that were assigned independently, which meant they didn’t have to rely on specific ratings to be equipped. Go-To Moves were one of the big new features in the Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 version of NBA Live 08, but the PC/PlayStation 2 version also incorporated a simplified take on the idea.
Go-To Moves were performed by making the appropriate movements on the left stick in conjunction with pressing the shoot button, when at the right spot on the floor. This made them simple and intuitive to execute, without running the risk of triggering a hook shot from three-point range, or an unnecessary and unrealistic stepback under the basket. You might feasibly end up performing certain moves, such as Steve Nash’s runner, more often than he would in the course of a single contest. Like the number of dunks in your average game of virtual basketball though, it was an acceptable break from reality. Also, when the defense was tough, they weren’t always the best option.
Indeed, while Go-To Moves were effective, they differed from Freestyle Superstars moves in that they weren’t overpowering. They were effective offensive weapons, but they weren’t an input that you could just spam without much thought. Moves such as Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki’s fadeaways had more range and versatility as far as where they could be performed, but they weren’t automatic buckets, especially on the higher difficulty levels. I remember this point being highlighted during the NBA Live 08 Community Event, with the developers emphasising it was about signature styles that gave stars an edge, but weren’t OP moves that we should mindlessly rely upon.
Of course, this wasn’t a completely new idea for an EA Sports basketball game in 2007. Their NBA Playoffs series – the forerunner to NBA Live – famously featured signature moves that were executed with a button press, as long as the player was in the appropriate spot on the floor. In that sense, Go-To Moves were an updated and more realistic version of the concept. Signature moves had been absent from EA’s games for over a decade though, so their return was most welcome. However, while the specifics of those original signature moves were secrets to discover, by NBA Live 08, a mechanic such as Go-To Moves was expected to be explained in the onboarding.
The best way of doing this was to show the Go-To Moves in action. When selecting a player with a Go-To Move in the practice arena, a tutorial video popped up in the top right hand corner. These videos included clips of the players performing their moves in real life, followed by their virtual counterparts pulling them off in NBA Live 08. The videos could also be found when viewing players’ Hot Spots in the menus, since the trigger zones for Go-To Moves were a related concept. They were lacking in some detail, as they didn’t explain the exact stick movements that were required to perform some of the moves. The context was clear though, so it wasn’t too tough to figure out.
There were also only around 40 players with Go-To Moves in NBA Live 08, so they didn’t take long to view and get a feel for. EA did an admirable job with the moves and most of them still look fine today, despite NBA Live 08 being released a couple of console generations ago. Carlos Boozer’s turnaround jumper did spin a little too quickly, but Kobe and Dirk’s fadeaways, Kevin Garnett’s shimmy shot in the post, and Tony Parker’s teardrop, all looked great. Again, more detailed onboarding would’ve been nice, not to mention the ability to practice the moves against a defender. The videos did help though, and the moves succeeded in being effective, yet not OP.
As for PC and PlayStation 2, there were a handful of player-specific Go-To Moves, though as you’d expect, they didn’t look quite as good as in the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 version. Most of them were performed by backing down and fading away while shooting, leaning towards the basket on a shot, or finding the right spot and angle to shoot from and trigger the signature animation. On top of that, Freestyle Superstars was more or less removed on PC/PS2, with the animations being made available to all players and automatically triggered in the appropriate areas. Additionally, signature Go-To Moves couldn’t be performed in practice, unlike in the PS3/360 version.
Much as they’d done with Hot Spots, the developers managed to implement a Next Gen idea into the Current Gen version, but it was somewhat underwhelming. Looking back at this topic in our NBA Live 08 forum, it also appears as though there were some Go-To Moves that were included among the animations, but went unused. It’s not surprising, as the PC/PS2 version of NBA Live 08 was an afterthought that was outsourced to HB Studios (which funnily enough, is now under the 2K umbrella). PC gamers desperately hoped that NBA Live 09 would be a PS3/360 port, but instead, NBA Live 08 was the last release on the platform. Fortunately, NBA 2K9 came to PC.
Interestingly, Go-To Moves were somewhat downplayed in NBA Live 09 and 10. They were still performed in the same way – combining stick movement with the shoot button in the appropriate area of the floor – and players who had moves in NBA Live 08 retained them through the two games that followed. NBA Live 09’s manual only mentions them in passing though, while NBA Live 10‘s manual doesn’t include any mention of them at all. They weren’t really spotlighted during the preview season of either game, and the demonstration videos were removed. This didn’t help when a couple of new moves were added for Mike Bibby, Stephon Marbury, and Jason Kidd.
It’s strange, as NBA Live 09 and 10 did place emphasis on authenticity and signature animations. To that end, both games added to their animation libraries, from jumpshot forms to player-specific running styles. I can’t remember any developers commenting on this approach, and none of the previews that are still online seem to touch upon it, so I can only speculate. Seeing as how they were striving for authenticity, my guess is that they were trying to quietly transition Go-To Moves into being another standard signature animation that could be equipped or left unassigned as necessary. Perhaps they thought that by spotlighting them, they came across as a gimmicky mechanic.
This is essentially the approach that NBA Live and NBA 2K alike have taken as they’ve expanded their range of player animations. There are standard animation slots for every player, where packages and individual animations can be assigned. Kobe’s signature jumper and Parker’s patented teardrop were no longer special moves as such, but rather unique animations that were assigned as their fadeaway and floater styles. It still added authenticity, without the suggestion of being OP moves, or requiring special inputs compared to a regular player’s moveset. It achieved what Go-To Moves were intended to be – and basically did – without seeming like a gimmick.
The addition of Go-To Moves in NBA Live 08 is a prime example of how suggestions that NBA Live wasn’t trying to be sim during the seventh generation are misguided. It was trying to replicate the NBA with as much authenticity as possible, from players’ animations and environmental details to concepts such as Dynamic DNA and other AI enhancements. Whether or not it achieved a satisfactory level of realism is immaterial. The point is that striving for authenticity and realism made sim the goal and the genre of NBA Live. It wasn’t trying to be an arcade game, which again is perhaps why they downplayed the idea of Go-To Moves as a key feature in NBA Live 09 and 10.
Innovations in basketball video games are rarely implemented fully-formed or without any room for improvement. It’s easy to look at the early attempts at expanded controls or player differentiation, and deride them for being primitive or subpar. We forget that these ideas paved the way for further innovations, and that they were often viable solutions given the technology of the time. Their simplicity can be appealing, making older games fun to revisit. Go-To Moves in NBA Live 08 stand as an example of the series still striving to innovate and be authentic, even as many assumed it wasn’t doing anything notable or commendable while NBA 2K’s popularity and dominance grew.
