NBA Inside Drive 2002
April 3, 2002
Microsoft is trying to make a name for themselves when it comes to sports titles for their high-end Xbox. As far as I’m concerned, Microsoft is almost there with NBA Inside Drive 2002. This game is a almost a must-have for basketball fans, but there are some aspects of the game that Microsoft should attempt to go back and improve before this game reaches A+ status.
The first thing that should come to your eye is the graphics. When you first turn on the game, you see cinematics of blazing dunks and amazing plays, and that is clearly indicative of how the game is. The graphics are the best I’ve ever seen in a basketball game to date. Yes, they do have the 2-dimensional audience, but it is greatly compensated whenever you watch the replays and actually see the faces of YOUR favorite players, not just computer-generated wannabes.
The dunks in this game are beautiful! They’re not unrealistic, but are almost exactly what you would see the players do when they’re on the court. For example, in NBA 2k2, when Vince Carter is drives to the paint, no matter how many people are there, sometimes he’ll end up doing his crazy through-the-leg-windmill, which you’ll probably NEVER see him do in a real game. But in NBA Inside Drive 2002, Vince Carter does the dunks that the situation calls for, meaning that if there are people in the paint, he just does some spectacular power dunk, but if he’s in the open court he does a “dunk contest-calibur” dunk. Same goes for people like Shawn Bradley from the Dallas Mavericks, he can’t really do anything but a 2-handed lanky dunk in real life, and that’s basically all he does in the game — lanky dunks.
The sound on a scale of 1 to 10 is probably about a 7. The announcers aren’t bad at all, and they’re not TOO repititive, but eventually if you’ve been playing awhile, they start to be. Also, when a player is injured, it gets a lot more realistic than other games. The announcers go “(Player) appears to be injured” and they either lay on the court or limp around til there is a dead ball, then a lady comes and says (for example) “It appears he hurt his leg, I’ll give you more information later,” then later on she says, “His tendonitis is flaring after receiving a blow to the leg, he might be back tonight, but that seems sketchy.” Also, the court announcer actually says everybodies name right, and says some funny stuff between periods. The one thing I don’t like is that while you’re playing there’s some guy (in the crowd or on the court, i don’t know) that says random comments like “Try and take the ball” or “This is my court…” If this is supposed to be the players talking, it’s not a very good job, because it sounds like an old fat couch potato saying it.
The control is pretty good, and not too hard to catch on to. They actually make good use of the extra buttons and the control is pretty realistic, the ONLY thing I don’t like is that the crossovers. They’re very Nintendo 64-like, as for the fact that there’s only a couple that you could do, as opposed to NBA 2k2 which has nicer crossovers that actually work.
All in all, this game is a good base for future Microsoft games, and shows that Microsoft has the promise to be the leading edge in basketball games, and all the sports games, for the Xbox. I suggest renting it first, because you might be an NBA 2k2 fan like me, but I’m in the process of being converted right now. If you don’t think it’s quite the game, just wait for NBA Inside Drive 2003, I’m positive that you’ll be pleased.
CVG Report CardNBA Inside Drive 2002
Rating: B+
Platform: Xbox
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