Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: NBA ShootOut 2003

Written by Adam Woolcott on October 31, 2002

Full Review: If basketball games had a 12-man depth chart, this one would be the 13th man.

It's almost a broken record when talking about 989 Sports games Ц riding high in the PlayStation era, competing with EA Sports and in many ways topping the veteran sports developer. Yet when it was time for the PlayStation 2 to be released, 989's game quality got lost in the process, with the horrible УgamesФ that were shoved out the door in 2000-2001. One of those was NBA ShootOut 2001, which actually was one of the more decent 989 disasters. However, Sony decided to put a 2002 version on the PlayStation One only (because hey, nobody owns a PSX anymore and those who do wouldn't mind playing a game that runs on the same engine as ShootOut '98, right?), letting the company work on repairing the series for an eventual comeback.

Now that the time has come for NBA ShootOut 2003, the question looms Ц is the comeback successful? Unfortunately, no. ShootOut, for a lack of a better term, is just a broken game. The creativity of the NBDL Career mode is a start, but the game itself is a sluggish, clunky mess Ц just a broken game. With NBA Live 2003 showing how to truly make a successful comeback, and NBA 2K3 neck and neck with Live, ShootOut gets lost in the shuffle; and for good reason, simply because it just can't measure up to either of those games. What's there is definitely got potential, but it isn't there yet.

ShootOut contains all the usual modes of play along with a Career mode. However, this career mode is definitely a lot different than one you'd be used to. Instead, your Career involves creating a player (yourself, a friend, your local high school hoops hero, whatever), and taking him to the summer league known as the NBDL (a development league for the NBA basically). Perform well for your given team and you will get a crack at the NBA Ц play not so well and you'll be playing in the practice squad leagues looking for another break into the big time. Once you do, you go into a typical career mode that lets you do the usual stuff. Without a doubt, this mode of play is very creative Ц and surprising that nobody else thought of it. It gives the game a certain RPG feel to it, something unconventional, but it works.

Unfortunately, the game does lack an online game mode Ц odd for Sony given their approach to online gaming (just like the lack of it in NBA Inside Drive for Xbox is bizarre given the publisher being Microsoft). While it's not a huge deal (given that nobody will probably buy the damn game anyway, like GameDay), when the other 2 competitors are playing online, it looks a bit awkward.

Then again, given how poorly the game plays, it's really worthless to have online because it just wouldn't be any fun to play. Basketball games are made or broken by how fluidly the play Ц the animation and movements must be precise and accurate; the moves required must be easy to pull off and work when you want them to, and the controller must be forgotten. ShootOut does exactly zero of this.

NBA ShootOut 2003 plays as fluidly as rush hour traffic on the Jersey Turnpike. 989 tried toЕborrowЕthe Freestyle control of NBA Live 2003, but unlike EA's version, it comes off as cumbersome and erratic. Sure, eventually the move you want to do will work, but it takes a few seconds for the player to execute it. Not good. Sometimes even doing a crossover dribble will send you careening the wrong direction, and get you called for a charge or run out of bounds. Worse off, trying to fake out a defender is worthless; once you get them to jump and try to drive to the hole, the damn player will move the wrong direction and completely waste your time in getting an open shot.

It doesn't help that the game is incredibly sluggish Ц players are so slow to move around, it feels like they're playing in the mud (only without female mud wrestlers around). When you get to a point where you can be called for a backcourt violation or being out of bounds, pushing around the stick to move the players around usually equals a mistake. It's made worse by the messed up frame-rate that used to mess up Live games back in the early PlayStation era Ц a fast paced game like basketball (even the current days of more fights per game than points) just cannot be good when it's so slow and sluggish Ц and there's no sliders around to adjust it either.

The rest of the game is fairly decent Ц the computer AI is tough, but occasionally cheap when guys start making shots all over the floor. The free throw meter is shamelessly ripped off from Sega, and naturally it sucks compared to it. There aren't too many cheap blocks and turnovers are pretty balanced out; but it just doesn't matter when the game is so broken and incomplete Ц it's not even worth playing, whatsoever. It could have all the intangibles perfect Ц but the bad control and sluggish gameplay will ruin a game every time.

Despite the sluggish frame-rate, ShootOut actually looks pretty decent. The courts seem a bit on the small side, as do the arenas, but on the whole they don't look too bad. The player animations look like blatant motion capturing that 989 forgot to mix into the game properly, but look okay despite being so clunky and annoying to execute. Plus there's a bit of good texturing and nice lighting effects in the game to at least make the game competent looking for PlayStation 2 standards.

The audio, in 989 tradition, is excellent Ц easily the best part of the game. Ian Eagle is at home here for once (unlike the mess of GameDay), as he is a great basketball announcer who knows the game. His partner is former UCLA player Bill Walton, and the 2 combine for some quality play by play and commentary. As much as I can't stand Walton, he does a good job here.

Sound effects consist of the usual squeaking of shoes on the hardwood and cheering crowd; both are good, I guess. It's not like a game could screw up something like squeaks and cheersЕright?