NBA Courtside 2002

Wondering how Courtside 2002 is looking? See for yourself in this new video download.

October 4, 2001
Basketball has never been more popular. Million-dollar deals go hand-in-hand with championship-made players, and whether it is Kobe Bryant or Vince Carter taking it to the hoop, fans just can't get enough. Of course, just as the sport itself grows, so do the number of videogames that try furiously to accurately imitate it. Electronic Arts' NBA Live franchise has been a favorite among basketball groupies for years, but more recent entries from Sega with NBA2K and Nintendo with NBA Courtside have also captured the interest of enthusiasts.

Later this year developer Left Field Productions and Nintendo will re-team to bring their Courtside franchise to GameCube, and both hope to make more than a small dent in the pocketbooks of game-playing basketball fans everywhere.

 

Features

The Nintendo 64 incarnations of the NBA Courtside franchise are known for their polished, though decidedl8y still execution. With the GameCube version, developer Left Field Productions is attempting to recreate the experience 64-bit players got, with updated rosters, significantly improved player artificial intelligence, more realistic ball physics and, of course, visuals to die for. The company has also boldly taken an alternative path from the popular icon-passing system employed in so many hoops titles before. Has it all come together as planned? Check out our impressions of the game from E3 2001 below:

Gameplay and Control Impressions from E3 2001
A basketball simulation might be the game that best shows off the versatility of the GameCube controller. NBA Courtside 2002 is still a five-on-five NBA simulation but the use of the GameCubes C-stick will change the way basketball fans look at sports sims. The C-stick takes the place of a generic pass button in Courtside 2002. Instead of pointing the control stick in the direction of the athlete players want to pass to and then hitting a pass button, one simply taps the C-stick towards that b-baller and their man will make the best possible pass he can. This is a huge improvement over conventional passing mechanisms including the over-hyped icon passing feature that was in fashion in the late 1990s. With Gamecube, players will be able to control the athlete with the ball and run him in any direction and still be able to pass on the fly because of the separate C-stick.

The C-stick is a blessing, but it does take some getting used to. The concept of pressing a control stick to pass the ball is very unnatural and goes against everything weve learned about basketball videogames. Madden 2001 on the PS2 used the right analog stick for passing, but that was football and even then the results were mixed. However, once players do get used to Courtsides passing system the game really opens up.

The animations in Courtside have gotten better since its last outing on the N64. Kobe Bryant still has a variety of moves but as far as we could tell, he doesnt have any more than anybody else. Theres actually a "special dribble" button that will make the player execute a crossover, spin move or other ankle-breaking maneuvers depending on his momentum. Take a quick player like Allen Iverson to the hole against some lumbering defender and his special dribble will look especially nice. Gamers will actually see the defensive player lean the wrong way, as AI. shifts his weight and flicks the ball off the floor and over to his other hand in the blink of an eye. Realistic physics go hand-in-hand with these realistic moves.

There are separate turbo and "aggressiveness" buttons, the L and R shoulder buttons respectively, that juice up the game a bit. Turbo is just what it sounds like and gives players a burst of foot speed that means more momentum for their next move. The aggressiveness button adds a little flare to aerial moves like shots, dunks and blocks. If an athlete is heading down the lane untouched and one shoots the ball while holding the aggressiveness button, their guy will do a more fantastic dunk and throw it down with more force. In theory players would want to use the turbo button while moving with the ball so they can breakaway from the defense and build up steam and then jam it home with a scintillating stuff using the aggressiveness button. It will take some talented index fingers but it can be done.

The AI is looking pretty solid as well. Defenders will slack off on offensive players that are poor scorers. The defense will pretty much ignore somebody like Pheonix Suns center Iakovos Tsakalidis, because they know he wont do much with the rock. Conversely, Vince Carter will always have guys swarming him as soon as he gets the ball anywhere in the frontcourt. But just as impressive as these routines are, its obvious the developer is still implementing the AI. The defense will double team good players as quickly as possible, but too often theyll leave a player wide open under the basket in doing so. This does happen in the NBA, but in Courtside 2002 its so blatant that it seems unrealistic. Even big Tsakalidis can make a shot if hes wide open by himself under the basket. At least we assume he can. Its not like weve ever seen that happen.


The player animation in Courtside 2002 is nearly flawless

Like many of our brand new GameCube titles, getting to know the controller is going hand-in-hand (pardon the pun) with getting to know the mechanics of the game itself. In Courtside, youve got a sports sim --which typically use up a lot of buttons -- whose entertainment value increases as your familiarity with the controller increases. The bottom line is that Courtside looks very promising. Even in its incomplete state, this hoop game is already towering over some basketball games that were released on other consoles in the past&including the PS2.

Graphics and Technology
Nintendo has made improvements visually over the N64 incarnations of the Courtside franchise, but the enhancements aren't so drastic that they'll make one's jaw drop. Athletes are now constructed of more polygons than ever before, and developer Left Field has digitized ultra-realistic face-maps of the stars onto each 3D model. The detailed high-polygon models and top texture work come together for some of the most lifelike players we've ever seen in a basketball court.

The animation, fluid and cinematic, stems from motion-captured moves from the big boys. Download the movie we've provided below and you'll see a player go up for a dunk in slow motion -- the animation routine looks flawless. This is perhaps the biggest technical feat of the game. Whereas player animation transitions were almost nonexistent in the N64 versions of the game, Left Field has gone out of its way to ensure this is no longer the case. Athletes move with perfect realism whether it be in a jump, dunk, alley-oop, lay-up, or cross-over dribble. Even the net swooshes around and up when a ball passes through it.

Courtside 2002 features on-the-court reflections of lights and players, which both look spot-on and work well to add another level of detail to the game. The crowd animates on the sideline benches and in the stands, which also looks great too.

Outlook
NBA Courtside 2002 was unjustly criticized at E3 2001 as being uninspired, but for those who stopped to play the title and notice its subtle, but nonetheless important intricacies, it was a very impressive showing indeed. With unbelievably realistic player models sporting digitized face-maps and some of the smoothest, most realistic animation we've ever seen, an intuitive, bold new passing system that relies on the C-stick for precise control, and enhanced opponent AI and ball physics, Courtside 2002 is already looking great. Developer Left Field Productions still has several months to tweak and polish this one up before launch and we expect it will compete with, if not overwhelm the competition.