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IGN Review of NBA 09 The Inside
Every basketball player dreams of hoisting up that last-second bomb from deep beyond the three-point arc, down two with a hand in his face. When touches nothing but the bottom of the net, he's the man. When it clangs off the side of the tin and trickles out of bounds as the final buzzer sounds, he's anything but the man. NBA 09: The Inside on PS2 not only misses the big shot, it doesn't even catch backboard.
Simply put, NBA 09 is simply a repackaging of NBA 08. The folks at Sony didn't do much to enhance this year's offering, with the notable exception of making the Main Menu easier to navigate. You'll find all the same features and problems in NBA 09 as you did in previous editions of the series, and it's obvious that the game's developers have completely forgone the opportunity to improve the basic mechanics of gameplay, add depth to this year's version of The Life, or introduce new mini-games to a lackluster lineup.
It doesn't take long to notice the how little effort was put into this title, just pop the disc in and let the opening highlight reel play and you'll notice that the images all look washed out and poorly lit, which they shouldn't considering that those highlights were pulled right from NBA broadcasts. Once you've gotten to the Main Menu, which is cleaner and easier to navigate than it was a year ago, you'll find that there are only six player images that rotate through (Dwyane Wade, Lebron James, Tracy McGrady, Gilbert Arenas, Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire) and that even once you've created a profile and selected a favorite team, that choice won't affect the menu screen in any way.
The only significant change you'll find comparing NBA 09 to its predecessor is that The Life has been expanded to include three different storylines for you to play through, each designed for a different type of player: Point Guard, Swingman or Big Man. I played through the "Swingman Ascension" and wasn't impressed. The cutscenes didn't add much to the gaming experience and they took entirely too long to load, and the on-court action was infuriating at times, as the AI's defensive ineptitude made it much harder to complete certain challenges than it should have been.
That brings me to my biggest complaint about this title – the on-court action isn't any good… at all.
NBA 09 doesn't do anything to improve upon the extremely flawed game mechanics of previous installments of the franchise, and those flawed mechanics make playing the game disappointing and frustrating to put it mildly. The game's poor frame rate causes lag when you dribble or pass the ball, the ball handling moves are very basic and don't feel in the least bit life like, and the CPU controlled players wander out of position all the time, leaving players wide open for uncontested baskets on the defensive end and failing to cut to open spots on the floor on the offensive end.
Also, after each made basket every player on the court except the inbound passer and point guard is teleported to the side of the court, taking away any chance to push the ball up in transition after a score. And, after every defensive rebound you'll notice that the frame jumps for no apparent reason.
The game's graphics haven't been improved at all since NBA 08, and it's obvious when you see a player plainly miss a dunk (the dunk animations often have players tossing the ball down in front of or to the side of the rim) but it's counted as a made dunk all the same. It's also blatantly obvious when you see players dribble down the court and the ball lags behind the ball handler.
NBA 09 doesn't offer a franchise mode, although it does offer season and playoff modes that should keep you busy for a while if you can get past the horrendous gameplay. The title also offers a nice little complement of mini games, which include "Rabbit", "Own the Court" and "Blacktop Golf". Rabbit and Own the Court are so similar you'll wonder why the game's developers felt compelled to include both, although Blacktop Golf, a carry-over from last year's installment, is pretty fun despite its simplicity.
You'll also find several "Drill" mini-games, all of which were included in last year's game, none of which are worth spending more than a few minutes playing through. You'll also find "All-Star Play" mini-games, but those are even less rewarding than the drills, probably because there are only two of them ("Skills Challenge" and "3 PT Contest") and they're exactly the same as the "Slalom Run" and "Downtown" mini-games featured in the Drills section, but transferred from the blacktop to the All-Star Game venue.
©2008-10-17, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Simply put, NBA 09 is simply a repackaging of NBA 08. The folks at Sony didn't do much to enhance this year's offering, with the notable exception of making the Main Menu easier to navigate. You'll find all the same features and problems in NBA 09 as you did in previous editions of the series, and it's obvious that the game's developers have completely forgone the opportunity to improve the basic mechanics of gameplay, add depth to this year's version of The Life, or introduce new mini-games to a lackluster lineup.
It doesn't take long to notice the how little effort was put into this title, just pop the disc in and let the opening highlight reel play and you'll notice that the images all look washed out and poorly lit, which they shouldn't considering that those highlights were pulled right from NBA broadcasts. Once you've gotten to the Main Menu, which is cleaner and easier to navigate than it was a year ago, you'll find that there are only six player images that rotate through (Dwyane Wade, Lebron James, Tracy McGrady, Gilbert Arenas, Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire) and that even once you've created a profile and selected a favorite team, that choice won't affect the menu screen in any way.
The only significant change you'll find comparing NBA 09 to its predecessor is that The Life has been expanded to include three different storylines for you to play through, each designed for a different type of player: Point Guard, Swingman or Big Man. I played through the "Swingman Ascension" and wasn't impressed. The cutscenes didn't add much to the gaming experience and they took entirely too long to load, and the on-court action was infuriating at times, as the AI's defensive ineptitude made it much harder to complete certain challenges than it should have been.
That brings me to my biggest complaint about this title – the on-court action isn't any good… at all.
NBA 09 doesn't do anything to improve upon the extremely flawed game mechanics of previous installments of the franchise, and those flawed mechanics make playing the game disappointing and frustrating to put it mildly. The game's poor frame rate causes lag when you dribble or pass the ball, the ball handling moves are very basic and don't feel in the least bit life like, and the CPU controlled players wander out of position all the time, leaving players wide open for uncontested baskets on the defensive end and failing to cut to open spots on the floor on the offensive end.
Also, after each made basket every player on the court except the inbound passer and point guard is teleported to the side of the court, taking away any chance to push the ball up in transition after a score. And, after every defensive rebound you'll notice that the frame jumps for no apparent reason.
The game's graphics haven't been improved at all since NBA 08, and it's obvious when you see a player plainly miss a dunk (the dunk animations often have players tossing the ball down in front of or to the side of the rim) but it's counted as a made dunk all the same. It's also blatantly obvious when you see players dribble down the court and the ball lags behind the ball handler.
NBA 09 doesn't offer a franchise mode, although it does offer season and playoff modes that should keep you busy for a while if you can get past the horrendous gameplay. The title also offers a nice little complement of mini games, which include "Rabbit", "Own the Court" and "Blacktop Golf". Rabbit and Own the Court are so similar you'll wonder why the game's developers felt compelled to include both, although Blacktop Golf, a carry-over from last year's installment, is pretty fun despite its simplicity.
You'll also find several "Drill" mini-games, all of which were included in last year's game, none of which are worth spending more than a few minutes playing through. You'll also find "All-Star Play" mini-games, but those are even less rewarding than the drills, probably because there are only two of them ("Skills Challenge" and "3 PT Contest") and they're exactly the same as the "Slalom Run" and "Downtown" mini-games featured in the Drills section, but transferred from the blacktop to the All-Star Game venue.
©2008-10-17, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved