Review: NBA Live 08

Do we crown this version of EA's baller or send it packing? The answer lies within.

It isn't crystal clear whether it's the intricacy and subtle nuances of NBA basketball that makes it so difficult to emulate in a videogame, or if it's simply a lack of development skill on the majority of the teams that have produced these games (NBA 2K7 on consoles not withstanding), but regardless of the reason behind it there's really no doubting that basketball titles simply do not look like their real life counterpart when put in motion. Last year's NBA Live 07 was a sterling example of what's wrong with round ball on home consoles. Though the screens looked solid, as soon as the players started competing in real time things went awry. The artificial intelligence was an abomination, the animations were seriously lacking any kind of realism or fluidity for that matter, and the overall feel of the action was just plain bad.

Now NBA Live 08 on PSP has arrived, hoping to right the wrongs that last year's game forced on players. Gone are the Superstar moves and X-Factor abilities that bludgeoned last year's game into something different - and much worse - than a true basketball experience. Though this year's game does lack a few of the trimmings that its console counterparts bring to the table, that doesn't stop it from being a solid round ball experience.

On the gameplay side of things NBA Live 08 moves and looks very well for a PSP game. Animations are fairly fluid, and it beats out the next-gen alternative in terms of its shot mechanic by forcing players to time their release rather than simply holding down the shot button. However, because of the lack of a second analog stick, all of your fancy dribbles and jukes come from a tap to the square button. It is less intuitive than swiveling a right analog stick, but it works fairly well in its own right.

The bulk of the gameplay will feel very familiar for fans of the series. Dunks are still way too common, even on higher difficulty levels. Shaq dominates the paint like nobody's business, but so does every other star in the league. I once had Ray Allen score 23 of 27 points in the first half, and half of those were driving into the lane and slamming one home against The Daddy. While this could happen every once in a blue moon, seeing the frail outside shooter punish The Diesel down low was more than a little disheartening.

The biggest change to this year's gameplay dynamic is The Crown, a kind of tracking system that hands out accomplishments for completing certain tasks. These range from scoring ten threes as a team to stealing the ball - something that proves more difficult than it should be - a handful of times in a game. As you get more and more achievements your overall level in the game will increase; this is displayed graphically by rhinestones being affixed in your crown. The best aspect of The Crown is that it doesn't just track your accomplishments through standard gameplay, but instead it follows your progress through all of the game's modes. That means that everything from All-Star Weekend to Dynasty Mode has its own set of achievements to conquer and certainly gives players something to work towards.