Their purpose is obvious, to offer specific moves to those players who use them. It worked great back on the Genesis when you could perform the Jordan reverse or Larry Bird three from the corner. Now when players use them, they become some unstoppable force, and there's nothing included to restrain their use.
If you have a decent shooter assigned with the proper superstar attribute, be prepared to pour in 50 points a game just from him. They're too easy to execute, with just a flip of the trigger and a button. The only way to counter act these is to play with the sliders (and this can't be done in mutli-player). You could spend days doing so, and giving the AI a major advantage isn't the way this should be handled either.
It also feels rushed, with a flaky frame rate that drops anytime a player passes the half court mark. Making those fast break transitions is impossible when the controls take a response hit. Given the graphics are just awful (player faces range nothing more than a mass of pixels to barely discernable), there's little reason for the problems. Camera positions are also limited.
Even if you could subtract the superstar moves, Live 06 would still suffer. Defense is useless, and rarely do players outside your control make the appropriate switches on opposing players. Driving to the lane is too easy, and working for the open shot is no longer necessary. This is an arcade basketball title that follows the rules of the real game. Don't be fooled into thinking this is a serious simulation of the sport.
If you've heard "wait until next year" for multiple EA Sports games this year, there's a reason for it. This years run is just terrible, and there's no reason or excuse for it. It's obvious this current run of consoles is no longer the company's focus. NBA Live 06 proves that.
Article comments