NBA Inside Drive 2002 Review

Y'know...I don't particularly care for sports games. Particularly basketball. I mean, they're fine and all, but they're just not my cup of tea, so to speak. I'm a baseball man, with my second sport being hockey (any sport where the blood actually bounces is a good one). So, an NBA game has to really stand out to impress me, and NBA Inside Drive 2002 does, but barely.

"Hi, Im Allen Iverson and I'm the number one pick in the 1996 NBA Draft."

Ooops, looks like I'm all alone here.

There's a lot going for this game. When you start it up, you're greeted to a FMV of various nice plays that pepper the SportCenter reels every night on ESPN. The game types that are offered are Exhibition, Season and Playoffs. Pretty self-explanatory. An Exhibition game is pretty straightforward, with the option to make any specific rule changes or game modifications that strike your fancy, nothing really new or innovative there. The season mode is kind of interesting. In this mode, you have the option of using the standard 2001-2002 rosters, or partaking in a fantasy draft where you can go through a 12-round draft to pick whomever you want. Also, if you don't like what you end up with, there is in the options mode the ability to completely revamp all of the team rosters, so you can get whomever you like on any team you like. So finally, all you Chicago fans can once again have a dominant team before the mass exodus of 'da Bulls...

Now, since I'm such a terrible basketball player, especially when it comes to video games, there is the sideline coaching mode. This mode is interesting in that you can set matchups, call plays, trade players...pretty much anything any NBA team does can be replicated inside the game.

So, as they say on the courts, the rock must be taken to the hole. How does one do this in the confines of this game? Pretty easily, actually. Everything that would happen in a game is possible here, with fancy ball handling, one-button shooting, rebounding, calling for picks, and with a quick tap of the d-pad, you can call a play on the fly, so your AI teammates will execute along with you, leaving your opponents with broken ankles. The game keeps full track of statistics, including hot and cold streaks, with icon changes to match, so you know who to give the ball to (or keep it away from) in a pinch. If you get fouled, free-throw shooting is pretty easy. A simple meter with two circles (accuracy and power) appears and if you can hit the button while the ball is within the circles, you make the shot. Imagine, Shaquille O'Neal with a 80% Free Throw. Mind boggling.

The graphics are exactly what you would expect from an Xbox title - smooth, 60fps goodness, with motion-captured action dunks, so you can see awesome plays in their full motion-captured glory. I saw no visible clipping, no flaws in the engine, and all of the stadiums were represented accurately. There are a bunch of camera angles to choose from, so if you don't care for the side-screen play, it can be easily switched to match your preference, with no change in the performance of the engine. On instant replay, all of the models are pretty high-poly renderings, so they look almost exactly like their NBA counterparts. You can almost see them sweat. Almost.

The audio is nice, but not at the level of the graphics engine. There are a considerable number of pauses in the pre-recorded commentary. Kevin Calabro, Marques Johnson and Akemi Takei are all great commentators, but there are plenty of gaps that any real NBA announcer would probably be fired for if it were on TV. The box boasts accompanying music of Sir Mix-A-Lot and L.A. Symphony, but I couldn't pick them out over the standard skidding of sneakers on the court and the roar of the crowd.

This is a good game. Not a great game, but a good one. With most sports games, the only real distinguishing feature with any of them is the graphics engines and the ease of play, and NBA Inside Drive 2002 has that in spades. It's a fine addition to any sports game library.