Last weekend, my friend Andrew came to my house and hung out for a bit. When asked about what he wanted to do, he promptly said that he wanted to play some video games. Knowing that I had recently unearthed my old Genesis, he examined the Genesis games I had. Initially, he chose Madden 97, of which we played one game; it was fun -- a reminder of good times, to be sure -- but not overwhelmingly enjoyable. Andrew then opted to play NBA Live 97, which features NBA teams as their rosters were 14 years ago. After we chose our teams (he chose the Suns, I chose the Clippers), we played a game that reminded me of the high level of surreality I used to experience on a consistent basis 14 years ago!
In 1996, NBA Live 97 was the latest in a growing lineage of EA Sports basketball games dating back to the early days of the Sega Genesis with Lakers versus Celtics (circa 1989). I jumped onto the NBA Live bandwagon with NBA Live 95, followed by 96, and then 97. At that time, I was well-versed in the controls which are simplistic compared to today's standards: one button to jump/block/shoot, one button to switch players/run turbo/pass, and one button to attempt a steal/crossover (I think -- I'll have to check).
As Andrew and I played, we laughed at the various quirks of the game. One is player movement: computer-controlled players make beeline runs after the ball, which often results in one computer-controlled player pushing a bunch of other players until a tidal wave of virtual humanity converged on the ball. The game doesn't seem to discern that players are in the way: the Genesis will just push all intervening players. This often led to strange situations in which the player with the ball (e.g. my friend Andrew) would get pushed out of bounds by a mass of pushed players from my team. Or, if I happened to angle one's defender's run at Andrew's ball handling player, I could edge him out without get a foul called. Another quirk was blocking: if I ran into the key and pressed the Shoot button to initiate the dunk animation sequence, Andrew could not only jump his defender in my direction, but pass THROUGH me AND get the block. Moreover, goaltending was amusingly arbitrary: I could come down with the dunk and Andrew's player could ascend and grab the ball right out of my hands! Oh, and fouls: if you turbo run at an attacking player, you could send him FLYING across the screen and sometimes NOT get the foul called!
I should also mention one quirk that is important to note: the CPU's primary offensive strategy is to make the point guard penetrate and lay the ball up. If the point guard has a clear path, he will almost always turbo down the lane and lay it in. If you put your defender squarely between the point guard and the basket, the point guard will try a couple of crossover moves and then pass to the player with the clearest path to the basket. Also, if you maneuver a player into the path of the running point guard, you could get an offensive foul call in your favor. This is the most hilarious and often infuriating aspect of NBA Live 97.
I could go on and on about the quirks of NBA Live 97, but we came away from that game both amused and, well, infuriated. Having played the game in 2010, I can see how much sports games have thankfully advanced, though the next game we played that night (NHL 97) oddly holds up as a great game even today -- perhaps, I will review that one later. Suffice it to say, for a laugh, pop in NBA Live 97 and witness what gamers had to endure 14 years ago.
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