NBA Live 2005
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NBA Live 2005 is a 2004 basketball video game based on the National Basketball Association.
Summary
This game features all 30 teams from the 2004-05 NBA season with licensed rosters. Players can play exhibition games, the NBA All-star Weekend mode, Dynasty mode, 1-on-1 games, and more.
Why It Rocks
- It added the NBA All-Star weekend, which had the 3 Point Contest, All-Star game, and more, but we can’t forget this one iconic part, the Dunk Contest, which is one of the biggest reasons this game, along with NBA 2K11 is considered not only to be one of the greatest basketball games of all time, but one of the greatest sports games of all time. The Dunk Contest was fun, it has lots of cool moves like throwing off the screens, cartwheel dunk, 720 dunk, and many more impressive and fun dunks.
- The Dynasty mode is vastly improved into being a great franchise mode, after the NBA Live 2004 version received criticism for being lackluster and not deep enough, EA Sports went to work on the dynasty mode of the next game after NBA Live 2004, and it came out as a very fun, innovative, and deep experience, if you try to submit a trade proposal for a player you want, you have to wait a few days to get a response, trading for star players had much more difficulty and was pretty hard to do, for example, if you wanna trade for LeBron James, you can’t, because the Cleveland GM isn’t stupid enough to do such a thing. The free agency was improved, as players took multiple factors into consideration before signing with a team.
- The gameplay is vastly improved here, it also is realistic in the sense that the players play identical to their real life counterparts. For example, when Kobe Bryant receives the ball, he often tries to create ways to score points for his team as opposed to passing the ball to his teammates to create a shot for them, Ben Wallace often moves into the paint when his team is on defense to attempt a block or guard if a layup or dunk attempt happens, and Ray Allen has a very smooth 3-Point shot.
- The realism was also improved as well, unlike previous entries where you can dribble past with any player even the ones with the worst ball handling, only players like Allen Iverson can do such a thing.
- The A.I was ahead of it’s time and very smart, instead of mostly just dunking and trying to shoot threes, it instead tries to pass the ball to find the open man, try to shoot off the dribble, and even take shots from mid-range.
- The NBA store was a great feature that was introduced in NBA Live 2004 and it returns here, this was a feature that allowed you to buy classic jerseys, shoes, headbands, and socks.
- The My NBA Live feature, which has the aforementioned NBA store, is a decent equivalent to the crib of the NFL 2K games, it had a jukebox which allows you to pick what song is playing in the menus and which songs can or cannot play in the menus, NBA codes, and a Hall of Fame that lets you see the jerseys of the players you retired in the Dynasty mode.
- The soundtrack is amazing and instead of licensing songs, they used rappers to make basketball and NBA Live themed songs, and it worked, with songs like "My Main Aim" by MC Lyte, "Me Against You" by G-Unit, and "It’s In Da Game" by Jazze Pha. Although there were still some licensed songs like "Go!" by will.I.am.
- The attention to detail in this game was awesome, with the best dribblers at the time like Allen Iverson only having access to ankle-breaking dribble moves, the All-Star game having a higher rate of scoring, great defensive plays, and the fact in Dynasty mode, it was really hard to trade for the leagues best like LeBron James.
- The graphics were great for 2004 standards.
Reception
The game was well-received by fans and critics who praised its incredible gameplay and dynasty mode, and the All-Star Weekend mode. (especially the dunk contest)
However, as time went on, it started getting a reputation for being the best 6th generation basketball game and the best NBA Live game made.
Trvia
- Unlike most sports games, the soundtrack mostly consists of songs made exclusively for the game.
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