EA should be commended for its efforts to bring full-fledged sports games such as Madden 10 and FIFA 10 to the iPhone/iPod Touch platform. While they haven’t been perfect, they certainly have elevated the playing field for competitors. The latest addition is targeted at the basketball aficionados with NBA Live 10, which is probably the best of the bunch with balanced AI, easy-to-use controls, and most importantly, engaging gameplay. While those looking for a true console-quality experience should stick to your PC, PSP or XBox, those simply looking for a high-quality basketball game on the iPhone platform should strongly consider NBA Live 10.
NBA Live has all 30 NBA teams and their player rosters with photos and statistics are at your disposal. The game has several play modes—Exhibition, Season and Playoff. Exhibition mode allows you to play a quick single game using your favorite team. Season mode takes you through a choice of 12, 20, 41 or 82-game season tracking season statistics and standings leading to the playoffs. Playoff mode gives you the option to play a single, 3, 5 or 7-game playoff series. Each mode provides numerous customization options such as quarter length from 1-12 minutes each, but two areas worth noting are penalty enforcement (easy, medium, hard), and most importantly, 3 levels of gameplay difficulty (Rookie, Veteran, All-Star).
The AI can become significantly challenging based on how you set the penalty enforcement and gameplay difficulty. Shot clock violations, out of bounds, reach-in fouls and shooting are all enforced. By increasing the degree of penalty enforcement, additional penalties are leveled. With medium, fouling out and goal tending are included, while hard adds backcourt violations, charging and 8-second violations.
The graphics and animation are solid for the device with minimal lag on my iPod Touch 2g. The different stadiums and arenas are well represented, although the players can look Lego-like. Running up and down the court with multiple simultaneous animations, NBA Live doesn’t experience much stutter. The game includes optional commentary from Marv Albert. Like most games, the commentary is repetitive, but generally fit with the current game situation. In addition, 15 music tracks from artists like Matt and Kim, Snoop Dogg and Xzibit are included and playing your own music is also allowed. Other options are choice of camera angles (broadcast and baseline), left/right flip controls, and horizontal or vertical button layouts.
NBA Live’s two-button control set-up may appear limiting, but it does make the game intuitively easier and more responsive than FIFA 10. NBA Live uses a virtual control stick for maneuvering players up and down the court along with a pair of blue and red buttons. These action buttons can be used to do different actions depending on if your team is on offense or defense. On offense, the blue button is used for passing and the red button to shoot. Depending on how long you hold a button, other options appear. For example, holding down the blue (pass) button will bring up icons for other players each identified by risk for making a pass. Tapping a player icon will then deliver the pass. Meanwhile, flicking the blue button will bring up juke and crossover moves. Pressing and holding on the red button lets you shoot the ball and releasing at the peak of the jump increases your chances of scoring. Simply tapping the red button will create a pump fake, while flicking when driving to the basket will result in a dunk. And depending on the direction you flick, different dunks can be unleashed. Blocking, rebounding and stealing controls are also offered.
One of the game’s nicer features is the ability to call plays. The Clipboard icon in the top right is used to select plays on offense and defense. For example, you can select zone or a 4-1 offensive play set as well as specific plays such as a pick and roll or set up for a 3-pointer. On defense, a limited set of play sets are available such as man to man, and various zone set ups.
Team management is probably one of the weak spots for NBA Live. Trading and customizing rosters is done by dragging and dropping player names and profiles between select teams. Like Madden 10, there are no roster limitations based on salaries, although teams are required to have certain position players, which tends to make team management shallow and less than fulfilling. You can easily create your own dream team without too many restrictions. A nice touch, however, is the addition of Legend Players such as Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Dr. J, which are unlocked based on your progress through the season.
The gameplay is as good as you would expect with NBA Live, and a lot of this goes back to the controls and AI. The simplified control set up should make this game accessible to a broader audience. The AI works smoothly and ratchets up nicely playing an intelligent offensive and defensive game. NBA Live 10 delivers a fun and immersive basketball game. Whether playing a quick game or a more prolonged season mode, the game is a solid offering and provides a good degree customization without too many complex controls. Given the overly easy AI in Madden 10 and the high learning curve of FIFA 10, NBA Live 10 seems to be right in the middle balancing the appropriate challenge within a manageable environment.
App Store Link: NBA Live, $9.99
.... well this is a guaranteed flop.
I don't even know how you could say that by a screenshot. I will say that I am one of these people who is not into this genre but I do wish him success.
ya same
While I'm sure the game will be great for hunting fans, I was hoping for something with a little more creative design elements.
Hunting games very popular on iPhones.
What a strange sentence.
ishoot lite didn't do anything for me, nor do hunting games... but apparently i'm in the minority (shrugs).
I never before played a hunting game and I´m not really interested now, but I wish him all the best with this title.
Lol! Epic fail. Can't believe he spent all his money on this. Oh, well, some have to learn the hard way.
What I've always wanted! Another hunting game! My dreams first came true with 'Aves' where you can torture and pin birds to walls and hear them scream and writhe in agony. Good times! Developers like this deserve all our money and adoration!
Looks like a good idea, I wish him all the best in producing this app and I will definitely check it out.
I don't like virtual joypads.......................:(
at least 4-way ones...........
Want to have a virtual 4-way? :D
I am a fan of Deer Hunt 3D. I guess, this one would be as good as that.
Definitely dissapointed with his choice of genre. 'll never understand why people like shooting defenseless animals. At least when you kill people in video games they usually have some sort of defense or counter attack. Hunting just for the sport of it is retarded. Still, I wish you luck, Ethan.
Guess you haven't seen the new CODMW2 Video? Looks like a "blast"... Yes pun intended =)
Thanks alex, thats exactly what i wanted to say and how i feel about it.
I spent a few bucks on Deer Hunter 3D and deleted it 10 minutes later. I'm probably going to pass on this one. Other than the fact that the dev worked on ishoot, I really don't think this game looks worthy enough to be on the front page of TA forums since there are so many competitive apps (yes even for a buck) with much more polish.
For the love of god, it's just a game people!!! I dont understand the whole hubbub with the hunting genre. I really hate the ones who say they hate hunting Innocent animals yet they eat meat and wear leather products.... and then play Grand Theft Auto
FYI.. I'm not a hunter... but do appreciate good games...
+1 Mike
So is the reason it's costing him so much simply because he's licensed this Olympic medalist?
Has anyone done reasearch to actually find that these big names licenses actually sell enough extra products to offset the cost?
... oh right, they defiantly do. Otherwise EA wouldn't be a successful company, because their games have no quality or polish to speak of.
so he spent the money on licensing the name of a hunter, which is known by just a bunch of other hunters I suppose
...clever.
Please no more this crap. He's got lots of money etc., no need to give him more. I wish me success. Not him. Gotta get some money to buy milk.
Pretty disturbing stuff. This will sell zero copies outside of the US, where the rest of us do not understand the desire to blow animals into pieces for fun.
Bad move on Arn's part - Attempting a biased dismissal by stating that that an item sells well, despite some of your reader's opinions....
"Despite objections by some TouchArcade commenters, the hunting genre of game has been very popular on other platforms and has even seen a ton of success"
Also, what Olympic medalist gives their name to an app that will let you kill dear with RPGs?
Pure trash.
Hunting games do sell well. People who object to it try to marginalize it saying that no one cares about these games. Clearly people do.
arn
But that is not what every person who objects to these games is saying.
Dismissing concerns due to popularity is a failed argument. Many of the most vile of human behaviors are perfectly popular.
Beyond that, why not try exclude biased dismissals of your reader's concerns in your news items?
no, I dismissed the belief that they are not popular. I didn't address the question of right or wrong at all.
arn
cubestar, if you don't like the game don't buy it nor even read the articles about it... I don't understand your bashers who come in and preach their beliefs... it's a frickin' game!!!!... there are people enjoy these games... let them be!!
Mike, people have opinions. Not all of them are popular amongst people you know.
These opinions may still be valid.
It's a strange and unpopular fact.
I agree... people will have opinions but it should be about the GAME... However when you refer to the people involved in the game as 'pure trash', I believe is unacceptable. Opinions about their character is low and uncalled for.
Mike, you're right. That was my assessment of the idea of the game, not the person. That is the danger of 2-word sentences, they are often misleading!
thanks for all admin
information is the most beautiful treasures
Looks like this ishoot dude is indeed a lucky-1-hit wonder. The screenshots look like some 3rd rate ghetto thrash. I wish him luck. He will need a lot of it since he used it all up on ishoot. Comparing to existing and upcoming games, his game is just too far behind in terms of visual. Check out gameloft's Modern Combat and upcoming Nova bro. Stop wasting your ishoot lottery money in this demo.
I dont get why so many people are dissing hunting games, saying that they suck cuz you "torture" cute fuzzy animals. thats all bull, the reason hunting games suck, is cuz theyre frikin BORING AS HELL!
pointing a plastic gun at a screen and it knowing where youre pointing was perfected waaaaay back in the days of original nintendo (duck hunt) and has improved very little in the 10-15 years since. Now this game is even worse in that all you do is move the screen around and click. Grossly outdated concept, grossly outdated graphics (only the clouds look KIND OF nice), and im sorry to say, this game will undoubtedly flop due to the aforementioned reasons.
I say this is a good game. With 5 areas to explore everything is good.
Only the tilting aiming controls is EPIC FAILURE. Hope the dev change the controls to gameloft fps types.