SEGA Sports ESPN NBA Basketball

Sega's venerable NBA series, securely holds onto its NBA throne with ESPN NBA Basketball. Does it still boast gameplay of justuce?

	Version PS2 / Xbox	Developer Visual Concepts	Publisher SEGA	Genre Sports

By Joseph Jackson

Sega Sport's newest pro basketball offering brings back some of the same fast paced, high intensity dribbling and passing action of its predecessors - while introducing various new gameplay elements to hook fans of basketball everywhere.

A rich set of game modes including an all-new franchise mode, player rosters and other options along with online play and dynamic ESPN telecast presentation will be bringing all the action to life.

The controls provide the same precise response of past NBA 2K series games, while improving upon them in various ways to provide players with stellar passing control, cool dribble moves and the ability to make split second defensive reactions quickly.

Personally, football and basketball are the sports I'm not as keen on, but the Sega Sports offerings look spectacular in action. ESPN NBA Basketball was no exception.

Highly detailed graphics, consisting of beautifully redesigned player models with hundreds of new animations, take center court. And speaking of center court, the arenas are modeled extremely well, exhibiting the same gloss and shine of real basketball courts, while joined by solid lighting effects that highlight the self-shadowing throughout gameplay.

Upon its release, expect a totally complete basketball experience that hosts all the ESPN style, color commentary, new studio settings, picture-in-picture introductions as well as some fancy highlight-reel dunks. Among other things, of course.

Sega's ESPN NBA Basketball will be dribbling its way onto store shelves on October 21 in the US, and November 28 in Europe. Stay tuned for our verdict.