NBA 07

Whether you’re a basketball fan or not, chances are you know a little about NBA 07 if you care about the PlayStation 3 even just a little. Sony has been heavily touting this game thanks to its 1080p resolution support. After all, next-gen doesn’t start until Sony says it does, and the whole 1080p thing is supposed to be one of the reasons we all bought our PS3s in the first place. It’s too bad Sony’s first attempt at a next-gen sports game suffers from all of the same problems found in similar offerings on the Xbox 360. Looks like the next-gen is still a little ways off.

The problems start right at the menu screen, where you’ll discover the innovative “the life” mode found in the PlayStation 2 version of NBA 07 is nowhere to be found in this next-gen offering. The life mode adds, well…life to this franchise, as it’s a unique take on the franchise option found in most sports games, following the life of a rookie NBA player as he earns a rep for himself both on and off the hardwood.

In its place PlayStation 3 owners will find the distressingly standard season mode, and no franchise option whatsoever. While you can still trade players around the league--with no worries about that pesky salary cap--there’s no way to build a dynasty by meticulously constructing your squad over multiple years. The staying power of the single-player mode in NBA 07 is seriously hurting.

The All-Star challenge minigames combat the problem somewhat. The NBA replay mode and downloadable games of the week challenges are much more interesting, though. Here you’ll have to complete various challenges based on real-life NBA games and players. Hold a certain player under a particular amount of points during the closing minutes of a game or help Kobe score eight points in overtime. You really feel like you’ve accomplished something when you complete these little challenges. It’s too bad the replay mode doesn’t include online scoreboards.

Oh, and the dunk contest that was even present in the micronized PSP version of NBA 07? Nowhere to be found here. Basically, you’re getting a b-ball title that would have been lacking features even if it had been released six or seven years ago.

Out on the court, NBA 07 doesn’t fare any better. Despite all the hooplah over the game’s apparently amazing high-resolution, the graphics aren’t anything special. And the frame-rate tends to stutter a lot when played at that level. In fact, it stutters much the same way as when you try playing an online game--every time the other team takes possession, the game usually starts chugging along.

Otherwise, you’ll stumble across all kinds of gameplay issues. Balls warping from one hand to another, sloppy animation transitions, players moving through other players, players passing the ball through other players, players dunking through the backboard--the list just goes on and on.

And the referees are worse than their real-life counterparts, failing to call such obvious infractions as a player stepping out of bounds or goaltending. But prepare to endure frequent fouls when no contact is made at all.

Control-wise, playing offense isn’t too bad. Everything you could ever want to do is mapped to the regular controls, and the right analog stick takes care of juking, spinning, and any other fancy move you want to use. The developers attempted to make use of the Sixaxis feature for those same moves, and it’s pretty cool until you realize the game isn’t always registering what you’re trying to do.

Playing D is all but useless. The only really effective strategy is to guess when a shot is coming and jab the triangle button to stop it. It almost never works. On the other hand, the computer seems to be able to pick off passes at will. Either way, almost every game turns into a dunk fest, thanks to the awful defensive setup and the fact that you can use special moves at will to break holes in the wall at the other end of the court.

NBA 07 does nothing to buck the disturbing trend of feature-light, bug-ridden next-gen sports games. If you need an NBA fix, try 2K’s games instead. At least you’ll be getting your money’s worth.