This is an ongoing list where I attempt to do the following: Play, Complete, and Rank every video game in the known universe in order to finally answer the age old question "What is the greatest game of all time?" For previous entries find the links on the attached spreadsheet.
How did I do?
| Category | Completion level |
|---|---|
| Completed | Sure... I started in the playoffs and won a championship |
| Hours played | 5-10 hours |
| NBA team of Choice | Chicago Bulls (even though they stink in this game) |
| Favorite part | Remember old Basketball pros. |
| Least favorite | The Bare bones game types |
I know it’s pretty easy to clown on the state of sports video games. I’ll even start by saying that real iterations are almost non-existent year over year, the focus has pivoted solely to trying to capture whales who want to spend hundreds of hours and dollars in order to play online, and competition has been bleed out of the industry where there is really only one company making each major sports game (2k for Basketball, San Diego studio for Baseball, and EA for football and futbol). Those are all terrible things that I would love to change about sports video games, but it also got us to a point where we are now playing the most realistic virtual sports games we have ever done so. And while that can be said at nearly any point in time (The Atari Basketball game in 1978 was the most ‘realistic’ version of virtual basketball at that time), I think even back then it was easy to see what was lacking comparing the real sport to the virtual one (more than 2 people on a court, comes to mind). So, let’s enter the way back machine and see what a basketball video game was like over 20 years ago with NBA Inside Drive 2002.
First though, how did I specifically get here? Well, since we have some time (this won’t be a long review) let me quickly re-hash how I select games for this series. In the past I used to use a website called wheeldecide.com and to be fair I used it before it was cool. I would sit there and painstakingly add in my whole collection of video games to that website, but they had a limit of only 100 different slices per wheel. So, I had to instead create wheels (sometimes multiple) per system so that I could list out all the games that I owned, and then I need a wheel that told me what other wheel to spin to find out the game (largely, one for system, and one for game). However, games would get left off a wheel because there was precious space to be used. All the Yakuza games would get squeezed to one tile, that if spun just meant I played the next game in order, and sports games would go missing or I would pick a favorite that I wanted to revisit. There was no need to list 5 different NBA 2k games, because reviewing 2k5 and 2k6 wouldn’t be a worthwhile endeavor. I lived like this for several years, back when I ran my youtube channel (now defunct) and when I started this series… but that has all changed as I found a better (some would say worse) system. There is now an app (and maybe there always was) that is called “Spin the wheel” which has no restrictions in loading as many slices on a wheel as you want. I no longer have to make cuts or split things off into multiple pages, every game from A-Abzu to Z-Zork could all be on the same list and presumably have the same odds as being spun. With no restrictions I re-went through a multi days progress of typing out and adding EVERY SINGLE GAME I have access to, that I have yet to write about, including all my sports games, xbox live arcade games, and individually titled Yakuza games. I could finally spin the wheel and true randomness would come out.
I have still kept the 3x rule, which is for every single game selection I make, I spin the wheel 3x and pick from those 3 results as to what game I am going to play. This helps weed out the possibility of playing back to back large JRPGs or now, back to back sports games. Not only would that not make for compelling game playing for me, but it also wouldn’t be interesting for you folks to read about small iterations in sequential numbered basketball games. So, in its inaugural first spin.. NBA inside drive 2002 came up, and I selected it, because I wanted a quick win as I work through finishing up a longer game. So now that we know why this game has just suddenly shown up, let’s talk about it.
NBA Inside Drive is a basketball game, the end! Just kidding, I mean, it is a basketball game, but that isn’t the end. First we should set the scene, this roster is pre Lebron James, you could still play as Jordan (though on the Wizards), and had Vince Carter as the cover athlete (presumably decided after his 2000 Dunk Contest victory). The Lakers had won the 2001 title, and would eventually go on to win the 2002 title (but the game didn’t know that yet), and the Bulls were the worst rated team in the entire game. Ok, now that we got that out of the way, we can finally talk about the game proper. This was the era where the camera was more zoomed in then you are used to, sprites were bigger, and games still had much than a little twinge of arcade action. Games are fast paced, nearly no possession bumps up against the shot clock, and your best offense is finding the fastest player on your team to just run around their defender.
While today’s 2k game gives you over the top notifications, trying to get you to improve your game, with arrows pointing to players you should be guarding, to feedback regarding the timing of your jump shot, and diagrams of plays you are running; Inside Drive is weirdly bare. While this was the style at the time, it is surprising going back to and something that you may now miss. Did I miss that three because of the timing of my release, or because he is just a bad shooter? Does my contest on a shot actually mean anything, if I don’t block it? I don’t have answers to those questions. Yes, I think the timing of your jump shot matters, but this game doesn’t have a perfect release that automatically makes a shot go in, and No, I don’t think a contest does anything if you don’t actually get the block. What this game did remind me of, is how in the older games, you would win a game by getting 90% of all your baskets from just inside the paint, and your leading assist getter would finish the game with 3-4 total. Now, we have all been conditioned to shoot 30 3s a game, but your best offense was to try and dunk or do a layup on every possession.
AI for teammates or for opponents hasn’t evolved yet, even for the most basic of moves. There is no pick and roll for big guys, or even for people to spread out while running a fast break. You can bait the computer into pump fakes every other possession, and if you get good enough you can steal every dead ball by just positioning yourself correctly (and I mean every dead ball). It’s these little details that just make you appreciative of how games have evolved to now. I don’t say this to dunk on this game, and just say “Dur.. not greatest game, 2k24 did it better,” because I do think there is merit in this game, but the way we play them has to adjust with the time.
I played through an entire playoffs (you can either pick season, playoffs, or exhibition game) during my time with the game and I still had a lot of fun. Part of that fun is the nostalgia of playing with NBA stars that I remember back in my time, and part of it is that the game is certainly more arcade-y then any version of 2k. I played through some nailbiter games, especially as I got my feet back under me and I would sell out for steals, only to have Vince Carter or Kobe get easy dunks on me, but it was still exciting. I could finish 2 games during the time it would take me to play a single 2k game, and I would finish with roughly the same score. If you enjoy the game of basketball, you can probably still enjoy it through a diminished scale. It wouldn’t take much convincing to get me to play through an entire season as my lowly bulls, or to do a fantasy draft like how I currently play and mix up the rosters and see if I can create a new dynasty with players the game doesn’t know are good yet. Yes, this game is missing the presentation factor that came with more TV deals. While there are replays for occasional dunks or highlight plays, there is no pre/post/ or half-time show. When you aren’t playing a game you are navigating a barren menu that really just points you to your next game as this wasn’t the type of game that had you diving into the minutiae of running a team.
This was Microsoft’s first foray into an NBA game on the Xbox console, so there are things missing that just became the norm. There was an NBA inside drive 2000 that released only for Windows, which has to be an interesting relic, but sadly I haven’t played it to tell what they improved upon or ended up removing for console content. For 2002, the biggest glaring item missing is a franchise mode, which means that some of the luster of long play is gone. I can’t see if I can turn a crappy team into a legitimate powerhouse in x years, because there is no multiple years option. There also is no side content for this game, no 3 on 3, no coach mode, park mode, nothing. Listen, I don’t really play those modes anyway, even with newer games, but this game is just playing games from one season locked in time.
Supposedly the Inside Drive games got a lot better after this iteration, which is usual for sports series. Better graphics, more modes, better presentation are all to be expected as you put out more copies of your basketball game, but all of the Microsoft sport titles were eventually sold to Ubisoft after the release of the 2004 season and were never seen again. I know I moved on to “ESPN Basketball” and eventually the “2k” series pretty early on, but it’s a shame now that we don’t have more of these sports franchises to compete. Listen, I know making games is hard and costs gazillions of dollars, and if NBA live can’t compete with 2k, then NBA inside drive would have no chance… but boy would I love any competition for 2ks “micro-transaction: The game” which they release year over year. So, while, No… this isn’t the greatest game of all time, nor is it even the greatest basketball game of all time, it was an interesting look back on what games were like when realism wasn’t the driving force of sports games.
Is this the greatest game of all time?: Boy, that would be weird if it was... but no
Where does it rank: As much as I had fun in the short amount of time I played this game. It was more fun as a trip down memory lane and less about the game itself. Yes, I love the game of basketball, and I could still spend hours of my life playing through a season or two of this game, just because its basketball, but all things considered this game isn't worth much on the ranking of all games forever. For one it's barren in options for how to play the game, there is no long term mode here, and the gameplay itself while faster and more arcade-like then today's 2k games, it also is easily manipulated and not very representative to its real life product. Do I like dunking and doing layups every other possession? Sure, but that's not much of a challenge, and if I actively take that stuff away to give myself a challenge, then the game isn't as fun. So, while I can tell you this game is a fun throwback, and worthy of a 2 hour re-visit.. when it comes to ranking it as the greatest game of all time, it falls pretty low on the list, because it would be hard to recommend a bare bones basketball game that has decades of improvements missing from it. I have it ranked as the 167th Greatest Video Game of All Time, Some sports games just do not age well, and while this was great 20 years ago, its not close to par for what we accept as basketball games today.
What's it Between: NBA Inside Drive 2002 will sit between Extreme Exorcism (166) and The Bridge (168)
Anyone looking for it: here is the link to the list and more if you are interested in following along with me (this is not a self promotion).Here. I added links on the spreadsheet for quick navigation. Now if you missed a blog of a game you want to read about, you can get to it quickly, rather than having to scroll through my previous blogs wondering when it came up.
Thanks for listening
Future games coming up 1) Golden Sun 2) Mario 3D world + Bowser's Fury 3) Seventh Cross: Evolution
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