NBA for PSP Review

We've just posted my review of NBA for the PSP. As you could tell from the review, I wasn't all that impressed with this particular offering. The But it is heartening to finally see a basketball game on a portable platform that isn't a children's game, like Backyard Basketball or Disney Sports Basketball for the GBA. For now, we'll try to pretend Street Jam Basketball doesn't exist. Why is it that we don't see more roundball in portable format?

A big part of it might have to do with the pace of the game. The GBA didn't necessarily have the hardware to keep up with a fast moving game like basketball. But now that the power issue has been addressed with handhelds like the DS and PSP, there's still the matter of screen size. Even with the ample (for a handheld) real estate on the PSP's screen, I found it hard to distinguish between players on NBA. I guess this shows that having a good game on the PSP isn't just a matter of porting your PS2 game down--developers really need to be aware of these types of limitations and design their games around that to have a real winner in the portable market. It's kind of like real life basketball, where you need to adjust your game depending on the opponent or the prevailing conditions. What works well on a standard console and television doesn't necessarily translate well to portable.

Next month, EA tries their hand at portable hoops with NBA Street, so here's hoping that game turns out better than NBA did.