Players could face backwards, bounce the ball between their legs, off the shot-clock, then turn around and jump in the air to catch the ball and do a 360 finish. The highlight of this feature was easily the slam-dunk competition, which gave players unprecedented creative control over everything from where they started on the court to the way they tossed the ball, where they threw it and how they finished their dunks. "Players could participate in All-Star Weekend each year as part of their Dynasty Mode, or they could jump right in from the main menu. "All-Star Weekend was something that our fans had been asking us to include for years, and we were incredibly excited to bring it to them in '05' with an entire mode centered around the rookie-sophomore game, the all-star game, the three-point shootout and the dunk competition," adds Batty. 'Live 04' started to smooth things out, but the '05' version finally nailed the perfect balance between control and responsiveness without being exploitable by the best players."Īnd when gamers decided to take a break from the incredible five-on-five action, hours upon hours were lost trying to perfect kick-flip alley-oops in "Live's" highly addictive dunk competition. As with most gameplay features, when it was first introduced in '03' it was in a pretty raw state.
"First introduced in 'Live 03,' freestyle control gave players the ability to control cross-overs, spin moves, post moves, and eventually even mid-air dunks, lay-ups and switches using the right-analog stick. "'NBA Live 05' was the end result of a 3-year plan for rebuilding 'Live's' core gameplay," says Toddy Batty, the game's lead gameplay designer.
Add in some sweet freestyle controls and the fact that the "Live" series was the first to utilize the right stick for skill moves, and it makes you long for the days before "Live" was dead in so many gamers' minds. Superstar Status: The best slam dunk competition ever seen in a video game, "NBA Live 2005" featured players bouncing the ball of the side of the backboard and kick-flipping alley-oops in the game before these tricks were actually performed in the real competition.
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