NBA 09 The Inside is the follow up to the the past two first party PS3 basketball titles. The game looks to build upon what was started last year to take things to the next level, but does not succeed. Although some new features were added, the game has too many lingering issues. It’s definitely pretty, but needs some depth to really compete in the basketball sim market.
The game runs nicely at 60fps at full 1080p. Most of the character models, arenas, and crowd textures are roughly the same as last year’s title, though. There are some cool replay effects to speak of, but these are vary sparse and only occur after a big dunk or alley-oop. The presentation has made the most improvement since last year. You now get a Broadcast style camera as the default to make it feel like you’re watching a televised basketball game. To go along with this transition, Kevin Calabro and Kenny Smith show off some pretty good play-calling skills. Mark Jackson was in the booth last year and it wasn’t all that great, this year is much better. Otherwise, normal sound effects (bouncing balls, dunks, ball hitting the rim or backboard) sound good, but not perfect. The crowds get into the game much better than last year as well, so expect some nice cheers for your hometown team and boos for your rivals.
On the gameplay front, not much has changed since NBA 08. You get the same tri-color shot meter and controls, however the SIXAXIS movements are turned off by default, which is odd since it was one of the more fun aspects of last year’s title. A Franchise mode is finally present, although the amount of control you get over your team pales in comparison to the other basketball games on the market. I really expected a bit more innovation in the gameplay for NBA 09 The Inside. The series has always had AI issues, which have been remedied slightly here, but many still remain. You’ll see some amazing steals and bonehead plays all in the same quarter, with players running out of bounds for no reason and neglecting the shot clock. Issues like these really take you out of the game.
The biggest addition this year is The Life, a single player mode comprised of three stories that take you from the NBA Development Leagues to the pros. Each story is about the same, but utilizing a different created player position (Story 1 is for Point Guards, Story 2 is Shooting Guards or Small Forwards, Story 3 is Power Forwards or Centers). Calling these “stories” isn’t really fair, since it’s mainly a series of mini-games and scenarios where you complete goals to progress your character. Each can be finished in about an hour and there is very little replay value.
Game of the Week returns as NBA Replay, allowing you to play through some of the best moments from the past week of this season. An additional NBA Replay mode allows you to play the best of last season, in case you want to relive some classic moments. Going online, the game is virtually lag free, which helps with timing your shots and crossovers. I didn’t find too many people playing at any given time, so finding a game after a month or so may become an issue. One thing that bothered me online is the absence of the shot meter in a few games I played. When you count on that for timing your release, it makes things difficult to judge off the top of your head.
I have to mention the Trophies available in NBA 09 The Inside as they are entirely too hard to obtain. Except for the 3 Trophies for online wins, everything requires you to play on the hardest difficulty setting to obtain any reward for your play. Considering that most gamers won’t play at this level, it’s tough to imagine why this decision was made. Most people won’t get many Trophies in this game, so if that’s your purpose, move on.
NBA 09 is a very good looking game, but lacks the gameplay polish that it needs to compete in the next-gen basketball game market. Although the presentation received a nice update, not enough has changed and not enough bugs have been fixed to pick this title over the competition.
Overall: 5.5 out of 10
