NBA Fast Break

When I first heard that Midway was finally dropping its two-on-two theme, and moving on to more serious projects, I jumped for joy. Finally, Midway has graduated from 2D Sprite High School and has gone off to polygonal college. However, after seeing NBA Fast Break, I think Midway should ve been held back a grade.

Now NBA Fast Break isn t the worst hoop game I ve played. In fact, this game has a lot of potential. It s got all the NBA teams, stats, rosters, and logos. It also has some suprisingly nice graphics. So what s wrong with it you ask? I ll tell you.

The gameplay is uncontrollably sluggish. Controller-to-player response is really slow, especially when you re trying to block a shot. Scenario: Iverson has the ball, he pulls up for a shot, I attempt to block it, but the animation time between the shot and block attempts is substantially uneven. It s like the defense is always slower than the offense. Frustrating.

Midway is famous for its close attention to sound, so why did it hold back? The crowd noises sound like they're coming from a fizzled three-inch speaker, the referee whistle resembles a cricket, and the rim sounds, well, they sound like those old rusted out rims we all use to play on in the sixth grade.

Despite my high hopes, NBA Fast Break turned out to be a disappointment, and I wouldn t recommend it to any die hard hoop lover. NBA Live 98 would be a better choice -- by far.