NBA Live Mobile Basketball Guide
Multiple game modes that encompass everything from individual shooting drills to recreations of memorable moments from famous NBA games means there’s no lack of things to do. The only problem is bumping up against the game’s unforgiving energy system, which essentially makes NBA Live Mobile good for only short play sessions.The game works on the freemium model, where you can download a game for free and pay extra for additional optional features as you play the game. These payments are optional, so if you don’t really want to cough up real money on a game, you can still play the game. EA Sports has been using this model for all its mobile games. You can build your own team with the players you want, provided you have the resources to pay for them. This is where you can speed up things by spending real money and getting coins to buy the players you actually want. For users who are not very familiar with the NBA players and teams, the player ratings and details on the strengths and weaknesses of a player will help decide which players are more important. The game also shows sticker boxes with some hints and tricks to handle controls to your advantage. Whether you find it tough to play depends on your team and your opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. The in-game controls feel very intuitive and easy to handle, which is a rarity in mobile games.
Then there are Head-to-Head games. These are turn-based, with the user that initiates the game playing the first and third quarters against the other team's AI controlled players, and the other playing the second and fourth quarters. There are "fans" earned through the games which contribute to leaderboard progression, and advancement on the leaderboards is rewarded with special item packs.The method of playing "head-to-head" makes some sense but in practice really doesn't work out. I've yet to have a single game go beyond my playing of the first quarter. Either the opponents I've challenged simply have no interest in playing the games or they are seeing a score that I've built up from the first quarter and deciding against continuing. The economy in NBA Live Mobile is made up of Coins and NBA Cash. The coins are earned through playing the game and selling items. They are used to buy card packs and obtain players from auction. The cash is what is purchased with real money and can only be spent on card packs.The concern, as always, with the Ultimate Team model is that real money has to be purchased to keep up and compete with others, that it becomes a grind if not spending money which results in the degradation of the fun factor. That hasn't been the case with NBA Live Mobile. I was able to build up a pretty good team without spending money. That hasn't included the top rated players in the game but over time they seem achievable as well. It'll just take a lot longer to complete sets to get them or build up enough in coins to grab individuals at auction.
There are some really impressive animations in the gameplay and smart movement from the players. When standing around on offense you'll find teammates setting up screens and working to get open. Like every basketball video game there are some issues with the directional-based passing, but here it's not near as frustrating as on consoles. The gameplay slows down on shots in the final 10 seconds of each quarter to add drama, but those scenes play out for too long and become a drag. The shooting meter is great and the rebounding is somehow better in the mobile game than in the console one.All of the players, even those rated around 60, are good enough to get wins with against the A.I. Even in Season Mode, with the A.I. teams getting slightly better each season, user teams just advance at a much faster rate so they'll never be competitive. The game shouldn't be hard but without an actual challenge interest can quickly begin to wane. What works for NBA Live mobile, as far as a long-term goal, are the collections called "Sets". Putting cards, trophies and other items that have been earned towards these sets will eventually unlock highly-coveted items that even include legends.
The presentation is downhill from there, however. The commentary begins to loop after just a handful of games and contains impressively boring back and forth between the analysts and the play-by-play announcer. By the sixth or seventh time Jeff Van Gundy told me about my poor execution I was looking the fastest way to mute him and his colleagues. There is a nice little ESPN graphic that helps track player stats throughout a game, but that’s about all we get in regards to context of the game. The rest of NBA Live Mobile Basketball’s presentation is noticeably barren.As you track your player’s progress from the end of their college career through the beginning of their professional career in the NBA, you’re met with several options on how to level up his skills, play style, and even the clothing they wear before games. For instance, you can choose between dozens of unlockable skill traits, like extra endurance or a skill bump, in the moments at the end of a game. There’s also loot boxes that can only be purchased with in-game currency (real money option, thankfully) that give out a variety of accessories, including rare sneakers and whacky arm sleeves.
