84% Great Graphics Easy Controls Strong Depth

With three basketball games out for the XBox, I thought I'd check out what all the commotion was about. Being about as American as buttered scones and afternoon tea, I had to remind myself that Basketball is a huge sport across the pond. With this in mind, I was expecting something special from Microsoft to appeal to the masses. 

Graphic-wise NBA Inside Drive is awesome, character detail, from team strips down to individual players faces are nicely done. The game supports Dolby 5.1 as you would hope with the XBox. In game commentary bring about a nice TV-esque atmosphere, but can get tiresome after a while. As with many other games (e.g. Knockout Kings), NBA Inside Drive simply doesn't have to vocabulary to to quite pull this ambitious task off, but it's still a nice touch. 

Major options include, Exhibition, Season and Playoffs. Exhibition is best if you just want to go play immediately without having to put to much thought into it. The Season option drops you into a real league campaign with the team of your choice. The Playoff mode is much more flexible. You can chop and change any of the teams and purge players from anyone to have in your own fantasy side. 

If you know the rules, (unlike me) the game is a breeze to get to grips of. The left thumbstick controls the player around the court with finess and glass-like smoothness. Many of basketballs signiture moves are present such as the alleypop, halfcourt shot and slam dunks. In a nutshell, if you dig video-basketball, you're going to love this game. Even as a fringe fan, I was impressed with what Microsoft have done with NBA Inside Drive both in terms of visuals and depth and I'm sure you will too.

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