NBA Live Mobile has soft-launched in Canada and Bryan Wiedey over at Sporting News has written up what might be the first text review for the free to play NBA game EA has cooked up to be much in line with Madden NFL Mobile.
The game is focused on daily live events based on real NBA teams and features 5-on-5 gameplay. Much like its NFL cousin, NBA Live Mobile takes the happenings of the real NBA and translates them into the game, presenting ‘evolving matchups’ and live events everyday.
In his review, Wiedey describes the game as fun, and even that it is better in some ways than its taller, beefier console cousins. He goes on to claim that it is “one of the best team-based sports games to be found on mobile devices”. After describing the tutorial as effective, he mentions that the head-to-head play doesn’t work out as none of the games he played went beyond the first quarter.
As for the free-to-play aspect of the game, thankfully the game does not require you to grind or spend money in order to build a strong team. While not exactly fielding the top rated players in his team, Wiedey describes them as “achievable”. And of course, there is a Stamina system. Here too, the reviewer doesn’t find much of a problem, as it has only stopped him a few times.
Finally, when it comes to the real meat of the game, the action, the animations are described as impressive, and even that the directional-based passing is not as frustrating as on the consoles. Even the rebounding manages to be better than on the consoles. The game is described as being more arcade than simulation, leading to the problem that, according to Wiedey, the game is far too easy. The reviewer did not lose a single game, and the “vast majority” of games were blowouts.
Wiedey concludes his review with a 4/5 star rating, and describes it as ultimately one of the best sports games on mobile, but not being very challenging at all.
NBA Live Mobile is available for iOS and Android in Canada, and will soon be released in the US.