With any franchise of sports games, there's a certain level of difficulty in reviewing a given year's release—even moreso if you haven't played each and every edition from year to year. I fall into that latter category with Sony San Diego's "NBA 10 The Inside" for the PSP, so gauging what's been added, what's been improved and what other features have changed from "NBA 09" isn't really an option. Instead, I can offer up a "clean slate" review from someone new to Sony's NBA franchise.
Like any good sports game, "NBA 10" offers the requisite gameplay options for full seasons, playoffs and general manager functions like trading players, drafting players during the offseason and just about every other type of real-life team management options you could ask for. It also offers a massive number of games outside the standard modes of play, which I'll get into in a moment. There's also an ad hoc multiplayer mode for challenging someone else to a game of Horse, Skee-ball or any number of other games.
The Highs
You have to hand it to the Sony's "NBA" crew for packing a lot into a single game. I counted more than 20 different mini-games available outside the standard season mode, including the aforementioned Horse and Skee-Ball, as well as a game akin to Brick-Breaker, a variety of pinball games, a Risk-style game called "Conquest," and my personal favorite, dodgeball. All of the mini-games are ridiculously addictive, and to be honest, I'd be willing to buy a bundle containing all of these mini-games, given the chance. They're remarkably solid and don't seem like the last-minute additions most mini-games tend to to be.
As for the basketball element of the game, your team of players is surprisingly easy to manage and individual players seem to respond well to the controls. More talented players in the real world are noticeably more talented in the game, and the AI for both your team and your opponents seems to offer a great approximation of real-life game strategies. Managing your team outside of the game (i.e., trades, simulation settings, etc.) is fairly straightforward, too.
The Lows
I don't have a single bad thing to say about the dozens of mini-games on "NBA 10," but here's my gripe with the basketball element of the game: I just can't seem to win.
When you pick up most sports games for the first time, there's usually a learning curve. It usually takes a dozen games or so to figure out all of the controls, which actions are actually useful, and the plays that generally have a high probability to score. Whether it's a certain player, match-up or designed play that scores more often than it doesn't, there's usually something you can do to keep the score balanced while you develop a more comprehensive understanding of the game's mechanics. Not so with "NBA 10."
I've played more than 20 games thus far using the top-ranked teams in the league, under the lowest skill setting, and the closest I've come to winning is a 10-point loss to the Sacramento Kings. The Kings! Basically, I've been shamed by this game, and I'm not sure how to take it.
Final Word
"NBA 10 The Inside" is a fun game for basketball fans and non-fans alike, and while I have some issues with the difficulty level of the basketball element of the game, the massive number of mini-games and new spins on the standard season make it the sort of game that will spend a lot of time in my PSP.
Like I mentioned earlier, if I was offered a separate bundle of all the mini-games contained in "NBA 10," I'd buy it in a heartbeat. While the standard season mode is fun, the game really shines when it puts a new spin on the game—like the Conquest mode, for example. While I'm not sure if this is a franchise I'd buy a new edition of each year, owning at least one edition certainly makes sense, as it would take more than a year for all of the games to lose their appeal.