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FOX Sports Interactive made an auspicious debut in fall 1999 with the release of FOX Sports NHL Championship 2000. The game was well received by hockey fans, as its excellent artificial intelligence, strong commentary and TV-like presentation overcame sluggish controls and framerate, providing a fine alternative to the hockey titles released by industry giants EA Sports and 989 Sports.

The main reason that NHL Championship 2000 was such a strong game was outstanding development work by Radical Entertainment, which gained cult status with its fine NHL Powerplay series of games for Virgin Entertainment. Radical’s development team is comprised of hockey freaks, as evidenced by the attention to detail in the realistic gameplay of both the Powerplay series and NHL Championship 2000. FOX also assigned development duties for its new NBA game to Radical Entertainment, and it’s obvious that the Radical team should stick to the ice. FOX Sports NBA Basketball 2000 is riddled with flaws in every area that make it a mediocre game at best, nowhere near the quality of NHL Championship 2000 or EA Sports’ NBA Live 2000.

The flaws start with the gameplay. Quite frankly, the defensive AI is atrocious, by both the computer-controlled team and the computer-controlled players on the human’s team. It’s way too easy to score in this game. I routinely scored 65-75 points per game on the pro (medium) skill level and playing only four-minute quarters. That translates to an average of 210 points per game if playing 12-minute quarters like a real NBA game. That’s a farce. Much like the flawed NCAA Final Four 2000 by 989 Sports, there is no help defense programmed into this game. Players can simply drive to the hoop if they get a step on their defender, turning too many games into dunk fests. And it’s way too easy for even the smallest point guard to drive into the lane and back up a big man – even horses like Alonzo Mourning or Shaquille O’Neal – before lofting a short shot into the basket without the slightest opposition from the opposing center. It’s a very frustrating experience.

Foul ratios are a problem, too. In a nutshell, there simply aren’t enough fouls called on the CPU team at the default level. For example, I played an entire game as the Pacers against the Celtics at the pro skill level with four-minute quarters and never went to the free-throw line. That’s right, the Celtics didn’t commit a single personal foul. That’s comical. Thankfully, the foul frequency is adjustable. It should be the first setting that every player of this game adjusts. Treat it like a good AC-DC song on a road trip – crank it up.

Much like NBA Live 99, there’s also a fatigue bug in FOX NBA Basketball 2000. Players don’t tire proportionately in games shorter than regulation 12-minute quarters. In fact, I played a few games with four-minute quarters in which no substitutions were made by either team with the subs set to automatic.

Not all is bad with the gameplay. Radical’s programmers did a nice job of keeping the field-goal percentages between the human- and computer-controlled teams fairly close, even if the percentages are too high overall. Both my team and the computer team always shot between 55 and 65 percent from the floor, again leading to bloated scores. The frequency of offensive rebounds also is realistic and balanced. The ball physics are solid, especially on rebounds. There are long and short rebounds, and balls sometimes swirl around the hoop before either dropping through or rolling out. The various on-the-fly offensive and defensive plays provide flexibility, even though sometimes such offensive strategies as pick-and-roll take way too much time to develop. Errant passes and turnovers are common if human players are cavalier with their passing habits, and three-second calls are made frequently if big men camp out in the key. That’s a refreshing change from the near-telepathic passing of NBA Live 2000.

FOX NBA Basketball 2000 is a mixed bag, graphically. The courts and stadiums are rendered nicely, with accurate markings and attractive arenas. The pregame introductions of the home team, featuring lasers and team searchlight-style logos swirling around the court in darkness, are outstanding. In fact, the entire FOX TV-style presentation is superb. There are plenty of graphical overlays showing the score, key matchups with updated stats, in-game statistics and out-of-town scores. Up-close replays with the FOX Scope crosshairs zeroing in on the action also are very cool. The entire package looks just like an NBA broadcast on FOX Sports Net. But some of the four-pane views and peripheral shimmer effects used in replays take the “FOX effect” just a little too far. This isn't a major problem, though.

The big problem with the graphics is the framerate. It’s terrible. The framerate alternates between molasses-like after jump balls or any time when all 10 players are gathered tightly in one area of the floor to jerky almost every other time. It’s very distracting. One of the few complaints about Radical’s programming of FOX NHL Championship 2000 was the sluggish game speed. Well, Radical needs some caffeinated programming, as NBA Basketball 2000 also is too slow. The player models are mediocre. Players lack definition and look flat and almost two-dimensional except on replays.

The controls also show a split personality. While the menus are very simple to navigate and are almost identical to the clean menus found in NHL Championship 2000, the in-game control of players is poor. There seems to be a split-second lag between human players’ pressing the button on the controller and their actions actually being executed on the screen. It always feels like the players are one step behind the action because of the delayed reaction of the controller. It’s extremely frustrating, but it’s not even the worst aspect of the controls. The free-throw shooting interface is the worst I’ve ever seen in any console video basketball game. Players must try to stop a rapidly rising and falling crescent bar on the left side of a semicircle within a small red sector in the middle of that semicircle. Then they must do it again with a rising and falling crescent and a red sector on the right side of the semicircle. The interface is a total mess that makes it nearly impossible to sink a free throw.

But there are a few nice touches to the in-game controls. The L1 button activates the “Go To Guy” on each team. Tapping the L1 and X button then will throw a pass to the top player on the floor for each team. It’s a great way to get the rock into the hands of your hottest player with minimal fuss. Human players controlling the ball also have a large icon containing directional arrows under their feet. Those arrows indicate the direction of open teammates for passes. It’s identical to the system that Radical used in NHL Championship 2000 and a very helpful feature.

The longevity of this game is suspect. There are single-game, practice, season and playoffs modes. The season can last 12, 28, 56 or the regulation 82 games, and playoff series can be set to one of four series lengths. That offers gamers excellent flexibility. But there are no three-point shootouts, no All-Star teams and no Legends players or teams. NBA Live 2000 has raised the bar for pro basketball games with the addition of all of those goodies. And the practice mode in FOX NBA Basketball 2000 is a joke. Single players can only take an NBA player and shoot around on an outdoor asphalt playground court, with no tutorials, drills or game tips. One-on-one against another NBA star can only take place with two human players. That’s laughable. One other glaring omission worth mentioning: There is no career mode. Sad, but true.

Finally, the sound is the strongest point of the game. While the crowd noise is pretty flat, with a droning loop of applause punctuated by a few cheers and boos depending on the action, the commentary by play-by-play man Greg Papa and analyst Doc Rivers is the best of any basketball game available on the PlayStation. Papa and Rivers do more than just describe the action. They give background about players and teams, tips on how to play the game better, editorialize about the lost art of free-throw shooting and even crack jokes. FOX’s decision to stray away from pure play-by-play and offer more interpretive analysis is a lead that all game companies should follow.

FOX NBA Basketball 2000 is the weakest of the three NBA games released recently for the PlayStation. It simply has too many flaws in too many areas to compete with EA Sports’ NBA Live 2000 or 989 Sports’ NBA Shootout 2000. That’s a shame, because FOX had such a solid debut with FOX NHL Championship 2000. The next FOX title, FOX MLB 2001, will tell gamers a lot about the overall quality of FOX Sports Interactive’s games. If it’s good, then FOX NBA Basketball 2000 will be considered the exception to a growing stable of quality FOX games. But if it’s another lousy title, then FOX might become another company that started with a blaze of glory only to fade like a meteorite in the night sky.