Despite previous reports, it seems that Kobe Bryant will not be featured in NBA Courtside 2002, either on the box or in the title (he'll be on his team of course). This isn't very surprising considering that this kind of license costs money and other games, like Sega's NBA2k series, have done fine without one.

Last updated: 06/15/2001 by Max Lake

We’ve collected a few tidbits about NBA Courtside 2002 in the past couple days and now it’s time to share them with you all in a preview update. Perfect timing too, as Kobe Bryant and the Lakers could very well win the NBA playoffs tonight! (Unless the 76ers come thru…)

What does Kobe Bryant have to do with Courtside 2002? Well, because he is definitely in the game, silly! Although there was some uncertainty prior to E3, Kobe’s now a lock. There was even a rumor that Kobe Bryant would make a public appearance on behalf of Nintendo at E3. Kobe himself wasn’t there (what with the playoffs going on), though we did see his face in the demo reel for NBA Courtside 2002. We’ve said it before but want to re-iterate: Kobe’s in Courtside. Whether or not this means the game will bear his namesake is still unconfirmed—it doesn’t yet but there’s a very good chance.

Tendo Box uncovered this photo, of Kobe Bryant doing motion capturing for the upcoming game:

Here’s the caption:

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant runs through his signature moves and dribbling techniques during a motion-capture session for the upcoming Nintendo GameCube video game "NBA Courtside 2002," in this undated photo in Los Angeles. The motion-capture suit allows video game makers to put Bryant's exact moves into the game and let game players experience NBA-caliber competition. The 3D suit features high-reflective balls which are captured by six different cameras from different angles to produce a 3D motion-capture image.

Tendo Box reports: “It should be noted that LeftField is rumored to have been getting NBA stars into helping the game's development by lending their signature moves in motion capture sessions and recording their voice samples for the game.”

We can certainly confirm that Left Field is going the extra mile in bringing the game to GameCube. One source at E3 told PGC at E3 that “the number of geographical shapes other sports titles use for the whole game is probably the number of shapes we use in rendering each player.”

There’s reason to believe the game will make launch, as PGC sources have reported that the game is currently in testing. This may surprise some folks, as PGC was a little critical of the game at E3, simply because of its early showing. We’ve heard from a few folks at Nintendo’s booth what we saw at E3 was (obviously) just a sampling of the final games, so it’s quite possible the game has already been polished a bit.

Despite the graphics, let it be said that the new Courtside plays really well and makes fantastic use of the GameCube controller. Where some sports games require lots of button pushing, Courtside has good control nailed down to a minimum of controller wrangling. On top of that, it’s a mean game of basketball. Courtside’s got game.

Should it indeed make launch line-up, we’ll be very happy but we’re sure it will be a great addition to the GameCube library whenever it shows up. Let’s hope testing on the game goes well…

Last updated: 05/16/2001

NBA Courtside 2002 has all the stuff you'd expect to find in a next-gen b-ball game: motion-captured animation, play-by-play commentary, up-to-date rosters, accurate face-mapping, a full season mode and four-player action. The most prominent new feature is to "raise your adrenaline" by tapping a single button (presumably to power-up your player). It certainly sounds like it'll have all the trimmings and then some.

The only footage of this we've seen thus far was at Nintendo's E3 press conference, and it was obviously very early in its development cycle. While the face-mapping looked good (Kobe Bryant's face was perfect) the overall gameplay seemed to be a tad slow and graphically unimpressive. Still, the jury is out until we actually get a hands-on taste - hopefully on the E3 show floor.