For the last few NBA seasons, Electronic Arts has been in a unique position: looking up at a competitor. ESPN's NBA 2K series has been tearing up the parquet for 4 seasons now, slowly distancing itself from its closest rival. EA's not about to go quietly, though, and the latest iteration of their pro hoop series, NBA Live 2005, has enough new additions and upgrades to close the gap considerably. It's also got something that no other basketball game before it has featured: a freestyle dunk contest that lets you soar through the air like your hardwood heroes.

The new All Star Weekend mode is probably the highest profile addition to the game, and for good reason. While some other games have included dunk contests and three-point shootouts, it's never been as stylized and true-to-life as it is here. It's presented as a spectacle that is on par with the real-life event, complete with laser light shows, players sporting video cameras on the sidelines, and the entertaining commentary by TNT announcers Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith.

While the All-Star and Rookie / Sophomore games are a ton of running and gunning fun, featuring more outlandish moves and dunks than the regular game, it's the Slam Dunk Contest that will have you hooked for months to come. If you haven't read any of our extensive previews on the dunking, here's all you need to know: you can do just about anything you can imagine. Granted, you won't see Gary Payton or Shawn Bradley soaring above the rim, since only "dunkers" can take part, but you can step into the hightops of any leaper in the league, from LeBron to T-Mac.


On paper, becoming a dunk master sounds pretty easy, as you simply have to run toward the hoop, press a button to leap, then press another to dunk. However, there's really nothing simple about it, since everything must be timed perfectly if you want to get a good score. Then there's the mind-boggling amount of combinations at your disposal: at last count, EA estimated that there are over 20,000 different possible dunks, from standard throwdowns to the ones that Michael Jordan could only pull off in his dreams.

The face buttons let you select what kind of takeoff you want (one or two feet, straight or 180 degree), as well as the type of dunk you attempt when in the air (windmill, two-handed, etc.). Each of these can be tweaked, as well, using the trigger buttons. If you want to alley-oop the ball off of the backboard, scoreboard, or one of the other objects in the arena, you can use the right analog stick to flip the ball in the air, bounce it off the ground, or even perform a soccer-style rainbow kick. If you manage to pull off the dunk of your choice (and believe me, it'll take some practice), you'll be scored by a collection of dunk legends, including Spud Webb and the amazing Dr. J. The only thing that I found lacking in the Dunk Contest was online play. While playing my buddies in my living room is fun, throwing down against my friends across the country would have been amazing.