Over the years, many NBA-licensed games have been dominant in their field, bringing gamers the full-on experience of slam dunking a ball or getting a fast break completed for the effective score. NBA Jam, Midway's champion from long ago, introduced high-flying arcade-style action with impressive results. EA's NBA Live series found a great introduction on 16-bit consoles, only to stumble and eventually rise again to contendership. And, as of late, Visual Concepts has been wowing gamers with their NBA 2K entries.

Somewhere in the shuffle, 989 Sports has been struggling with catch-up. Their NBA Shootout series has been pushing and pushing to keep up with the competition on both the PlayStation and PS2, but the results always seemed to come up short. Last year, the company took a powder on releasing a Shootout title, and many wondered if Sony was perhaps cooking up something to keep up with the current hard-ballers. Well, wonder no more, as NBA 06 is on the horizon.

NBA 06 is a rebirth of the Shootout series, fully re-realized and rebuilt to present a basketball experience like never before. It will contain all the hard-slamming, ball-passing action that fans expect in a game of this nature, but it'll also have something a little bit different for those who want to dig deeper, and that's the "NBA Life".

Officially deemed, "NBA Life: Volume 1", this mode allows you to cover every aspect of running a built-up rookie through all the basics. That doesn't just mean getting a shoe deal and multi-millions overnight. It's actually something you have to work at, from going to the NBA Draft on the first day and feeling the excitement of getting picked up to running through the motions in coaching sessions to employing an agent who'll work on trying to make you a prime time star.

The game runs through many detailed motions, including segments where the agent and the coach will sometimes butt heads, and an ESPN-like pre-game show where your team is discussed as either a contender or a joke, depending on your performance over the season. This kind of detail adds to the experience and really gives you a look of what goes on behind closed doors, when the spotlight is turned away from the hoop and instead focuses on how someone can be "built" into a fantastic superstar. It's really a fascinating attempt at bringing a new sense of drama to the game, while not forgetting about the gameplay itself.

Let's talk about the gameplay for a moment. The introduction of "Showtime Gameplay" is another compelling feature that will attract many NBA fans, and teach them the difference between being a selfish showman and being a true team player. With this gameplay feature, you have the capability of doing some slick passing, some no-look hovers to your nearby teammates, and some alley-oops to nail the easy score. But it can lean two ways, both of which affect you.