''Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside'', sometimes mislabeled as ''Kobe Bryant's NBA Courtside'', is a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

developed by

Left Field Productions Left Field Productions, Inc. was an American independent video game development studio located in Ventura, California. Founded in 1994 by industry veterans John Brandwood, Jeff Godfrey and Mike Lamb, Left Field is probably best known for their tim ...

and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

for the

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...

in 1998. At the time of the game's release,

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely r ...

was in his second

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

season and at age 19, was the youngest player to have a game named for him. It was followed by a sequel, '' NBA Courtside 2: Featuring Kobe Bryant'', released in 1999.

Gameplay

''Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside'' features 5-on-5 gameplay. There are three modes: Pre-Season (Exhibition), Season, and Playoffs. In both Season and Playoffs modes, players have the option to simulate games. Team rosters reflect the 1997-98 NBA season with two notable omissions:

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 1 ...

superstar

Michael Jordan Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...

, and

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 194 ...

star

Latrell Sprewell Latrell Fontaine Sprewell (born September 8, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player who played for the Golden State Warriors, the New York Knicks, and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Du ...

. Due to licensing agreements, a fictional player named "Roster Player #98" is used in Jordan's place. Upon the game's release, Sprewell was serving a 68-game suspension from the league due to a 1997 choking incident. Players can also be created and edited in both appearance and abilities.

Development

''Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside'' was first announced at the November 1997

Nintendo Space World formerly named and was an annual video game trade show hosted by Nintendo from 1989 to 2001. Its three days of high-energy party atmosphere was the primary venue for Nintendo and its licensees to announce and demonstrate new consoles and game ...

, though it did not yet have the Kobe Bryant branding and was to be titled simply "NBA Courtside".

Reception

The game received “generally favorable" reviews according to the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

'' said, "While ''Courtside'' isnt' the greatest basketball game ever made, it's the best hoops game currently available for the N64." The game received a

Player's Choice ''Nintendo Selects'' (formerly ''Player's Choice'') was a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on current Nintendo game consoles that have sold well. ''Nintendo Selects'' titles were sold at a lower price point (usually $19.99 ...

designation after selling one million copies. The game was a finalist for the

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

' 1998 "Sports Game of the Year" award, which went to ''

1080° Snowboarding is a snowboarding video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 in 1998. In the game, the player controls one of five snowboarders from a Virtual camera system#Third-person view, third-person perspective, using a combinati ...

''.

Notes

References

External links

*
''Kobe Bryant’s NBA Courtside''
1998 video games Left Field Productions games NBA Courtside Nintendo 64 games Nintendo 64-only games Nintendo games Kobe Bryant Bryant, Kobe Video games developed in the United States Bryant, Kobe Bryant, Kobe Multiplayer and single-player video games {{Basketball-videogame-stub