
These players are broken down into four classes (down from six on the home version): Scorers, Playmakers, Power Players, and High Flyers. For those of you unfamiliar with this feature, freestyle superstars are key playmakers on each team who possess a little extra edge of some kind over the rest of the roster, usually in the form of some kind of special moves. Freestyle superstars, the big addition to this year's Live entry, also made the leap to the PSP. Whatever you're looking for, NBA Live 06 has it. Players can hop into a quick exhibition game, take their favorite teams and players through their paces in season mode, skip straight to the end in playoff tournaments, work on some moves in practice mode, show off some individual skills in the superstar challenge, or for a change of pace, try out some of the mini-games in the all-star weekend. The game still contains most of what made its big brother on the console such a hit with gamers. For the portable version of NBA Live 06, EA did its best to cram as much as possible from the console version into one small UMD. Now the company is turning its basketball attention from the home consoles to the handheld market with the release of NBA Live 06 for the PSP. Somehow, with the competition heating up, Electronic Arts has still managed to keep its NBA Live franchise at the top of the heap.

With video-game publishers taking turns carving up exclusive rights to the sports industry like a Thanksgiving turkey, it's surprising that the NBA license has escaped unscathed.
