Midway's sports games have always emphasized arcade style action. Their NBA franchise, Ballers, takes a one on one approach. The latest installment, NBA BALLERS: Chosen One, is the first for the next generation systems. Lead designer John Vignocchi previewed the game, which hits stores later this month, for Crave Online.

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Crave Online: What has the next generation of systems allowed you to add to the NBA Ballers franchise?

John Vignocchi: Well first and foremost, totally improved graphics. The Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 are incredibly powerful systems that have allowed us to make one of the most realistic looking basketball games ever. Our player models are more than three times more detailed than they were in previous versions of NBA Ballers, and that is saying something. I’m not going out on a limb when I say NBA Ballers: Chosen One is one of the best, if not the best looking basketball game on the market. Big shout out to Midway’s art director Jeff Troutman. You rock! Also the PS3 and the 360 have allowed us to do some great stuff with our online component. Previous versions of Ballers have always included the ability to play online but we only supported the Playstation platform. I’m happy to announce that NBA Ballers: Chosen One will support both the PSN and Xbox Live. We’re thrilled to bring the best playing arcade basketball to both of these incredible platforms online.

Crave Online: How similar will controls be to previous Xbox and PS2 editions?

John Vignocchi: If you’ve played a previous version of the NBA Ballers franchise, then you are going to have a pretty good idea how to shoot, dunk and make your opponent act-a-fool in no time. We made sure that we kept our control scheme both consistent with previous versions of Ballers and up to date with the other products that are out there on the market. After all, our biggest fans are the basketball video game fans, so we wanted to make sure that when they picked up the controls they could get rapidly familiar with the basics.

Crave Online: What new functions are there?

John Vignocchi: In terms of new functionality, we’ve added some really cool @%^$ - We’ve got this new combo system that allows you to chain together multiple Act-A-Fool moves in a row. What’s differs our combo system from the competition is that in NBA Ballers: Chosen One you actually do these moves against your opponent. None of this "dribbling in a corner to build up a meter" crap. You actually approach your opponent and engage him, just like a fighting game. The combo strings are cool as hell too. One combo has you bringing the ball around his head, then you bounce it between your legs and off of the front of his chest, then you catch it mid air and roll it up your arm, finally finishing it with a cross-over that goes through his legs and out the other side. One of the other cool things we’ve added to Chosen One is the “Shut ‘Em Down Super Moves.” There are over 30 of these moves in the game ranging from over the top jukes to gravity defying dunks and everything in-between. Each NBA player has their own unique set of these moves that they can pull off once they’ve achieved appropriate level of super status. The coolest part though? You can assign any of the Shut ‘Em Down moves to your created baller, but only once you’ve earned them. And to earn them, you’ve got to first earn the respect of the NBA’s top vets by beating them in various challenges throughout our new story mode.



Crave Online: How have the new talents featured in the game taken to motion-capture?

John Vignocchi: We brought in a lot of different motion capture talent for NBA Ballers: Chosen One. We brought in some of our old favorites like Trikz, Hot Sauce and Al B Right back who continually amaze us with new moves each year, and we also brought in a lot of up-and-coming street ball talent. In fact this time around we didn’t limit ourselves to using just blacktop balers. For some of the Shut ‘Em Down moves I had to go out and find some incredible gymnasts to capture the moves that we had designed! One of the new street ball players that we brought in was this guy named High Riser who was the winner of ESPN’s City Slam competition back in 06. The dunk he ended up winning the competition with was a reverse two handed jam where he actually cleared 64”!

Crave Online: Any funny stories you can share about having the guys in the studio?

John Vignocchi: Towards the end of the shoot High Riser was getting tired. Heck, I couldn’t blame him, as he had done over 100 dunks that day. We needed a few more dunks though, so to pump him up I started heckling the *&#^ out of him by saying that he’s gotten old, lost all his hops, no way he could ever jump as high as he did in city slam again, he’ll never win another slam dunk competition, etc. High Riser told me that he could still jump that high, even higher, in fact. I told him I thought he was high, and that there is no way he could possibly do that. He said “watch me” told me to get out something to measure his vert with. I looked around and couldn’t find a tape measure or anything. In fact, there was only one thing that I could use to measure his vert: Our lead animator, Eli Figueroa, who is 5’8, or 68 inches. Big ups to Eli for taking one for the team.

Crave Online: Why are musicians as vital to the franchise as athletes themselves?

John Vignocchi: Music is what breathes so much life and attitude into the game. How much different would a game like Blitz feel if all of the music was country, instead of hard rock? ‘Nuff said.

Crave Online: What are "action movie" cameras? How do they work differently than the normal camera system?

John Vignocchi: During R&D we spent over a week watching a bunch of basketball films from start to finish. Something that we all took note of was the types of camera angles that the directors used for all of the action scenes. Movie directors are able to create a ton of “Holy *#&$” moments in basketball movies because they don’t have to worry about the moviegoer having to control the action. That, of course, is a very real problem when dealing with creating cameras in a video game! What we decided to do is try and capture some of that movie magic but at the same time keep it playable. The first thing you’ll notice is how we changed our standard game play camera. It is now much lower to the ground, almost as if the action were being shot by someone holding a DV recorder. The other thing you’ll notice is how we highlight the on-court action by manipulating the camera during the new combo and super move features. We strived to capture the on-court action from angles never seen before in a basketball video game, which allowed us to really get up closer and personal with our best-in-the-biz player models. The team feels that the outcome has turned out to be a very cool and playable basketball-movie-meets-video game hybrid.

Crave Online: What familiar locations reappear in Chosen One, and how were they converted into HD?

John Vignocchi: There aren’t any old venues making an appearance in Chosen One. Since this is our next-gen debut we wanted to make sure all of the content was fresh and brand new.



Crave Online: What sort of authentic new locations appear based on real locations?

John Vignocchi: We’ve got a level that is called Architects Plaza that is a creative take on Chicago’s Millennium Park, complete with an artists rendering of those gigantic monoliths, Buckingham Fountain, the Chicago Yacht Club and more. It’s really cool. We’ve also got a level located in Dubai that features some really unique architecture. If you appreciate some of the solar splendor of Dubai then you are going to love that level.

Crave Online: What completely fabricated environments will appear in the game?

John Vignocchi: We’ve got one completely level, The Eternium Spa And Resort located in the Kun-Lun mountains of China, that is completely fictional. That particular level was actually created using assets from Midway’s popular Stranglehold game that was released late last year. Truth be told, we’ve always loved including some kind of Asian-influenced level in NBA Ballers, especially since the league has such a large international presence.

Crave Online: What classic Super Moves and what new ones can players use to slam the competition?

John Vignocchi: The super move feature is new to NBA Ballers: Chosen One. There aren’t any classic super moves.

Crave Online: How has the online gaming community increased the demands of a multi-player sports video game? What have you added directly to address their needs in Ballers: Chosen One?

John Vignocchi: The one thing that the online gaming community has done is demand their game feel just as good online as it does offline. After all, what’s the point of practicing your skills and getting good at the game offline, only to have the game play experience feel totally different online? For NBA Ballers: Chosen One we focused our development efforts on making sure that the online game look and feel identical to the offline experience. Fans of smack-talking their friends while draining threes from the outside will not be disappointed.