In many ways, NBA Game Time 2009-10 is a basketball version of MLB.com At-Bat — something I’ve been very eager to see.
Like its baseball counterpart, Game Time offers many of the same features: live scoring, stats, standings, game recaps and radio feeds of the game. The app also has a nice look and a simple design. While there is a lot of content here, the app never looks cluttered and you don’t get lost in a maze of sub-menus.
Game Time also carries the same price tag of $9.99. And unfortunately, the similarities between the two stop there.
While At-Bat streams free games for you, there is no video of live games with Game Time. Furthermore, the streaming of the radio feeds and video highlights are far from smooth and some of the sections take much too long to load.
I thought this was an isolated incident, but I have seen many similar complaints. Simply put, this isn’t a polished product, and that’s something you expect when you’ve spent $10.
With that being said, this is also the best NBA-specific app available, bar none. There is a free lite version available if you’re not interested in the radio feed, and I strongly recommend it to basketball fans.
As disappointed as I am with this app, I’m still optimistic. At-Bat added features as the season progressed — most notably streaming playoff games for free — and while I don’t know that we’ll see video added to Game Time, I’m hoping they can at least smooth out the buffering issues and load times.
But until it (hopefully) gets to that point, the paid version is the Michael Olowokandi of apps — a bust. The free version is fine, but if you’re going to put that hefty of a price tag on a basketball app, you need to make it the only basketball app users will need. While there are some nice things here, Game Time simply isn’t at that level yet.
