Last NBA Inside Drive before the end of the Microsoft franchise. Marginal improvements. The series was ultimately abandoned in the face of stronger competition.
Your verdict
Category
Sports4 players3+
Description
NBA Inside Drive 2004 basketball simulation on Xbox.
NBA Inside Drive 2004 review
3/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Polished"
2/5
Music
★★★★★
"Decent"
1/5
Story
★★★★★
"Anecdotal"
Gameplay
"Solid"
Fun
"From the very first minutes"
Addictiveness
"Captivating"
Difficulty
"Easy"
Lifespan
"Long"
Technical info
💾5,2 GB📅20/10/2003
Published by Microsoft Game Studios
NBA Inside Drive 2004 (Xbox) price, value & rarity
The sequel to Microsoft's Xbox-exclusive basketball simulation, refined but overshadowed by the competition. Its Asian edition, pressed for a market where the console stayed marginal, far outstrips the US version in scarcity. Desirability rests on this catalogue exclusivity and on the difficulty of gathering the machine's Asian sports editions.
Is NBA Inside Drive 2004 still worth playing in 2026?
A basketball simulation from Microsoft, NBA Inside Drive transposes the NBA to the original Xbox with a polished presentation, a full franchise mode and a gameplay halfway between arcade and simulation. The clarity of the play, the licence fidelity and the solidity of team management made it an honest alternative to the EA and Sega leaders at launch. The presentation has clearly aged and the AI shows its age. A good basketball game for nostalgics of early 2000s NBA and sports fans on Xbox.
