NBA2K
Sega Dreamcast
Nostalgia Factor:
When I first bought my Dreamcast back in the year 2000, I was at the peak of my NBA fandom. I was a huge fan of the Milwaukee Bucks, with their big three of Ray Allen, Glen Robinson, and Sam Cassell, and I religiously watched every single game I could. Not just every single Bucks game, but every NBA game. If it was on TV, I was watching it.
NBA2K was one of the first Dreamcast games I bought. And I played this game... a lot, to say the least. I remember playing through multiple 82 game seasons with different NBA teams. I played this game competitively against my brother and my stepbrothers. I became so obsessed with this game that I created a "fantasy basketball" league before fantasy sports were really a thing, and played through every single regular season team using these fantasy rosters with every single created team. That's a lot of games to play.
NBA2K went down as probably my most played sports video game of all time. I'd end up buying future iterations of 2K down the road, but none of them quite held the magic for me that this one did. That being said, it's been a good 15 years at least since I have played this game. How would I find it had held up? Amazingly! Read on for my full thoughts.
Story:
Do sports games have stories? I don't know, do they?
Gameplay:
Like most sports games, you are given a bevy of options to pick from from the game's menu screen. Regular season, exhibition, playoffs, practice mode, etc. When I first fired this up after having not played it in approximately 20 years, I went straight to exhibition mode and played a matchup between my Milwaukee Bucks and the San Antonio Spurs. Normal difficulty, five minute quarters. I was ready to go.
I was surprised at how quickly everything came back to me. Passing, shooting, playing defense, rebounding, hitting free throws. It's a testament to how well-designed this game is that anyone can jump right into it and have fun. I ended up wiping the floor with the Spurs by over 20 points. Before I jumped into a shortened regular season mode, I decided to play a few more exhibition matches. My next game was the Bucks against the Lakers, and oooooh boy did that not go well for me. Despite jumping out to a 6-0 lead, I ended up getting completely blown out of the water. Couldn't get a defensive stop, couldn't hit a jump shot. Couldn't even rebound the ball on the rare occasion I could get the other team to miss.
What did I do? I played more games. Practice makes perfect, right? And I got blown out again. And again. And again. What was I doing wrong? I had destroyed the Spurs, one of the best teams in the league on my very first attempt - and then I couldn't even stay competitive against the Grizzlies or any of the league's bottom feeders at the time. Shooting seemed to be my number one problem - particularly from three. I'd have guys like Ray Allen and Glen Robinson, great shooters, getting wide open and then I'd be unable to hit the shot. Again and again.
I kept at it. Although I never really found a shooting stroke that worked for me, I was able to perfect the pump fake, side step, knock down the shot technique that the computer seemed completely unable to stop. It kind of felt cheap doing the same thing to get easy buckets, but nothing else was working for me from long distance. As far as layups, driving to the hoop, hitting free throws - all of that was good, except all the times the computer would clobber me on the way to the hoop with no foul called. It was the three point shooting that was driving me nuts. I had to swallow my pride and realize that unlike the NBA of today, the league wasn't centered around players launching threes all the time back when this game was made. I had to adapt to the way to the game was played back then. When I did that, everything began to come together.
My only real nitpick at that point was defense. My opposition seemed to be hitting nearly every shot they launched at the bucket, contested or not. My main method of defense turned into letting the opposing player drive to the hoop and then blocking their shot. Not the ideal way to D up in the NBA, but in this game blocking shots is quite easy. With my newfound offensive rhythm and my shot blocking defense in place, I went on a tear. I'd lose the occasional game here and there, but before you knew it my Milwaukee Bucks were NBA champions, beating the Sacramento Kings in the Finals.
Even after winning a title, I still wasn't done with this game. I went back to exhibition mode and started playing games with different teams. I wanted to play with the Lakers and Shaq and Kobe. I wanted to play with the Pistons with Grant Hill and Jerry Stackhouse. I wanted to play with the Suns with Jason Kidd, the Raptors with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, the Kings with C-Webb and Vlade Divac, the Pacers with Jalen Rose and Reggie Miller, the Celtics with Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce, the Sixers with AI. The NBA was such an absolute goldmine of players and personalities back then - so many of which I had forgotten about. Playing this game brought so many amazing memories back to me.
By the time I started to burn out on this game, I had probably played at least 50 games. Not nearly as many games as I had played as a kid, but still a lot considering how limited my time is nowadays. Even though I consider this game "completed" - hence my review - I still plan to come back to it here and there in the near future. That's how good this is. Probably my favorite sports game of all time.
Graphics:
I haven't played any modern day sports games lately - in fact I haven't played an NBA game in the PS4 era. Last one I played was NBA2K10 with Kobe on the cover for the PS3. I can't tell you how the game stacks up to today's NBA game graphics, but I am guessing not well.
That's okay though. I think this game still looks super amazing. Yeah, the crowds look funny and some of the players' faces and bodies can look a little wonky, but I don't mind this at all. In fact, I found myself quite charmed by this game's look. Back then, this game's graphics were revolutionary. The whole time I played this, I couldn't help but put myself in the mindset of that 17 or 18 year old kid that was completely blown away by this game.
NBA2K was a complete game changer when it came to basketball video game graphics.
I wish I could say I was a fan of the game's announcers. The music is just okay. If I had to pinpoint a weak point for this game, it would be in the sound department.
Bonus points for the player introductions at the start of each match, though. I always thought that these both looked and sounded really awesome, and I still do.
Overall:
In case you can't tell, I really like this game. It is my favorite NBA game of all time. It is likely my favorite sports game of all time. I could play a match of this game every day for the rest of my life and probably never truly get tired of it.
If you have a Dreamcast or are into emulation, I can't recommend this enough. NBA2K gets a rare A+ from me. It's video game basketball perfection.
THE GRADE:
A+
If you liked this review check out some of my other game reviews:
I guess I need to play more sports games!
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BUCKS IN SIX!!
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