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Quite a ten year anniversary. It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since Sega decided to challenge EA Sports’ massive NBA Live franchise with a rookie upstart with a simple name—NBA 2K. Since then, the two series have battled for fans and undoubtedly improved the genre for basketball fans. NBA 2K10 is a fun, fast-paced and flashy game that will surely please fans of the franchise.
NBA 2K10 gives the player customization thing a shot with the new “My Player” mode, which lets you create a player and work your way up to becoming an NBA superstar. The player creation mode is quite detailed covering all of the physical attributes you would expect and even details like what specific shots look like. From here, you’ll begin playing in the Summer League (and if you don’t get drafted), move on to the NBA Developmental League before you get signed to a team. The game does a terrific job of illustrating how far you’re going—from a fan-less young’un to the sound of (eventually) thousands of adoring fans. You’re given a number of goals as you play (such as shooting above a certain percentage or throwing a great pass), which awards you a player rating that you can use to improve your player.
Your other expected gameplay modes, such as Quick Play, Season, Franchise, and Association modes are all included in the game. There’s also a fully featured online mode with plenty of gameplay options and even on exclusive lobby for gamers with the Anniversary Edition of the game.
In terms of gameplay, Visual Concepts was clearly going for the fast-paced, flashy play style. You’ll be able to drive down the lane, get across the court easily, move from player to player, pull off some fancy jukes, and more with relative ease. In terms of improvements, the game introduces a simpler dribbling system and improved defensive controls where you can scroll through plays until you find the right one. Another nice feature is the ability to save a game in progress and resume from where you left off.
Visually, the game looks pretty similarly to NBA 2K9, which is to say, it looks great, most of the time. Players are very detailed and you’ll have no trouble quickly identifying the NBA’s top players. The animation system has been spiffed up with plenty of new dribbles, shots, and dunks, which look great. Unfortunately, the game suffers from an inconsistent framerate from time to time. It’s never a gamebreaker but it’ll probably cause a shot or pass (or two) to be missed when they shouldn’t have been.
In sound, the game doesn’t deviate too far from the script. The typical soundtrack mix of rap, pop, and rock can be found, as well as pretty solid commentary and on-the-court sound effects.
All in all, NBA 2K10 allows you to play through a fast and thrilling game of basketball. It plays rather differently than NBA Live 10, which is a bit slower (and not as flashy) but may be more suitable for fans that are looking for a touch more depth. That said, you can’t deny how exciting NBA 2K10 is at its best. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Oct 20, 2009
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