First Impressions: Overpaid whiners included, but no responsibility required.
Along with NFL 2K (and Soul Calibur, Sonic, and on and on…), NBA 2K was the reason why I bought a Dreamcast back in 1999. The fast paced action, challenging gameplay, and excellent visuals sold me on the series and solidified Visual Concepts as a high-level developer. The sequel, creatively named NBA 2K1, added in online play and streetball, it also enhanced the already solid engine to even greater heights. Sure both games had a few flaws, but they were still the best b-ball games out there.
And now, for the 3rd straight year, Visual Concepts blesses us with another installment, aptly entitled NBA 2K2. While it doesn’t look like it will be too radical of an upgrade from the past, besides the usual tweaks, the old adage of “If it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it” comes into play here. Since the game was so solid before, why mess up a good thing? That’s what Sega is gunning for, and from the looks of things, NBA 2K2 is once again destined to be a big hit for Dreamcast.
As with most sports games, NBA 2K2 will have full roster changes for the 2001-02 season. Also, NBA 2K2 should have the updated move of the Vancouver Grizzlies to Memphis as well. All this is nothing new, but worth mentioning.
As for the engine upgrades, there is nothing really that stands out besides some reworking of the basic gameplay elements. For one, with the latest NBA rule changes, NBA 2K2 will allow for the setting up of zone defenses (like in college basketball). This will change how the game is played in reality, but I’m unsure how much this will affect NBA 2K2’s play style. Also, the low post game has been reworked with lots of different animations and strategy adjustments. For the most part however, the gameplay will remain the same. No word on whether or not the difficult AI will be adjusted at all, though I’m sure it will be tweaked a bit here and there like all sports games do.
Visually, NBA 2K2 doesn’t appear to be much different than its predecessors either. Besides all the new animations, it’s doubtful anything will really be changed. Considering how much VC has used (in terms of power) for the previous games, it wouldn’t be a shock to see little to no changes at all. Of course NBA 2K1 looked great on its own last year, so it’s not like the game will look terrible. With the new animations anyway, it will still look rather fresh.
Returning to the mix of course is online play – Sega Sports’ trademark. Though, once again, it probably won’t be much different than last years’ (but how can you change it that much anyway?), NBA 2K2 online will let you track your win-loss record, as well as the disconnects of prospective opponents. This feature is being worked in now for NCAA 2K2 and I believe World Series Baseball 2K2 as well. In the offline portion, the franchise, season, exhibition, and streetball modes return – streetball even gets a couple new courts to play on.
