NBA 2K9

The Champ Is Back!

Posted 4 years ago By - Jay Acevedo

As every basketball gamer aficionado will tell you: if you want the real thing, get to the program and buy a basketball game from the NBA 2K series. Even if last year’s game wasn’t as good as 2K6 and 2K7, 2K is definitely back on the track with NBA 2K9, an impressive effort not quite perfect but still the way to go in terms of realism. With less than 48 hours before the NBA season opener, here’s our review for NBA 2K9. 

Gameplay 

Fans of the series won’t see huge technical changes or a bunch of additions this year. Instead, Visual Concepts went by tweaking what they already had in place in NBA 2K8 and added a couple of things in order to bring the game a couple of steps further. 

While some non-NBA 2K players have complained that games from the series have always been too slow, players will notice how the game has been sped up a bit. But, the tweak appears to not work well with NBA 2K9. Although your offense will score more points and the A.I will run the floor and cover the fast break corridors faster when you’re in control of the ball, the CPU players will often do odd things like running out of bounds, foul too quickly, pass the ball when your opponent’s defense will clearly stop you in transition. Even in control of the ball, you won’t be able to clearly make the right decision because your CPU teammates will be running around too much or cutting to the basket into areas that a pass will be too dangerous to execute. It doesn’t mean that the A.I is dumb, on the contrary. The A.I reacts very well to every decision you will take and how the game is played is just that you will have the weird feeling that everything has to be rushed because the game of basketball has to be fast, which is true but to a certain point. At times, players will move around too quickly during an offense set-up and once they get the ball, they will execute special moves that clearly aren’t needed before taking it to the basket. It’s not a huge problem for most of the time but it can become a source of distraction for those who liked their game to be more close to the real thing with players moving like their real counterparts and not making too much showboating. It’s something that can easily be fixed for next year. No one wants to see NBA 2K go the NBA Live way and become a run n’ gun game. 

If speeding it up has brought its share of occasional non-sense, the other enhancements that have been introduced are far more logical. For example, the flawed lockdown defense, previously introduced in NBA 2K8, is making a return and was fixed for the better. Last year, the result of holding the left trigger to lock your defender on the ball handler was unresponsive and often glitched, putting the defender into odd positions and situations. This year, while locking on the ball carrier with the left trigger, you can move and adjust your player into different defensive positions with the right trigger. The defensive game is far more logic with these tweaks. 

The shot stick is also making a return, only better by giving you the possibility to change your shot in mid-air to adapt or change your shot depending of the situation. Pair it with the excellent Dual Player control, which lets you control and order you A.I teammates into doing specific offensive movements like using backdoors, pop out for quick jumpers, drive in between two players and you’ll get one of the smartest control systems you’ll ever seen in a basketball game. 

Of course, the non-accustomed players will not use all these nifty options very often but hardcore basketball players will find these tweaks rather interesting. Are the NBA 2K9 controls too complex? Well, it’s borderline but we think that the control scheme still pretty accessible to everyone but will appeal mostly to advanced and NBA 2K veterans. After seeing the controls getting fixed, it’s easier to tell a rookie player that they can play NBA 2K9 without worrying too much. There’s a learning curve, but it’s worth it every second. Among the other tweaks worth mentioning: NBA 2K9 now has two different time-outs (20-seconds and full), the removal of the 2K Baseline Cam during online play, touch passing and the addition of more signature moves and shots. 

As for the game modes, there’s a bunch. Association is back and stronger than ever with a few new improvements like a three-team-trade system and the infamous “Larry Bird Rule” which allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents, at an amount up to the maximum salary. The street mode Blacktop is also back as well as the 2K reel editor but two new additions are worth mentioning. First, online play has been expanded to let you play as a team. That’s right, 5 vs. 5 online play is been introduced but sadly, the experience is not as smooth as in NBA Live 09. Although it didn’t happen very often, we came across many server disconnections, lag and game freezing. We expect this mode to be tweaked and fixed anytime soon. The second is called Living Rosters, which will deliver constant updates to player ratings and player tendencies. When a player starts to heat up and takes his game to the next level on the real courts, the game will receive the information and update your game adequately. New animation packages will also be unlocked for that player in the video game as players will have the ability to pull off new moves, adapt their offensive and defensive rotations, and shift starting lineups as they occur. Of course, since the season hasn’t started yet, it will be interesting to see how accurate this system is going to be.

Graphics & Sounds 

Graphically, NBA 2K9 is a great improvement over 2K8. Everything from the player models to the arena action is very good. The amount of detail makes the game stand out as you will see players show their own distinctive reactions to good plays or referee calls as well as their signature moves, something the NBA 2K franchise has been able to pull off year after year. While NBA Live 09 was filled with collision bugs, texture clippings and framerate drops, NBA 2K9 doesn’t have any of these problems and runs very well. With a solid and fluid engine capable of rendering a nice and realistic basketball experience, the game is a visual feast. 

As for sounds, 2K9 sounds great once again. Environmental sounds and effects are impressive but the game eclectic soundtrack deserves a notable mention here because the mix of independent groups and well-known artists from the hip-hop community brings once again an interesting flavour to the game. Play-by-Play commentary is good but I have the impression that it has been left out a bit. But it’s sure good to hear Cheryl Miller as a sideline reporter, although I still think that commentary won’t be complete as long as Sir Charles won’t be there. 

Value 

The NBA 2K franchise has been synonym of realism since it’s days on the Dreamcast and fans will be forever thankful to see it stay like that even after all those years. Is NBA 2K9 the mother of all? It will always depend of who plays it and how it will be played but for those who are craving for authenticity, will find their answer with NBA 2K9. If you play the run and gun game tempo of NBA Live, you won’t win games here and while you don’t need a bachelor degree on basketball to fully enjoy the game, we can’t go without saying that NBA 2K9 needs your total attention and focus to master it. NBA 2K9 is the Gran Turismo of basketball. 

Conclusion 

Yes, NBA 2K9 is great. While Living Rosters and Five-on-Five online are noteworthy additions to the franchise, the game doesn’t feature much new stuff besides those two options. Instead, Visual Concepts tweaked, improved and continued to build upon several aspects the franchise has been accustomed to deliver year after year. It’s definitely good to see the improvement especially after the less-stellar 2K8. NBA 2K9 is the closest you will get to the NBA world and it’s definitely worth every penny. 

Verdict: A buy

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