Even if you’re not a big sports fan, NBA 2K19is a slam dunk winner

FOR someone who is the furthest thing from a sports fan, reviewing NBA 2K19was a daunting challenge — but a very enjoyable one.

FOR someone who refers to most mainstream team-based sports as “sportsball” — and not in an ironic way — reviewing a serious simulation of one of the world’s biggest games is a daunting challenge to say the least.

However, of all the various sportsballs out there, basketball is probably the one I’m at least slightly familiar with — and why I was prepared to have a crack at reviewing a basketball themed sports game as a result.

Basketball enjoyed something of a golden era in the early ’90s, with legends such as Michael Jordan, Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal being regular fixtures on the court. Coincidentally, that was also about the same time NBA Jam came out on the Sega Mega Drive, giving me one of my first exposures to sports-themed electronic gaming.

When the chance to review NBA 2K19 came up, I had a pleasant flashback to playing NBA Jam with my friends in the early ’90s and thought “Sure, why not?” — especially since the pitch mentioned Australian basketballer and Philadelphia 76ers point guard Ben Simmons (yes, I’ve actually heard of him), who was named 2018 NBA Rookie of the Year, featured on the game’s cover.

Australia’s own NBA rookie of the year is the poster boy for the game.

NBA 2K19 is most assuredly not a modern-day incarnation of that beloved Sega game. It is not a casual game for people who want to fly across the court like kung fu movie actors with a flaming ball and slam dunk it through the net so hard the plexiglas backboard shatters as The Jock Jam blares over the stadium speakers.

Published by 2K on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and even Nintendo Switch, NBA 2K19 is a very serious game and is extraordinarily detailed, packed full of game modes, options, information, statistics, and numbers. And you get to play basketball, too.

Let me get this out of the way: I’m not a huge sports enthusiast so I can’t review this from the perspective of someone who is super into basketball and knows all about the ins and outs and different plays of the sport. I’m coming in as someone who knows enough about basketball to know the basic rules and isn’t opposed to watching a match with friends and a few cold adult beverages if it happens to be on TV at whatever pub we’re in.

NBA 2K19 is right up there with FIFA for the most enjoyable sporting games.

With that out of the way, I was absolutely blown away by how perfectly NBA 2K19 recreated the experience of watching basketball on American TV — from the camera angles to random shots of coaches and players, instant replays at key moments, and even the halftime show with cheerleaders and mascots, I could just as easily have been sitting in a sports bar in Los Angeles as my own living room.

The dynamic commentary is incredible too. It’s generated for the most part but feels realistic, is relevant to what’s going on, and it sounds natural — it really is superb. In fact, the only way I think it could be better would be if they somehow got Jim Brockmire into the booth to do it, and that’s unlikely since he’s a baseball man through-and-through (and also a fictional character, portrayed by Hank Azaria). The pre-and post-game banter between hosts Ernie Johnson Jr, Shaquille O’Neal (yes, that one) and Kenny Smith was nicely done as well.

There’s a more-or-less complete roster of current NBA players in the game, including greats such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry and the aforementioned Ben Simmons, and being able to play with them (or even as them, in some modes) is marvellous indeed.

From a gameplay perspective, the learning curve on NBA 2K19 isn’t so much “steep” as “vertical”, and as a complete novice to sports computer games, I really struggled to get my bearings, getting stomped on by the computer with great vigour and frequency.

While it quickly turned out I suck harder than a cyclonic vacuum cleaner as a basketball player, the game also has an extraordinarily involved “MyGM” mode, where you take on quite literally every aspect of being general manager. The story involves you taking over a new team in the franchise, designing uniforms, choosing your roster, negotiating with players, dealing with staff issues, pretty much everything — it’s a micromanager’s dream.

You can be as involved as you want, right down to even playing every single match, or you can basically sit back and let the computer handle it all.

Indeed, it was like a basketball-themed rabbit hole, with more and more options and choices coming up. Do I trade this player? Do I invest in training this rookie? Should I move this player from the bench to the starting line-up? Watching a team come together is a great experience, and sinking some of those shots or making some of those offensive plays was extremely rewarding.

The offline MyCareer lets you create a character, pick a team, develop your skills and take to the court.

The major issues are that none of the dialogue is spoken (it’s all text on a screen), the animated characters move stiffly — more like marionettes than real people, and the story isn’t anything to write home about, but does provide some extra flavour.

The MyCareer mode features a story in which your character, “AI,” journeys from a league in China to the NBA. It’s only available in online mode, which I wasn’t using (I’ve had to create quite enough effectively one-off online game accounts already, thank you very much) but it’s a testament to just how much content is in this game that I didn’t miss the story and was still kept busy in the other game modes. The offline “MyCareer” lets you create a character, pick a team, develop your skills and take to the court, but there’s less potential for character advancement.

The game also has a more informal “Blacktop” mode, allowing you to take to the pitch with pretty much whichever players you like, which is sure to lead to some arguments among enthusiasts and interesting team combinations. You can also play online with other humans, in case you were looking for something beyond the NBA roster to test your mettle against.

As a serious basketball simulator, I thought the game was excellent, and the only major criticisms I have for NBA 2K19 are its learning curve and complexity for newcomers, lack of voice acting for the MyGM mode, and the lack of a casual “fun” mode with a larger-than-life vibe to it.

Ultimately, if you like basketball or want a top-of-the-league sports game, NBA 2K19 is a slam dunk winner.

Originally published as Even if you’re not a big sports fan, NBA 2K19is a slam dunk winner