NBA 2K9 has long been considered the best representation of NBA Basketball ever since the move from the Xbox and PS2 to the Xbox 360 and PS3. New this year is a PC version, a first for the 2K series. Sometimes, steady, continued success can cause a company to rest on its laurels. This appeared to be the case when looking at the differences between NBA 2K7 and NBA 2K8. And if trying to one-up itself every year isn’t hard enough, EA Sports, with a new focus on quality, is making strides every year. While its true that the gap is definitely closing, luckily for 2K Sports and publisher Take-Two, NBA 2K9 still sits on top as the best basketball game for the 2008-2009 season.
THE NEXT BIG THING IN SPORTS GAMES
Starting with Madden releasing bi-weekly roster updates, the new trends in sports games is to provide the most up to date rosters to coincide with real life performance and roster movement of the leagues the games represent. Similar to NBA Live 09’s DNA feature, NBA 2K9 presents Living Rosters and the 2K Insider. Living Rosters are automatic roster updates that are downloaded when you turn the game on. The frequency of the updates are based on major moves that happen in the NBA. As such, it is yet to be seen how responsive these roster updates will be to minor trends and hot/cold streaks, but I’ll reserve judgment until the season actually starts and I see for myself how well (or poorly) the system works. The 2K Insider is the mechanical Turk that makes the whole Living Rosters thing work. He was supposedly hired to watch the trends and moves in the NBA and make sure the rosters accurately reflect what’s going on in the real NBA.
NEW CONTROLS
Those familiar with the 2K series should be able to hop in and get acclimated pretty quickly. One major difference with the controls this year is how IsoMotion is handled. In previous years, the player could pull the right trigger and move the left thumbstick to pull off a dizzying array of moves before getting to the basket. This year, the same mechanic is employed, but moves are much more difficult to chain. Individual moves are still relatively simple to pull off, especially for those with experience with the IsoMotion control scheme, but doing two moves requires the user to “reset” their player in-between moves, either by letting go of the right trigger or letting the left stick go back to neutral. Some will argue that by making IsoMotion moves harder to chain, it adds more realism. This may in fact be true, but the extra difficulty will undoubtedly frustrate some users who were used to the old system. For those who aren’t so skilled with the thumbsticks, there is a control configuration that maps the moves to face buttons. However, in order to take advantage of the new gameplay features, you’ll want to learn how to do the moves with the sticks.
A new addition to this year’s game is a new pick and roll control. By pressing the B button, you’ll call for one of you’re big men to come set a screen for the ball handler. By tapping B, the screen will fake the screen and cut to the basket. By holding down B, he’ll set a pick, then roll to the basket. By holding the left trigger and pressing B, you can tell the screen to set a pick, then pop out for the jumper. With the pick and roll being such a big part of NBA offenses, its refreshing to see that this same strategy can be used in the game.
The other big gameplay change on offense is the new Shot Stick Extreme. In previous versions of the 2K series, players were able to adjust their shot in mid air by moving the right stick. It was removed when 2K made the jump to the current generation of consoles, because “it didn’t look right.” We’ll it appears as though 2K finally got a system they are happy with, and the result is some of the sickest dunk-to-layup and layup-to-layup animations ever seen in a basketball game. They aren’t perfect, but the animations blend together better than any previous game in the series.
On the defensive side of the ball, there is a new Lock-On D mechanic. Instead of just being able to lock on to the ball handler, you are also able adjust how tight or loose you would like to play your opponent, but also shade him to his left or right, to prevent a drive in a certain direction, or to force him to your help defense. It works well, without being all-powerful, and is a welcome addition to your suite of options on defense.
A.I.
One thing players hated in previous years was the lack of CPU involvement on the offensive side of the ball. 
Players would constantly stand around and watch the ball-handler operate. This was found to be because any time a play was broken, the CPU would default to running an isolation for the current ball handler. This year, instead of running isolations, the CPU will run pick and rolls, off-ball screens, and attempt to get open on their own. Because of this, it is totally possible to run an offense without calling any plays. Which is probably a good thing, because one issue that still hasn’t been resolved is that your CPU teammates have a tendency to not run plays at full speed. Some may find that sliders help the problem but I still wish my teammates would run plays with a little more conviction.
Playing against the CPU offense is tough. Using the new Lock-On D is crucial to stopping an offense that will take the open shot, regardless of the difficulty level. While is possible to stop the CPU, it feels a little too difficult to keep them out of the paint. Contesting layups are possible, but post-players seem to have a field day down low. Couple that with an AI that will take advantage of backdoor cuts at almost any opportunity, and you have a recipe for a potentially cheap-feeling AI opponent.
On both sides of the ball, AI teammates will double players who are starting to get hot, and sag off players who aren’t a threat to shoot the ball (think Rajon Rondo). Unfortunately, all to often the CPU decides to double off of a good shooter to double the ball handler. Playing a team with multiple scoring threats should be a headache, but the CPU should be smart enough to know that Lamar Odom on Paul Pierce is better than Odom and Kobe on Pierce, while leaving Ray Allen wide open. You can get around this little problem by manually bring the help, but this also means you can’t always play the ball handler. On the positive side, the CPU is smart about switching on screens and rotating on D (if you as a player are smart enough to know who to guard at any given time; if you guard the wrong man, the defensive rotation breaks down quickly, as it should).
GRAPHICS
Graphically, this is probably the best looking NBA game ever. The player builds are usually spot on, and this year the new player faces look more like their counterparts than years past. The faces are still a little hit and miss, but almost every superstar and and big-time role player is recognizable. Not only that, but there appears to be a new facial animation system in place, and what results is more emotion from the players and adds to the overall look of the game. Its clear the 2K realized their game was lacking from a graphics standpoint and really made it a focus to improve that part of the game.
PRESENTATION
On the presentation front, this is the 2K series best outing to date. The TV style presentation is still intact, but Kenny Smith has been replaced by Clark Kellogg and Craig Sager has been replaced by Cheryl Miller. The new trio sounds okay; Kellogg sounds the best out of the bunch, while the other two sound disjointed and stitched together.
The TV presentation is furthered by the inclusion of highlights during dead balls and at the end of quarters. Little details like this continue to blur the line between watching a real basketball game and playing a video game.
Other touches include better crowd models, better crowd sound, a brand new “Vista-ish” look to the menus, and a new NBA.com interface in the Association 2.0.
ASSOCIATION 2.0 (aka Franchise Mode)
Association has been a staple of the 2K series since 2K5 and has received a significant upgrade this year. An all new NBA.com interface brings you news stories from around the league and presents new metric statistics for all the stat-heads out there. Also new this year are player ambitions. Basically, these are things that a player is looking for from his team, the better your team aligns with these ambitions, the better chance you’ll have of landing him in free-agency. Other improvements include improved rookie generation and the new 2K Insider will also affect players in your franchise (if you want; it’s possible to turn this feature off).
It isn’t all good however. The player improvement drills appear to be buggy: there is a wall in the arena that the camera goes behind, and obstructs the view of your player on the court, making drills like the dribbling drill more difficult than they should be. Other problems include poor AI team management and high AI scoring averages on default sliders.
ONLINE
The basic online modes are still there. The new addition to online in the new Team Up feature. This allows players to go 5-on-5 withe each player controlling a single player for the entire game. This mode, while ambitious, suffers from online stability issues, leading to laggy game experiences, if the game can be completed at all. As of this writing, many users are still complaining of online server issues. While there will almost assuredly be a patch for this and other problems, when that patch will appear is unknown.
Also new is Team 2K. Every week a player is chosen based on their win/loss record to become a member of Team 2K. It appears as though there are several NBA players signed on to be captains of some fictional teams and members of Team 2K will be drafted onto these teams for a tournament of sorts. Don’t expect to make the team unless you play A LOT. It appears 250-300 games played are required to be at the top of the leaderboards these days.
FINAL VERDICT
NBA 2K9 is a game which has definitely improved on the court. Attention to detail and the focus on signature animations really set this game apart from the competition. But for all the strides the game is making on the court, online issues and problems with the Association 2.0 keep this game from being truly great. Instead, its another solid effort, good enough to hold off Live another year. But if 2K wishes to remain king in the coming years, its going to need to spend some time and money doing Quality Assurance to ensure the smoothest gameplay experience possible, or risk losing its throne to the competition.
OVERALL GRADE: B
-L.A. Forrester
