NBA 2K6

"The definition of a stellar basketball game."

NBA 2K6 is the latest in a long line of "2K" games, beginning with the release of NFL 2K way back in 1999, for the Sega Dreamcast. Since then, the series has come a long way, catching a few name changes and eventually a full-blown switch of developers, going from the hands of Sega to the team at 2K Sports. This is the first NBA 2K game from 2K Sports, so they obviously wanted to make a major impact and set the stage for their company. In order to do this, they obviously had to make this the best damn sports game period. And trust me, 2K Sports did not disappoint. NBA 2K6 is, hands down, the best basketball to have ever been released. It might even be a top contender for best sports game ever.

One of the biggest complaints about sports games are how each yearly installment of a sport franchise seems to bring minor, unimportant details that are generally limited to roster updates. NBA 2K6 attempts to break the mold by giving a major update to its control scheme and the brand new shot-stick. Players can now perform NBA Street-style moves, such as crossover and between-the-legs dribbles and cross-ups. While playing on offensive, the two triggers are used for modifying your player control, unleashing a wide variety of extra tricks. Stealing the ball from an opponent feels much more fluid and natural as you have to sway the thumbstick either to the right or left of your opponent

The shot-stick feature extends this expanded control by giving you total control over how your player shoots the ball. When on a fast break, you are no longer confined to simple lay-ups and two-handed dunks. By moving the right thumbstick in a particular direction, you are able to perform an array of fancy finger-rolls, tear-drop lay-ups, backhanded dunks, reverse dunks, and other flashy moves that one would normally see in an And 1 tournament. You'll find yourself spending hours just trying to see all of the different dunks and lay-ups that are available in the game. The shot-stick feature is great, but it does take a little getting used to when using it to shoot. Timing is the key to perfection with the shot-stick. While it is not mandatory for use in shooting in regular play, the shot stick is the only option available when taking a free throw, so I'd recommend getting in a little time in Practice mode with it.

NBA 2K6 is arguably not the best choice for those that just want a quick basketball fix - this game WILL kick your ass, over and over again. The standard difficulty level alone is enough to turn a casual gamer off to the game. Simply put, if you're thinking about playing this game seriously, you'll have to put in a lot of time spent practicing your moves. I know this saying is such a cliche, but practice does truly pay off. Where you'll start out as a horrible baller that nets a foul every other second, you'll soon find yourself effortlessly rejecting opponents' shots with a swift smack and ripping the ball away like a thief robbing an old lady.

One of the most amazing things about NBA 2K6 is the game's incredible depth. The standard NBA rulebook is in play, but the game is so highly customizable that it not only allows you to select which rules you want to honor, you can also select how strictly they are enforced. For example, if you're not too much a fan of the charging violation, you can edit the game rules so that the referees will never call for charging. If you feel the reaching violation is not enforced strongly enough, however, you can set it so that essentially every stealing attempt made by an opponent is called for a foul. Not only are the rules customizable at your discretion, the gameplay is as well. You're not just limited to having your own custom rule set, however. Literally every aspect of the game is editable, from the quarter length to the shooting success for each team.

While 2K6 does cater to the casual basketball fans with a Quick Game mode, which automatically selects two random teams and allows you to jump right into the game, the majority of the game modes are for those that want a game that gives them their money's worth. The "24/7: Road to the EBC" (Entertainer's Basketball Challenge) mode allows you to create a player of your own and then have your player take up challenges made by others, ranging from other no-name ballers to NBA superstars to even celebrities such as Flavor Flav. The goal of "24/7" is to continually win these challenges and build up the best team possible, and taking that team to Rucker Park for the EBC. All the while, you'll be busy accumulating developer points, which can be used to strengthen your player's attributes and buy clothing and accessories for him. The difficulty level is in full blast and cannot be altered, so you'll find yourself constantly losing games, to the point where you give up on the mode and move onto the more exciting modes.

The "Association" mode allows you to create your dream franchise. You're the general manager of the team, so you call all the shots. You can set up team practices on non-game days, boosting your team's stats. This comes with a downside, as practice decreases your team's stamina and energy, which makes them more tired as they play subsequent games. This is obviously a balancing factor included to give a little challenge in trying to strengthen your team, so you'll have to be smart with scheduling practices. In addition, you can have the practices focus on a specific player so that you can also raise individual stats as well. As the general manager of the team, you'll also have be in charge of hiring and firing personnel. If you're unhappy with the way someone is coaching the team, give them the pink slip and tell them to get the hell out of your office :P

Your standard season, practice, tournament, and street ball game modes are there, as well as an interesting little mode called "Situation", in which you can actually set up a game. What I mean is that if you want to see what it would be like to have a 120-0 lead between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Knicks, you can do so with this mode. You can have games that can mimic any real-life NBA game, such as the recent 95-92 victory the Miami Heat had over the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals. In addition, there's also an pretty advanced in-game editor which allows you to create your own dream players and teams, so if you ever get tired of playing with real superstars, you can make your own god-like player and team.

2K6 features a brand-new VIP system, which is used to gather points as you play games for doing certain feats. These points can then be used in The Crib to buy a multitude of things, ranging from trophies to minigames to even snow globes. It's a nice little extra incentive for playing the game, but you likely won't be spending much time with this feature. The minigames that can be unlocked will no longer keep your interest after the first few times you play them and you probably won't feel that it's worth the time spent accumulating points to buy a basketball that can't even be used in the game.

NBA 2K6 has some of the most detailed graphics of any basketball game released in the past three years. The game designers really took care to make sure that the players in the game looked like mirror images of their real-life counterparts. Replays make a smooth transition to and from gameplay with a nice and steady framerate and are packed with immense detail, further solidifying the experience. The players move around the court the way you would expect them to in real-life, with fluid motions and incredible agility. Everything in the graphics department is up to par, easily making 2K6 one of the best-looking games of 2005. The soundtrack is fine enough, but if you're not much of a fan of rap, underground rap at that, you're going to be disappointed with this part of the game as that is the only music genre available.

If you're a basketball fanatic and you're looking for a game that is going to test your skill time and time again, you're going to love this game. 2K Sports performed an excellent job at combining quality with quantity, truly giving every purchaser of the game their money's worth. If you're looking for a basketball game in which you can pick up a controller, not knowing a thing about it, and hold your own quite well, then this game is not for you. The difficulty level at first is quite harsh and most casual players will not want to spend a week playing the game just to learn how to steal the ball without getting called for reaching in. As far as basketball simulations go, NBA 2K6 is the defining game of the genre.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/06