PS2 Review: NBA Street Vol. 2 (2003)

Much like TimeSplitters 2, which we only got around to reviewing a few months ago, NBA Street Vol. 2 is another one of those games that we've somehow neglected, even though we have such fond memories of it. Since Chicken Man already gave us the word on the inferior sequel, NBA Street V3, it's time this nominee for our Best Sports Game award got some shine.

It's not just NBA Jam with chain nets and rusty backboards: NBA Street Vol. 2 is what the best of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater can do for arcade-style basketball games. By that I mean the trick system of Vol. 2, which includes (but is certainly not limited to) stylish crossovers and dunks, puts its emphasis on the combo potential of any situation: use any of the four turbo buttons to fake out the defender by dribbling between his legs and finish by passing the ball off the backboard to a skyward teammate for the slam, for example. The more moves you combo up, the quicker you can launch one of those all-important Gamebreakers, supermoves that embarrass your opponent as well as significantly altering the score of the game. At times these Gamebreakers can more than live up to their name: too often the point-swing induced by a successful Gamebreaker can virtually eliminate any chance for the opposing team to win the game (subtracting, say two points from them and throwing four your way), and this is especially troublesome considering that for even moderately talented players Gamebreakers are quite easy to attain. It's not enough to hurt the game, but it can make it way to easy when playing against the CPU as opposed to human players.

Nevertheless, the genius of this combo system is that every offensive or defensive move can be linked together for maximum points: a rebound, pass off the head, crossover, and three-pointer performed uninterrupted earn more points towards that Gamebreaker than when they are performed separately. Though it's obvious from playing Vol. 2 for even a few minutes that this is an offensive-minded game, the balance struck between offensive flash and defensive toughness is strong. Blocking in an especially useful technique, and learning the art of the block is essential to getting wins on the harder difficulty settings. Steals have also been substantially upgraded from the original: whereas defenders were relatively helpless to stop a point guard's ankle breakers before (not unlike the And 1 mixtapes of lore*), in Vol. 2 the same combo system that enables those tricky tricks can be utilized by the defense to stop them cold. Balanced in this sense, Vol. 2 is real smooth, effortless to play, and continually rewarding in repetition.

*There's a few things you could do to stop this nonsense: 1) put
your hands up and play defense like a normal person, 1a) make
 him take an outside shot which he probably won't make,
or 2) just reach out and punch him in the junk.

Among the various game modes offered in Vol. 2, Be a Legend is the real meat and potatoes of the game. Here you take a created baller and put together a team to travel the country, getting to know the nation's asphalt courts better while building up your player's streetball legend. This mainly involves playing games according to local rules, which may prohibit Gamebreakers, limit you to only dunks, and so on. What's really intriguing is that you earn your street handle based on your player's development: in my case, my baller was nicknamed "String" because he could handle the rock. This is one of the more novel elements in Vol. 2, because it's entirely dependent on how you play the game, and it's not something arbitrarily chosen at the outset. There's also NBA Challenge, which is a more straight-up NBA Jam mode where you go from region to region playing every team in the league. Here, however, the emphasis is on a created team as opposed to a created player. This is where most of the legends can be unlocked.

Speaking of legends, Vol. 2 has all of 'em: Wilt Chamberlain, Pistol Pete Maravich, Elgin Baylor, three Michael Jordans, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Dr. J, and so on. It's an extensive roster pieced together from league history. Strangely enough, Vol. 2 brings back many of the "street legends" from NBA Street, even those that were clearly meant to be stand-ins for real life players: for instance, Dr. J wannabee Stretch returns, though, thankfully, the fake Yao Ming boss from the first game did not make the cut. For the most part, I don't mind the inclusion of these fictional characters (except for Biggie Little, who's annoying), but they seem an odd fit in a game so preoccupied with real legends.

And though the first Vol. 1 was pretty bland in terms of presentation, Vol. 2 has style in spades. Not only do the courts and the players look fantastic (though their movements are somewhat stiff and ugly), but the music is much better this time around, generally sticking with non-lyrical beats during the games. Unfortunately, this means that all the words come from the mouth of announcer Bobbito Garcia, an infuriating personality that may, and I do mean may, have been tolerable 10 years ago. His particular word-vomit salad includes bad singing, bad punning, and rambling, nonsensical challenges whenever you have a shot rejected. His voice is one of the last things you want to hear when Shaq knocks you down in the paint. Thankfully, though, he can be turned off. Vol. 2, however, cannot: take Bobbito out of the mix and you have one of the PS2's finest basketball games.

XBOX 360 Review: NBA 2K13 (2012)

If there were a CRN Award for most product placements, NBA 2K13 would be a top contender.

In order to keep costs low for you, the reader, Code Redd Net engages in one of the more economical means of providing game reviews: Redbox. Let me detail what I found from the newest edition of 2K Sports NBA franchise. Firstly, not a whole lot of things are different. This may just be a fact of life regarding the annual release of sports games: they are often little more than a roster update. Regardless, I was pleased to see some new things. When last year's game boasted a large collection of classic teams, I was wondering how far they would go. In order to gain the ability to play with a certain team the player would have to win an historic game involving said team. This was quite a charming feature, especially when unlocking a '60s team and playing on a simulation of a TV broadcast from that era. But for some reason, I remember hoping that they would have the Sacramento Kings team from the early 2000s, only to be disappointed. No longer is this the case for 2K13. And this is something I would like to see more of: the inclusion of good teams from yester-years, even if they didn't win a championship or were part of a dynasty. It is a part of our history and we want to play it! (Now send me my 2004 Timberwolves who were robbed of their championship!)

MyCareer
Another interesting returning feature is the "MyCareer" mode, where you create a player and can only control him. You are given a "teammate rating" which improves if you do things like make good passes, set picks, and play good defense, and decreases when you do bad things like turn the ball over or if the man you're guarding scores (this can sometimes be a frustrating feature, as it seems to much more easily go down than up. Part of it is an error on the programmer's part: if my assist pass was tipped by a defending player, the assist does not register and I get no credit; as well, it seemed strange that my teammate rating would go down when I intentionally fouled late in the game to stop the clock. Apparently the team or the coach thinks we are down by too much. You are going to penalize me for trying to win a game, even if it's a futile effort? Also problematic is the coach putting me in at power forward when my player is billed as the point guard. Your teammate rating goes down a lot if your man scores. I think the system could be improved as it unduly discourages risk taking). You start by playing a rookie game and then are drafted based on your performance in that game and how you answer post-game questions (with four multiple choice options) asked by GMs. Overall, I think this is a really cool game mode and provides a unique simulation for an individual playing a team sport. But it does require patience; I would advise to restart your game until you are drafted by a team you want. If you have a soft-spot for small market teams like I do, make sure you really want to play for them before you tell the GM of the Bucks that you can see yourself as a proud career franchise player. Being on a team you with which you fit in is also important for improving your player, as you get a win bonus that allows you to increase your attributes. It can be difficult to do this if you play on a struggling team and are having a hard time getting minutes. A new feature for this game mode is that you have fans, which didn't make much sense to me since I was a bench role player for the Bucks with 20,000 fans at the start of the season. Later, when we are 1-5 and I average 4 points, 2 assists, and less than 6 minutes a game (in 20 minute games) I had nearly 100,000 fans (as well as a shoe deal with Team Jordan). Maybe it gets harder to gain fans later in the game, but I'm not sure what the point is other than unlocking achievements. There is also a feature where you answer a post-game question from the media which affects three things: team chemistry, local fan base, and your number of fans. I didn't really understand this dynamic, as answering questions as humbly as possible usually led me to have less fans and not affect team chemistry, while being cocky nearly had the same effect. It was little things like this (interviews of role players who barely play, the coach putting in the rookie with 2 minutes left in crucial situations, etc.) that made the experience less believable but perhaps more interesting.There are also some cool mini-features, like skill training with legends (John Stockton will teach you how to dribble!) or playing a game of lightning.

MyTeam
One had to have to XBox Live to access this feature, so I can't tell you about it. Thank you, Microsoft.

Shoe Creator
This is actually pretty fun to mess around with. You can create shoes for different major basketball shoe brands with a variety of materials and colors. These will be available for your MyCareer player to wear once he has a sponsorship with the brand you designated. A lot of time can be spent tinkering with this.

Other Comments
You better really like Jay Z. The constant playing of his music gets annoying and it seems a bit narcissistic that his music videos are often mashed in with fake game highlights before tip-off. Last year's soundtrack was much better and varied. Also, I'm surprised regarding some of the rankings regarding certain teams and players. For example, the current Lakers (now with a record of 17-21) are ranked higher than the 97-98 Bulls (who had a 62-20 record). Over-hyped, anyone? As well, one of the nice things about video games is that players don't have to be injured, allowing me to have the fantastic Hinrich-D. Rose back court as reality should be. However, does an outstanding (when healthy) player like Brandon Roy deserve to be relegated to an overall rating of 80? It makes me question whether the programmers ever saw him play. If given more time with the game, I expect that more of these questionable rankings would be uncovered. There were also a couple of goofy things within the game, one of them being the functionality of the Kinect. Now, I'm not sure what it was supposed to do, because I could see "Command Not Recognized" repeatedly show up on the screen. But, when I blocked a shot and said, "Oh sick!" I got a technical foul for language! That resulted in my unplugging of the Kinect. And while 2K13 should be applauded for its large amount of commentary, it's not without its problems, such as certain comments being aired in inappropriate situations (one of them happened repeatedly after I got called for goal tending when rebounding the ball off of the rim: the commentator said he appreciated my effort in trying to get the block). And finally, one of the great things about modern sports games is how customizable they are. For example, I nearly tore my hair out playing 2K11 with a friend because of how easily he was able to steal the ball (how in the world is Pau Gasol stealing the ball in the back court from my point guard?). With the game sliders, one can lower the frequency of such things happening. This doesn't, however, completely excuse crappy default settings, as you have to find a happy custom setting (you sound like a real whiner if you make your opponent change these things) and remember to load it each time you play. But at least it's there.

Conclusion
There isn't a lot of choice for basketball gamers these days (how come the question of why there are correspondingly fewer choices in sports gaming than in previous decades is rarely asked?). But fortunately NBA 2K13 does not suck, though it is impossible to say how much better it would be if it had a little competition. Though perhaps a vacuous statement, it is the best current basketball game on the market.

DVD Review: Best of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest (2012)

The NBA Slam Dunk Contest is an annual anomaly. It's outdated, and every year the league manages to handicap its participants with obtuse rules and regulations. Nobody has any reason to take it seriously. Still, I'm always surprised by just how exciting this piece of fluff can be. It has a tendency to reinvigorate and reinvent itself whenever it seems to grow stale. This breezy 45-minute highlight reel skims the hype and gets to the real, theatrical appeal of the contest. Strangely enough, Best of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest is not a chronological account, but a thematic one recapping the best slams in history. This works quite well, actually, because uneventful contests can be skipped over entirely. Obviously we can all quibble about certain exclusions, but I think this DVD does a good job balancing old clips and new. As you might expect (and respect), considerable time is devoted to legendary high-flyers like Michael Jordan, Dominque Wilkens, and Vince Carter, and even more recent champions like Dwight Howard, Nate Robinson, and Blake Griffin. Thankfully, though, unsung heroes like Dee Brown and perennial underachievers like Shawn Kemp get plenty of time to shine. Plus, it's always nice to hear Ahmad Rashad narrate things. Unfortunately, the scant few bonus features tend to get repetitive as several dunks are featured more than once. Nevertheless, this is a competent little highlight show for one of the most enjoyable, and admittedly overrated, pieces of sports-theatre out there.