the grunter

Perfect timing for the 2011 Los Angeles NBA All Star game, I look forward to watching this in a couple hours. I also dedicate this review to Mr. Michael Jordan, who just turned 48 on the 17th of this month.

This is probably one of the biggest mysteries of sports video games history – How come none of the officially licensed NBA games (meaning games like “Jordan and Bird (MS-DOS)” and “Space Jam (PS/SS)” don’t count) ever featured Michael Jordan in the Chicago Bulls roster?

(Turns out this one was made by Electronic Arts, huh)

I mean, MJ is great, but doesn’t he still a part of the NBA league? In theory if a game company has purchased the license to use the information and photos from the league, naturally all the players that are playing in that league legally give the permission to that as well. Regardless, I’m not spending more time on the reason behind the absence of Air Jordan in every NBA Live game or any other officially licensed basketball game, there were look-alikes with the right stats and exists in the Bulls team as “Player”, #99. But no real thing, not even a photo. That is why one of the first things that I would do everytime I brought a new basketball game home was to manually create MJ in create-a-player and assign him to the starting line-up.

Plus, if anything, this only makes the guy look even more superhuman-like – As if the real reason was that he is too good so by putting him in the game, the overall balance is wrecked (which was exactly what happened in real life since he joined the league in 1984).

This review will be biased – in the favor of good, for those of you who thought that I would automatically trash this game because I work for 2K’s competitor (does it really still count as a competition?).

I love the hell out of this game, I’m just going to lay it out first. I love basketball, both playing and watching the NBA; I appreciate a high quality basketball game and most importantly I love Michael Jordan. That doesn’t mean I only wrote this review after finishing the Michael Jordan mode and then just glanced at the rest of the game on youtube or something, but my general comments on the non-MJ portion of the game was pretty much said in my NBA 2K11 demo review (in Chinese, sorry, long story short I was impressed).

The Good

• NBA 2K11 nailed MJ’s likeliness – It is not hard to write scripted sequences where the player model with Michael Jordan’s face emulates his movements and jumps really high, but to blend it so naturally into the game and deliver a faithful experience to the users so that they feel that they are controlling an interactive NBA match in the Jordan era. This is not achieved by sheer luck, the guys at 2K had one shot to do it right, and boy did they ever.
• The way that he lays up, the way that he constantly observes the court at all times, the way that he plays defense, the way he interacts with teammates during free throws – It’s all there, and yes these things all matter even if you don’t have to purposely look for them.
• The development team did not go lazy on the the background work – They didn’t simply plug in the stats and faces/bodies from the 10 Jordan Challenges to the game and let you control a generic player with MJ’s face on it and possesses 99 on all attributes. They got the right arts for the jerseys and arenas from the era, got the right likeliness of the rest of the Chicago Bulls players as well as all the rival teams. I’m not nearly done yet. They got the right announcers who are able to tell you what MJ said in an interview before this game and how he has been doing in that season. They even finish with a touch of a special graphical filter that gives the impression that you are experiencing a 1989 game on a TV screen that was made in that decade.
• The way NBA 2K11 handles half time and post-game replay montages is excellent. I really want to know how they manage to make it look so close to an actual TV representation, that means no starting or ending a replay too early or to late, no jittery camera, ALWAYS picking the plays that I find worthy to be included in the replay footage, angle is always spot on without someone’s left ass cheek blocking 3/4 of the screen or zooming in at someone’s shoe.
• Unlockables – I would’ve bought this game for this feature alone (Photo-realistic Air Jordan shoes in players’ feet) had it been released 10 years ago. Back then, besides customizing my own Michael Jordan player to put in the game, my other big thing was to search around for shoe mods created by other fanatics and swap those ugly non-licensed white/black shoes out from the players in NBA LIVE 98 and replace them with legit Nike/Adidas/Jordan Brand shoes. Nowadays having licensed everything is a given but reminiscing those days put a smile on my face.
• Being able to put MJ into today’s league as a fresh rookie is a nice touch, but no thanks. The league nowadays is depressing comparing to the 90′s, and I don’t want His Airness to have to play with all these prima donna bullshit (no pun intended).
• This game sums up Jordan’s legendary career very well without skipping important moments (although I could always use more, see below), extra props for pretending that he never played for the Wizards.
• Have I mentioned the opening? Loading up the game for the first time on my 360, while I expected the usual “Press Start” screen and some sort of a front-end menu as all sports video games have, I found myself looking at the Chicago Bulls team from behind. Music was pumping and there’s no mistake that it was the Chicago Bulls theme right before a game, the sound of heart beat and the crowd grow louder and louder, and finally MJ turns around and asks:

• .. and I was immediately in control of the Bulls in the 1991 finals game versus the LA Lakers. When was the last time a home console game puts you right into the action within seconds of first boot?

The Bad

• Why stop at 10 challenges? I can easily name 10 more highlights from MJ’s career such as this one:

• As expected, AI difficulty is a challenge in the Jordan Challenges games. How do you make the gamers feel that they are controlling the best player in the league, and still make the gameplay challenging? The answer from 2K11, unfortunately, is 1) Have MJ team up with mentally challenged teammates with unrealistically poor attributes and 2) likewise, over-powering enemy AI but not by having them play a tighter defense which is what I would have done, instead simply grant them high shot percentages. At the end of the Bulls-Lakers playoff finals game, Byron Scott ended up being the player of the game, what?
• With that said, please do not buy this game if you are a Chicago Bulls fan but not particularly a Jordan fan (that’s right, all three of you on the planet). You will be depressed by Pippen and Rodman’s performances, nevermind Bill Willington, the guy plays as if the monstars from Space Jam stole his powers. Also, everybody wears the same generic shoes except for Mike.

(Daffy, I want you to know you played better basketball in Space Jam than that Scottie Pippen in NBA 2K11)

• It can be mildly sad playing this game, and knowing that you will never ever see basketball at that level today.
• Where the hell is Charles Barkley and the 94′ Suns?!

(Actually, nevermind let’s just move on)

The ???

• You got Michael Jordan, Magic, Clyde Drexler, Dominique Wilkins and more. Wouldn’t it make sense to have a dunk contest mode? Some of MJ’s finest moments come from dunk contests.
• This may sound old-school, but it would be both cool and making good use of MJ’s image license to insert real NBA footages here and there.
• This game also has the best TV ads ever, so extra points there

• After last year’s elaborate “Kobe Bryant Locker Edition” NBA 2K10 I was completely expecting a special edition of 2K11 that comes with an Air Jordan tracksuit and sneakers. Bummer.
• How in the world are the guys at 2K gonna top this next year?

Lastly

This game makes up for the fact that no officially licensed NBA video game has ever included MJ in Chicago uniform. Hell, this game makes up for the fact that there really hasn’t been a decent full simulation basketball game in the market! NBA 2K11 handles the basketball simulation part well, at the same time pays respect to the greatest legend in the NBA. And we the customers share this feeling too, and we are grateful.

If you’re going to buy one basketball game in your lifetime, this is it.

(Review 5 of 52, 2011)