Buy NBA 2002 from Amazon.com or Ebgames.com

It is so hard to believe that basketball is one of the most popular spectator sports on the planet. While I admit that it is awesome fun to play, there is something boring about watching a game where the two goals are twenty meters apart from each other. I mean Aussie Rules Football, thats a spectator sport. But like I said, Basketball is fun to play, especially when your playing NBA2K on the Dreamcast. This game kills everything out there, including EA's NBA Live 2001 on the PS2. Why ? Well, um, lets start with the control system. Its so intuitive that Forrest Gump would master it in about 2 minutes. When you start your first game, you can pretty much get away with remembering only two buttons, the ones that control passing and shooting. The rest will come naturally, given that you have been able to overcome the sensation of awe that you will feel towards the graphical representations of the players.

The players faces appear to have been the product of a considerable amount of focus. Their eyes blink and show reaction after a good play, and more usually, after a bad one. The players body styles are also much more realistic, which is impressive in one sense as it detracts from the cartoony feel which has been often apparent in post NBA JAM video games. Gone are the exaggerated beefcake bodies and their muscle tone has been tone down for the players who aren't quite as well endowed as their freaky counterparts. The player animations are top notch with some amazing dunks and some nice post-up moves that are very appealing, in an aesthetic sense. In an unexpected touch of class, NKA2K2 features signature superstar dunks. This is especially cool when you see Jorden doing his stuff for the Wizards. But the subtle visual extravagance doesn't end there.

The animated crowds appear to have been carefully crafted to provide the ambience neccesary to maximise the realism of the atmosphere that NBA2K2 promotes so well. The sparkling courts only add to the class of the product. There is a generality which is often true that states a game with exceptional graphical prowess will be missing flare in other areas that are considered to be less important. And some would say that this law is proven through the quality of the commentary. But to be honest, while the no-name announcers can teeter on the edge of annoyance territory, they do add something positive to the feeling of atmosphere, so I have nothing against them. And atmosphere is an important element of this game, and does much to enchance the gameplay. In conclusion, NBA2K2 is rather fantastic, and it is probably the best 5 on 5 basketball game around at the moment. So buy it, you won't regret it.

NBA2K2 - 93%.