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Before the 2K series, most video basketball games devolved into dunk contests. Things like defense, post play, and offensive sets were relegated to the bench to sit next to old Clippers players with blown out ACL’s. Before the 2K series, games were completely unrealistic.

A typical game consisted of running straight down the court at the hoop and dunking or launching a 3 from another county. For people who don’t know anything about actual basketball this was fine, but for those of us who understood the difference between a motion and a triangle offense it was physically painful. The 2K series was the first to understand there was more to basketball than dunks and 3-pointers.

The beauty of 2K1 in particular is that it forces you to actually run your offensive sets and use your teammates. Sure you can run down the court as Kobe and try to dunk every time, but the scoreboard will not be in your favor at the end of the game. Just like with real basketball, the game rewards you for making the smart play, pushing the ball up the court when you can and passing the ball to the open man when he is open. This sounds like simple fundamental basketball (cause it is) but the 2K games are where it got its start.

Even though they are no longer associated with Sega the 2K basketball games are still going strong, consistently providing the best basketball game experiences. The Dreamcast run consisted of 3 top flight basketball games. NBA 2K laid the groundwork and 2K1 refined a few things but would also be released on the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. For pure Dreamcastery it is all about 2K1 (and on Dreamcast day Dreamcastery is too a word.) Also NBA 2K1 was the first to feature Internet play which allowed Sega fans around the world the opportunity to connect and play. This was a huge moment in sports gaming.

Some of the other additions are subtle but very significant. Giving centers actual back to the basket moves gives big men something to do on offense besides clean up garbage rebounds. This meant players like Shaq are more than roadblocks on your trips to dunk city. You can actually play a little inside outside game by posting up, waiting for the double team and then kicking it out for three. When it comes to the actual moves your guys aren’t quite Kevin McHale but they can at least drop step and dunk or put up a jump hook.

The graphics are a little rough after all these years, the faces look okay (you can tell who most players are just by looking at their face) but the player models look muddy and Nintendo 64-ish. To make matters worse some of the animations are way off, some of the dunks in particular defy the laws of physics and basketball.

The game still plays surprisingly well. Sliding around in your defensive stance feels as fluid and simple as it did in the year 2000. The only major flaws come on defense where passes will fly right by your defender even if he is standing right in the passing lane. This means that defense consists of shot contests and steals, which means your middle school basketball coach would groan and throw a fit. The other problem is rebounding A.I. Players will stand perfectly still while rebounds fall to the floor inches away. It is a very rare event in real NBA basketball when a rebound hits the floor before someone gobbles it up.

All in all 2K1 is one of the reasons my Dreamcast stayed out of the closet for as long as it did and is truly one of the best games on the system.

Tags: 3-pointers, Basketball, Clippers, Dreamcast, dunks, NBA 2K1, Sega, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Sports, sports games

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under Game Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.