Developer: 2K Sports
Publisher: 2K Sports
Rating Guide: How I Review Games

Review:

Are you read to play some basketball?  Are you ready to play some “real” basketball?  Well, 2K Sports delivers its best interpretation of real basketball to date with NBA 2K9.  Kevin Garnett is the perfect cover boy for this game because they’re both as real as it gets on the court.

Gameplay, Graphics and Sound

I will say this about NBA 2K9 and its gameplay; it’s solid!  The players move very closely to how they do in a real game.  In fact, there were times when I thought I was controlling the real players.  The action and flow of the game impressed me.  The thing that separates this game from NBA LIVE 09 is its ability to capture more of the essence that is the NBA.  You actually feel like you’re in an actual game.  NBA 2K9 definitely has that special sauce.

The presentation in 2K9 leaves a lot to be desired and is a league behind that of NBA LIVE 09.  Navigating the menus is a bore and taking to the courts for some action leaves nothing to be desired.  With so much promise in gameplay, it’s a big disappointment that the presentation didn’t come close to doing it justice.  This is the one thing that puzzles me because the NBA 2K series has always been good with its presentation until it made the leap to next-gen consoles.  Strange.

Visually, the game is on par with its predecessors and perhaps a tad bit better in some areas.  Animations for the players are more fluid and the stadiums/crowd have taken it a notch up.  The sound delivers yet again as well.  The crowd boos, cheers and goes with the momentum of home crowds versus away.

Xbox LIVE Extras

NBA 2K9 is every bit as solid offline as it is on Xbox LIVE.  You can manage your own league online or just build your win/loss record against other competitors across Xbox LIVE.  There are some noticeable drops in framerate while online but then what game doesn’t suffer from that here and there.

Conclusion

NBA 2K9 is a dream game for those out there who want to get as close to simulation as they can get.  The players on the court have a natural motion to them that mimics the real thing almost perfectly.  I wish the presentation matched the strides in the gameplay but it doesn’t.

Unless you’re a real basketball fan who gets excited simply because it’s basketball, you won’t find much to excite you outside of being on the court.  Unfortunately, this isn’t real life basketball so the other things have to come into play and as such, they disappoint.  But I know that won’t matter to the die hard gameplay fanatics out there.