NBA Ballers review

They were showing Shaq’s mansion on MTV Cribs. The kid watched with a dreamy look in his eyes, absentmindedly rolling a basketball around him while sitting on the floor. Somewhere in another world his mother was screaming at him to take out the garbage and his newborn sister was crying as she had been all day.

He had seen this episode a few times before; Shaq was showing off his rides now; a customized black Range Rover and a yellow Interceptor convertible. Next he would show off his outdoor basketball court imprinted with the Superman logo. His mother was shouting at him again so the kid reluctantly turned off the TV and took out the trash.

On the way to the basketball court he dribbled with his left hand as he had done for a few weeks now. In his mind’s eye he was still seeing the gorgeous LA mansion and the amazing rides of the show but with one exception. He was now the host.

Choose your destiny

NBA Ballers is a one-on-one game, which is the main difference from most basketball games. It’s more of an arcade game than a sport simulation and in many ways similar to NBA Street 1 & 2 games, but with a style of its own, This is no surprise coming from the developer of the popular NBA Jam games.

Originally the developer wanted to have a superhuman feel to the game but decided to tone things down. Of course, being able to do the best dunks and moves ever seen, every time you touch the ball. is superhuman, but that’s beside the point.

You have a choice from several play modes which are quickplay, versus, 1 vs. 1 vs. 1, TV tournament, Rags to Riches and practice. The first two and the last one are self-explanatory. One vs. one vs. one is perhaps better known to basketball players as 21, where three players play against each other making this a refreshing change from an otherwise one-on-one game.

TV Tournament is comprised of a total of 19 tournaments which increase in difficulty. Each tournament you win unlocks a player or players and in the later tournaments you will get to unlock superstars such as Duncan, Magic and Bird. Here you can also use the winnings to unlock players, cars or houses.

Rags to Riches is probably where you will spend the most time; this is where you create a player and build him up to become one of the best ballers out there. Rags to Riches is basically the career mode of NBA Ballers, you play through a lot of tournaments which are not always easy to win.

As an example, at one point you have to steal the ball 5 times from Jason Kidd within 3 minutes and win, which is clearly no easy task. The story is that your character is the star of a reality show about the rise of a basketball superstar. Your progress is further detailed in cutscenes after you win big tournaments.

It’s all about the Benjamins, baby

The game simply looks amazing. At first you’re treated to a video of a certain MC Supernatural (who is also the announcer) rapping about the lifestyle of the NBA ballers which is kind of campy but sets the mood; it’s all about the flashy lifestyles and the bling-bling. The loading screens feature photographs of famous players in their everyday clothes and the music playlist features various hip-hop artists.

When you see close-ups of the faces of the NBA players your jaw will drop. The facial features are incredibly well done and you will instantly recognize your favourite players such as Pippen, Bird, Shawn Marion and Iverson. The animation is incredible smooth and convincing; and of course there’s a large variety of dunks, layups, trick moves, taunts and so on. The motion-capture is top-notch.

Da Playas

The selection of NBA players is impressive, the past legends and the fresh young guns are all here but with one very noticeable omission, at least to me. Alas, there is no Michael Jordan. This is really a shame because the player pool doesn’t feel complete without him, but this is not the first time this has happened to an NBA-licensed game.

The reason is probably that some licenses are more expensive than others; incidentally Charles Barkley is also missing along with Hakeem Olajuwon.

One funny thing about having such a diverse group of players, which encompasses old-school players such as Willis Reed and Wes Unfeld, is that every player has a move set derived from a modern-day streetballer like the "And 1" guys if anyone is familiar with those. So it's strange to see Larry Bird taking the ball between his legs in the air and doing a dunk a la Kobe Bryant. It’s downright hilarious to see him do a "smack-dat-ass" victory dance. Heck, those guys didn’t even alley-oop back then.

Your can have a lot of fun with your own created player in terms of appearance. There are a lot of gear options such as tattoos (there are even tattoo sets modelled after famous players like Allen Iverson), hairstyles (you can’t go wrong with the huge afro), wrist gear, protective pads, shoes, chains and so on.

In addition to the existing gear you will win more as you go along , such as more hip shoes. You can also buy NBA team gear for credits. All in all, customising your player is like having your very own Ken, only cooler.

Secret stuff

NBA Ballers has an endless number of things that need unlocking or buying. I won’t go into those in detail, but there are four basic groups. Firstly, players themselves that can unlocked by winning tournaments or signing them with tournaments credits. This is a somewhat lengthy process, almost too lengthy. While everyone wants to try to play a guy like Shaq against another opponent, you will first have to go through tens of hours of playing through tournaments to unlock him.

Then there are the properties such as houses and cars which are major status symbols. Once you purchase a crib (using the game term) you can play there in versus and other modes. Thirdly there are the collectibles, including covers of magazines or photos from basketball history and even friends (yes, you actually build up a friends group). You unlock these by for achieving various basketball feats like blocking Dikembe Mutombo five times in a game or by winning a game using only three-pointers.

Finally you can try to guess some secret passwords or phrases that unlock various things; mostly alternative clothing for the ballers. Many of those are easy like nicknames ,so if you know Allen Iverson’s nickname you can unlock his alternative clothing.

Bling bling

One thing I haven’t mentioned is the online mode which unfortunately I am unable to try out but according to other sources it works out very well. If the two player versus mode is anything to go by it’s sure to be great fun but the real focus seems to be on having a lasting single player experience where it is definitely successful.

A minor gripe is that you need to jump through so many hoops (ha-ha) to unlock the best players and the game gets very tough at the higher levels especially if you have to win by doing trick points.

I admit I'm a huge basketball fan, so that definitely could affect my rating. But, while this game game may not be for everyone, I stand by my opinion that NBA Ballers is a very enjoyable game that will last you a long while.