The NBA 2K franchise has for many years been the staple of basketball sims from its presentation to gameplay and especially its depth, which make it one of the most acclaimed sport game franchises on the market. With the NBA 2K10 iterations, the series celebrates its 10thanniversary but with this anniversary, 2K Sports have gifted Wii owners by bringing the franchise to the Wii for the first time.

NBA 2K10 on the Wii is a title built from the ground up for the console. While it still has the same level of depth as the other console versions, its gameplayand visual presentation bothtake a turn for the worst. It’s almost unplayable with the Wii-mote 2K Sports’ attempt at bringing over the complex yet impressive sim gameplay from the other versions over to the Wii-mote, which is disappointing and closely boarding on god awful.
Playing with the Wii-mote you raise the Wii-mote up to throw the ball, and raise your arms up to block your opponents shot, which annoyed quickly specially when you shoot, raise the Wii-mote and lower it again but missed the shot, the other team grab run off and score, after which I notice my player have his arms raised standing on the spot at the opposite end as the opponent team score because I didn’t lower the Wii-mote just that little bit more. Even worse I was clear in the open, no opponent in the way, perfect opportunity to score, swing the Wii-mote up and the player stands there, doing NOTHING, swing the mote more and he’ll go to raise his arms a little bit but lowers them again, teasing me to make me cry as the game goes
“Oh you want me to shoot? …Not going to happen!”

Also forget about hitting a free-throw, as they are practically impossible to hit unless you’re willing to spend hours mastering the timing required to dunk the shot, the Wii-mote will vibrate attempting to give you the right timing, in a heartbeat sort of way, but you’ll always, always been too late or too early.

NBA 2K10 is a game that feels like it needs MotionPlus support for it to work well, luckily the game supports Wii Speak for Online, which I’ll get to later on, and the game is saved by Classic Controller support (but not GameCube) allowing it to be playable, but for those without a Classic Controller you’ll haveto stick with the almost broken controls.
The classic control scheme works fine for the most part, but considering the better visual presentation and online capabilities of the PS3 and 360 versions, it’d be pointless to get the Wii version if you own one of the former. You’ll also often have trouble passing the ball to targeted players even though most of the actions on court can be achieved by simply pressing a button.

NBA 2K10 often tries to be too realistic for its own good. It’s great playing full-lengthquarters and shooting a realistic shooting percentage and reaching a realistic score, but for high-rated NBA player to miss dunks is pretty unforgiving. It tries to get into realistic Arenas and Players but everything looks like it was created with a low polygons. Like they created the PS2 low poly models and applied high resolution textures and just forgot to apply them to the Wii version, the development team didn’t even make an effort to make the superstar players look good.
Often in games see well-known players get a better over visual treatment, but every player looks just as bad as the next. This is essentially an early-PS2 visual offering, think Max Payne, with a texture for a face, which is totally and utterly unforgiving considering what we’ve actually seen on the Wii.

There’s no consistent flow that makes the experience as perfect as it can be, and this has ultimately stopped the NBA 2K series from propelling it into a good pick up and play game as it’s too inaccessible for casual gamers, which is sort of shooting yourself in your own foot when looking at the Wii’s market, and its inability to realize the difference between bankable and circus shots takes away a lot of its realism, even if that’s really what it’s aiming to achieve.

NBA Today is a great and interesting feature, as it will allows you to play Today’s NBA games, which will change obviously from day to day as the Season continues, but it also allows you to incorporate actual NBA statistics into your season and adds a new sense of realism, while the fantastic 2K Insider blog gives feedback about the current season you’re playing through. It’s nice to see, especially with the Coach Mode option during the game, which when clicked on will make the game play its self so you and friends can then put down the awful controls and just make bets.

The best thing this title has going for it is that it has all of the depth and modes from the other NBA 2K10 versions. The brilliant My Player mode makes an appearance, which allows you to create your own player and build them up the ranks to the NBA. The game is pretty tough on you for the simplest of errors during practice (like missing a shot and having an opponent score a basket on you), but once you get into the flow of things, the mode can be very rewarding and enjoyable. It’s a pity that the gameplay can ruin it at times.

As an effort on the Wii, the NBA 2K series has a lot to make up for. NBA 2K10 on Wii is not a good basketball game and is one to avoid if you own a 360 or PS3. If you don’t own one of them, the classic control scheme may suffice just fine if you’re desperate for a basketball sim. All of the modes from other versions are there, which is great, but they don’t really make up for the horrendous on-court presentation, players are hideous (that’s actually an understatement) and the crowds are horrendous and poor AI.

6.5/10

By Darren Arquette Posted Monday, January 4th, 2010 6:44 pm