Cheat Index - NBA 2K2 Dreamcast Review

Of all the major professional sports, it seems as if basketball is the hardest to properly translate to video games. EA Sports had come the closest with NBA Live, but there were still way too many holes in the AI and realism departments. Though the old Bulls vs. Whoever games were rather entertaining. Anyway, that was before Visual Concepts took over as Sega Sports’ premiere developer for the Sega Dreamcast, and created NBA 2K. Since then, no other basketball game has played as well or as realistic as this series, and NBA 2K2 is the final fine-tuning of the series on the Dreamcast, leaving plenty of hope for the future for Sega’s multi-platform run.

At first glance, NBA 2K2 is nothing but NBA 2K1 with updated rosters and a few tricks; but after a few hours of gameplay, all of VC’s little improvements add up to a game that plays quite differently than previous NBA 2K entries. All the usual suspects of the series is included; from basic exhibition, single season, franchise, the cool street ball mode, and of course the online play that seems to define Sega and the Dreamcast. None of these are really refined too much; the street ball game has a few added courts like Rucker Park (from NBA Street on PS2), and the Network play tracks wins, losses, and disconnects to see what kind of player you are, or what you’re up against. It’s all about avoiding the sore disconnecting losers, you know.

The biggest changes to the game involve the many new rule changes, and the return of a particular “Greatest Basketball Player Ever”. The NBA has eliminated Illegal Defense, so now you can run college-style Zone defenses (something NBA Live 2002 doesn’t even include for some reason) to shut down the offense in different sorts and variety. And believe me, this change adds a whole new dimension to how NBA 2K2 is played. And oh yeah, Michael Jordan is included on the Washington Wizards roster, as a last-second addition to the rosters. You can tell because of how incomplete looking he is; missing many of his trademarks. The PA announcer even refers to him only as “Jordan” during road games, yet announces “Michael Jordan” at home. Sounds like MJ was shoehorned into the game, huh?

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