For as long as I can remember, the NBA 2K series has been a longstanding gaming tradition for my friends and family. Year after year I would watch as my brother, cousins, and friends eagerly purchased 2K Sports’ hugely successful basketball simulator every fall. My experience with the series was always limited to watching them play 2K throughout the year, and it wasn’t until I actually started following the NBA last season that my interest in playing a basketball video game piqued.
I’ve been playing NBA 2K19 as an absolute amateur. Almost everything about the game has been a mix of thrilling, frustrating, and overwhelming experiences that were all brand new to me. As a result, this means I am reviewing the game from the perspective of a newcomer with limited experience in both basketball and basketball simulators. This also means I won’t be able to compare NBA 2K19 with its predecessors because I don’t have any personal experiences with those games to relate it to. If you’re looking for a review that would include those perspectives, they’re not here. With that being said, I felt it was important to state early on what my relationship with NBA 2K19 has been so that my thoughts and opinions about the title are better understood.
After more than 40 hours with NBA 2K19, I can honestly say I finally understand why people like my brother religiously purchase the newest annualized title in the NBA 2K series every year. This game is packed with so much basketball content from up-to-date player stats to polished play modes to a limitless amount of customization of your MyPLAYER that fans of the series have come to expect with every entry in the franchise. As a newcomer, NBA 2K19 has been an exciting and entertaining experience but my enjoyment of the game has been brought down by the title’s lack of accessibility for new players, and it’s horribly pervasive microtransaction system. Despite these concerns, Visual Concepts and 2K Sports have crafted an incredibly solid basketball experience that demonstrates why the NBA 2K series is celebrating its 20 year anniversary.
This Is Not a Broadcast
The caliber of graphics and performance presented by NBA 2K19 on Switch is incredible. Accurate recreations of various NBA arenas across the United States literally set the stage for some of the greatest athletes on earth to shoot hoops. Crowds cheer with excitement, pregame rituals introducing all the players to the arena are conducted with all the fancy flair of their real-world counterparts, and the voices of legendary commentators like Kevin Harlan and Clark Kellogg give the game a distinct level of authenticity.
NBA 2K19 faithfully recreates what a televised NBA game would be like and goes as far as spotlighting a pre/post-game show similar to TNT’s Inside the NBA featuring legendary personalities and former NBA players Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson. The way certain players make jump shots, complete pre-game rituals, or dunk the ball are accurately animated and incorporated into the natural flow of the gameplay. It never ceases to impress me how much effort was placed in ensuring that NBA 2K19 feels as genuine as possible.
For a game that pushes the power of the Switch to its limits due to the game’s high-quality textures, lighting effects, and detailed animations, I am happy to report that NBA 2K19 performs at a solid 30 frames per second in both handheld and docked mode. The one time I felt any significant performance issues in the game were in handheld mode during cutscenes for NBA 2K19: The Prelude, a narrative based campaign introducing players to the game’s MyCAREER mode. There are a few janky animations every now and then, small graphical glitches like player’s clothes clipping with their bodies, and I did have the game crash on me once when playing MyCAREER, but these are minor issues that don’t significantly hinder the gameplay. NBA 2K19’s performance is admirably stable and polished well for Nintendo’s hybrid console.
The soundtrack boasted by this game is nothing short of great. Curated by “La Flame” himself, Travis Scott has selected songs from young and exciting new artists like ‘Sauce It Up’ by Lil Uzi Vert, ‘Dum Surfer’ by King Krule, and ‘Attention’ by Rich Brian. When I learned that the best boyband since One Direction, BROCKHAMPTON, was going to have their song ‘ZIPPER’ featured on NBA 2K19’s soundtrack, I couldn’t help but share my excitement for the title on Twitter. The energy each of these tracks brings to the game is perfect for getting you prepared to sauce people up as you play in NBA 2K19’s plethora of play modes.
Basketball At Its Finest
NBA 2K19 features standard play modes that put you right onto the court without any of the fanciness or additional content of modes like MyCAREER or MyTEAM. Play Now and its variations of online and local play modes allow you to take control of NBA teams past and present against your opponents. The online mode lets you rank up the ladder to compete with the greatest online NBA 2K19 players as you continue winning your match-ups. One of the cooler concepts in the standard list is a mode titled NBA Today, which lets you play games based on the current statistics and circumstances of real-world NBA games happening on that day. Blacktop sees you playing pick-up games from 1-on-1s to full on 5-man teams made up of players of your choice in a street style court setting. Overall, these modes are the quickest and purest ways to enjoy the highly refined and tightly designed basketball gameplay that the NBA 2K series is celebrated for.
If you’re a newcomer to the NBA 2K series like myself, the game features a tutorial mode titled 2KU where they hope to teach you how to play and get better at the game. Immediately after installing the game, this was the first mode I explored, and the learning experience wasn’t that great. Other than giving you button prompts on how to perform basic actions like passing the ball or taking a shot, the game doesn’t do much in the way of telling you how the game of basketball works. It would be nice to see in-game explanations for the role of each position, the purpose of specific plays, or an overview of the most common fouls and errors players commit when playing basketball. It seems as if the game assumes you already have a basic understanding of the sport, and that’s a fair assumption to make, but it was frustrating and overwhelming at first to seek for outside resources to learn how to play the game right in front of me.
The Grind to Become the Greatest
MyCAREER is the flagship play mode for NBA 2K19 as it features an entire cinematic campaign following your player’s journey to the NBA and a content-packed online player hub known as “The Neighborhood.”
NBA 2K19: The Prelude is the cinematic campaign that sees you as a basketball player playing for the Shanghai Bears, a fictional team in the Chinese Basketball League until you’re signed by a team in the NBA. At almost every pivotal moment in their journey to make it to the NBA, they make valuable friendships and difficult rivalries. As far as narrative experiences go, The Prelude wasn’t a compelling cinematic experience that I feel is essential to enjoy NBA 2K19. It was exciting to learn about basketball leagues outside the United States and to see some of the challenges a future basketball prospect will face in their career but, at the end of the day, it’s nothing more than another way to prepare you for the core experience that is MyCAREER.
After getting signed by an NBA team, MyCAREER follows your character’s NBA career season after season until you decide to retire your character. The core loop of MyCAREER is the grind to improve your character’s stats through Virtual Currency (VC). VC is the in-game microtransaction that dominates everything from leveling up to cosmetic purchases. Based on your contract and performance, you will receive VC at the end of every game you play. NBA 2K19 rewards you with VC in other ways as well through daily “Neighborhood” challenges and answering questions on a recorded show for the game titled 2KTV.
VC is controversial because it is intrinsically connected to how well your player performs in-game against CPU and real online players within the MyCAREER mode. 2K Sports sent us the 20th Anniversary Edition of NBA 2K19 that includes 100,000 VC and unique LeBron James related items. I wanted to experience the game from the perspective of a player who could only afford the standard edition of the game and refused to use the included VC until I organically reached an OVR of 65. After more than 20 hours of only playing MyCAREER and averaging 800+ VC per game, I was able to level up my stats to an OVR of 65 for 20,000+ VC. That initial grind was not fun as my character regularly lost control of the ball, missed the most basic mid-range shots, and was generally slow and clumsy. As soon as I spent the 100,000 VC to reach an OVR of 77, my player was making 3’s, stealing balls, and creating highlight plays with ease. I didn’t inherently change the way I was playing; I essentially “paid” for a better player.
As I stated earlier, VC can also be used for cosmetic purchases such as different outfits, tattoos, and specific animations for player actions. The Neighborhood features various stores and locations you can walk to purchase these items such as a Foot Locker for shoes or the Gatorade Training Facility for performance boosts. The prices seem reasonable enough to me, and I’m more than okay with microtransactions being used for optional purchases like cosmetic items. My core issue with this game is that microtransactions are essentially required if you want to remain competitive when playing against other players online who are also leveling up their character stats through purchased VC.
The Neighborhood itself is a cool concept as you get to explore an online hub populated by other real-world players. You can easily join a pick-up game on the blacktop courts or visit a store anywhere in the area by just walking up to it. In practice, however, it’s a tedious experience to have to walk from the Pro-Am Center to the tattoo shop instead of just fast traveling or selecting the locations from a menu. Thankfully, you can access the most critical aspects of the Neighborhood through the navigation menu like heading to the game or hitting the team training center to improve your badges.
After the tedious initial grind, it can be a lot of fun to watch as your MyCAREER player improves their stats, customizes the way they play, and dresses to your aesthetic content through hours of organic gameplay. It’s a shame that the microtransactions somewhat undercut the feeling of reward you get for performing exceptionally, but it’s a reality of the way games are developed today. You can still enjoy yourself in MyCAREER without spending an additional dime, but you should prepare yourself to climb a more extended ladder than the rest.
Gotta Collect Them All!
MyTEAM is another one of NBA 2K19’s most prominent modes that sees you opening and collecting packs of trading cards from past and present NBA players to build the strongest team for competing against the CPU and players online. VC plays a role in this mode as well as purchasing packs of cards is done most effectively through spending VC or MyTEAM coins. The more VC or MT Coins you have, the more opportunities you have to unlock a high rated player like LeBron James or Giannis Antetokounmpo. It doesn’t end there, however, as each card has a limited number of uses unless you purchase contracts for them using VC or the MyTEAM Coins you earn through gameplay. The pervasiveness of the microtransactions are exhausting, but once you obtain a decent lineup of players and coaches, this mode becomes one of the more enjoyable aspects of the title.
MyTEAM features various single player and multiplayer modes that reward you for outperforming players on the court and in your team lineup. MyTEAM highlights goals and weekly challenges that you’re encouraged to complete to earn more packs and MyTEAM Coins. It’s a lot easier to earn MT Coins in this mode as you’re rewarded with coins for almost every action you take in a game. MyTEAM is my favorite mode in all of NBA 2K19 because it teaches me about the performance of players I’ve never heard about and asks me to create functional teams with them based on statistics, coaching styles, and team chemistry. It’s a simple concept but collecting and organizing successful teams is such a rewarding experience that not even the microtransactions can diminish.
Moneyball for Basketball Fans
The MyLEAGUE section of the game features the most robust and stat-packed modes this game has to offer for the most dedicated basketball fans. Modes like MyLEAGUE and MyGM see you taking complete control of every aspect of your selected NBA team. From trades to contract negotiations and general manager decisions, these modes give you the power and choice to establish your team’s future as a successful basketball franchise.
These modes were not as fun for me because I’m not that into or knowledgeable about basketball statistics and managerial decisions. MyGM attempts to present this information in a dialogue based story mode where you discuss your choices with a fictional tycoon named Tex Towers. The discussions are annoyingly tedious not just in the way conversations are written but because the talking animations for characters would continuously be on a loop with the most uninteresting and still backdrops imaginable. Skipping the dialogue isn’t much of an option at all as you’re asked to make decisions based on what was discussed. I assume they were trying to make the information more accessible to less knowledgeable basketball fans such as myself, but it ultimately falls flat. For the mathematically inclined basketball fan, I’m sure these modes feature a remarkable amount of statistical information that I’m sure is a goldmine of enjoyment.
Final Thoughts
NBA 2K19 is a solid basketball title that consistently establishes why it is the best selling basketball simulator year after year and why it deserves to celebrate its 20-year history with incredible fanfare. Its high production values, authentic recreations of real-world player movements, and the ability to make you feel like an NBA superstar yourself are valuable experiences that Visual Concepts has refined after so many entries in the series.
Unfortunately, the fact that microtransactions are directly tied with player performance in online modes like MyCAREER and player opportunities in MyTEAM are too pervasive and unfair to be overlooked. My enjoyment of the game was severely diminished when I realized that anyone who decides to purchase Virtual Currency and upgrade their characters outright has an immediate advantage over anyone who doesn’t. The extensive use of microtransactions in its flagship modes coupled with the game’s lack of accessibility for newcomers is a recipe for discouraging players who don’t want to invest more money past the initial asking price.
I’ve had an exciting time with NBA 2K19, and I’m looking forward to continually improving my character in MyPLAYER and expanding my collection in MyTEAM. Despite all of my concerns with the game’s accessibility issues and prevalent microtransactions, NBA 2K19 is still such an incredibly solid basketball experience that anyone remotely interested in the title will find themselves having a great time with this entry in the series. NBA 2K19 is available in two editions on the Nintendo eShop and various retailers: a standard edition for $59.99 and a 20th-anniversary edition for $99.99
A Review Copy of NBA 2K19 20th Anniversary Edition with 100,000 VC, 50,000 MyTEAM Points, 20 MyTEAM League Packs, 10 MyTEAM Heat Check Packs, Sapphire LeBron James and Sapphire Giannis Antetokounmpo MyTEAM cards, 5 LeBron-themed murals for MyCOURT, LeBron MyCOURT design, and the King’s Collection – Nike LeBron apparel and footwear was provided by 2K Sports
