#nba2k2

The Dreamcast and sports - name a more iconic duo.

Sega produced a lot of all-time great sports titles for the Dreamcast, including Virtua Tennis and the original ‘2K’ games across multiple sports. They also got into the sponsorship game, appearing on the kits for Arsenal for a brief period, which led to this amazing photograph:

Terrific. As its title suggests, NBA 2K2 was released on the Dreamcast in September 2001. It’s the third game in a series that has since becoming a gaming and basketball institution. At its start, though, NBA 2K was Sega’s answer to EA multi-platform NBA Live series, as EA opted to not support the Dreamcast at all. At least on that front, EA maybe lost out in the long run.

The original NBA 2K was a favorite of mine at the time. Back in high school, a good friend and I had a whole custom-built team that we used all the time. Our team was named the Sploosh, a name that the game’s announcers were actually programmed to say, and ostensibly had a different meaning back then.

We also had an unstoppable center named Pops Balloono, who was as large as the game would let us make him. We had another guy named Quav Gravydoopers, and another of our friends wrote a folksy song about him. We were weird kids.

As far as gameplay goes, 2K2 is extremely similar to its predecessors - it’s a lot of fun and has a good amount of customization options. It also adds some ‘legendary’ teams and players that you can use. As with any run-of-the-mill sports games, it adds the league’s latest group of rookies, which in 2001 included Pau Gasol, Tony Parker, and...not much else. It was better than the year before, though, when the top picks included this dork:

Chris Mihm, if you’re reading this, just know your draft class was terrible.

As with the other early 2K games, NBA 2K2 utilized a “behind the action” default camera, similar to the one still used in Madden and other football games. This is probably for the best, as while a sideline camera is available, standard-definition TVs don’t do it any favors. With this view, you can still see all the action and run plays without many issues.

The overall presentation is solid as well. The arenas feel alive, and the commentary is decent - albeit a bit repetitive - for a game from this era. It’ll go through a whole pre-game player intro if you’re into that sort of thing. You can play a one-off game, a full season or franchise, or a more arcade-y “street” mode, and the gamut of features is available in all of them. As with most games like this, you can also set numerous settings to your liking, making the game as realistic (or unrealistic) as possible.

Old sports titles tend to be the black sheep of retro games - they’re overproduced, worth next to nothing, and are arguably pointless due to their outdated technology and rosters. I will eagerly go to bat for these, though - as a lifelong sports fan, I love being able to go back to a random year, see what the league was like, and be reminded of games I went to or players I followed. These games are time capsules, and I’m always happy to pick up an old title, play as my favorite team, and see what sort of memories come rushing in.

Rest in peace, Flip.