Timeless, how did the NBA 2K series become the "lone hero"?

A game often takes several years to build if you want to achieve a satisfactory result. For well-known series such as "Uncharted Sea" and "God of War," it is normal for the production team to spend 5 to 7 years developing.

But there is one type of game that is a little different: sports games. Due to the need to keep up with the seasons and lineup rotations of real events, most sports games [need] to become New Year's goods, which will be updated on time at a fixed time each year.

For a series of considerable magnitude, the pressure of this update frequency is not small, so as you can see, there may be times when their core gameplay, operating system, and graphics level do not change significantly, but because It can accurately follow the dynamics of the season and bring the latest lineups and athletes so that they can be sought after by players and achieve very good sales results.

For example, the protagonist of our article - the NBA2K series. As a 20-year-old game series, its status in the industry was not formed overnight but was built step by step over the 20 years. Today, let's talk about the history of the NBA 2K series.

Although the NBA 2K basketball game launched in 1999, NBA 2K1 may be the first work in the 2K series in the true sense. This work was officially launched on November 1, 2000, produced by Sega's Visual Games studio and exclusively on the Sega DC platform.

Limited by the age and equipment, in the first generation of products, both characters and scene modeling are slightly rough, but with a good operating feel, they still gained the first batch of fans. It is worth mentioning that the cover character of the original NBA2K is Allen Iverson, the 183cm tall draft pick who ushered in the highlight of his career during the endorsement period and led the team to the finals in 2001. Single-handedly, the OK combination of the Lakers won the first victory in the finals.

The solitary hero Iverson attracted the attention of most fans at that time, and 2k, who made him the cover character, also attracted a lot of attention.

Since then, Iverson has been the cover character of 2k for four consecutive years, and the quality of the early 2k series games is as "stable" as they have not changed the cover character for four years - steadily progressing through trial and error and change.

A special comparison is ESPN BASKETBALL.

Due to the various commercial deals between SEGA, ESPN, and Take-two, 2k can only change its name, but despite the naming change, we can think of ESPN BASKETBALL as NBA 2K4. In this game, the previous pure competitive game mode has been completely changed, and a lot of realism, development mode, and a large amount of data analysis has been added.

So we can see that in the "24/7" mode, players can customize their appearance and ability of the player, such as the position where the height and wingspan are good, and then start their basketball career as a rookie, by winning Play games to improve these abilities, just like the career mode in recent generations of NBA2K games.

In this work, the online battle mode is also opened, but it can only be played online on the host platform.

And we can also take this time to briefly mention the old rival of the NBA 2K series - the NBA LIVE series. The 1-8 generations of the 2K basketball series have never logged on to the PC platform. Perhaps no one thought the choice between the host and the PC was important to them.

Speaking of which, the NBA LIVE series should be the basketball game that domestic players have come into contact with earlier. Since 1995, NBA LIVE has taken the lead in the basketball game market with simulated technical actions, outstanding AI, online functions, and continuous updates. The LIVE player group has also grown.

However, the situation has undergone some subtle changes after the launch of NBA LIVE 09 and 2K9. EA decided to quit the PC platform when LIVE 09 was released to focus on the console market, which gave 2K, which was still a chaser at the time, a good opportunity. Therefore, "2K9," released that year, became 2K's first basketball game to enter the PC side.

The earliest basketball game players praised 2K9. In basketball forums such as Hupu, you can often see descriptions such as "God in the pit" and "the most classic basketball game." NBA 2K 9 is worthy of these statements. As the first PC platform work of the 2K series, Kobe Bryant with no solution and James with violent dunks left a very deep impression on people.

In terms of gameplay, the most obvious change is that the player's movements are no longer stop, shoot, and leave but have pioneered the addition of many players' emotional reactions. The game optimizes the players' facial expressions, including entering. The joy of the ball, confusion when fouling, etc., can be seen in the player-related expression changes. The game also faithfully presents the signature moves of many star players, such as the cover star Kevin Garnett thumping his chest and clenching his fists and trash talk.

From another point of view, it can be said that 2K9 handles the details so well, a factor that can win the hearts of players more than the gameplay.

Next, the 2k series embarked on the fast lane to attract players at high speed with a very fast attitude.

"NBA 2K11" features the "God of Basketball" Jordan as the cover and joins the historical team for the first time for players to use. Satisfying the players' idea of ​​controlling the god of basketball, this version, specially made for Jordan, highly restored Jordan's signature moves in detail, such as the big loop dunk, the free throw line take-off, and other iconic moves that are perfectly reproduced in the game.

In particular, in many sports games in the past, only the "90s All-Star Team" was generally designed. After adding and changing to the "92-93 Bulls" mode, players can get in touch with many historical stars, and the game has become far more than a painting. The blurred video is more appropriate to the "live" NBA scene.

(And in 2K11, the classic career mode "MP" (My Player) was officially added.)

There is also an interesting detail in this generation. In the 11th Dynasty mode, as long as all the championships are won, your team will go to the White House to accept the award from President Obama. The repertoire of this NBA season after winning the championship was also extracted and put into the game by the game's producers, which shows the degree of the game's intention.

The successful model of the previous generation has been further expanded in "2K12".

In this generation, players can unlock 15 classic teams led by 15 classic superstars from "Sky Hook" Kareem to "Big Bird" Bird in "Brilliant Mode." The retro broadcast and commentary are very old. Feelings, such as jerseys, scoreboards, and some of the details of the venues, are also well done.

Later "NBA 2K14" and "2K15" were the peaks of the development of the 2k series. 2k14 was regarded as a "next-generation masterpiece," and it is still the "best series" in the hearts of many players.

The 2K series, which has formed a monopoly of genres, is backed by companies with deep pockets. In the eyes of players, they can do better, but the games that come every year have not changed much.

It is still the original career, dynasty, manager, and other modes. Some of the mechanisms in these modes, such as the sign-and-exchange rules, player values, and injuries, are not without bad reviews. Since "2K19", real-time Chinese commentary on the field has been added, but the commentaries of teachers Su Qun and Yang Yi are inappropriately placed in the game process, and such dubbing cannot satisfy the players.

Kobe Bryant died unexpectedly at the beginning of 2020, and the "NBA 2K21" released in the same year immediately launched the "Mamba Eternal Edition." Although the name is still greater than the substance, from another perspective, the NBA has been truthfully recorded over the years. The history of teams and characters seems to have become the "responsibility" of 2K games.

In a blink of an eye, the time has flown through our fingers for more than ten years. We have also changed from a young man who climbed over the wall all night to a working social animal who was sleepy sitting in front of the computer, and the 2k series also came to NBA 2K23. The announced cover characters are no longer the old faces "East Isico, North Carolina Nanami" or "James Durant Curry Leonard," but the new star of these years, the Dallas Mavericks (I Or Luka Doncic, who likes to be called Mavericks.

But the 2K NBA series is still tirelessly pursuing the most authentic gaming experience. The application of a series of immature but constantly improving new technologies, such as motion capture, database establishment, model update, detail improvement, and face scanning, has further improved the competitiveness of the 2K series and has become closer to the real world of the NBA.

As a result, various data in the game have also become something that many fans, the media, and even the players are very concerned about. For example, in 2k16, James Harden, who was still on the Rockets at the time, also scored very high, reaching 92 points, which made Harden happily post a set of photos on Twitter, which is the 2k16 Xbox with himself as the cover Edition game packaging.

Durant, another NBA superstar, expressed dissatisfaction with his score in another interview: "I'm not satisfied with my score. I think I should score higher. I don't have any Hall of Fame badges, and I think it's ridiculous. "

The most interesting thing is that when the host asked him if he would still play 2k and who the characters were, Durant was silent for a while but still made a speech that could not be separated from the law of true fragrance:

"But I'm still playing 2K, more with James and Leonard."

All in all, NBA2K has almost gone through all the detours in its long history and has also figured out the most suitable part for players. It seems to pursue the game's authenticity as always, create those modes that meet the fans' imagination, and keep these a little to this day.

As for whether a game will break 2k's "domination" in the future or whether 2k suddenly makes a new model to arouse players' interest, it will be a matter of the future. Now, NBA2K is still the most successful basketball game on the planet. It has already become a defender, waiting for a genius like Doncic to appear and compete with it for the "goat" crown.