NBA 2k12 Review – It is fun… for a short while

Our rating:

By: Take Two

Version #: 1.1.1

Date Released: 2011-10-27

Developer: 2K Sports

Price: 4.99

User Rating:

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I love basketball. For a long while I’ve been longing for a good basketball game for an iPad or an iPhone… One random day I thought hey, isn’t there an NBA 2k12 version for iPad? I searched the App Store for NBA 2k… and 2k12 had been launched on that day. Awesome, isn’t it?

Well, it isn’t. First let me get this straight: the graphics are awesome. My girlfriend told me she thought I was watching a game, not playing a game. And indeed, the animations are smooth, not clunky like EA Sports’ NBA games. The problem is, the game is VERY slow.

It’s not slow as if the game needs a better CPU or more RAM, no. It’s slow because there a lot of cut-scenes (timeouts, free-throws, bench shots) that you can’t skip. Yes, seriously. You have to watch the referees bouncing the ball, passing it to the free throw shooter, shoot, someone grabs the rebound, gives the ref the ball, and repeats. Of course, this makes the game very realistic, but also makes the game very boring. If you set quarter length to 1 or 2 minutes, you are just wasting time watching this, when you’d more likely want to play.

The game also features an interesting point, the Jordan Challenge. You have 10 challenges to take, each one marking one of Jordan’s awesome feats. You have to re-create his nights, making 69 points, or defending like a star against the best players. Nice to have, but each of this challenges takes a long, long time: quarter length is fixed at 8 minutes (8 or 12, I can’t remember). Prepare to lose a lot of time… Or stop playing.

Summarizing, the game is good. Insanely good. But it’s slow, maddening slow.