onAXIS: NBA 2K8 Review

A few days ago, we received NBA 2K8 from Rocket XL for review on the site. And we've played the game, enjoyed our experience and have a review. Let's start.

Last year, 2K Games released NBA 2K7, a great sports game that got many good reviews. So what do you think they brought us this year? A remake of last years game with different menus and rosters? Sure they included that, but the answer is no. This year, they brought us a game with many new features, game modes, and great music.

To start off, we have the classic Quick Play game mode, which is probably in every sports game to date. When you start up the game, after signing into the network, your automatically at the Quick Play screen. Quick Play is the same as always, pick a team, play the team, win or lose, there is no harm done to you. There are plenty of other game modes to enjoy though.

Among these game modes are The Association, Season, Playoffs, Rookie Challenge, Practice, and Situation. Trust me, those aren't even the half of it.

The Association is a season mode based around a calendar. You don't have to play every game on the calendar, you can advance through the dates and skip a game, but that may hurt you at times. If you don't want to play that game, you can always simulate it, but you never know what the outcome may be. If you want to play the whole association, you need to be big on basketball, and have a lot of patience. The Season is just like The Association, except with out any contractors, were not a big fan of these two to tell the truth.

The Playoffs is better known as a Tournament mode. You pick a team from the pair ups they give you, and you basically ball for the win. After you win, you move up the charts, to get the final game. Win that, and the Playoffs are yours.

In the Rookie Challenge mode, you play as a T-Mobile sponsored rookie team. Then we have the Practice mode, this is just what it sounds like, practice. If your trying to learn how to play, then come here. Last, there is the Situation game mode, where you set up positions, time-outs and what not to comeback for a huge game ending win.

Remember when I said "those aren't even the half of it"? Well, we have more. NBA 2K8 sports something they have never done before in their previous versions, and it's called NBA Blacktop.

NBA Blacktop is basically a mini-version of NBA Street inside of NBA 2K8. When you click it's option in the menu, instead of bringing you into a sub menu like the others, it will bring you onto a new street customized screen full of dutty style.

In NBA Blacktop, we have a Dunk Contest, Pickup Games, a 3PT Shootout, a Game of 21, and Dunk School. This section of the game happens to be my favorite as I'm a street sort of person.

The Dunk Contest was something never before seen in an NBA 2K game. It's sponsored by Sprite, so you can expect to see some Lemon Lime everywhere. In this mode, you can set up props, like cars, benches, and such to show how high you can really dunk. The score is based on a 100 point scale, most I've ever got was 90 sadly. If you really know how to customize your dunks, you can get higher than me. This mode was a great new feature to this game that I was looking forward too and it satisfied me. They could of made it a little bit better though. Close to perfection.

The Pick-Up games are your basic street "want to join my team?" games. You pick up players to join your team, and play it out. It can be played online or offline on the PLAYSTATION Network. Your team size can range from 1 on 1 to a 5 on 5 game.

Then we have your classic 3PT shootout. Your basically playing Around the World in this mode, except if you miss, you keep going. You get 5-6 shots per round, when your done the spot your in, the player moves to the next spot and begins his shootout from there. The only big problem in this mode is the shooting accuracy, there doesn't seem to be a scale to perfect your shots, just a flick of the right analog stick.

Then we have the Game of 21, which is another of my favorite modes. Those of you who ball in real life know the game by the name of Utah. It's a 3 man game with everyman for himself, if you get the ball in, you get a free throw, and you keep free throwing till you miss. This mode was a great implement and I enjoy it a lot.

Last but not least, the place you go before you dunk, and thats Dunk School. There is no real teacher in Dunk School, refer to this mode as Dunk Practice instead. If you want to perfect your dunking skills, come here, practice with objects, and such.

There are many features in the game, not worth going to much into detail though. There is My NBA, which shows your game sliders, the VIP Viewer, Trophy Viewer, which do whats stated in their titles, 2K Beats & Reelmaker which let you customize tracks and videos of your game, then there is Codes, which let you cheat in the game.

The graphics of 2K8 are pretty good compared to it's counterpart, NBA Live 08. It has a slight advantage over Live with graphics. They are beautifully rendered at 60FPS, so they have to be good.

The soundtrack of this game (which was in-game, and also mailed to me) consists of mainly rap and hip-hop. It contains music from the likes of Run DMC, Common, and such. If your a hip-hop fan, you won't mind this music a bit, you'll enjoy it.

All in all, NBA 2K8 was a great experience and I'm honored I got to review it. Whether you like to stay street, or like to stay in the season, NBA 2K8 is a basketball game for all types of basketball fans. 2K Games did a good job attracting a big crowd, and this title is a sure buy out of it's other two competitors.

Presentation: 8.0
NBA 2K8 brings the looks of basketball to a newer level with the new Blacktop mode included in the game.

Gameplay: 8.4
As if you thought it wouldn't get better than what we seen in NBA 2K7. The gameplay is solid, but there are a few glitches.

Graphics: 8.8
Graphics look great, and more frames are being used than in NBA Live 08.

Audio: 9.0
The soundtrack for the game features the likes of Talib Kweli, Run DMC, and all your favorite hip-hop artists.

Replayability: 8.5
It's not that hard to pick up a basketball game when some friends are over and get into a game.

Final Verdict: 8.4 out of 10