Game Reviews

NBA 2K15

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| My NBA 2K15
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NBA 2K15
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| My NBA 2K15

NBA 2K15 is a ridiculously big game. Not just in terms of the amount that's stuffed into this annual rejigging of the franchise, either. It's 3GB.

So if you like saving space on your iPhone or iPad, it's probably going to cause you some headaches.

Luckily it's got the chops to make up for its slightly bonkers girth problem. This is one of the slickest basketball experiences we've seen on the App Store.

It's gorgeous to look at, controls brilliantly even using the on-screen buttons, and there's a huge wealth of game modes, from single matches to a full career mode.

There are a few niggles here and there, and this is a title that's definitely going to chug on older devices, but it's still well worth some of your time.

He's on fire

The game starts off by letting you feel your way around a quick match. Here you pick a couple of teams from the NBA, each with their proper roster of stars, and take one of them out for a spin.

There are three buttons to let you control your players, and they switch depending on whether you've got the ball or your opponent has. When the ball is in your hands you can pass, shoot, and dribble.

The dribble command lets you perform some swishy bouncy moves to try and fool whoever's trying to mark you. The others are pretty self explanatory. When you're defending you can block, steal, and switch players.

The defending is probably the trickiest part of the game. An arrow extends from your feet to show you the player you should be marking, and you need to stay close to them and keep them from getting an easy shot.

Swish

Things are a little different in career mode. Where before the action showed most of the court, here it's focused on a single player that you've built. You can't switch players, but you get a couple of extra options that let you perform stronger defence and set up plays.

It's here that the real meat of the game lies. You get to take your player from rookie to star. It's tough going, but it's definitely worth persevering with. Learning where you need to be, when you need to be there, and how you should play, makes for a really engrossing experience.

There's plenty to tweak to tailor the game to your liking as well. You can change the length of the quarters, speed up the action, and generally have a poke around to make sure you're getting the most basketball you can get out of each session.

Can buy a bucket

There are some problems though. I played the game on the iPad Air, and it struggled to keep up when things got busy on screen. It crashed to my home screen a couple of times as well.

There's no multiplayer options either. It'd be nice to see a turn-based free throw game chucked in so you could play with friends if you wanted.

Still, there's an impressive game once you get beyond all that. It's not console perfect, but it's still a fine display of how far smartphone and tablet gaming has come in the last few years.

NBA 2K15

A huge and hefty basketball experience, NBA 2K15 has its problems, but it's still worth a look
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.