NBA 2K12 Dips Into Novelty and Comes Up a Winner -- For Now - RaychelSnr's Blog

Arena Blog Dynasty Scores Sign Up ☰

RaychelSnr's Blog

NBA 2K12 Dips Into Novelty and Comes Up a Winner -- For Now Stuck

Posted on August 4, 2011 at 11:07 AM.

(34)

What do you do when you include the greatest player to ever play your sport in an edition of your game and its sales double?

Why you bring him back and include a bunch of his classic compadres. 2K Sports deserves a lot of credit for basically ensuring 2K12 will have some novelty of its own. Novelty is what can make a stale series great again -- just ask Tiger Woods PGA Tour from this past year how the Masters helped spur buzz and ultimately sales of the game.

In case you haven't heard, NBA 2K12 is getting a new mode called NBA's Greatest Mode. At the current time only five players are confirmed and they are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan.

But there's 10 more still to go. And we know we're going back to at least the 60's -- time to get 100 points like Wilt.

Including historical broadcast elements into the game for their eras is going to be sick as it is. Having historical arenas will be absolutely awesome. Let's face it, the NBA wasn't played in cathedrals in the 60s -- at least not everywhere.

Given the tendency for the NBA Lockout to basically take out the first half of this season if you believe some of what you are hearing, this is a good move to try to spur sales. And even more important is that for the game itself, this bit of added novelty will ensure NBA 2K12 gets the buzz it needs to be successful this season.

Most sports games are running low on originality -- and many would do themselves proud by going the novelty route at least for a season or two just to increase buzz a bit for their titles.

Yes that's right, I just said gimmick over substance. But guess what? Unless you are 12 -- playing as classic teams and players probably resonates with you at least somewhat in any sport.

Of course, this does raise the question of what can 2K12 keep doing with the classics angle after this year -- and you are right about the simple fact that we simply do not know. The thing about novelty is that it is fun at first -- but if you keep coming back to the same well you end up being more annoying than anything else.

But for now, I'm looking forward to a potential Shaq vs. Wilt matchup coming to my TV screen in the very near future.

Comments

# 16 dmcbyrd @ Aug 4

JM zxD345ERDFVX VVVVVwsaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa%r

# 17 zmennine @ Aug 5

Well we only need to find out which 7 teams are going to make the game. I say seven teams left, because in the trailer you can see the hawk,rockets, and the trail blazzers. im hoping to see Shaq on the magic with Penny Hardaway. i also want to see Reggie miller.

# 18 Cryolemon @ Aug 5

I think more sports games should do this. I know Madden can't really after the issues they had with Jim Brown, but it would be cool to see something like this in a football game. It would be pretty cool in FIFA too (50's Hungary vs. 90's Brazil anyone?). Back to 2k though, I think the game where this sort of feature could OWN is MLB2k. Baseball goes back so much further than most other sports in terms of being recognisable, and there are plenty of well known names even as far back as the 1880's.

# 19 VUUAASSHHH! @ Aug 5

Black and white colored games. What else? No 3pt line at 70`s?

# 20 tril @ Aug 6

IMO, the classics packages opens up the 2k title. basically this openes up the possibility of playing the NBA from its inception.
Isee an association/legacy mode where you can control a team from its inception. imagine having the ability to rewritre the nba's history.
do the Celtics Dybnasty do they or user actually draft Russell,
does Chicago draft Jordan during the Chicago Dynasty era.
this really opens up the game.
plus all the rule changes found throuh out history. in the 60s there werent 3 pointers.
I see endless possibilities now. This game's potential has increaed 10fold.
2k's NBA team is defintely special. I want to work for them.

# 21 cajunspice @ Aug 6

Pete Maravich please

# 22 artdog5110 @ Aug 6

Like a previous poster alluded to you need to be able to edit to form historic teams. *0's Lakers here I come! Can we please do this on the Show? Or 2K12 If they can make it playable.

# 23 artdog5110 @ Aug 6

I ment 80's Lakers

# 24 sheredia @ Aug 6

including some classic teams from each era (60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's) would be a good idea. this is great year to do this as well, with the lockout and all. you got to give 2k credit for coming up with something like this to generate interest in a lockout year. if baseball could do this, that would be awesome. doesn't look like football will be able to though.

# 25 BRxSKINSx @ Aug 8

This sounds like its gonna be a helluva game mode....I love 2k basketball games....every year 2k imporves....BUT I'm an online gamer, so this doesn't do anything for me.....Give us ONLINE ASSOCIATION.....Go 2K.....

# 26 thanvar @ Aug 8

Sir Charles!!!!

# 27 BQ32 @ Aug 9

What they really need to do to put this game over the top is include a legends mode online. That way Online can have 2 seperate leaderboards, one for current NBA teams, and one for legend teams. That would be sick. For competitive gamers such as myself the Jordan challenges did get a bit boring as you were forced to hog the ball and not play in the optimum way to win the game much of the time. I would rather jump online and play. However I love using the old suads and anytime my buddies and I play on the same set we usually use the old school teams. Why they did not allow players to use those on unranked games is beyond me. Would have extended the novelty of having Magic and Bird in the game. So if they do that, then spend some effort fixing oline connectivity, eliminate the jump hop spamming, and have better collision detection online would be great

# 28 Control-X @ Aug 10

Hell yeah it's 2k12 already! Bring "The Round Mound of Rebound" to the game too! C'mon Sir Charles!

# 29 Culture Rot @ Aug 10

congrats to 2k for finding ways to push themselves and make the game greater for the fans despite not having any competition.

# 30 Gwiz007baller @ Aug 11

That A Great Feature. But will they finally give us the Association online or something close to it where GM's can build teams and take pride in having Ownership of a Champion? Buying if they do!

« Previous 123 Next »

RaychelSnr

Create Your Card Flip Card Over