There is an ongoing basketball gaming dilemma.

Every year 2K Sports and EA Sports battle it out to become the king of the basketball universe. In fact, besides trading blows when it comes to features and gameplay, they seem to be recruiting the most talented developers like they are head coaches going after McDonald's All-American players. For example, Mike Wang was originally a NBA 2K developer. He went to the NBA Live/Elite franchise but then returned to 2K after finishing development on NBA Live 10.

The point is these companies want to be the best around. The dilemma is that basketball games are really hard to make.

EA Sports Basketball

NBA Live 10 made a lot of positive strides last year. I even felt it was close to reclaiming a crown it had not worn on its head in years. In all honesty, to even be considered for basketball game of the year was quite an accomplishment for the NBA Live series.

The court spacing was there. The perimeter play had some nice functionality to it. The passing and cutting were crisp, and the offensive attack to the rim took a page out of 2K’s blueprints. Throwing one down with Superman actually felt more rewarding in Live 10 than in NBA 2K10. You could feel Dwight’s power pull on the rim and rattle the hoop via the sound design and rumble of the controller.

So I can’t help but wonder what NBA Live 11 would have been like had the series stayed on the original path. Regardless, this is a transitional year for EA’s team. And, unfortunately, scrapping the classic (though, yes, somewhat tainted) NBA Live franchise for a new rebranded look and feel in a span of an estimated 11 months -- all while the competition signs Air Jordan -- is not a good turn of events.

I have played through the NBA Elite demo. The demo is bare. It feels unfinished and even looks unfinished when you take the court for a five-on-five game. The controls also remind me of a repackaged Freestyle control scheme that was marketed to us way back when -- repackaged with the EA Sports patented "X" factor, renamed and resold.

In theory, a control scheme for the human body in a video game sounds great, but I just don’t know if it makes a whole lot of sense for a basketball title. I’m a big advocate of pushing the limits and boundaries of controls -- that’s the reason why I still believe in the Skate franchise and gave Skate 3 a high review score. The controls in that game are just so deep and intuitive that the game continues to amaze you many weeks and months later. And, if you remember back to the original Skate, most people will tell you that the controls just clicked with them from the very start.

Maybe the Skate 3 controls were something the NBA Elite team looked at ahead of time. In Skate, the left bumper controls the left arm, right bumper controls the right arm. The left analog stick is your board and direction, and the right analog is your torso. These are amazing controls. But in a game of skateboarding, you skate at your own pace. In basketball, the pace is dictated by 10 players moving in concert.

2K Basketball

In my original draft of this piece, and in my NBA 2K11 demo impressions, I spoke about the unresponsive feel to changing directions while playing on-ball defense. Well, the main source of my issue dealt with trying to play fundamentally sound defense without abusing the turbo. Little did I know that the turbo breaks you out of your stance so you can collapse on attackers. In other words, this game is deep and there is an element of trial and error.

In addition, I’m still in awe of some of the moves our own Momentous pulled off with Kobe. I mean signature Kobe Bryant moves on the fly? Are you kidding me with the footwork in this video? That was amazing and I’m still trying to pull off the patented Kobe ball fake, foot plant and spin -- though, perhaps it's a problem I haven't figured out how to pull it off yet.

For a basketball purist like myself, it would also be a nice surprise to see a basketball title that just flows. NBA 2K10, while brilliant in its own right, had problems in this department. And while NBA 2K10 had amazing features and endless animations, there was a degree of choppiness and clumsiness as well. NBA 2K11 seems to be clearing up this issue somewhat, but the point still needs to be made.

Controls and Momentum in Basketball Games

It would be great if Steve Nash hit guys in stride during their cuts to the hoop like a QB throwing a slant over the middle of a football field -- or like a lead pass in FIFA. I think this type of feel to the controls is necessary if you want to get the game flowing like it does in the FIFA or NHL series.

These games must continue to look at controls and ideas from all sorts of genres. Elite took a chance this year with their controls, but it doesn't mean analog controls are the only way to go. NBA Street Homecourt had some great dunking controls based on holding and timing the release of face buttons. Could this perhaps work in a game like NBA 2K11?

To me, the dilemma with basketball titles in the era of gaming we live in deals with physics and controls. Both titles this year really seemed to try and focus on these elements. Nevertheless, smooth transitions and body movements in a video game mapped to a set of joysticks is extremely hard to emulate.

So there is a sense of balance here that is truly a challenge for these basketball developers. Grant players the ability to break free from restrictions, and they will all become supermen who will destroy the ratings system. But if you attempt to make the game play like a real game of ball, you walk the fine line of potentially creating a slow gameplay style that lacks a certain element of fun.