With a new year comes a new basketball game. This year, the obligatory yearly update is a means for a plethora of interesting innovations, better graphics, and key features that are going to separate this title from the rest of the competition. NBA 2K6 runs with that idea all across the court.

Since most titles are engineered based on the realism of plays, real life players, customization, attributes, and animations, very little is focused on the actual play of the game. This wasn’t fully grasped until the early 90’s when NBA Jam emphasized 2-on-2 play with over the top dunks, moves, steals and everything else that made it a very unorthodox and fun game to play. Focusing on the fun aspect, NBA 2K6 realizes that it isn’t the features or roster that really makes the game, it's what the player is free to do.

Taking a page from popular titles from the late 90’s such as NBA Jam and more recent titles such as NBA Street Vol.3, 2K6 takes on more impressive and flashy moves, a shot stick for a more control over shots, a dual teammate mode and many others. 2K6 has all the features, but does it stand up as a decent game that you're about to put out 40 bucks for? Let’s find out.

Gameplay:

This is what really creates the enjoyment of a real basketball game; the ability to pick up and play and catch on quickly. Right off the bat, 2K6 gives you a load of features to really immerse yourself in, depending on which mode you play in. Along with the usual franchise and standard exhibition modes, there is also the 24/7 mode that has become quite common as a version of the career mode in most basketball titles.

As mentioned above, this career mode basically takes a custom character through the now subtitled mode 'Road to the Entertainers Basketball Classic'(EBC). Although not as well known among casual gamers, this mode takes you from a street ball player through New York’s Rucker Park. Given that the idea is to make it to stardom and fully develop your skills as a basketball player, the road ahead is long and very challenging.

It’s a nice breath of fresh of air to the boring and obviously worn out season mode in most games but it doesn’t carry the same versatility of the NBA Street games. Bringing in the new career mode, you create and clothe your character down to his socks, shirt, and even give him a college, positions played, name, and number. Everything is covered when they say "customize" and this offers a lot of diversity to play with.


Shaq's got only one thing on his mind at this point... hamburgers.

Once you have finished creating your character in the game, then you’re off to a map of the U.S with various destinations until your final game. Not to take away from most of the game, but 24/7 in the 2K6 title really emulates the streetball experience and fits well into the many different games you play.

Needless to say, 24/7 is the mode where you'll likely spend most of your time. Most exhibition modes only exist to play against a friend or even jump online and take on tournaments and the sort. Although the game has brought a facelift to the 24/7 mode, it has also been adjusted to the characters in the game.

One such upgrade to the actual game play is the adjusted AI teammates as well as opposing team members. When a play is called, teammates move into position, get open, and play to their statistics and the like; no longer will smaller characters swat at the big guys without getting trampled or a foul called.