Over the last several years, despite the fact that EA’s NBA Live franchise continues to win the sales race, 2K Games’ NBA 2K franchise has become the Basketball game of choice for hoops connoisseurs. That said, the franchise seems to be headed down a path of diminishing returns, as each game takes the game closer and closer to the real time, but does so in incrementally smaller steps. The result – games in the NBA 2K franchise are becoming more and more familiar. In efforts to stem the stagnation, 2K Games has put some effort into creating alternate gameplay experiences through extra modes, but with mixed results. The end result is a good basketball game that should excite fans of the sport, but won’t draw any new fans in, or bring former NBA Live loyalists into the fold. NBA 2K7 is probably the best basketball game ever made, but the average player would be hard pressed to tell just how much its improved beyond last year’s ‘best basketball game ever made.’

Before we dive right into the gameplay, let’s look at the features and options of the game. The game includes the quick play feature, playing through a season, "The Association", the option to play some street ball, and the normal tournament style. 2K fans know of most these already, but there is a new addition to the game this year: the "24/7 NEXT" mode, a revamped version of the 24/7 mode which plays out like a hackneyed ‘story mode.’

Simply put, the 24/7 NEXT is just an embarrassment to the game. Some credit has to be given to 2K for attempting to make something original, but it just fails in comparison to the rest of the game. The 24/7 Next mode starts you out in some run down outdoor Miami basketball court, when one of your friends notice that Shaq is shooting free throws a mere 30 feet away. You challenge O'Neal to a game of ball, and he turns you down. After that, your friends tell you to challenge him to shooting baskets at the free throw line. After beating him (how can you lose to Shaq at the free throw line?), you'll get an invitation to a charity event sponsored by the NBA. Somewhere out there, there’s a third grader looking to sue 2K Games for stealing his idea for a movie script; the ‘plot’ is juvenile, and the dialogue is awful – almost as bad as the delivery. That said, this is a basketball game, not an RPG, so assuming the actual gameplay provided by this mode is fun, then everything is forgiven right? You know what they say about assumptions.

Before you go to the sponsored event, you need to make your character in the game’s fairly robust create a character mode. The menus in this are a little confusing at first, as it doesn't look like 2K spent too much time organizing it and making it very easy to dive in (like the editors featured in Saints Row or Oblivion). After creating your star player, you'll be taken to the event at Miami's apparently un-maintained recreation center. Here you will play against professional NBA players in an attempt to earn "rep" in hopes of moving on to the next venue, gradually earning enough ‘cred’ to be invited to the big charity tournament, and then hopefully, into the NBA.



All the games you will play will be street ball, which means some of the more technical rules of basketball won't get in the way of your fun, such as fouls or reaching in calls. To earn more rep, you need to beat many professional NBA players, each of which will award you a certain amount of points for besting their efforts. Once your rep gets to a certain point, the game will start issuing challenges to you, such as play a game down by a certain number of points, or told only to dunk, etc. The computer doesn’t play by the same rules, so, for example if you’re only allowed to dunk, they can still do jump shots and lay ups (hence the ‘challenge’ moniker). So not only are they handicapping the player, but allowing the computer players to essentially disregard the traditional rules of basketball under the ‘street’ rationale – as a result, these challenges typically range anywhere from irritatingly difficult to downright unfair. Completing them rarely if ever brings a sense of satisfaction, and if it does, it’s more along the lines of ‘Thank God that’s over’ than ‘Yes, I rock, what a game!’ Once you get your rep high enough, you can go to another community center and do it all over again. You have to do this a total of six times, which means repetition and frustration from the challenges are the only things you will get out of this mode.

Next up is the Association mode. The association mode lets you take control of a NBA Team. You are the man in charge of everything about your team. Your coach, your players, your scouts, everyone is your employee. You can do what ever you wish with them and to them. There is one noticeable flaw about this mode though, as it doesn't seem to have any character. It is just a series of menus, and the only real noticeable difference you will see is when you hire different players. After you deal with everything, you can actually get started on playing some games. You will play through an entire season of basketball, playoffs included. Once again, it just seems to lack some character, as you will just see a calendar and when you’re scheduled to play a game, you play it (or can skip it by simulating it). You can also schedule practices which will slowly shape the team to how you like to play. Like a standard season, if you don't win enough games, you don't make it to the playoffs. If you win the playoffs, you pretty much just get a screen that says "Congratulations, [your team here] won the playoffs!" One major difference between the Association mode and Season mode is that in season mode you can just take players from other teams and they don't care. In season, you can just order the Miami Heat to give you Shaq, or trade a rookie nobody for Kobe. Another difference is that in Association mode, players will eventually retire and you'll have to scout new, promising rookies.