2K continues to build upon the highly successful NBA 2K franchise with the release of NBA 2K16 on Oct. 7. The game promised exceptional, life-like graphics, ultra-realistic gameplay, and a complete basketball simulation experience. Its predecessor, NBA 2K15, was nominated for a 70 Game of the Year Award, and 2K16 definitely ups the ante. 2K pulled out all the stops, putting NBA MVP Kevin Durant on the front of the game's hot new cover. "Happy" musician Pharell Williams curated the game's music. As good as the on-the-court visuals are, there is a complaint to be had with the visuals otherwise. All of the type is exceedingly small and very difficult to read. It's almost as if developers just took the full television-sized text and simply shrunk it down to fit onto the screen of a smartphone.

 

If it's as hard to read on the iPhone 6, one can only assume it would be near-impossible to read on the smaller screens found on the iPhone 5 and 4. We also love the surprisingly hilarious pre-game segments involving Ernie Johnson and Shaquille O'Neal. This TV-style presentation is something we feel should be included in all new-gen sports games, and it's great to see it here. It's nice to see 2K publish a version of its NBA 2K16 game for iOS and Android, it's too bad that this is the game smartphone owners are getting for their $8. Curated by Pharrell Williams, the soundtrack also deserves special praise. Not quite the hip-hop overload we were expecting, it's instead an eclectic mixture of music from all different genres.

 

I decided to try out the MyPlayer feature first. In 2K16 almost everything is labelled as My[Whatever]; Season, GM, Player etc. There is also NBA Today which, I assume, will allow you to replay the games of the day once the season kicks off. The first thing you do in the MyPlayer mode on the Xbox One is create your own face for your player using the Kinect. How exciting, right?! The word you are actually looking for is hilarious. The faces the face scan system creates look like concept art for The Evil Within. My first attempt didn’t even have eyes! So I gave up and went with sculpting a face using the regular tools instead. I might even go as far as to say that NBA 2K16 could very well compete with anything else released this year for the right to call itself the best-looking game on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.

 

There's been more than one occasion when my girlfriend walked into the living room, didn't see the DualShock 4 in my hands, and assumed I'd found a way to watch out-of-market games without springing for cable. 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. 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. This year’s title, like many of the iterations before it, plays best when you’re playing flashy, show-off basketball. Using the turbo button and the pro stick, you can leave opponents stuck in the mud and drive to the hoop; or create a little separation and nail the jumper.

 

The game does reward you for passing the ball around - literally, just throw it around the perimeter a couple times and watch your shooting percentage improve - but it’s rare that the passing is as precise as you need it to be. The best strategy NBA 2K16 offers is to get the ball to your best players and let them go to work. The cover of the game features last year’s Most Valuable Player Kevin Durant. It was the first year Durant won MVP, so it’s fitting that he is on the cover. Last year’s cover player was LeBron James, who won four MVP awards in the five previous years. It was a breakthrough season for Durant on his way to his first MVP award as well as winning his 4th NBA scoring title in a row. They definitely made the right choice in putting him on the cover.