NBA 2K

When NBA 2K was released by developers Visual Concepts (and published by Sega Sports) on November 10th 1999, this 28 year old gamer (as I was then) was already a big fan of basketball games thanks to the original Playstation. Sadly I missed this cool title first time around but after playing it last night for the first time I can safely say its a winner.
There are Exhibition, Full Season, Playoffs, Practice and Customization modes on offer, and in Customization mode you are able to create fake players and teams (go The Carmarthen Hangmen!) As a nifty extra gamers are also able to import created players and teams to other Dreamcast consoles.
Matches are stunning to look at with polished basketball courts complete with official team logos and convincing commentary by the off screen pundits. Controls are straightforward although the aiming arrows during penalties could be simpler than what they are, but shooting and passing are great and the on court players are well modelled without the chunkiness of other sports titles.
Interestingly NBA 2K is the only game from the series which doesn't allow online play but seeing as the Dreamcast Arena is now down it doesn't much matter.
I can see me spending hours on this game, and like so many Dreamcast games its still quite the looker a decade on. The only downside is the memory it takes up on a 50 block visual memory card: a whopping 48 blocks which leaves little room for any other game. (But these cards can be bought new for £3 nowadays so its all good).
All in all if you are wanting a decent hoop shooter for the price of a couple of beers then NBA 2K is a slam dunk.

Check me checking it out here.