What To Expect
NBA Ballers Chosen One is an arcade style, over-the-top, basketball game; it’s very much like EA’s NBA Street series. In Chosen One, players can choose from about seventy different NBA stars from all current NBA teams as well as getting to choose a few classic players, like Larry Bird. Each player has various stats indicating their ability to steal a ball or hit a three-pointer. With these players, you can jump into several different modes that the game offers, including 1 Vs 1, 2 Vs 2, 1 Vs 1 Vs 1, Practice, Ballers Shootout Challenge, and the 3 Point Challenge. Each of these options are pretty self explanatory; for the versus modes, you simply pick your player and your opponent(s), your venue, and you’re off. The two skills competition modes are even more straight-forward.
The heart of the single player experience lies in the Story Mode. Here, you begin by creating your Baller. Players can choose from several facial designs and body types, but you can also name your player, give him a nickname, even enter a birth date and number for him. Skills are broken down into a series of categories including two point shot, lay-up, low post offense, and so on. When creating your Baller, you are given 480 points to distribute to these various stats, but oddly enough you do not control how your skills change after this point: instead of giving the player to upgrade their skills as they see fit following games, the CPU decides how to distribute your skills earnings, based on your style of play that game. The idea is acceptable, but the execution left much to be desired, as on many occasions I noticed the CPU was spreading my skill points out to areas that I didn’t think made sense. Midway may have designed the game this way to encourage gamers to play a certain way, or to simplify the experience further; there is something to be said for that, but an option to toggle this element would have been a big plus.
With your Baller created, the adventure begins. The Story mode is broken up into six episodes, each featuring several challenges. Basically, your taking your Baller that you created through a tournament against NBA players in a quest to prove that you’re, well, The Chosen One. That said, each episode contains various challenges that you must complete to unlock other challenges and eventually earn the title of Chosen One. These challenges can range from 1 Vs 1 games to 11, to multi-round matches of 2 Vs 2, and more of course. Each episode is introduced by Chucky D on an NBA TV set, which may impress you or not. That said, I couldn’t help but relate this mode to the Konquest Mode in recent Mortal Kombat titles; you simply play through a series of small, sandbox challenges to get to an ultimate goal. It can work, but in Ballers the Story Mode got old in a hurry; there are simply too many harsh flaws in the gameplay to deal with.
My biggest issue with Ballers — and keep in mind I have not played the previous two Baller games — is how the actual basketball of the game plays out. I had minor issues with the controls while learning, but much bigger issues with the AI and gameplay mechanics persisted. It’s hard to describe the AI in Ballers; in some cases they seemed acutely aware of the game clock, when there was one, and other times they seemed clueless. At the same time, certain tactics seemed to work every single time on the AI. In one full court 2 Vs 2 game I played, I simply inbounded the ball, laid on the turbo, and every time I was able to out pace the defense and get to the opponent hoop with them right at my heels; for that entire game, and others, the AI never made the adjustment. Another bizarre occurrence involved the game clock running down; the AI was only down by one, and they had about ten seconds to get down court and score. Instead, the AI decided to go into a long combo sequence immediately after inbounding the ball; I can’t remember if I countered the combo or not, but regardless, while it fooled around with that, time expired and the AI was forced to throw up a full court shot which had no chance of going in.
Moreover, the feel of NBA Ballers Chosen One just doesn’t sit right. Despite some smooth and quick animations on dunks and other high flying moves, the rest of the experience felt kind of clunky. Much of the animation was stiff, and lacking in detail; nets that don’t move, player faces that don’t change expression, clothing textures on the players that didn’t animate or flow well — you get the idea. Chosen One didn’t impress me visually at any point in my time with it, and worse yet is the visuals detract almost as much as they add to the overall experience with lackluster animations and clipping issues.
Worth It?
NBA Ballers, for me, was most fun with a friend. When we were both playing, a lot of flaws that are hard to miss in the single player game took somewhat of a backseat to the fun factor of playing with a friend, be it co-op or versus. You will still notice the issues, but they are less pronounced. Four players can play simultaneously in local play, but online still only allows for 1 Vs 1 matches.