They may be statistical goals or a target grade for your ‘Teammate Rating’. Before every game you play, you’re given 3 specific tasks to complete. This created player mode is the deepest I’ve ever experienced in an NBA game. The 'MJ: Creating a Legend' mode mirrors the 'My Player' mode, which allows you to take your created player and guide take him from pre-draft workouts to possible NBA stardom. The inclusion of Jordan and the classic ‘Jordan Moments’ definitely triggers a sense of nostalgia to basketball fans who grew up in the age of MJ, and adds something very unique to the NBA 2K series. Beating all 10 moments opens up a new mode, 'MJ: Creating a Legend, where you guide MJ from a rookie to the end of his career, all while trying to duplicate his real life statistics. Unlike ‘Madden Moments’, you must play the entire game and meet multiple statistical marks in order to successfully complete each moment. Much like ‘Madden Moments’, you try to replicate 10 of the greatest performances of Jordan’s career, from scoring 63 points in The Garden in his first playoff appearance all the way to his final shot as a Bull to win the 97-98 NBA Championship. 2K11 has all the standard modes you’d expect and adds in more, specifically the ‘Jordan Challenge’. Once you’re able to explore the menus, you see where NBA 2K11 really shines, the plethora of game modes. It gives a new meaning to the phrase, “ it’s gotta be the shoes.” It may seem small, but being able to equate a performance boost with an item you can actually see during a game makes the boost seam more legitimate. I loved this way of integrating player boosts, it feels much better than the ‘card’ system that other sports games use.

Each pair of sneakers can be equipped to any player in the league (or your created player), and give them different ratings boosts. Win the game and you’re rewarded with your first pair of Air Jordan shoes.

After spending a good amount of time with the game though, I can say that 2K Sports has delivered arguably the best basketball simulation ever.Īs soon as you fire up the game, before you ever see a menu, you step into the shoes of cover boy Michael Jordan and play through Game 1 of the 1991 NBA Finals. As a result, when I picked up the retail copy, I was more nervous than I normally would be for a 2K Sports release. If you’ve been awaiting the release of NBA 2K11 and you’re a Game Rant reader, you’ve probably seen my first impressions of the demo, and you know I wasn’t too happy with it. It was pretty bare bones It didn’t allow you to do much other than a ‘quick game’, and you couldn’t even make substitutions. The 'Jordan Challenge' adds an incredibly fun trip down memory lane

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