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Inexplicably, it would seem as if the high-life, crystal sipping ventures of professional basketball players has schemed its way into video games. A genre once generally devoid of any pop culture whatsoever, arcade basketball games were nothing more than laying it up hoop to hoop with a friend. However, today, the same formulaic experiences like NBA Jam and NBA on NBC's Showtime seem to have been trashed for an ideal that focuses more on living large and get rich quick schemes. Hence, NBA Ballers Phenom comes into play.
Phenom is the kind of game that borrows the GTA formula of being an absolute nobody, usually after a prologue of events and pushes the player to go from a nothing to making past rivals kiss your pinky ring. The game's structure places you in Los Angeles, where you'll have to hop from 1-on-1 tourneys to short mini-games in hopes of being recognized as a champ. The main protagonist, your very own created character has to go from tourney to tourney ranking in credits and earnings to rock his way ever closer to his old friend gone bad; Hot Sauce. Speaking of character development, the Create a Baller mode is surprisingly deep. Customizing your very own legend is quick and fun with stat allocations and character model dimensions to distribute. You're even at the disposal of choosing your own announcer nickname, which is very reminiscent to past games like NBA Showtime.
Sure, this kind of story has been heard one too many times before. The stolen girlfriend, the betrayal, the need for revenge, falling off from the top and coming back for the second curtain. Retribution takes the form of a basketball and the court is your battlefield. Of course, even though the main focus of the game is to perform better in tournaments, you could very well stray from the expected path and take place in a few mini-games. While they are kind of trivial, they manage to be strangely fun and interesting.
But what holds the game back from being truly great are the loading times. Almost inexplicable, some load times take anywhere between 20 and 40 seconds to load a game. At times, it can get as ridiculous to taking as long to open a menu. There's no real reason why it should take so long, even if the spiffy menus and strikingly realistic facial mapping is present. It's just strange and seriously slows the game down, especially if you were hoping on catching a quick exhibition before heading out.
Strangely, out of all the changing aspects between Phenom and its predecessor, the gameplay is the part that's changed the least. It's the same old trick-heavy, monster dunk, crowd passing story. It's still a blast bonking the ball on your opponents face, but it leaves much more to be desired. And if you've played the first game, this alone makes it feel a lot more drawn out. Though if this is your first experience, it'll last a whole longer, it's just unfortunate that the same can't be said about Baller veterans.
Phenom had the potential to be one of the year's greatest arcade sports games, had it not technically faltered so heavily. The insane load times are going to kill anyone's patience and even beyond that, this game is more of a repackaging of the first. It's a fun little title granted you can overlook how shallow and simple the game mechanics are. Anyone who enjoys the action sports subgenre should give it a fair chance. |
