Visual Concepts·Released Sep 8, 2022·Single player
Rise to the occasion in NBA 2K23. Showcase your talent in MyCareer. Pair All-Stars with timeless legends in MyTeam. Build your own dynasty in MyGM, or guide the NBA in a new direction with MyLeague. Take on NBA or WNBA teams in "Play Now" and feel true-to-life gameplay.
This game, and series, has nothing but contempt for you
Can profound depth in its single-player modes overcome the microtransaction machine?
NBA 2K23 makes the inevitable downgrades and cuts that we see every year with this franchise on Nintendo's console and, just like other last-gen versions of the game, it's also missing both The City and the brand new MyNBA Eras. Loading times can be frustrating, and 30fps basketball feels noticeably stodgier than the 60fps found in other versions. However, if you can put up with these necessary downgrades and slight technical shortcomings, this is still a solid port of a superb basketball sim that's stuffed full of enough content to see fans through another season.
Though the game has its fair share of issues with its poor narrative choices and omnipresent microtransactions, it’s still a significant improvement over the previous game.
It may be easy to accuse sports games of offering the same experience year in and year out, but you simply can't say that about NBA 2K23. The game still has issues with its overemphasis on microtransactions in MyCareer and to a lesser extent MyTeam, but the new MyNBA Eras mode is a revelation – and the Jordan Challenge campaign is damn fun, too. On the court, 2K Sports has made some nice balancing tweaks and also improved the overall AI to make matches more dynamic and competitive, and when you pair all of that with all the new animations, you end up with a basketball sim that's the very definition of a slam dunk.
No sports game gets the past right quite like NBA 2K23 – and its present-day immersiveness is incredibly powerful, too.
Simultaneously a love letter to basketball fans and a microtransaction-infested disappointment.
NBA 2K23 is a return to form for the usually exceptional series, improving gameplay while imbuing a sincere love for basketball history into new and reimagined modes.
