Embarking with the quiet confidence of cover athlete Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his team, the reigning world champion Oklahoma City Thunder, "NBA 2K26" makes the near-impossible look all too easy. Just about every year, critics hail the latest entry in the NBA sim franchise as the North Star in the world of sports sims, and this year's entry maintains the franchise's superstar performance.
The slogan for this year's game is "Ball Over Everything," and the Visual Concepts dev team integrated the philosophy into every imaginable aspect of the game, from menus, to loading speed, realism in animations and broadcast presentation. The aim seems to be to dispense with the roadblocks and get the players on the court as quickly as possible. Once the virtual ball is in your hand it's easy to be captivated by the rhythm and flow of the game.
Invigoratted by my acquisition of the Switch 2, I requested to review the game on that console, bracing myself against fears that Nintendo versions of the game would pale in comparison to that on mainline consoles. To my delight, the game looked and played as well as I've seen 2K on the Xbox Series X/S or PlayStation 5, with the added bonus of allowing me to take it on the go. This feature easily makes the Switch 2 my preferred way to hit the 2K court.
An expansive tutorial, dubbed "Learn 2K," takes you through all the paces, teaching you the refinements in shooting, passing and defense, as well as hints and tricks to enhance your strategy. There is plenty to learn here, even for veteran players.
The series has always thrived on its reverant treatment of the past, and that's certainly the case in this year's game, which allows you to choose from among a star-studded roster of legends in something akin to a grade school pickup game, letting you take the floor with your created player as you face off against a Michael Jordan-led team of Hall of Famers.
From there, the intensity only escalates. As it does every year, the game bursts with loads of modes and enhancements meant to get you to forget about football season and resume your hoops fix.
MyCareer modes shakes off its recent slump and returns to fine form, discarding many of the irritating microtransaction solicitations in favor of a holistic and grounded create-a-player lifestyle mode that bursts with nods to pop culture and the history of the league. While the micro (and macro) transactions are still there for the pay-to-win obsessed, they seem to me minimized in favor of sheer enjoyment of the amusement park-like hoop dreams that spawn in the realm dubbed The City.
Even the bedraggled MyMGM mode, which tends to lag rather than lead when it comes to franchise mode innovations manages to acquit itself well, adding some subtle and welcome refinements to streamline the user interface and replicate that high-intensity action of the NBA trade deadline.
On court, the game bubbles with ripped-from-the-highlights animations, a streamlined shooting system that makes your jumpers, layins and dunks seem more based on a cross between skill and circumstance than happenstance, and enlightened commentary and intricately detailed suites of the sights and sounds that can be had in each NBA and WNBA arena experience.
Many believe SGA and his Thunder are on the verge of starting a Jordan-like dynasty, but what he's really doing is tapping into a tradition of elite success that Jordan gleaned from the Showtime Lakers, which followed the tradition of the Bill Russell Celtics. The 2K dynasty established by Virtual Concepts continues to cut down the nets in such a manner, and thanks to its breakthrough Switch 2 edition, lets you take your show on the road.
Publisher provided review code.
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