To me, review scores are a big indicator in determining whether a game is worthwhile to purchase or not. Alternatively, you can spend 5,000 Gold Coins (which equates to about £5 or so) to unlock every player on the roster. Thankfully, it doesn’t take that long to start earning these bucks, and you can rack them up by completing NBA Season matches, Exhibition Matches and even performing well in the 3-Pointer mini-game challenge. So when you first play the game you won’t have access to many players, and some teams will be completely inaccessible until you open a pack with a player on that franchise.
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When you first play the game you’ll have access to a couple of free packs which give you access to a handful of players. In order to unlock new cards (ie, new players), you’ll need to open packs which can be purchased with Baller Bucks, an in-game currency earned through completing matches and other mini-games. Of course, it wouldn’t be a 2K game without some microtransactions, and the publisher has introduced such a system to NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 - but don’t worry, it’s not as much of a shackle as it is in its other NBA games. There’s also the Playgrounds Championship, which enables you to play locally or online and test just how good your b-ball skills really are. Each run is much shorter and will reward you with a steady stream of in-game coins and a legendary card tied to the team you’ve just won the championship with (we’re big Minnesota Timberwolves fans, so we earned game-changing centre Karl-Anthony Towns for our efforts). The meagre tournament setup of the original has been replaced by a new NBA Season mode, but don’t worry about this being some 82-game slog you’d find in other basketball sims. It takes a little while to adjust to the sheer force of each jump or the timing needed to beat your opponent to a rebound, but once you’ve nailed it, NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 turns into an arcade riot. You can perform double alley-oops on your own, or make the most of your teammate and pull one off together.
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The shot clock introduced to the previous game via an update is back, as is the Lottery Picks system (which rewards you with enhanced stats, or debuffs the opposing team) for a brief window, and their inclusion ensures practically anyone can pick up a Joy-Con and be pull off sick three-pointers or blisteringly fast dunks.
Gameplay still flows much as it did in the previous game (although it’s noticeably a tad slower in terms of pace) and its shot-taking/blocking mechanics are just as forgiving, but character models are also a little better and some of the cartoonish courts boast more variety. With 2K now on-board, there are more ballers than ever to choose from - including legends of the sport such as Allen Iverson and Shaquille O'Neal - and everything has been given an extra layer of polish. As with the first game - which has endured a bizarre existence over the last year thanks to a mishandled attempt at a re-release - plenty of players from the current NBA roster (and many a former icon) are there to be unlocked and customised, and each one comes with their own unique set of stats and attributes. Matches are played as 2v2 setups, and dunks, layups and three-pointers are far easier to pull off as a result.
Much like that 16-bit classic, NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 is all about turning up the fun factor in the face of actual simulation.