The most consistent performer over more than a decade, Visual Concepts NBA 2K series again takes honors as 2018’s best sports video game.
In the fall I had a brief conversation with someone in sports video game publishing where they expressed some frustration with how reviews of their work — and others’ — seem to go lately: New mode is nice, old mode looks the same, third mode didn’t get anything, so it’s an 8 out of 10.
With annual development cycles being what they are, and developers, critics and players of sports video games all aware that major improvements to one area will take attention away from another, there seem to be fewer, if any, ways for sports’ bedrock franchises to break out, or to even be a game of the year for a reason other than incumbency. That’s sort of where the conversation begins in 2018 for the best sports video game, a genre that still deserves to have its best singled out.
There were sports video games that stood apart this year: NBA Live 19, Super Mega Baseball 2 and Mario Tennis Aces are the most distinctive specimens of sports games in 2018. But as enjoyable as they were, I didn’t feel like I was playing a sports GOTY contender in any of them, even if they told more of a story about sports in 2018 than the usual mainstays. Tennis returned with a licensed simulation-style title on consoles ( Tennis World Tour) for the first time since 2011, and The Golf Club 2 added the PGA Tour and several real-world courses. Both are welcome developments for two underserved sports, and especially their fans, in a video game genre that is still contracting — but not GOTY timber either.
Among the usual suspects, NBA 2K19 is a very good game, whereas NBA 2K is the phenomenon. That is, the thing that makes that game great is really the years upon years of detail. The luxury it has of doing so many extra things — and hell, the lifestyle it simulates in addition to a sport — is because Visual Concepts nailed the bedrock expectations years ago. There’s also MyCareer, and for all the depth offered there, there’s the lingering discomfort about how much time it takes to be competitive — time that can be fast-forwarded for real money, and often is.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 may have a truer game of football, but that’s about all it had on FIFA 19, and the margin there was slimmer than ever. FIFA 19 added the UEFA Champions League branding and tournament, and PES — that event’s former home — felt emptier than it has been in five years. On the other hand, FIFA 19 limped through the third chapter of its story mode and made very little change to the career mode. Although MLB The Show 18 had the courage to mess with what is, by far, its most played mode (the single-player Road to the Show), the changes it delivered are understood over a very long stretch. And even for an initial swing at remaking the career, some of the limitations and choices seemed more arbitrary than understandable. That again underlines how much of sports video game success depends on iteration.
