Game info

• Title NBA 2K24 Arcade Edition
• Developer Visual Concepts
• Publisher 2K
• Year 2023
• Platforms iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac
• Genre Sports

Grab your squad and experience the past, present, and future of hoops culture in NBA 2K24. Enjoy pure, authentic action and limitless personalized MyPLAYER options in MyCAREER. Collect an impressive array of legends and build your perfect lineup in MyTEAM. Relive your favorite eras as a GM or Commissioner in MyNBA. Experience next-level gameplay and lifelike visuals with your favorite NBA and WNBA teams in PLAY NOW.

Player Select

I’ll be honest, I’ve never really considered playing a basketball game to any degree of detail before, but this is part of a new setup that just has to be tested. Of course getting a PS5 is on the list but availability of device and also of time has been a limiting factor. So instead, why not take a PS5 level game and stream it to the TV through an iPhone instead? OK!

It really boggles my mind that the phone is capable of playing this quality and complexity of game - I know that they’re always banging on about it in the Keynotes and Live Events but I zone out a bit because I’m not a huge gamer (YET!). But yeah, the phone is really powerful and, for me, this is just the beginning.

It’s in the Game

If you like basketball, this seems like a really great game. I was playing only a few minutes and managed to figure out a lot of passing between players and even had a couple of shots on goal. There were a few easy choices to make to get straight into the playing, one of which was deciding between easy difficulty and pro difficulty. Not a hard choice to make.

I did have to research the controls to find the shoot button and found a great page of controls, but the problem is I don’t know much of the basketball terminology to translate that onto the screen. It seems excessively complicated to me but then I wasn’t tremendously motivated to give it the necessary time to get comfortable.

The graphics are incredible and if you tilt your head and let your eyes drift just slightly, you could be fooled into thinking you’re watching an actual game unfold on screen. According to the website there are a couple of seasons on the game released already and that just suggests more to come in future. There’s plenty to explore in the game in terms of career play, challenging friends to matches, and wider multiplayer events as well.

Thoughts

Look, it’s not for me and it’s not going to take up a lot of my time, but I was really impressed with the graphics and the look and feel of the thing. If I do get into basketball in the future and want to try my hand at winning a match or two, then I’ll certainly be diving back in.

Rating: 2 / 5