This season in the NBA has proven to be the most competitive that fans have witnessed in years! With all the great teams out there, no one knows who will come out as the top team in the finals. A similar situation is going on in the gaming world, many companies are trying to bring forth a superior basketball game that will be the champion of all hoop games. Remember Konami? Remember Double Dribble? Thats right folks, Konami has been probably the first company to bring us some of the first sport games that we have ever played. Konami is back this year with ESPN NBA 2NIGHT 2002! With all the stiff competition with the new basketball games out there, this year will look like a battle in the eastern or western conference finals for top basketball game spot! The question is, "Can this game beat last years champion NBA 2K2?" Well this may go to game seven, if you know what I mean. Lets look at what this game has to offer.

Konami has been a great innovator in the game industry and people may have forgotten what they have brought for us in the past. This year they are back with their new basketball instalment, and I must say there are great improvements to look forward to. It is great to see that the developers at Konami have become more in tune with developing for the PS2 and that is shown with the improvement in the visual presentation. The game looks a lot smother than last year, however there is a slight fuzziness to the player animations. I had to adjust the camera angle to get a better look at the power and the improvements that this game had to offer. Honestly graphics are not everything in a game, but when the competition has raised the bar, then one must match or beat that. I found that the game did slightly resemble a polished PS2 title. This is not what we wanna see at this point in time. There is a need for the player animations to be improved, the players move on the court not with the fluidity that we are accustomed to seeing in the new age of sports genera. Can I suggest more work on the motion capture of players if the developers are not already using it! The players need to have more realism to their movements on court. The up close shots of the players are good, some of the best texture mapping I have seen for player facial animations. However, the overall graphic presentation may not beat out NBA 2K2, but it is far from an eye sore.

The next important aspect to we gamers is of course, game play. Konami has provided us with the next generation control with their new turbo function. Different from last years title, it is good to see that the developers are creating innovative ways to play basketball video games. This game has all the moves that you find in all basketball games and it should be easy to learn once you grab for your controller, trust me this is Konami they have user friendly controls down to a sweet science. But to sink a free throw was easy to handle, not as frustrating as the NBA 2K2 may be at first try. So learning to take it to the hole will not be a problem with this game, trust me, you will be crowning guys under the hoop in no time.

The sound in this title is great as well. Konami has Brent Musberger and Stuart Scott providing the game with colourful commentary. And I must say that the commentary is up to speed and accurate to the hoop action that is going on. The sound effects of the action on court are great. The ball hitting the rim or when a foul takes place is really felt in the aural experience of this title.

Overall this game is a good basketball title to have in your collection, if you have this title and are a fan of this type of basketball game then there are plenty of reasons that support you decision. But if you want the king of all hoop ball games, then you may find yourself looking elsewhere. This title is great, but there is not enough here to deter fans away from the 2K2 title. Next year there will need to be improvements in order to topple Sega with their instalment. Hey fans, remember there is always next season, and I am sure it will be an even hotter battle for the king of basketball games.