NBA NOW 22 Review - A breath of fresh air that may have been bogged down with too much content
2021-10-30
The NBA Now 22 is a brand new basketball game from developers Com2Us, which the NBA officially licensed to develop mobile gaming using real-life NBA teams and players. The game introduces new and exciting features that some players might call a breath of fresh air for the sports genre.
There's a lot to like about this game, such as the many game modes, unique touch controls, a necessary Auto-play feature, and just the authentic feel of being in control of real-life NBA stars and taking them to court to battle against rival teams.
In a way, this game also blends basketball simulation with card collection. This means you can recruit new players to your team by acquiring various player cards. With that said, we'll be reviewing the game in a detailed format in this article, where we'll give you the game's pros and cons, but mostly pros. So without further ado, here's our review of NBA Now 22.
THE GOOD
Amazing Graphics & Visuals
NBA Now 22 offers some pretty fascinating graphics and visuals similar to other super-sized NBA titles on the mobile platform. The graphics show the player's faces, and you can see the resemblance with the real-life player. The movement of the players is also well designed to give players the feel of controlling a real-life NBA star on the court.
From the menu screen to the court, the entire game has stunning visuals that offer intense clarity in all aspects of the game. From shooting the ball, dribbling opponents to stealing, you'll experience nothing but real-time movements of the players.
Lots of Game Modes to Play
There are so many game modes to play in this game that we think it's even bogged down with too much content. The menu screen contains up to 7 playable modes: League Mode, Arcade Mode, Battle Mode, Mission Mode, Prediction Mode, Friend Mode, and a Challenge Mode. Each of these modes has a unique feature that is new to NBA mobile games.
The league mode is the main and most important mode of all as it consists of the season matches where you'll battle AI opponents in home and away matches in a total of 82 games. This is a lot considering the size of the game, but it's the developer's way of further showcasing the game's uniqueness.
There's also a PvP battle mode that allows you to go head to head with random players online and play with friends in the Friend Mode. Some of these modes go as far as utilizing real-world stats and fixtures to make the game feel more exciting and connected to the real-life NBA.
Impressive and Unique Controls
One of the most exciting parts about this game is the virtual joystick controls that allow players to play the game with just one hand. All the commands like movement, passing, shooting, dribbling, tackling, etc., can all be executed using that one virtual joystick. It can be tricky to get the hang of the game at first, but it's like a whole new experience for basketball games on mobile.
The virtual joystick controls are the game's default type A control that all players start with. However, suppose you're not exactly familiar or comfortable with this control type. In that case, you can simply change to control type B, which adds buttons on the lower right corner of the screen, leaving the virtual joystick to act as the movement button only.
Anyhow, we found the virtual joystick controls to be much more fun because a lot of players try out new basketball games such as this is because either the likes of NBA 2K lacks a certain feature that they want or they want simply want to try something new. Whatever your reason might be, we suggest playing NBA Now 22 as it comes. Certainly, you may need to adjust a couple of settings here and there, but the touch controls are very cool in terms of controls.
Cool Auto-play Feature
Auto-play on the mobile platform is becoming a feature that has recently been receiving more criticism than praise as many new mobile games, especially turn-based games, have been over-utilizing the feature more than they should, and many players now see it as a deterring factor in gameplay in the overall experience.
However, in the case of NBA Now 22, Auto-play is a necessary inclusion. In fact, this game would become a bore after playing for a couple of days without the Auto-play feature. The league mode requires you to play 82 home and away matches, with each match having four halves and each half having a duration that ranges from 3 minutes to 12 minutes, depending on which you prefer.
So the Auto-play in this game is simply one of the best features of the game. Also, you can even fast-forward the Auto-play simulation. So if you're in a hurry and just want to get to the end of the simulation without waiting for too long, you can simply hit the fast-forward button and watch it scale to the end of the match. Auto-play can be enabled at any time of a break. For instance, if you're playing a match and you're leading by a lot, at the end of a half, you can choose to enable Auto-play and just simulate the remaining halves of the game instead of finishing the match.
Conclusion
There's a lot to admire in NBA Now 22, and our brief review of the game doesn't detail all of the game's exciting features in an in-depth way. There's a lot that sets it apart from others. NBA titles on the mobile platform players with high-end devices will most likely enjoy this game the most as it is highly recommended that you play the game at its highest graphics settings.
In terms of cons, there's really morning negative we could say about this game other than the fact that the number of game modes would make one think the game has too many contents that will tire players in a short time. Having lots of content is good, but making those contents in-game modes could negatively impact the game's success a couple of months from now. Ultimately, NBA Now 22 is a breath of fresh air in the sports genre on mobile devices.
