NBA 2K

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Visual Concepts

NBA 2K, along with NFL 2K, made it perfectly clear that Sega's Dreamcast didn't need EA Sports franchises like Madden or NBA Live to lure sports fans to their console. In fact, in my personal opinion, both NBA 2K and NFL 2K surpassed the EA Sports titles in just about every way. NBA 2K almost seems like a perfect game of basketball when compared to rival games of the time. It looked gorgeous at the time, and it hasn't aged too terribly, either. It still plays great and has enough customization where you can make the game play the way you want it to play. If you're a basketball nut, you can even watch the computer battle it out, which is actually pretty dang fun to watch as well. It may even lead to you getting frustrated and doing armchair coaching, asking players from the team that you're rooting for why they took that shot when another guy was open...Dang Milwaukee Bucks blowing the playoffs with their poor shooting..........sorry. Anyway, Sega's sports brand made it clear that sports fans had plenty to get excited about on the Dreamcast, and NBA 2K was leading the charge, in my humble opinion.

Review added: 03/30/2019

NBA 2K1

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Bizarre Creations

I absolutely loved NBA 2K. I didn’t think it could get any better…then Visual Concepts decided to tweak everything to near perfection and add new modes, and I stood corrected. Not only does the gameplay feel smoother and more authentic (it’s also more authentic to watch – when it was first released I used to watch CPU vs. CPU games as I did other things) but they added plenty of NBA legends to the game as well as a unique (for the time) Street Ball mode, where you can play 2-on-2 all the way to 5-on-5 matches on street courts, in street clothes. While Street Ball mode simply feels like a gimmick and likely won’t add much replay value to most folks playing, when everything in the game is so solid and well done, getting extra modes like Street Ball mode is just icing on the cake. The first NBA 2K game made me a fan of the series shortly after the Dreamcast launched. NBA 2K1 managed to get loyalty out of me for the franchise…I don’t buy the NBA 2K games every year, but every now and then over the last two decades, I find myself itching to return to the courts.

Review added: 04/25/2019

NFL 2K

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Visual Concepts

NFL 2K was a Dreamcast launch title that immediately made it clear to football fanatic Sega fans that Madden wasn't needed on this system. In fact, NFL 2K, in my opinion, was a Madden killer of sorts. I've never been a big football guy, but I was genuinely hooked on NFL 2K, something that I can't say about any Madden title after the series went 3D. NFL 2K let every Dreamcast owner know that while they weren't going to get any Madden games, Sega was going to do their best to make sure that they got something better instead. They definitely delivered with this release. While the number of gameplay modes isn’t going to impress anyone, once you get on the football field, NFL 2K delivers in a big way. Plus, they made local player versus player games more interesting with the use of the Dreamcast’s VMUs. Players can choose their plays on the VMU rather than on the television screen, leaving your opponent clueless to which play you’ll be trying next. NFL 2K took the ball and ran with it…and in my opinion, it left Madden in the dust. Despite the fact that 2K games lost usage of the NFL license a few years later, I still feel like the Madden franchise has never quite caught up.

Review added: 04/21/2019

NFL 2K1

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Visual Concepts

NFL 2K was the best 3D football game that I had ever played…and even with me not being a football fan, it kept me playing quite a bit longer than I thought it would. When NFL 2K1 came out, it became the first (and only) football game that I bought two years in a row…and I’m glad I did. NFL 2K1 surpassed the previous game in every way and made me actually care about football…well, kind of. I still had no desire to watch it, but I sure enjoyed playing through season after season here. On top of improved, excellent on-field action, Visual Concepts added several new modes, and introduced the ability to play online with other players. To this day, I still feel like this is the best football game that I’ve ever played…which is very impressive since almost two decades have passed since it was released. In other words, there are players in the NFL right now that were not born yet when this game first hit store shelves. That’s a long time to be number one. I don’t think I’m the only one that feels that this is number one, either. With a 97 rating over on Metacritic, I’d argue that no other football game has ever had a score that high. And honestly, I don’t know if another football game ever will.

Review added: 04/25/2019

NHL 2K

Also known as: N/A

Developer: Black Box

NHL 2K wasn't quite as impressive as NFL 2K or NBA 2K were, but it was still a solid, entertaining game of hockey for the Dreamcast. This is really the only sports game that I feel that Sega didn't surpass Electronic Arts in when it comes to the early titles in the Dreamcast library...And again, it's not a bad game by any means, and it's quite fun...it just isn't a sports game that'll blow anyone out of the water, like some other Dreamcast sports games did. Part of that is that Visual Concepts created the fantastic NBA and NFL 2K games. A development team known as Black Box created NHL 2K…and that may be part of the reason for the difference in quality. Playing NHL 2K today, purists may still enjoy going back and playing as players that have since retired, but for casual folks that just want to skate around and knock people over may be underwhelmed by the checking physics in comparison to hockey games of today. Overall, NHL 2K isn’t an awful hockey game by any means, but it doesn’t come close to the quality of Visual Concepts’ sports games at the time.

Review added: 04/05/2019