Midway targets spring 08 for next-gen NBA Ballers

by Jason Dobson { Nov 27th 2007 at 10:57AM }

Despite expectations to the contrary, the original NBA Ballers was actually a fairly decent arcade-style basketball game, provided you could get beyond all the ridiculous 'bling' and 'street cred' nonsense and just play ball. The sequel, on the other hand, plastered on an extra layer of stupid with a paper-thin story mode and more attitude than gameplay. So when Midway announced this morning plans to bring the series to the Xbox 360 and PS3 with NBA Ballers: Chosen One, we were understandably conflicted. However, the company's promise of a return to the series' one-on-one and two-on-two roots with no mention of story or street cred gives us reason enough to be less apathetic than we might be otherwise.

According to the publisher, nestled among the game's new shinier graphics, which Midway boasts as offering "the most true-to-life athlete likenesses seen in a sports video game," will also be new competitive combo and super-move systems that we expect to check realism at the door. In addition, this third game in the series will also include more than 65 selectable NBA players, as they compete to become "The Chosen One," which we're pretty certain is street lingo for some kind of religious awakening. NBA Ballers: Chosen One is expected to shoot for the net from mid-court next spring.

Tags: arcade-style, basketball, midway, nba-ballers, the-chosen-one

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

FOXHOUND @ Nov 27th 2007 11:05AM

ugh... I'd rather a picture of Patrick Ewing's gi'normous nostrils than see that jackass, Kobe Bryant, for this article(hopefully he's not the cover athlete either). I swear I'm not going back to being a Lakers fan until he's traded or resigns.

As for BALLERS, here's hoping it turns out even remotely decent. I haven't played a good arcade basketball game since NBA STREET VOL.2...

Bloo @ Nov 27th 2007 12:16PM

Yeah, they should never put the most popular basketball player in the world on the cover because you think he's a jackass. They should put Stromile Swift on the cover, I heard he's a nice guy.

B1gC72 @ Nov 27th 2007 2:48PM

lol @ Bloo.

being a Lakers fan, i would only worry that they would put Kobe on the cover in his Lakers uniform and then he get traded. but that whole thing is null since he's not going to get traded because the Lakers want to rape the team they're trading him to of all talent and Kobe, with his handy no-trade-clause, will veto any deal that takes all the talent from the team he goes to. so Kobe is just going to have to be unhappy until he can opt out.