Retro Runback – ‘NBA In the Zone 2’

EA has a monopoly on simulation football, and 2K has (kind of) a monopoly on simulation basketball. The only difference is that no one is telling anyone else they can’t make a basketball game. It’s just that EA won’t. But I remember a better time, a simpler time when we got NBA Live and other games. One such series of games was Konami’s NBA In the Zone franchise. Specifically, NBA In the Zone 2 for the PS1. And with the NBA Playoffs in full swing (and embarrassing blowouts coming with it), this seems like a great time to bring it up.

this was My favorite nba game as a kid

I loved the Live series. But NBA In the Zone 2 was my go-to game. Make no mistake, it was limited as hell. You just had exhibition mode, the regular season, and playoffs/finals mode. Super basic, but that’s all I needed. The presentation was barebones, which was to be expected. But that menu song? Seared into my brain. To this day, NBA In the Zone 2 is the only game I’ve ever seen my parents play together. My mom used to play basketball; she loves it. She’s even in the Hall of Fame in my hometown. But she’s not a gamer. She got down on this, though. My dad played semi-pro ball overseas, so they both got some gaming time in with a sport they loved. It was awesome.

The gameplay was pretty solid. Though you benefited most by either taking three-pointers or driving in for a dunk. You could get some decent mid-range work in, but it definitely took some timing. I remember I’d nailed the timing on stealing the ball to where I could put up 200 points in games just by playing as the Sonics and controlling Gary Payton. That was my team in that game. Between him and Detlef Schrempf, I was going crazy stealing the ball and draining threes. One of the most underrated unstoppable duos in all of sports gaming.

Of course, talk of a basketball game in the ’90s wouldn’t be complete without mention of Roster Player 99 — AKA Michael Jordan. I don’t know exactly when I realized it was him as a kid or if my dad told me straight-up, but once I knew? You couldn’t get me off the Bulls. So sorry to the Sonics (give Seattle their team back, you cowards), but Mike ruled in my house.

Should we run it back?

Not all of these will be a “yes.” Sometimes, I just want to use this space to talk about games I loved as a kid. Most of the time, I’m talking about a game I want back (looking at you, Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth 2), but in this case, nah. I mean, we can get a new NBA Live game back, though. I’m not on Twitter anymore, otherwise, I’d show you all of my “Live Hive” tweets. I’m so serious about that one. But as far as NBA In the Zone 2 is concerned, I’ll settle for finding my dad’s old copy of it somewhere and seeing if I can fire it up.