The NBA Ballers franchise has made quite a name for itself on the market since first hitting the scene in 2004.  With the only real competition being the NBA Street series, Ballers has the ability to shine every other year due to the sharing of the NBA license between EA and Midway for arcade hoops.

NBA Ballers: Chosen One gives you the opportunity to play 1V1, 2V2, 1V1V1, or step into practice mode or chuck a few from behind the arc in the three point shootout.  Before I jump into the other modes, I have to say that Chosen One has one of the best three point modes that I’ve played in a video game.  Though it only has two small tweaks to it, they are two of the best tweaks to ever hit a three point shootout.

When enganging in a three point shootout, you do the traditional press of a button to pick the ball up from the rack.  Upon completing a rack of balls, rather than having the computer move you to a spot, you physically have to move the character over to the next rack.  The next tweak that you will notice is the camera angle from behind the glass, adding another element of skill, but provides a TV style presentation at the same time.  What I feel that NBA Ballers: Chosen One stumbled with this feature on was the fact that they do not include this for an online mode.  Want to have users being extremely competitive in three point shootouts?  Then allow them to have run from rack to rack and shave off seconds of their time, making it count how quick you are.

Dwyane, what would Charles say if he saw this?

Chosen One’s bread and butter would have to be the story mode, which is divided into six episodes with each having five chapters.  Before you enter story mode, you get the opportunity to create a baller and you’re allotted a preset number of points to distrubute among his skills.  Once you’ve finished deciding how your skills are to be distributed and given him a ridiculous nickname, you can then dress your character.  There are tons of items to choose from, ranging from hats, Sprite jerseys, shoes, jewelry, and a ton of other apparel.   

Once you’ve created your Baller, you’re taken directly into a TV-style broadcast within the first episode and chapter of story mode.  Each chapter within the given episodes are full of a variety of challenges.  The majority of the challenges have stipulations on them like holding an opposing player under 12 points, not committing a foul in a game, or dunks being worth three points.  Most of the added pieces make the game easier, but holding NBA superstars below 25 points in a three period game is really not easy.

Based on the parts of your game that you work on the most during your matches, you’ll have the corresponding skills increase after you’ve won that chapter.  They do manage to keep it realistic, because if you choose a center and you’re jacking threes for the entire story mode, there’s an actual limit on how high that rating can get for them.

The gameplay on Chosen One isn’t explained the greatest, and a tutorial within the game could have easily benefited it.  After a game or two, and constant pausing of the controller to figure the controls out, they start to flow rather well.  A combination of the LB + X will put you into a super crossover mode that will allow you the ability to break down your opponent, build up your juice meter, and even score additional points if you can follow the button pattern displayed on the screen.  Opposing players can defend this very well if they can manage to press the button on screen before the offensive player, giving this portion a very well balanced mechanic.

Regular crossovers can be experimented with by using the right thumbstick, similar to NBA Live, and it comes across very fluid.  The only problem that’s noticeable with the players when they’re dribbling or moving, is that if you move them backwards, they look incredibly stiff and very robotic.