Upon hearing that NBA2K16’s MyCareer Mode for this year was going to be a Spike Lee Joint, I found myself getting inexplicably excited. I’ll be honest here; Inside Man is the only Spike Lee movie I’ve seen, and I thought it was pretty damn good. But let’s face it, no one plays the NBA games for their story. However, bringing Spike Lee on board seemed like an interesting decision to me, and I wanted to see what he could bring to the table.
Well… I was disappointed.
Actually, it wouldn’t be fair to say I was 100% disappointed. NBA2K16’s MyCareer Mode did entertain me. I mean, I’m pretty sure it has more cutscenes than Metal Gear Solid V. In fact, its story is one of the most overblown, over dramatic, and over the top piece of terrible writing I’ve ever encountered in any video game.
Spike Lee’s Livin’ Da Dream puts players in control of a young rising basketball star nicknamed Frequency Vibrations, Freq for short. It’s pronounced ‘Freak’. So you’ll go through 90% of the game listening to everyone around you call you ‘Freak’.
Regardless of whichever skin color you pick for your avatar, Freq will still be voiced by the same voice actor. Alright. This is pretty standard NBA2K fare. But the experience gets really jarring when the story unfolds and you find out that your biological parents are black people too, no matter what skin color you choose. If Lee was trying to convey some deeper meaning with his story here, he completely lost me within the first 10 minutes as I couldn’t stop laughing at how silly and out of place my character looked.
But you know what? It’s a video game. It requires suspension of disbelief. So while it’s a little odd that my European character is acting like he’s a biological part of this family that is clearly of a different race, that doesn’t mean Lee can’t still tell a good story, right? Right. Moving on.
NBA2K16 breaks tradition a little as our character progresses through a few high school games and gets a college basketball scholarship before finally entering the NBA draft. I liked the slow progression. I loved how the story tried to depict the off-court struggles of a young basketball player as he makes the difficult decision of whether or not to pursue his degree first, or to strike while the iron is hot and enter the draft. Sure, much of this decision-making process was overshadowed by an insanely drawn out shouting match between Freq’s parents, girlfriend, sister and agent, but still, Lee gets some points for making the effort.
It’s only after Freq gets signed with his first NBA team that this shit show really starts. See, Freq has a childhood buddy called Vic. Now Vic isn’t exactly the kinda guy you want your kids to hang out with. He drinks, he’s reckless, he gets into fights, he’s a loudmouthed punk, and he’s been creating lots of trouble for Freq since he got drafted into the NBA. Naturally, it’s not good for Freq’s public image. But Lee handles this situation with such heavy-handedness it results in an extremely cringe-worthy scene that I can’t even take seriously because of how supremely silly it is.
After a few games in the NBA, all of which Freq’s only had a few minutes in to play by the way, his team manager takes him aside to discuss Vic. What ensues is a five minute long tirade from the manager about how he shouldn’t “be a hero” and “cut that zero”… or something to that effect. When Freq refuses, the manager then screams at him about how this will eventually affect the amount of money he and the team makes. And as if this long scolding session isn’t already awkward enough, the manager stands up and yells, in cheerleader fashion, “V-G-G! VIC’S GOTTA GO!”
Yeah. I can’t make this stuff up. My player only gets like, seven minutes a game tops on the court, and he’s barely a quarter of the way through the season when this cutscene plays. But the manager starts chastising Freq like he’s the star player of the team. The overall silliness of the situation and the cheesiness with which it was handled left me in tears. I don’t recall the last time I laughed this hard at a video game.So things come to a head when Vic asks Freq to give him a sponsorship on his new rap mixtape. Vic reveals his rapper name, Bo$$ Key Yacht$, which is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard in my years of existence on planet Earth. I mean, I’m no expert when it comes to rap music, but even I can tell that name is just plain awful. Freq finally puts his foot down and chastises Vic for costing him so many lawsuits, for leeching off his fame, and, here’s the big one, for making a pass at his hot girlfriend. And how does Vic respond? With blackmail, of course! Vic brings up a manslaughter incident from their past, and this immediately shuts Freq up.
This actually isn’t a bad scene at all. It’s pretty intense. The voice actors really pull their weight here. If only Vic didn’t look so dang stupid in that ugly cap, huh? But hey, don’t hate on him. He’s an FOF, a Friend of Freq.
The story ends with the closing of Freq’s rookie season and him receiving a phone call that Vic crashed his car and died. At the end of it all, we see Vic’s ghost on a basketball court as he reads a letter he wrote to Freq before he died. He talks about how he lost his parents, how grateful he was to Freq’s family for taking him in, and how he had nothing but loyalty and respect for Freq. Hmm. Okay. That’s why you tried to steal his girl and blackmail him, right, Vic? He also off-handedly mentions that he had the hots for Freq’s mother which, frankly, is rather disturbing, and I’ve decided to just pretend he never said that.
Also featured in NBA2K16’s MyCareer Mode is the animosity between Freq’s sister, Cee Cee, and his girlfriend Yvette. The tension between these two unfolds like a catfight on a bad CW show, except littered with racial slurs like ‘ming ching’. We’ve also got greedy, money-grubbing agents who only ever talk about – you guessed it – money.
Never mind the fact that the dialogue and the writing in Livin’ Da Dream is overwhelmingly tacky and clichéd, but when you put all of these things together, all you get is a mish-mash of stereotypes that serve no greater purpose at all. If the story itself is painfully cheesy, is it meant to be a message about class warfare? I mean, sure, we’ve got the rich white guys and the poorer black guys living in the projects, but the conflict wasn’t between them. The main source of tension stemmed from the friendship between Freq and Vic. And what message did we get from that? Never trust your orphaned childhood friend because he might get jealous and try to steal your girl and blackmail you? I don’t know. I just don’t know anymore. This entire first part of NBA2K16’s MyCareer Mode has been so appallingly bad I feel like my brain has turned to mush.
Whatever Spike Lee was trying to achieve with Livin’ Da Dream, it was completely lost on me.
Thankfully, once you get past the rookie year, the game goes back to the standard MyCareer stuff we know so well from previous NBA2K games. You get to select the teams you’re interested in, grab endorsements, tune up your game, and actually play some fun basketball without all the needless drama.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from Livin’ Da Dream, it’s that basketball simulator games could often do without a ‘story mode’. 2K14 and 2K15 gave your character a little bit of backstory, but it always followed the same curve: play well, and become an NBA megastar. In my mind, Freq has left his entire past behind and right now, he’s just focused on becoming the best basketball player he can be. And that’s good enough for me.
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Published: Oct 5, 2015 10:04 pm