HHW Gaming: ‘NBA 2K23’ Courtside Report Details Improvements & New Gameplay Features

It’s time to learn what’s coming to our favorite basketball video game franchise. Wednesday (Aug.3) 2K dropped an NBA 2K23 Courtside Report detailing gameplay and new features.

Every year developers announce new features and improved gameplay coming to the annual basketball video game franchise that either disappoints or pleases fans. Developers are hoping for the latter with a bevy of detailed information that hints at them focusing on offense, mainly attacking the basket, hanging on the rim, curbing over dribbling, and more.

Upgraded Pro Stick

In NBA 2K23, players can look forward to a Pro Stick that will see “the addition of new gesture combos,” Courtside Report One details. With the introduction of “double throws” and “switchbacks,” players will now have more tools for shooting and ball handling.

Celebrate That Electric Dunk By Hanging On The Rim

Wanna rub that poster you just pulled off with Zion Williamson in a clutch moment? Now you can rub extra salt in your opponent’s open wound with the addition of a new ring-hanging mechanic. The new feature will join the returning metered skill dunks from NBA 2K22 that allowed you “to force difficult dunks in traffic with a timed shot meter.” New commands only available to next-gen NBA 2K23 players will allow you to execute those jams with some flair.

• UP = Two-Hand
• RIGHT = Strong Hand
• LEFT = Weak Hand
• DOWN = Rim Hang
• UP-UP = Flashy Two-Hand
• DOWN-UP = Flashy One-Hand
• UP-DOWN = Normal Skill Dunk with meter
• DOWN-DOWN = Rim Hang Skill Dunk with meter

Be careful. Hang on the rim for too long, and you will get a technical foul.

Improvements For Those Who Play With Finesse

For the slasher who likes to attack the basket and finish with finesse, developers announced the addition of “double throw gestures” for hop-step layups and “switchback gestures” for  euro-step and cradle layups, which 2K claims feel “very natural.”

The new layup mechanics work for smaller guards who have to get the ball up faster to avoid their shots from being blocked by taller opponents.

Big fellas like Giannis Antetokounmpo have not been neglected. Those player types will experience a lot of “new contact layup,” correctly showing what would happen when the Greek Freak plows through the lane.

Developers also announced the addition of new layup packages for Devin Booker, Joel Embiid, Allen Iverson, Magic Johnson, Nikola Jokic, Zach LaVine, Ja Morant, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and more coming to both standard and next-gen versions of NBA 2K23.

Combining Skill Moves & A New Adrenaline Boost Meter

Dribbling in NBA 2K23 continues to evolve in basketball video game franchises. Thanks to “new gesture combos,” players will be able to chain together dribbling moves to break some ankles. So if you thought players like Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving were challenging to guard before, wait till you see them in NBA 2K23.

If you’re worried about players abusing dribbling, don’t worry; developers also thought about that and added a new adrenaline boost meeter that depletes and will slow the player down once it runs out. Your energy will also run out quickly if you spam too many moves together.

New Next-Gen NBA 2K23 Badge System

Another new feature coming exclusively to next-gen NBA 2K23 players is the new tiered badge system.

Per 2K:

This year, we’re moving to a tiered badge system. There are 16 badges per attribute category: eight in Tier 1, four in Tier 2, and four in Tier 3. Tier 1 badges are the least powerful for your player but also cost the least amount of badge points. Costs go up as you climb the tiers and acquire the more impactful badges. The basic idea is that you’ll need to equip a certain number of badges in the lower tiers before you can equip badges in the highest.  

The motive behind this change was to encourage players to make some tough choices when creating their badge recipes, make loadouts more valuable as a feature, and bring a better overall balance to the badge game in general. Along with the tiers, we’re also introducing “Core” badges, which are four unique badge slots (one in each attribute category) that can be filled with badges that don’t count toward your badge points. Each badge will have a challenge requirement that once met, will allow the badge to be placed into a core badge slot.

That’s not all. There are more improvements to the game across the board.

You can read the entire report by heading here.

NBA 2K23 and its four editions arrive September 9, 2022. Keep it locked here for all updates and news about the game.

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Photo: Visual Concepts / NBA 2K23