NBA 2K21 on Xbox One is a brash, flashy and powerful game that has a huge array of toys to play with, as well as a powerful toy-kit to make it more your own too. Whilst there are micro-transactions within, the patient player can just grind their way to the top.

The best basketball returns with NBA 2K21, a new release that comes with several new features in its most played modes and a totally renewed shooting system.

2K21 is another solid entry in the series that builds upon the great gameplay strides of the last few years. Visual Concepts has some fires to put out and hopefully that happens sooner rather than later so fans can get on to enjoying the grind.

Beyond the controversy, NBA 2K21 manages to save itself only because of the special attention that the development team puts on its playability since the game does not offer anything at the moment other than its already known modes, which are beginning to being flagged by the community as old and outdated, as well as an online component that got eaten up by microtransactions.

Only the novelties of the My Team mode are satisfactory for a forgettable title on the current generation of consoles.

Lacking fresh ideas, NBA 2K21 feels like it's just going through the motions and is a placeholder for its next-gen counterpart.

It would be one thing if this was just NBA 2K20 with some minor changes but this rips the heart out of last year’s game solely to appeal to competitive online players, with many much-loved features stripped back or not included at all.