Sports titles just aren't supposed to be game-of-the-year contenders. Their annualized nature sends the message that this year's game, no matter how great, won't be worth owning in 365 days. If anything could rise above that, it is NBA 2K11.
Michael Jordan is as timeless a figure in sports as they come. People still think he's going to come running out of that tunnel, as he does in NBA 2K11's spellbinding opening sequence. Even if he or the 10-game recreation of his greatest moments appear in future games, it's hard to imagine they will dedicate themselves to him in this way. That makes NBA 2K11 the rarest of sports games, the one that will be worth playing over its successors.
For non-sports gamers, NBA 2K11 may not be as easily grasped as a shooter, a role-playing game, or an action-adventure sandbox. But if all you know to do is pick the superstar on the floor and take him to the basket repeatedly, The Jordan Challenge can be won by doing just that. It may not be a tutorial for playing basketball, but it is a powerful invitation to video game sports.
The prize for completing the challenge is to unlock Jordan in the My Player career mode and reincarnate him in the present NBA. By undertaking that, you come to understand how Jordan often defied reality, because the easiest way to recreate his signature performances is to approach the game as unrealistically as possible. Feed No. 23 the ball every time. Shoot without a screen. Drive straight at the teeth of the 1986 Celtics defense. You'll have to score 63 points against one of the greatest teams in basketball history. And it may not be the hardest thing you do, either.
None of this addresses what is still a technically brilliant sports simulation without Jordan or even before his arrival, but that's somewhat the point. To deliver a transformative work atop years of excellence is an expectation faced by no other game we've nominated - not Call of Duty: Black Ops, Mass Effect 2, nor Red Dead Redemption. Nor is it one they fulfilled.
And if that does not qualify a sports game for Game of the Year, then nothing ever will.
