As this game was released amidst the 2011-2012 NBA lockout, it’s the beacon of light in the App Store for basketball fans who are sad about the lack of NBA action for an indefinite period of time. Sadly, other basketball games for the iOS, excluding NBA JAM, don’t really cut the mustard for anyone who has played its bigger cousins for the PC and major consoles.

Most of those titles try to stand out with various mechanics to add into the gameplay experience of a usual basketball game. But 2K Games isn’t a company that needs to work in order to stand out, so all they have to do is release a solid basketball game for any platform that they see fit. They’ve set their eyes on the iOS and came up with NBA 2K12 for the iOS.

The gameplay is the solid basketball action that 2K Games is known for delivering, as always. You can just choose a team and jump right into the action against a very competent AI. You can choose between two control schemes, either one-touch or virtual pad, and both are simple and responsive. The team rosters are also updated according to their current status, so you get to always play your favorite team as how they are in their latest games.

You have a variety of game modes to choose from — Quick Play, Season, and Playoff modes, which are expected in any annual sports title. Then there’s the Jordan Challenge that helps bring even more difficulty to the game. The premise is that you control your chosen player and accomplish the achievements as Michael Jordan had in notable games during his career. This mode truly makes one appreciate just how good MJ really is as they really are quite difficult.

The visual presentation is kind of rudimentary for a game made in this day and age at some elements, and exemplary at others. While it does look like everything looks alright, the stadium feels devoid of energy that’s usually present in real NBA games with the cardboard cutout audience that you’d expect from the NBA Live series in the 90′s. However, the player animations are silky smooth and the details are rendered nicely.

The camera is alright, but not perfect at all. The good thing though is that you can still fix it as you wish, so it’s not as annoying as it would have been if it can’t be tweaked, so it’s not bad at all. It’s just that at certain times, the angles tend to obscure certain things at times, which may be annoying to some people. Perhaps 2K focused more on the visual elements that matter most, those involved in the core gameplay. The bad parts aren’t that big of a deal anyway, so it doesn’t take too much away from the game itself.

As far as basketball games for the iOS go, this title does a great job in bringing the A-game to the App Store. 2K Games knows their target audience and kept that focus, which is the mark of a major game developer that understands how to make and sell a game. This is one of the best basketball games you can find in the App Store today, so it’s definitely worth a try.