Within the niche of sports management games on PC are the power players like Football Manager and Out of the Park Baseball, but there are several others trying to break their way in and reach a larger audience.
Pro Basketball Manager is one of them, with the third iteration in the series having released earlier this month.
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Pro Basketball Manager 2016 is developed in partnership between Umix and Cyanide Studios. The latter has a lengthy track record with sim management games, having produced several with a focus on football, rugby, cycling and horse racing. The basketball series has been trending upwards since debuting in 2014, but has it reached the point where a purchase should be considered?
Pro Basketball Manager does not carry with it any league or player licensing. That means, by default, teams and leagues lack any sort of branding. The game even goes to the extent of misspelling player names, which is actually unnecessary, at least in North America where they are legal to use in a text environment (whether it be text-based games or the far larger market of fantasy sports). Thankfully, there is a way to alter team and player names — using the Database Editor — and even upload logos and player images.
For those unfamiliar with management games, users take on various roles within the structure of owning, running and coaching teams. That includes everything from high level executive actions, to the day-to-day operations of the club, to even play-to-play coaching. The user is generally able to select what they want to deal with and have the game simulate what they don't. However, unlike typical sports video games, the actual players are never controlled.
Pro Basketball Manager features most everything that could be thought up, whether it be setting ticket, food, and merchandise prices, to making all the personnel decisions, adjusting training regimens, and making coaching decisions during games. There's a great play creator available to toy around with as well. Pro teams can be selected from leagues around the world (both male and female) along with college and national teams. The number of options, and the potential risk-reward nature of each, demonstrate that the developers have a good understanding of the gaming genre and the sport itself.
While the game offers up a great number of features, what it doesn't do well is surface information. Things that would naturally be checked often, like standings and statistics, are buried rather than having their own dedicated menu section. Free agency takes place in the off-season without being alerted to it having opened up (like most tasks) and requires the user to search and click on individual players to see their contract status rather than having a giant list of available free agents.
PBM is at its best when coaching the games. There's the ability to set the lineups and make substitutions, call the plays, and adjust tactics for both the offense and defense. The games play out in either 2D or 3D form. I quickly discovered a preference for 2D, not just because it was smoother and easier to follow the action, but also it seemed that players far more often failed to follow instructions for some reason when in 3D.
There is also some unusual terminology utilized within the game that may be a result of translation for different regions and the developers being based in France. A few examples include mentions of "counter-attacks", a position of "S" being used to designate players on the bench and "X" for those who are inactive, and that you "fire" players instead of cutting them. There are also some bugs stumbled upon, like a player that I traded for never appearing in post-game box scores, and that he rarely started in simmed games despite being designated as a starter.
Pro Basketball Manager 2016 shows a lot of promise. There are some great ideas built into the game and with some refinements it could be a winner. At a price of $20 it would not be a bad buy, but the series still has a ways to go to become one of the premier management simulators on the market.
Bryan Wiedey posts sports gaming news and analysis daily at Pastapadre.com, has co-founded the new site HitThePass.com, is the host of the Press Row Podcast, and can be reached on Twitter @Pastapadre.