Basketball has long sought an equivalent of ” Soccer Manager with an orange balloon. Many have tried their luck but no title has really met with success up to expectations, often with games that boiled down more to mathematical equations against a backdrop of oceans of statistics and huge databases, without freshness nor playfulness.
Released last December, “International Basketball Manager 2022” holds the rope for the title of best basketball coach-management simulation. This title developed by the studio “ Uplay Online ”, created in 2007 and based in Barcelona, offers a truly complete, playful and immersive game.
Official licenses in Europe and a fake licensed NBA mode
The database is there, with 11 official leagues around the world including the LNB, 21 divisions, but also the Euroleague and Eurocup license. As a bonus, the mode offers an NBA under a fake license, renamed “ABL” (for “American Basketball League”), but with easily recognizable fake names (James Garden, Giannis Amtetokounmpu, Chris Poul, or even Evan Fourmier).
In total, more than 4,500 players are referenced and differentiated by more than twenty attributes, and you have the choice between 337 teams!
Modification parameters such as the choice between three levels (beginner, pro or expert) and various advanced options, on contract management, salary control, recruitment allow you to adjust the game’s capabilities as well as possible.
But where “International Basketball Manager” stands out, it is clearly by this playful aspect that accompanies all along your adventure as a coach. These little “sides” that magnify the overall experience.
A playful aspect and many interactions
To name a few, we note the possibility of choosing the duration and location of your team’s preparation course. Whether it’s in a good old camp in Las Vegas or a trip to Béarn at Boris Diaw’s Villa Navarre, your choice will iNFLuence different criteria that will more or less improve the cohesion or even the physical condition of your team. You will also have to decide between different sponsorship contracts, TV rights, bonuses for the team or even ticketing and subscription prices.
Interactions with the press, such as the presentation conference when you take up your post and the presence of social networks, which will challenge you according to Antoine Griezmann’s tweets, are just as many little extras which also bring to this immersive and captivating game.
We can also note for advantage a mode of transfers of the most realistic with varied and easy-to-use search modes, and for the NBA terms adapted to the rules in force, including Draft choices, rights on players and cash. The negotiations are as tough as they are realistic and sometimes it takes a lot of effort to reach an agreement.
Example of a trade finally validated in professional mode after many exchanges with the Toronto Dragons: Ben Simmons, two first rounds of the Draft (2022 and 2024), the rights to Filip Petrusev and 5 million dollars in cash against Fred VanVleet and Scottie Barnes.
The coaching experience at the rendezvous
Finally, for what remains the most important, namely the coaching experience, the rendering is also there. Just like in the rest of the game, the interface is simple, readable, and the individual and collective training parameters and tactical choices in attack and defense are numerous.
The pre-match animations are successful and the follow-up of the matches in live text and in 2D are also neat. The coaching options really make you players in the match, with the possibility of choosing the next option in attack but also of encouraging a player, calling him to order, or ordering a foul in addition to the traditional options like requesting a time out or making in-game changes.
The key actions also spice up a meeting, such as the end of the quarter or the end of the match, where you will have to make a specific choice and therefore be partly responsible for the result.
On arrival, International Basketball Manager 2022 has enough to guarantee you a lot of hours to play but also to explore, chase away tiny imperfections (some players referenced in bad positions, freelance contracts requalified into annual contracts in LNB in particular) , settle the smallest details, make changes to the workforce and vibrate to the rhythm of victories and defeats.
A growing community has already been created around this game which will perhaps mark a turning point in the history of basketball coaching-management simulations. To explore the issue in more depth, you can follow the Live Twich by Dylan De Abreuformer journalist for BasketEurope, currently engaged with Paris Basketball in Betclic Elite.
Available on Steam at 24.95 euros
