Online Basketball Games with Player Creation

A friend and I were talking about how hard it is to find an online basketball manager game that also lets you create your own basketball players. He mentioned a fairly new game that's being developed called Basketmaniacs so I thought I would give it a shot. He also mentioned that the developers were former players of Cyberdunk and they decided that they could do it better.

Let's see how they did:

Player creation (yay!), they have it! You can choose a name, upload a picture (mandatory so have one ready to upload), nationality, height (metric), weight (thin, average, strong...not sure what the advantages of are each). Next is the skills, "physics", "technical" and "mental" It looks simple enough with sliders for each skill or you can simply input the number of points you want for each skill. However, there are so many skills and no information about what any of them does on the site (I did find a brief skills explanation in the forum later on). Need to decide what type of players to make but it's really confusing...don't want to make a mistake creating a player this early in his career and then have to spend time trying to fix him later. (Personally, I like the set up in Cyberdunk much better since you can choose a player type with preset skill points so at least you have some idea which skills go together and they explain what each skill does so you don't have to guess.)

I'm going to make 5 basketball players, one for each position....not sure how many you are allowed to make but I will check that out later. Elapsed time from start to finish for 5 players? About an hour but I'm sure once you have a better idea of how to build the players the process would be much quicker.

I need to put my players in training it seems and the training page is confusing so I will hold off on posting about that until I figure it out.

So far my impression is one of a professional looking website but just because a car looks good doesn't mean it runs good. We'll see if the engine is as pretty as the paintjob in the coming days.

More tomorrow....

Each week we will update our top 5 rankings of the best online basketball games.

Holding down the #1 spot is Cyberdunk.com! With more functionality for player creation, training and types of games you can play, Cyberdunk offers both serious gamers and casual players many features simply not found in other games.
One recent update that makes Cyberdunk very affordable is the login bonus which over the course of a season will provide you with enough free CyberDunkPoints (CDP) to boost your player, buy some custom gear or purchase a team.

The next four games on the list are great games in their own right but don't offer the ability to create and customize your own players. They are simply basketball manager games. Unfortunately there just aren't that many online baketball games that let users create their own players.

#2 Buzzerbeater - With thousands of users across the web, Buzzerbeater is easily the most advertised Basketball game online and they live up to the hype. The site is easy to use and with Manager tasks to walk you through the early stages of the game, even 'noobs' can figure out how to play in no time.

#3 SimGalaxy - The developers offer an easy to use game that let's you not only coach your players but also puts you in the role of General Manager, from signing contracts to buying advertising. I like this game for the simple reason that it only takes a few minutes a day to set up your team and check scores. The cost for a subscription to operate more teams is a bit steep for what you get in my opinion but it's still affordable for the casual gamer.

#4 Charazay - As one of the oldest and most popular games online I was expecting a bit more to be honest. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great game but for new people signing up, the game has a steep learning curve even with the many help features.

#5 NBA Legends - A Facebook game that provides you with missions as you move up from rookie to legend with various things to do like get fans, win league games, win championships, and more. Wildly popular when it's up and running, the downside is that they conduct an offseason which leaves their customers with nothing to do until the bring the site back up. They do however allow you to create one player and then surround your player with actual NBA players both past and present. While we prefer the basketball manager type games to NBA Legends, you can't ignore that game's popularity and why it makes our list at #5.

Cyberdunk.com

Publisher's description

Cyberdunk is the first FREE browser-based basketball manager that allows you to manage both a player and a team of other human players. STAT FREAKS STAY AWAY! DANGEROUSLY ADDICTIVE.

Our Take

Players

• Training
• Buy equipment
• Participate in games
• Play 1 on 1 against your friends or people from all over the world
• Set player tactics from your team manager or in 1 on 1
• Change the player name and avatar
• Spend CDP (a limited number of CDP are gifted each day you log in)
• Check game and league stats
• Bet in-game cash
• Negotiate contracts
• Win awards
• Transfer cash and equipment between players in your account
• View various centers for all your players on a single page

Team Management

Managing a team is a premium service but at only $4.00 per season, it's a bargain! You can name your team, change the look and feel of your team homepage by adding a logo and/or banner, set your roster, change tactics, add/drop players via the contracts page, add co-manager(s), build and name your arena, set ticket prices, and much more.

Summary

Cyberdunk is a fully developed basketball game catering to all types of players. From the easy player creation tool for the casual user to the complex team tactics for the hard-core manager, users of all types can play the game at a level they are comfortable with.