NBA 2K21 joins the Xbox Game Pass lineup on March 4, making a rare appearance in the season for a current sports video game on one of the free console or game streaming services on offer.
Usually, the best that players can get “for free” while a sports league is in progress is the game from the previous year; publishers typically waited until after the playoffs to offer a sports game on Game Pass or PlayStation Plus.
The game’s popular MyTeam mode – a card collection / multiplayer suite – is currently on the theme of Season 5 comics, “Age of Heroes”. Age of Heroes presents a return to the innovative “Jordan Challenge” mode of the series NBA 2K11. Start, players are tasked with recreating Michael Jordan’s last game with the Chicago Bulls, pushing Bryon Russell to hit the chance of winning the championship in the 1998 NBA Finals (pictured above).
Players will need MJ on their team to win the challenge, but if they don’t already have it, they can pick it up with the JORDAN-LAST-SHOT locker code.
It is a strong offer for Game Pass subscribers; NBA 2K21 also offers MyCareer, an integrated single player / co-op and competitive multiplayer mode with all types of lifestyle and RPG features. MyGM is your counterpart to controlling an entire franchise over several seasons. And the WNBA wins The W, a mode that features for the first time a player’s careers and franchise control for that league.
Madden NFL 21, for example, was just added to the EA Play library (and is also available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers) on March 2, a month after the Super Bowl. But NHL 21 will enter EA Play in April, about a month before the start of the Stanley Cup qualifiers.