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Shaquille O'Neal Slams Down The NBA 2K18 Legend Edition Covers
Shaquille O'Neal may have retired from basketball, but the four-time champion never really left. The enigmatic big man is one of the main attractions to TNT's Inside the NBA broadcasting team, analyzing games alongside Charles Barkley, Kenny "The Jet" Smith, and Ernie Johnson, Jr. Now the Big Aristotle is returning to the cover of 2K Sports' popular NBA 2K series as well.
Previously the cover athlete for NBA 2K6 and NBA 2K7, Shaq stars on two different covers this year. The Legend Edition has him dunking in his Heat kit, and the Legend Edition Gold features him in a Lakers uni. Both versions feature several bonuses as well. Take a look:
The $99.99 Legend Edition features a limited edition-Shaq poster, five Panini trading cards, exclusive stickers, Shaq in-game items, 100,000 VC, and 20 weekly MyTeam packs. If you really want to splurge (or buy the Lakers cover to remember the glory days when they weren't a lotto team) the $129 Legend Edition Gold comes with the poster, stickers, 10 Panini cards, 250,000 VC, and 40 weekly MyTeam packs, Both versions are available digitally and physically on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The Switch versions are only available physically.
2K Sports plans to reveal the cover athlete of the standard version of the game at a later date. If you buy one of these Legend editions, you can get early access to the game on September 15. The standard version of NBA 2K18 comes to Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on September 19.
Our Take
2K Games upped the price considerably on its limited editions, considering last year's version featuring Kobe Bryant cost only $79.99. That said, you're getting a lot more in return. Last year you only got 30,000 VC and three MyTeam card packs (at least one of which featured a Kobe limited-use card). For $20 more this year, the Legend Edition gives you 100,000 VC and 20 weekly MyTeam packs. If the VC prices hold compared to last year, the extra 70,000 VC is nearly worth the $20 upcharge alone.
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