NBA 2K14 is now available on smartphones, but is the game as good on the phone as it is on next-gen platforms?

It's hard to expect much when top next-gen games -- or even Xbox 360 and PS3 games -- are turned into mobile versions. Sometimes, however, we are pleasantly surprised and this year was a big opportunity for 2K Sports to improve its basketball game since they had NBA 2K13 on the phone as well.

One of the reasons for success with NBA 2K14 this year has been the way it has improved dramatically from NBA 2K13 -- even the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions were a success. But did anything actually change in the smartphone version of the game?

"This year, 2K Games comes closer to delivering a quality mobile basketball game, even if it fails to address many of the issues that worked against its predecessors," Matthew Diener said in a review for Pocket Gamer.

He also elaborated upon the controls for the game this year in comparison to last year's game.

"The virtual joystick controls in NBA 2K14 are still glitchy. The joystick overcompensates for small movements, and buttons for 'pass' and 'shoot' are unreliable at best ... Happily, however, the touch controls (which have been renamed 'one-finger mode') have received a huge boost in terms of responsiveness and work a treat in this year's offering."

Despite the improvements, Diener pointed out some areas in which 2K Sports failed to improve upon this year. The good news is that the gameplay was not overly criticized and that does remain the most important aspect of the game. Presentation, on the other hand...

"Unfortunately, there's still a lot to dislike about NBA 2K14's presentation. The creepy, even-tempo crowd remains unchanged this year, and it looks all the worse when compared to the updated player graphics," he said. "They now cheer whenever there's a turnover, which is progress -- I suppose -- but they still look and behave like a forest of cardboard zombies. Worse than this, however, is a bug that prevents the announcer from calling plays as they happen. Instead, he chooses to build up a reserve of five to ten calls which he then vomits out at random."

Considering the complaints, the game's $7.99 price tag this year was a bit much. Granted, it is a popular game title so people will buy it, but people should only be paying that much if there were significant upgrade and improvements.

What do you think about the game? Have you decided whether or not to buy it on your device? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.