NBA Playgrounds wants to be the arcade basketball game you remember. Saber Interactive built a 2-on-2 title for PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, published by Mad Dog Games in 2017 — nine years ago. It is officially licensed by the NBA, it carries a roster of active and former stars, and it is a spin-off of the NBA 2K series and part of the Playground Sports line. The pitch is simple: high-flying jams, acrobatic moves, ridiculous displays of skill.
The problem is everything standing between you and that pitch.
Trailer, via NBA 2K Playgrounds.
A Roster You Have to Unlock
NBA Playgrounds does not hand you its players. You earn packs by playing. Tournament Mode runs four games with challenges attached to each iteration; finish the whole thing and you unlock a court and a gold pack. There is an online mode and an exhibition mode, where play upgrades you through bronze, silver and gold tiers. Leveling up your offline level and your online level each earns a pack.
In this paper’s view, that is a grind. The source also notes that players could pay for the game’s complete roster. That option sits inside a game whose appeal is nostalgia for a time when arcade basketball was about grabbing a controller, not managing a collection.
The roster itself is the strongest thing here. Mixing current players with former ones is the right call for a game built on memory. You want the stars you grew up watching next to the ones you watch now. NBA Playgrounds understands that instinct.
Local Play That Needs the Internet
Local multiplayer on PS4 requires an internet connection to function. That is the fact, and it is the one worth dwelling on.
Arcade basketball is a social game. It is the game you put on when a friend comes over. Requiring a connection for local play turns a simple evening into a compatibility check.
Online multiplayer is included, and so is co-operative play. But the local mode is the heart of this genre, and NBA Playgrounds puts a gate in front of it. In our reading, that gate is a flaw, not a design choice with a defense.
Two-on-Two, Bird’s Eye and Side View
The action runs 2-on-2. You practice offline, play with up to three others, or take your talents online. The game uses bird’s eye and isometric perspectives along with a side view, which suits the arcade format. You want to see the whole court for a no-look pass and the angle for a posterizing dunk.
The controls and the pace are the parts that decide whether an arcade sports game lives. NBA Playgrounds leans into exaggeration, which is correct. Acrobatic jams and over-the-top skill displays are the reason this genre exists. Nobody wants simulation basketball from a game with “playground” in the title.
The comparison the game invites is unavoidable. The source names NBA Jam and NBA Street as similar titles, and those are the standard. In our own estimation, both are remembered for how they felt in your hands almost immediately. NBA Playgrounds gets the look and the license. Whether it gets the feel is the whole question, and the pack system keeps interrupting the answer.
Where the Money Sits
Rank the problems in NBA Playgrounds and the order matters:
- Local multiplayer on PS4 requires an internet connection.
- The complete roster can be bought outright, which undercuts the unlock structure.
- Earning players through packs slows the pace of a game built on instant fun.
- The modes — tournament, online, exhibition — repeat more than they build.
The first item is the one that does real damage. The second is close behind, because a game that sells you the full roster is admitting its own progression is not worth playing through. The third and fourth are annoyances. That ranking is ours, not the source’s.
What the License Buys
The NBA license is real and it matters. Official licensing means the names and the players are the ones you want, and for a nostalgia play that is not a small thing. A roster of active and former stars is the entire fantasy. NBA Playgrounds delivers on that count.
The Switch version deserves a mention for the obvious reason: a pick-up-and-play arcade basketball game on a portable console is a natural fit. The platform list — PS4, PC, Xbox One, Switch — covers everyone, and in our view the Switch is where this concept makes the most sense on paper.
But a license and a platform list are not a game. What holds NBA Playgrounds back is that it keeps asking for things. It asks for an internet connection when you want to play on the couch, at least in the PS4 local mode. It asks for patience while you grind packs. It asks for money if you would rather not. Arcade basketball should ask for none of that. It should ask for a second player and a free hour.
The published critical score is 6.7/10 across seven outlets. That number is fair, and it is fair for a specific reason: in our judgment the game is competent and the license is genuine, but the structure works against the fun it is selling. A 6.7 is the score of a game you enjoy in bursts and then put down, not one you keep coming back to.
We would like a version of NBA Playgrounds that is easy to recommend. Same roster, same 2-on-2 format, same exaggerated dunks, and no internet requirement for local play. It would not sell you the full roster because it would not need to — the unlocking would be the fun. No such version was released.
What exists is a game with the right idea and the wrong obstacles. In our view the arcade basketball revival is a good instinct. Saber Interactive picked the right genre, the right license and the right roster. Then it wrapped all of that in a progression system, and in a connectivity requirement that applies to local PS4 play, that fight the player at every turn.
Play it for the dunks. Play it for the former stars suiting up next to the current ones. Just do not expect the couch game you were promised, at least not on PS4 without a working connection. In our estimation, NBA Playgrounds is a decent arcade basketball game wearing a structure it did not need.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
