NBA Playgrounds is an arcade-style, 2 vs. 2 basketball game that has an updated roster and is very over the top.
General Gameplay
Playgrounds is set up in its controls to be more of a arcade-style of basketball game than most regular sports titles. With a pass, shoot and steal button as well special options to do specific in-game requests, the game plays, looks and feels like the NBA Jam series.
Audio
As with many arcade sports games, you will have an upbeat soundtrack with in-game commentary (more on this in Family Friendly Section) and the basic sounds that you would here in a basketball game. There Is nothing offensive in the game’s music lyrics that we heard, and the commentary is benign and full of enthusiasm that you would hear in a street basketball game (minus the street court language). The game does support both surround sound 5.1 and headset support. As always, parents, please use caution with extended use of headsets for your gaming family members.
Visuals
The visuals in the game are what you would expect in an arcade basketball game. The colors are very vibrant and easy to see. The background courts, basketball and everything that you would expect to see are very clear and easy to distinguish. The game has a very animated feel to it, as it is meant to be more arcade play vs simulated, and that adds to the feel of NBA Playgrounds. There is no colorblind mode to the game, but it does not need it as the colors are very easily seen. In our special needs testing we did notice that some of our special needs gamers did have a hard time seeing the in game action, but this was a minor issue.
Controls
NBA Playgrounds’ controls are set up to be a feel for how the game would be in the arcade. With shoot, pass, change character, and turbo buttons, there are some combos to do with the buttons that make it very easy to pick up and play the game. In our play testing we did not run into any issues when playing the game, however newer gamers to arcade sports games had a harder time getting the controller settings. Some just did not understand at first how to do the special moves and felt lost, and after a couple of games they were still feeling more uncomfortable playing the game because they were not able to pull off special moves. For console play the standard controller is ok to use, as there is no need for any special equipment to use to play NBA Playgrounds. However we did have some concerns about the controller setup but we will cover this more in our Family Friendly Section.
“NBA Playgrounds is a trip down memory lane for those who loved the NBA Jam series, but with its repetitive gameplay and commentary and unforgiving controls, it is a completely different game.”
Delivery
This is where we talk about whether NBA Playgrounds is just an NBA Jam clone. Well, we can say that it is not, because NBA Jam is a fun game to play, in large part because of the realism of characters based on real-life stats, whereas NBA Playgrounds’ characters are only aesthetically like the famous players. There are many things wrong with the game when playing against the computer, such as the AI being either too easy or too difficult to play against. Also, with the way the shots, rebounds, and other in-game attributes work, they just feel broken. Our best advice is that if you are looking for an arcade-style of basketball play, go back to NBA Jam.
Family Friendly
Is NBA Playgrounds family friendly? Well, it all depends on how you look at the game and how it will fit into your digital library. For starters, NBA Playgrounds’ AI as we mentioned before is either easy or hard; there is no balance in the game. Also, rather than using the actual stats of the players in the game, it uses timing of the shots and jumps (the controls) to determine if the ball goes through or not. We think this is a bad coding choice as it makes NBA Playgrounds more of a game of chance vs actual character stats. At times, the packs that unlock the new basketball players felt like little more than in-game skins vs like the actual players and their stats. The local co-op was fun when 4 players were playing the game, it just at times did not have that feel as NBA Jam does when you play. Truthfully, it would not be fair to compare the two, but when NBA Playgrounds goes out of its way to look, play and feel like NBA Jam, it is hard not to compare them. We feel that as NBA Playgrounds is a decent game to play with friends and offline with up to 4 players, it does not do well as a single player game or to play online with random people. There are too many things that hold this game back for us to recommend this as a good title for your digital library unless you’re looking for a game that will be played by 4 actual players at a time.
Closing
NBA Playgrounds may be a decent local co-op game to play with family and friends, but it missed its shot to be a contender for the next arcade-style basketball game.
