NBA Playgrounds: An Embarrassing Mess

Update 7/11/2017: With the online update going up yesterday, I think the game deserves another look.  Normally I only review games at launch and don't go back to games, but it seems that Nintendo obstructed the updating process.  Because of this, I'm going to give the developers the benefit of the doubt and the check the game out for the second time for the record. 

Well, that was deflating.  I'm sure that a more sport conscious person could put in some sort of basketball deflating situational joke but that isn't me. I don't play or follow sports but I grew up on sports video games.  I got lucky and my dad unknowingly had a knack for picking out the good ones.  MLB 2007 The Show(great soundtrack by the way), NBA Shootout 2001, TriplePlay Baseball 2001.  All of these games are better than this one.  I don't think that is unfair to say.  This game is obviously not finished.  What brought me to the conclusion that I was beta testing a game for the developers?

The elephant in the room here is that online play is not ready for launch.  At the time of this writing, there is currently no way to play online with anyone.  I'm not just saying that it is missing friend functionality like every other Nintendo Switch game right now, there is no online matchmaking at all.  Everything in this game that you can play at launch is all local.  That in itself is kind of sad.  I was under the impression that this game was meant to be a really fun pick up and play multiplayer experience and I have no way of knowing how well that works.  I thought about not giving the game a full review because of the fact that the online has yet to be seen, but a grayed out option in the main menu is insulting after I just paid full price.  I'll review the state of the product as it was whenever it was purchased.  As it stands, there is no multiplayer.

I know that the Switch isn't as powerful as the other consoles, but give me a fucking break.  There is no way that they had to go sub 720p to get this game to run on the Switch hardware.  People online have noticed the lack of basketball court detail compared to other versions and the lack of shadows as well.  I cannot speak to other versions since the only version that I played was the one on the Switch, but I can say overall the game looks terrible and the load times are incredibly long, especially for something that is installed directly onto internal storage.

All of the above concerns could be forgiven pretty easily if the gameplay is good enough to redeem it.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  People are making the comparison to NBA Jam but I never played that game.  I still find it interesting that the comparison consistently comes up around all outlets that reviewed it so if you liked that game, this might be something for you.  What I can say, however, is that this game does not know what it wants to be.  Does it want to be a more serious 2v2 basketball game with exaggerated heads and jump mechanics, or does it want to be a full on arcade style basketball game with wacky power-ups and moves?  While the game definitely has some charm, it is very bashful in showing its charm during gameplay.  The dunks are cool and the different types of blocks and alley oops are really fun, but overall the game seems too afraid to lean into that fully and ends up as a weird hybrid of the realistic 2v2 streetball game and a full-on arcade game.

The controls are where I have the biggest gripe of the game.  There are some things that could have made this control layout more acceptable.  A well-directed tutorial or some sort of training area that let you practice the different skills needed for the game.  The tutorial is lackluster and seems to just be a run down of the controls rather than showing the player how to implement them in gameplay.

Each shot, dunk, alley oop, or layup requires a holding of the "shoot" key.  The game does an absolutely terrible job of telling you how to time these moves and you end up having to guess enough times that you get a muscle memory about how long to hold the button or just get lucky.  In other basketball games, they would solve this communication problem with a meter that would fill to a point that was a sweet spot.  If you released at this time, then you would get the highest level of success.  This game completely forgoes that in order for you to have to memorize how long to hold buttons and this can get outright frustrating after multiple failed attempts without any meaningful input of how to change what you are doing to get the desired effect.

The camera angle of the entire game is fixed at a set angle that does not change unless in a rare occasion it zooms up for a special dunk or something of the sort.  Because of the selected angle, it makes blocking difficult because it is hard to judge the depth of the court when attempting to block.  I like how most basketball games do this by making the camera chase your player instead of being a view from the sideline but they took a chance on this one and failed.  Maybe it was easier on the systems to run by setting the camera like this.  And from what I can see, the developers need all the help they can get to make the game run from a technical point of view.

The soundtrack is repetitive and annoying and the jokes from the commentators repeat way too often.  On a side note, I think that one of the commentators is from the old ShootOut 2001 game I played as a kid on the PlayStation 1, but I can't be for sure.  Overall, the sound is less than stunning.  There could even be an argument made that it is less than average.  I would entertain that argument whenever speaking of the soundtrack in particular.

In conclusion, I think that the state of the game can best be summed up in the words of a representative of Saber Interactive, the game developers, in an interview with Polygon.  I will now quote directly from the Polygon article. https://goo.gl/2wcRWK

“To me, without an online component, this is a half-assed game,” Saber president Matthew Karch told Polygon earlier this week. “I wouldn’t want to release this game without an online component.”

I think these words from a developer spokesperson sums up exactly how I feel about this game better than any of my words could.

Final Verdict: 5/10