NBA Playgrounds game banner

NBA Playgrounds

Price not available
Release Date:
Metacritic:
67
Developer:
Saber Interactive
Publisher:
Mad Dog Games, LLC
Platforms:
Windows
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About This Game

NBA Playgrounds Update 1.1.0



Many thanks for the continued support! We have the best players in the world and we are privileged to serve you.

Update 1.1.0 for PC/Steam brings the heat! Challenge your friends, enemies and other players online. Game on! Friends matchmaking is here. With the new Challenge feature, you’ll be able to directly challenge another player to a game on the Playgrounds. All you have to do is agree on a code, open the online mode, switch to Challenges, enter that code and face each other.

Other additions include a new connection manager, which monitors the connection of players during ranked matches and penalizes disconnections from games that are made to avoid losing. Quitters never prosper on the Playground.

In response to great feedback, we’ve also tweaked the entire shooting system from jump shots, to threes, to dunks, layups, and everything in-between. We’ve redone the timing, added a meter, and clarified the entire system. Keep those comments coming!

As a big thank you to our rabid fans, we’ve also added 15 new players, including Isaiah Thomas and Dennis Rodman! Those two all-stars and 13 others can be unlocked regularly through player packs, earned during the tournament or when leveling up your profile.

Thanks again for all your great feedback and support. Update 1.1.0 is the beginning. We’re only days from launch and we’re already making the game better thanks to your feedback. You rock!

New Features:
- Added: The Challenge Mode feature, which allows you to challenge other players to online matches
o You can now switch between unranked challenges and ranked games in the online mode
o To challenge another player, you must switch to the challenge mode in the online menu and define a challenge code. By default, your challenge code is your nickname, but you can change it to your own, personal code. The person you are challenging must enter your code.
o If you have been challenged, please enter your challenger’s code and press “Accept”.
o All challenges are unranked and your ranking/ELO will be unaffected by the results of the challenge.
- Added: Toxicity system/Disconnection Manager, which penalizes players who abandon matches in any other way than surrendering
- Added: 5 new versions of Shaquille O´Neal in various teams from his career (Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Orlando Magic)
- Added: 15 new players join the roster
o The following players were added: Dennis Rodman, Isaiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Giannis Antetokoumnpo, Kenny Smith, Gary Payton, Klay Thompson, Devin Booker, Tony Parker, Kemba Walker, Seth Curry, Tiny Archibald, John Starks, Tracy McGrady, Pete Maravich
- Added: A shot-meter was added to help finding the perfect timing for shots, dunks etc.
- Added: Steam Cloud Save support
- Added: Steam Big Picture keyboard management
Notable Changes:

- Adjusted: Shots were adjusted to make the system more accessible and unified throughout all variations
- Adjusted: The steal action was adjusted further to better fit the intended gameplay
o It is now possible to perform a steal action when behind an opponent
- Changed: 3 pointers no longer fill lottery pick bar
- Increased: The difficulty of 3 pointers was increased
- Reduced: The number of steals required for the Las Vegas Challenge #2 was reduced to 10 (was 15)
- Reduced: The number of 3-pointers needed for the Paris Challenge #4 was reduced to 6 (was 7)
- Reduced: The number of 3-pointers needed for the London Challenge #1 was reduced to 6 (was 10)
- Reduced: The number of 3-pointers needed for the Las Vegas Challenge #3 was reduced to 8 (was 12)
- Reduced: The inbound time was reduced to adjust it to the overall style of the game

Notable Fixes:

- Fixed: Issues related to the strength of the force feedback effects were addressed


About the Game

Classic NBA arcade action is back! Take your “A” game to the playground and beat the best in high-flying 2-on-2 basketball action. Practice your skills offline, play with up to three others on your PC, or take your talents online to posterize your opponents with acrobatic jams and ridiculous displays of skill.

• Easy to play, challenging to master
• Offline and Online Multiplayer
• Massive roster of current and retired NBA superstars
• All the official NBA teams
• Travel to playgrounds across the globe
• Hundreds of dunks and moves
• Collect all your favorite players
• Improve players over time
• Compete against the master of the playground himself - Allen Iverson
• Even more NBA superstars will be added post-launch

“Up your game!”

Screenshots

User Reviews

Mostly Positive
100 user reviews
79%
Positive
30 hrs at review
Recommended

The game is fantastic, only gripe is not telling you what the "perfect dunk" is.. or perfect shot is for that matter. A mix on NBA JAM and Street which hits the feels being a former NBA Showtime tournament player. How is it a mix? Look down below NBA JAM: -obvious 2v2 gameplay -High flying dunks - Shoving as an option NBA Street: Actually gearing off into​ NBA Street HOMECOURT territory, the timing of your shots/dunks factor in of you getting extra points much like the double dunk mechanic. -Gamebreaker-esque meter. Arcade gaming is back. Time for the NullDC emulator to be on the shelf a little bit. EDIT: For perfect shots/dunks, looks like the peak of jumps. Isn't common either so far. Will update if anything happens. EDIT P2: Online is pretty solid. And you get points even when people rage quit (Street fighter 5 take notes) xD

69 helpful 3 funny
1 hrs at review
Not Recommended

The Gameplay is fun but i ended up refunding it. The Shop Site says 2v2 and Multiplayer (Online). In reality youre playing a 1v1 (the second of every team is AL and you can switch). That doesnt sound right. You also cant play with or against Friends. The playerbase is really small and i dont know how long they will last. But for someone who wanted to play 2vs2 witha friend against 2 randoms its not worth 20 Euro.

57 helpful 4 funny
4 hrs at review
Not Recommended

Once the game was released,it was real fun experience and had a lot of potential,even tho shooters were super unbalanced and having Ray Allen meant winning the game,it was still enjoyable.Unfortunately devs just kept ruining the game with every new update being worse than the latter one.Adding the shot meter killed the fun in 3pt shooting.After so much hype during the first days of the game,Game is pretty much empty in EU.

39 helpful 2 funny
5 hrs at review
Recommended

GET THis game and let your life change for the better and let all your friendships and rivalries come to an end. s/o 2 maddog and saber interactive for putting so much effort in this game, talking 2 the community and doing bug fixes and updates this game is gonna be the norm in the future gg

37 helpful 2 funny
20 hrs at review
Recommended

Great game. What needs to be better: 1. Play with your friend against two different players(4 players on 2x2 with a new ranking, specificied to this category). 2. An option to invite friend and play online against him. Since you can't invite nobody, it's just random row. 3. Regulate the match up online, sometimes it's laggy, we prefer to play against a better/worst player than one from a different region.

29 helpful 1 funny
5 hrs at review
Recommended

Make sure you have a game controller if possible, playing on the keyboard is really tough! This is not backyard basketball where that game was mouse driven. I'm glad I had a logitech gamepad, things works awesome for this game. If you have a keyboard, you might have to reconfigure your keys. It's NBA Jam light! I like that it is 3D-ish, so you have better view of steals and blocks. Dunk timing is hard, but after 1 or 2 hours you'll get the hang of it. I have not played online yet, but the AI is decent, so solo play is fun. It's an arcade game, and I can see myself playing this after a long day of work for ridiculous dunks. Note you do not get all the players, you unwrap them as you play. You'll get two/three legendary players, and then some current players.

28 helpful
16 min at review
Not Recommended

I bought this because I played NBA Jam back on the Mega Drive, and having recently played NBA Jam On Fire Edition round a friends house, this looked very similar to that and thought I'd give this a go. In the 15 minutes I played with my son, it does indeed play very similar to NBA Jam On Fire Edition. It's smooth and it plays very well. The mechanics seemed OK and overall we were having fun. Unfortunately, I'm gutted to say I'm going to have to request a refund. Reason - my son and I were played an offline Exhibition match vs AI, and it was interrupted near the end by the game suddenly going back to the main menu, with a "Lost Connection to the server" error message. Whether its a temporary loss of connection on my side or their side matters not, but if this kind of thing irritates you as much as it irritates me then I do not recommend purchasing this game. However, if this kind of thing doesn't bother you then go for it - from what I played it seems like a perfectly acceptable game...

26 helpful
43 hrs at review
Recommended

Amazing! Insanely fun! Heavily inspired by NBA Jam, Street, the best part of "Ultimate Teams/myTeam", and maybe even a dash of Street Fighter. Flavours that blend seemlessly into one of the best arcade sports game in recent memory. Utilizing the NBA license nearly perfectly with a roster of 150 current and retired legends combined(Kobe/Jordan noteably excluded). Also noteably excluded is microtransactions! While characters are unlocked individually, finishing the game's "Tournament Mode"(Single Player) will give you an ample supply of Legends and Stars. Playing on a gamepad is recommended. While I've personally encountered odd bugs. The game itself is actually very entertaining and enjoyable! Saber have plans to implement new modes and players. Easily worth the price tag if you're looking for a couch co-op or arcade sports game!

22 helpful
1 hrs at review
Recommended

It's a pretty nice Arcade Basketball game with awesome graphics (supports 4K resolution). Gameplay is nice, also the stadiums are nice but the AI needs some fixing, acts with a weird way most of the times, but in general the game is enjoyable and worths it's price (got it on sale 50% off). Recommended.

21 helpful 1 funny
21 hrs at review
Recommended

This game is fun and I enjoy it but you can't really play with friends because there is no invite option and the matchmaking is random so it's challenging for you to find them. This game would be 100x better if there were different modes such as 4v4s with 2 people on each team or 1v1s and custom lobbies where you could invite friends. I still would recommend this game to others due to the fact of how smooth and fun the game is.

18 helpful

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System Requirements

Minimum

Minimum:
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS *: Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit
  • Processor: Intel core i3 CPU 530 2.93GHz
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: GeForce GT 630
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 7 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0x compatible sound card

Recommended

Recommended:
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS *: Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-4690 3.50 Ghz or better
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM
  • Graphics: GeForce GTX 670, similar or better
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 7 GB available space
  • Sound Card: DirectX 9.0x compatible sound card

FAQ

How much does NBA Playgrounds cost?

NBA Playgrounds costs Free.

What are the system requirements for NBA Playgrounds?

Minimum: Minimum: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit Processor: Intel core i3 CPU 530 2.93GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GT 630 DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 7 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX 9.0x compatible sound card Recommended: Recommended: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS *: Windows 7 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit Processor: Intel Core i5-4690 3.50 Ghz or better Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 670, similar or better DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 7 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX 9.0x compatible sound card

What platforms is NBA Playgrounds available on?

NBA Playgrounds is available on Windows PC.

Is NBA Playgrounds worth buying?

NBA Playgrounds has 79% positive reviews from 100 players. Metacritic score: 67/100.

When was NBA Playgrounds released?

NBA Playgrounds was released on May 8, 2017.

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