PlayStation 4
Released in 2018 by 2K Sports
Grade: D
How did they screw this up so badly? NBA Playgrounds 2 aims for fun-focused arcade hoops … and shoots a fat brick.
Where it falls in the series
It’s the second of two Playgrounds games before 2K put the series to bed.
This game is a 2-on-2 NBA Jam descendent, made by the company that mastered basketball (see NBA 2K16), making it even more dumbfounding that it’s so bad.
Gripes
Where should I start? How about the fact that all the current stars and all the past greats are LOCKED from the start. It takes relentless grinding (or cold hard cash) to unlock card packs, which are surprisingly disappointing. Hoping for Stephen Curry and Magic Johnson? Well, too bad, here’s Jeff Teague and Yi Jianlian!
The graphics are overdone in a particular cartoon style I’m clearly too old and too uncool to identify. While there’s certainly detail in each player’s face, they all end up looking the same in their stubby frames. The courts are an ugly mess of color with a lot happening in the background.
Familiar play-by-play voice Ian Eagle calls the action, but he sounds out of character spouting ridiculously “edgy” lines. And get this, you can opt for additional commentary from a bunch of unlikable YouTube personalities. Oh joy.
But the gameplay is what matters, right? Well, it sucks too! It’s slow and clunky, yet somehow too jittery and fast at times. Basketball sense or even basic logic won’t help you generate offense. Meanwhile the CPU opponent sure knows just the right millisecond to dial up an unstoppable alley-oop. Passing is sticky and defense is sloppy. And shooting… I mean… shooting is… well, hang on… I think I need a new paragraph for this.
Shooting is appalling! This stupid game has the most awkward shot meter appear at the top of the screen as you pull up, forcing you to take your eyes off the action and focus on the meter, which moves faster than a real basketball shot, and I swear to god it doesn’t even respond to your release of the button accurately. You might ask, “If you don’t like the meter, can’t you just watch your player’s hands and time the release?” And the answer is no, no you can’t, because the stupid stubby cartoon players don’t shoot the ball like normal humans. Instead they have all these ridiculous animations stolen from Street Fighter, defying physics, leaning to the side, spinning, sometimes even inducing magical colorful flashes. There’s no bend, there’s no flick of the wrist, there’s no follow-through, you know, all those elegant pieces of the basketball shot that we all know and love? None of that!
I won’t even bother covering the stupid “power-ups” and quirks in the scoring system other than to say that they also suck and serve only to distract you further from the game’s basic shortcomings.
Arcade-style sports games work best when they’re simple, when they stick to the sport’s fundamental functions, and when they highlight the sport’s charms.
This game is not simple, not fundamental, and it’s the opposite of charming with its frustrating gameplay, gaudy graphics, moronic commentary, and shameless microtransaction baiting.
P.S. I wrote most of this while I was stuck in an airport waiting for a delayed flight, but I assure you, this game put me in a bad mood without any outside help.
Published May 23, 2025