If you're looking to play some digital basketball and are more interested in arcade games than hyper realistic simulators, then NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 is the game for you.
NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 is an arcade basketball game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for PS4. NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 was developed by Saber Interactive that previously developed the original NBA Playgrounds which released in 2017 having founded in 2001 with their debut game titled Will Rock releasing in 2003 published by Ubisoft followed by TimeShift in 2007; Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary in 2011; Inversion in 2012; Halo: The Master Chief Collection in 2014; Spintires: MudRunner in 2017; and Shaq Fu: A Legend Reborn in 2018, while progressing in development on Quake Champions and a videogame adaptation of World War Z. Can Saber Interactive’s collaboration with 2K Sports deliver exciting arcade sports gameplay in the form of NBA 2K Playgrounds 2?
Gameplay begins by introducing the card collections gameplay mechanics with the chance to open one VIP swag pack, one gold pack or two bronze packs. An optional tutorial provides 16 individual annotated screens outlining each area of what the player needs to know during matches, although there is no actual gameplay within the tutorial; resulting in the player having to memorise the text from the tutorial and putting it into practice when on the basketball court instead of being confident before the next match.
Exhibition allows the player to customise a single match to their preferences including the court; game length from 3, 5, 8 or 12 minutes or alternatively 15, 30, 50 or 99 points; selecting lottery picks; shot clock of 6, 8, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24 or 30 seconds; game ball; and difficulty level.
Exhibition 3 point contest tasks the player to compete in a 1 vs. 1 match-up as your NBA player and the opponents’ NBA player both attempt to score points through throwing the basketball from just outside the area with dozens of basketballs lined up as the most points scored wins the round in a best of three rounds match that makes for a well designed mini-game.
NBA season sees the player leading their team through a season comprising of 15 match game days in the western conference or eastern conference with the reward of earning exclusive players, while if the player does not have enough NBA players on their team, then two NBA players will be provided to help the player begin the season.
Players can earn baller bucks by levelling up your NBA players through earning XP when playing in any game mode, while golden bucks can be collected by buying coin packs, opening character packs and competing in online multiplayer matches. Baller bucks and golden bucks are essentially in-game currency that can be utilised to unlock NBA players from different teams and items that display the baller bucks or golden bucks icons respectively. The player can create their own NBA team of up to 15 players that can be improved at any time from the cards collection in order to equip your own NBA team with a new epic player after having exchanged in-game currency for card packs. A bronze pack costs 1,500 baller bucks, while a silver pack is at a price of 3,000 baller bucks and a gold pack costing 5,000 baller bucks, alongside swag packs at a cost of 350 golden bucks and VIP swag packs at a price of 1,000 golden bucks, although the most expensive of all is the ability to unlock the roster of all current and future free players for the princely sum of 5,000 golden bucks.
Your NBA team of up to 15 players can be recruited from over 400 players within 32 teams including Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, LA Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Peligans, New York Knicks, OKC Thunder, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Seattle Supersonics, Toronto Raptors, Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards, alongside The Playgrounders. There are over 400 players to collect comprising of such legends as Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and much more besides. Every player has their own unique set of nine attributes including dunking, 3 point and 2 point shot conversions, speed, stamina, a gauge to display how much that NBA player has been levelled up and more besides.
Basketball courts have a different design such as the material used for the surface of each court, how the court is presented and where the official NBA logo is situated on court. The most important difference in each basketball court is their unique locations including Santa Monica, San Francisco, Seoul, Grand Canyon, Australia and more besides with each location showcasing the personalities and culture of the courtside audience throughout the 11 globetrotting basketball courts.
As NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 is an arcade basketball game; there are 10 power-ups referred to as lottery picks that occur based upon your achievements and performance within each match, while the lottery picks can be customised to have all 10 or none available during an exhibition match. Lottery picks include a supercharged ball that can be scored from anywhere on the basketball court for as long as the opposition do not prevent it; dunks x2 and threes x2 doubles the points for dunks and 3-pointers respectively; super speed offers increased stamina were the players on your team don’t lose stamina, allowing players to sprint for the duration of the lottery pick; shot clock speed-up reduces your opponent’s shot clock by half; ankle-breaker sees a scenario in which facing an opponent and performing a forward crossover puts him on the ground followed by scoring when the ball is glowing to double the points scored; and many more lottery picks besides.
There are two dynamic camera angles, although there is usually an emphasis on the camera unnecessarily focusing on the player in possession of the basketball, while the second player can be frequently off-camera, especially during co-operative gameplay. This could have been resolved by pulling the camera angle back further to have a wide angle view from courtside of the entire basketball court. It would have also been preferable to include two further camera angles from both ends of the basketball court looking from end to end in order to see a complete view of the entire court.
Despite there being around 17 NBA games on PSP with four of them published by 2K Sports; there has not been a single basketball game on the Vita, therefore it is disappointing to not see NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 ported to Vita, although remote play is a consolation. NBA 2K Playgrounds 2’s remote play performance is pretty good as it retains the quality of graphics, audio and general performance from the PS4 version. There are no remote play control optimisations resulting in sprinting moving to the top right of the rear touch pad, dunking being mapped to the top right of the rear touch pad and square; and calling for an alley-oop with the A.I. mapped to the top left of the rear touch pad, although it would have been more natural for sprinting, dunking and alley-oops to be re-mapped to R and L respectively. Despite the lack of remote play control optimisation; NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 is a comfortable and very playable remote play experience.
The controls are appropriately mapped in relation to other basketball games over the years. Controls when the player is in possession of the ball includes pressing square to perform a shot or a shot fake to throw off the opposition’s defence; pressing X to pass; pressing O to throw elbows; pressing triangle to rebound; holding R2 to sprinting; holding R2 and pressing square to perform a dunk; pressing L2 to call for an alley-oop with an A.I. controlled NBA player; pressing L1 to call for a push with an A.I. player; pressing up or down on the d-pad to change the camera angle; changing the direction of the left analogue stick to move your NBA player; changing the direction of the right analogue stick to perform crossover dribbles with the basketball; pressing the share button takes you to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu. Controls when the player is defending when the opposition has the ball includes pressing square to intercept the ball from the opponent; pressing X to swap between players on your team; pressing O to push an opponent; and pressing triangle to jump for the ball during the tip-off, getting a rebound or preventing an opponent from scoring or dunking. There is only a very subtle amount of vibration that occurs when an opponent shoves the NBA player you are currently controlling off the ball, while there is no touch pad support that could have been an alternative to the right analogue stick for performing crossover dribbling by swiping across the touch pad in certain directions, alongside no light bar implementation that could have produced a colour representing your current player’s clothing and a gradual countdown towards the end of the shot clock.
Graphically, NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 features excellent NBA player character models and animations that are presented in a cartoon bobblehead style, while the courtside visuals and animations are excellent as they bring more life to the match’s atmosphere, alongside basketball courts looking amazing such as Seoul’s night time lights reflecting on the court’s wet surface.
NBA 2K Playgrounds 2’s menus are not as self explanatory or user friendly in their flow from option to option as would naturally be anticipated from an arcade sports game such as pressing triangle to open the customisable options instead of pressing a more natural button such as R1 or R2 and L1 or L2 to move back and forth between choosing your NBA players and the menu showcasing each customisable option. However, there are some fun animations on the main menu when highlighting some of the menu selections such as exhibition game sees a player dribbling the basketball around another player as he attempts to intercept the ball, while cards collection shows an NBA player happily looking at his cards collection.
Commentary genuinely adds to the enjoyment of the gameplay as commentary duos include a lead commentator Ian Eagle with one of five co-commentators that riff on each other’s play-by-play analysis of each match culminating in the losing team being criticised with some scathing satirical comments, especially when their opponent has won by a significant margin. Lead commentator Ian Eagle will be familiar to sports fans as he presents NBA Action and has provided commentary for NBA games on PSP and NFL match day coverage on CBS, while co-commentators include YouTube gaming personalities Cash Nasty, Dion “iMAV3RIQ” Williams, Jesser, QJB and Troydan. Sound effects include NBA players calling for the ball, bouncing the basketball, performing shots, dunks and dribbling the ball, the shot clock counting down and an excited crowd coupled with a mixture of hip hop and rap music. There is no DualShock 4 speaker support that could have produced commentary as though it was being broadcast through a nearby radio or sound effects when dunking.
The trophy list includes 13 trophies with 9 bronze trophies, 3 silver trophies and 1 gold trophy. Easier trophies include In the Zone bronze trophy for gaining a hot streak by scoring 4 consecutive shots; the Fashionista bronze trophy for suiting up a player with 1 vanity item; and the Amateur Collector bronze trophy for buying 1 pack of any kind, while the hardest trophy is the NBA Baller Supreme gold trophy for winning NBA season on NBA difficulty. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 15 to 25 hours to 100% the trophy list.
There are four difficulty levels including rookie, regular, expert and NBA with the major differences being how many 3 point conversions are made from outside the area by the A.I. controlled opponents, while how aggressive the A.I. controlled opponents are in retrieving the ball when you are in possession; therefore resulting in the player needing to be flawless in their performance to be able to stand a chance against the NBA difficulty A.I. opponents.
Local multiplayer allows up to 4 players to play competitively or co-operatively in a 2 vs. 2 exhibition match with A.I. controlled players or combining with online multiplayer as online friends can also be included in exhibition matches, while two players can compete in a head-to-head exhibition 3 point contest and two players can play co-operatively in NBA season mode. However, there is no customisable knockout tournament or championship season in local multiplayer that is disappointing for anyone who wanted to play more than a single match competitively.
Online multiplayer allows up to 4 players to play competitively or co-operatively, alongside support for dedicated servers. Playgrounds championship offers a global online league containing multiple divisions where a player can climb the league individually or co-operatively. Meanwhile, every mode that is available in local competitive or co-operative multiplayer can also be played in online multiplayer.
NBA 2K Playgrounds 2’s replayability stems from the fun arcade approach to basketball between the imaginative match changing power-ups, excellent commentary, over 400 players to unlock and the unpredictability of match results. Various customisation options enhances gameplay in exhibition mode, while exhibition 3 point contest provides an exciting mini-game and an NBA season also changes things up with a league table chronicling the progression of your chosen team’s season in which every mode is playable in local multiplayer and online multiplayer in addition to playgrounds championship that is a series of online leagues. Collectively, players will be returning to enjoy NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 for quite some time due to its fun arcade gameplay.
Jason plays all genres of games and enjoys all different kinds of experiences that the games industry has to offer. Jason’s favourite PlayStation exclusive franchises throughout various eras include: Crash Bandicoot, God of War, Gran Turismo, inFamous, Killzone, Little Big Planet, MotorStorm, Resistance, Spyro the Dragon, Uncharted, Wipeout and various games that never became big name franchises. A special mention goes to Black Rock’s superb Split Second: Velocity as it is rather unbelievable that it will never receive a sequel.
Jason now mainly plays modern PlayStation games on home console and portably, but occasionally returns to the old retro classics on the 3DO, PS1 and PS2 such as discovering Cool Spot Goes to Hollywood 20 years after its original release on PS1. Jason is happy to see gaming coming full circle with updates for retro classics such as Alien Breed, Superfrog and Crash Bandicoot.
