This morning Saber Interactive officially revealed NBA Playgrounds 2, the sequel to its wildly popular arcade baller on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The game will drop this summer. Check out the debut trailer above!
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Fans of the original game will no doubt be proceeding with caution, especially Nintendo Switch owners who felt burned by the original release. For weeks Nintendo Switch players went without any online mode at all, sub-native resolutions, and constant patch delays. Players across all platforms had complaints that gameplay heavily favored three-point shooters, cheap AI, and aggression. There was little room for style and creativity, which is what made games like NBA Jam and NBA Street Vol. 2 so legendary. The fact that a sequel is dropping so soon after the fumbling launch of the original game is cause for suspicion, but we’re willing to let Saber introduce the game on its own terms.
“We were delighted to find out NBA Playgrounds was a hit for our indie game company,” says Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch in this morning’s post on the PlayStation Blog. “High-flying basketball arcade action was back in a big way! So how do you follow that up? You have to get that much better and you need to be responsive to what fan requests. NBA Playgrounds 2 is coming this summer, and it’s essentially everything you asked for. And more.”
The first of these new features will be an expanded online mode. Playgrounds Championship is a worlwide online league. Players will compete to climb the competitive ladder and improve their standings. Of course, if you want to compete with friends, you can also join co-op leagues. Saber also revealed that it would be adding dedicated servers, something that players of the first game would still really like to see.
“Single-player was also a big focus,” Karch said, “which is why we developed the new Season Mode. You’ll now be able to take your team through a season, the playoffs, and win the NBA Championship, with special players to collect depending on the team you choose to take all the way. For all you collection fans, we’ll have more than 200 current and retired NBA players to unlock in card packs.
“The Saber team also kept pushing forward on a ton of other aspects of the original game. The player modelers and artists added a variety of new player models for a more representative variety. New animations and facial animations have been added. The AI is improved and smarter. There are dozens of tracks of new original music recorded. New gameplay mechanics like double alley-oops bring even more high-flying action.”
We’ll keep you guys updated. We’ll be honest: A fine-tuned, highly-polished version of NBA Playgrounds sounds great, but we’re not thrilled that players are being asked to dish out more cash for a sequel. These all sound like improvements and additions that should have made their way to the original game, but we’re still eager to get our hands on it and try it for ourselves.
