While I didn’t get that into basketball until my early 20s, I grew up loving NBA Jam as a kid. While I missed out on the NBA Street games, I found myself falling back in love with arcade basketball games with NBA Playgrounds. The 2K games are great, but nothing beats arcade style basketball. Now in 2026 Play By Play Studios is looking to take the mantle of street ball with NBA The Run. So how have they fared?
At its core, NBA The Run is everything fans of arcade basketball want. The game features 3 modes of 3v3 basketball, Squads, Solo and Friends. In Squads you control 1 player while other players control their own. In Solo you control the entire 3 player team against 1 other player controlling their team. Lastly Friends mode is a combination of the first two, but in a private lobby.
Once you decide the player you want to use, there is a variety of current NBA stars to choose from, and your mode of choice, you are quickly put into a game with fast matchmaking. Each time you start up a game you are put into a tournament. To win the tournament you must win 4 games in a row. Lose and you have to head back to the main menu and start all over.
Fast Paced & Frantic
Before the match actually starts you will find out what court you are going to play on and what the rules are. The rules have a fair bit of variety to them and make each game feel fresh. For example, there is a Dunkfest mode which makes dunks worth more than any other shot, including 3 pointers. Or there’s the speedrunner rule type where games only go to 11 and the shot clock is only 10 seconds forcing players to play quick.
Each game is quite quick, even if it isn’t the speedrunner rule set. Most games take 5 minutes or less which is great. Sometimes online sports games can take so long that you lose interest. The 2K games are notorious for players dropping out if they are getting blown out or don’t like their team. In The Run that doesn’t happen thanks to these quick matches.
The gameplay itself is also quite easy to pick up. It is your typical basketball game from a control standpoint. press this button to pass, this button to shoot. Hold down the trigger to run faster or get into defensive stance. Even the most novice of player will have no problem jumping in and enjoying themselves, at least from their own standpoint of how they play.
Where things can get more challenging and fun depending on your skill level is the more advanced moves. Some are still rather simple. One of the advanced dunks on Xbox is just pressing LB and X at the same time. But some of the other moves can get a bit more difficult to master. One good thing about that is you can assign the dunks to specific slots so in theory the super flashy dunks can go in the easier slot. Some may not like that but I think it’s nice to let players of all skills pull off these visually appealing dunks, assuming they can play long enough to unlock them. More on that later.
Lastly, there is the In the Zone mechanic within the games. This is basically just a meter that fills up for doing the games flashier things. Dunk or get a steal and it goes up a little. Do an advanced dribble or dunk and it goes up a lot. Once filled you can activate it and gain a special ability depending on your player. It might help you make more threes or be better at blocking for the 30ish seconds it’s active.
It’s also super cool to play on some legendary street courts. Everyone likely knows Rucker Park in Harlem and it’s amazing to see that here, but being from Toronto and seeing Crombie Park was super cool as well. The attention to detail on these local courts is an amazing touch. And I’m sure depending on where you are in the world you may want to see some of your legendary courts here, and some are.
Players & Progression
At this point you might be wondering what exactly you are playing all these games for. Sure you win a trophy if you win all four games in a tournament, but there’s got to be some player progression to make your players better and what not, it is a sports game after all, no?
The answer to that is actually no. Each player is already at their maximum power so there is no leveling them up like a traditional sports game. Instead NBA The Run uses the equivalent of a seasonal unlock system. After each tournament you earn XP and CRED, The Run’s in game currency.
Leveling up unlocks the next item in the unlock system, typically some extra CRED or a banner color. Every 5 levels you can unlock a special street legend that you can then use as well if you don’t want to use the NBA players anymore. CRED is used in the shop, allowing players to purchase new dunks, taunts, jerseys and more. There are also a few NBA players you can unlock using CRED to expand the roster.
The roster itself, at least at launch is actually pretty small. I know most will stick to the superstars of the league and I have no doubt it would get expensive to license them all out, but at only about 30 players there are a ton of stars missing still. Hopefully we will see more updates with expanded rosters in the coming months.
The biggest problem with this current system is that, at least for myself, I’m not all that motivated by playing a bunch of tournaments just to unlock a new dunk or taunt. The game doesn’t give much CRED out so it takes awhile to earn them, and it’s just not that exciting to me. For reference I played about 30 games, won 5 tournaments and was only able to unlock 1 dunk, 1 banner, 1 jersey and a logo.
Online Vs Single Player
Now how you experience NBA The Run is going to be largely dependent on how you like to play, and if you do prefer online play, who you get matched up with. Playing with others in NBA The Run is by far the superior way to enjoy the game, and clearly how the developers envisioned players enjoying the game.
If you get in a match with good teammates who know what they are doing, The Run is fun as hell. With the great game play and short matches, once you find a squad, if you don’t already have one of course, you will want to run with them as long as you can.
The problem with most online games however is when you get into a game with the annoying players. Oftentimes you will get into a match where a teammate won’t pass at all or just runs around spamming the steal button. That is when the game can get quite frustrating and not all that enjoyable. Also there’s no chat at all? Weird decision there. Thankfully, if that is the case you can just jump into the solo mode against one other player or go fully single player! Oh wait…
Contrary to what many people online have been saying about NBA The Run, you can indeed play this game single player without facing anyone but AI and having AI for teammates. The problem is it’s clear Play By Play didn’t think this would be popular and didn’t focus much on the AI or single player.
The fact that the only way to play single player is to start a friends lobby and not invite anyone is telling. Where is even a traditional single player mode? NBA The Run also seems like it would be perfect for a career mode, working your way through the ranks on your way to becoming a street legend. Unfortunately, that is nowhere to be found.
Now in the friends mode solo, the AI is not great to put it lightly. Playing single player I have yet to lose and can honestly just ask for the ball and go dunk it almost every single time without issue. And with no difficulty options, there isn’t even a way to make it more competitive. I’d try my own way by taking some crazy shots, but that gets boring after a while.
And that’s what makes NBA The Run so frustrating. The game itself is a lot of fun and something I could see myself playing a lot, but there’s also a lot of work that needs to be done to get it to the right place.
Final Thoughts
In its current state, NBA The Run is one of the more difficult games I’ve ever had to review. The gameplay is a blast and when you get the right teammates online you can have fun for hours. However if you are a single player gamer looking for a different experience from 2K you will likely be largely disappointed until they fix the AI, or add more single player focused content.
The foundation is here for NBA The Run to become its own legend in the streets for years to come, Play By Play Studios just needs to spend some time giving the game more character and depth for it to get its legend status.
NBA The Run was reviewed on Xbox Series X. We’d like to thank the developers for providing a review code for purposes of this review. NBA The Run is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X and Steam.
