The reason why this game stands out is simple; The crappy announcers, the stupid dunks, the special moves, the repeated players, the lack of players, the overlooked rosters, the crappy rating system, the power ups, the playground players, the cheap factor, the music and the list goes on with online play. I know it sounds like I'm nit picking, but this is actual complaints I have with this game.
The announcers are a joke saying, "dunky brewster" "he got brain-ed" and that "uhhhh" orgasm sound when someone performs a "special" dunk where they turn gold. It's dumb, when NBA Jam had guys say. "boom-shaka-laka" it sounded amazing because it was an exciting commentator saying wacky stuff, this game has nobody's who have to say their names for anyone to know who they are, and I don't even know the NBA Jam announcers.
The dunks are stupid, when a game throws out their basic rules (traveling, carrying over, no rolling on the ground, no standing on the rim, etc.) to make a dunk sound special, it turns the game to complete garbage. I know I can't dunk to save my life, but most of these guys were known to dunk a basketball.
The special moves are trash, even Jordan's dunk seems blockable. Most of the special moves don't work regularly, you miss or someone blocks it, there's no point on doing the move unless you're wide open but it happens randomly when you play.
My main complaint would be if I used Dennis Rodman, his special sucks. He does it when it's not needed, or when the other team dunks a rebound. He's basically a sitting duck when that happens, and it takes long for him to snap out of it, add a feature to turn that shit off or add a different move.
There's too many repeated players, and I know this is because not all rosters had star players, but it's insane to see Jimmy Butler on all these teams. We get it, everyone wants their favorite bandwagon player on their roster, but at least we don't get Michael Jordan on the Wizards.
Lack of players are depressing especially since they were players in their prime. Much like no Michael Jordan out of his prime, no Tracy McGrady on the Rockets, no Kevin Garnett on the Celtics, no Mitch Richmond on the Warriors (when he won Rookie of the Year), no Eddie Jones on the Lakers, no Dennis Rodman on the Spurs (he was also on the Mavericks and Lakers), and it has a bunch of sad rosters. So no Reggie Miller on the Pacers, no Charles Barkley on the Suns (or Sixers/Rockets), no Ray Allen as a Supersonic, no Rasheed Wallace on any team (I heard some are unlockable) but the list goes on.
I understand how some players wouldn't want to associate with this crappy game, but you have dead players so it's not a copywrite issue. I honestly believe some players had the right to not be in the game, because it sucks.
The overlooked rosters are just sad, and it's proof that this wasn't designed by fans. It's just a group or people who like specific teams, neglecting when the studs were on those bad rosters.
The rating system is a joke, Epic and Legend are pathetic picks. Especially with the new players, like Lonzo Ball sucked as a Laker and is epic, yet Stephon Marbury and Ray Allen are average cards?
It really sucks, how they define the current players from the superstars is insane. I'm just going to say that a bunch of people who designed this game have no idea how to play basketball, or have little to no knowledge when it comes to sports. I'm not going to say when Scottie Pippen went to Portland that he was a bad player, but I wouldn't have put him on that team, I would have put Rasheed Wallace on that team as an Epic player.
The power ups suck, no thought was put into the frozen net, cursed players and those shots where you get extra points for stupid reasons. I know they can be turned off, but it's stupid, why were they added?
The playground players ruin the game completely for me, not because they're generally some YouTuber who has never dunked a basketball, but also because they're playing against the likes Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, Jerry West, Iverson, Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Gary Payton, Julius Erving, Malone, Stockton and overall actual legends. I get that you're trying to sell a game, and I get the name Playgrounds, but nobody asked for these players, they're not even AND1 caliber players, this is the NBA, and who really cares about these guys being added?
The cheap factor in this game seems like junk, I've noticed when the difficulty is raised the AI defenders steal from you each time they swipe at you. I've been blocked by guys with low stats in blocking, which reminds me, it doesn't matter which players you pick, Muggsy Bogues will block Shaq if the game wants to win.
The music, it sucks. It's nothing like NBA Jam or NBA Hangtime, it's just talentless people rambling basketball terms and slang until they run out of things to say.
Online play, is crap. It's not that I'm bad, I exaggerate a bit with how I play, but online play is basically impossible if someone has a connection issue. I've actually witnessed guys pick Shaq and Wilt Chamberlain magically warp and block all my shots that went in.
You can trigger a player's special move with the PS4 so it's, cheap. It's basically impossible for a Nintendo Switch player to do anything about Shaq getting rebounds, all you can do is push the rebounder.
Overall maybe it's an issue with the system you're playing on, because I play it on the Nintendo Switch. It's pretty cool to collect the cards, but the music sucks (it needs to be turned off), not all the teams have a level playing field, the difficulty is crap, if you have a solid connection it relies on the weakest connection to determine where the ball is, and actually I have noticed that nobody plays this game. So overall, it sucks. Not only do I feel the designers only catered to the idea of this game being good (without the actual game being like NBA Jam or NBA Hangtime) but they intentionally make it where you buy clothing (I didn't buy any) and you gain an advantage.
I bought this game thinking it would be like NBA Jam, or maybe that NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC game, but it ended up being crap. It's only fun when you play against the AI, but after a few hours you get tired of the game with it's wacky dunks and childish gibberish the announcers spout off.
If you see this game selling less than $5, I'd say go for it, you can play with a friend in the house. Far as online play goes, I'm pretty sure the community took a hint when this game came out and they're not around.
I can't even find anyone looking for a 3-point contest. I stand by my opinion, the game sucks.
March 01, 2020 Update: This game sucks multiplayer on the Switch. If you play on PS4, you're at least able to minimize the shit quality of people warping all over, and I don't know what other people see, since I can't play against friends (nobody else owns it on the Switch). It get's really weird with the Halloween outfits and costumes that are purchased.
I'm not sure if the outfits are messed up (they give you benefits) but they really screw up the gameplay. One second there's a tipoff, the next second a shot happens and you're taking the ball out down by 3 or 4 points.
This game sucks, and the sad part is nobody is talking about it. They're all consumed by the theory that this game is making micro transactions. I'm sure it is, but I'd at least like to know the netcode (or whatever they call it these days) where you determine what lag is, and regardless if the lowest connection benefits off it.
I'd like to know where everyone is, why is it that people who lag (or have connection issues where they're basically connected to McDonald's internet WiFi) but their connection sucks. You can tell when you play Rocket League because it says the ping in the lobby, same with Mortal Kombat 11, that's a game people take seriously and I'm glad the designers make it clear that some players lag.
When I play on the PS4, it still lags like crazy where people warp around. This is a simple game to code, either I'm playing against people across the globe who can't help they have poor internet or I'm against some in Mexico with dial up and they screw me over.
Show the connection speeds, if it's bad, say it's bad. Say what people are playing on (just like Rocket League and Fortnite) nobody is embarrassed to say what they're playing on. If it's the Switch users, that's cool, I can play on my PS4, but figure this shit out.
If it's the added bullshit (the stupid swag store crap) then get rid of it. I'm tired of playing this game where some idiot jumps from the free throw line and blocks me, or how your "special abilities" makes my guys jump like they're drunk instead of making an actual fucking move. I know the steal glitch, where you steal the ball from a player who doesn't have it, and that's pathetic when you're playing a game, that sucks for everyone in the game who knows it's a glitch to exploit.
Get rid of the things that don't work (even if its the stupid swag part) and make it an equal playing field,
It's obvious they didn't test this game properly on the Switch, which unfortunately seems common these days. I don't believe this game fits the "cross platform" standard,
Someone fix this game please, thanks.
I'm not playing it until it's fixed, and it's currently unplayable on my Switch. Or better, send a refund.
March 01, 2023 Update: This game is completely unplayable online, and with the costumes. When you add the costumes it makes it unplayable on the Switch, because players move too fast to tell where they are and what they're doing. When they play with the costumes it's basically a waste of time to play, because no joke, they blocked an open Wilt Chamberlain with Steph Curry wearing a chef suit, and the Steph Curry player could make 3's from halfcourt.
I say this based on the fact I actually purchased this on the PS4, when you play on that platform it still has lag issues, but they're far less than the Switch. It really sucks because I unlocked all the characters and got a bunch of guys with the platinum status (it's basically leveling up the character). If you run by halfcourt, they already steal the ball, you constantly see them next to you but they're nowhere near you.
It's a button mash of bullshit where they basically keep pressing the "steal button" regardless of their turbo meter and it's a clear unfair advantage. It doesn't matter if they picked a guy with 0 ability to steal, the ball gets stolen and you feel like a dumbass, then you get to watch them score no matter how hard you actually blocked their shot, it goes in and is counted.
I'm not sure if they're playing on dial up, not sure which Mc Donald's Wi-Fi they have, I have Cox Communication cable service with 3 bars so I'm doing everything on my end. I actually asked my friend to download the game and play with me (I sent him a $20 Switch gift card and the game costs like $10 online) and we had similar results, where he would steal the ball and it would take a second to tell where he was, but it was slightly playable.
I don't claim I'm the master of this game, I can beat the game on easy difficulty, I can win 3-point shooting contests, and know how to alley-oop. Outside of that, the only way I get the blocked challenge unlocked is playing against 2 Muggsy Bogues (Wizards and Hornets) and playing on easy mode (with 99 points game length, and 'Multiplier Stars' as the only 'Lottery Pick'). I'm not great, but I know what cheating is.
When you turn off "Cross-Platform", it's barely playable. So do I recommend it? It's an absolute, hell no.
The only reason why I play it, is because I have a friend living in Minnesota who calls me up sometimes and asks if I'll play with him. He doesn't wear those outfits, barely unlocked some players, so he's new. I've unlocked basically most players (I have to unlock 9 more for it to be official) and around the end you just buy each player instead of spending 50,000 in whatever currency the game uses, some gold coin looking crap and an ABA ball type of currency.
I'm just doing NBA seasons to end it all. The most expensive players are 25,000 and I bought them all. It just sucks you can't tell where you're playing against people, and if they're using outfits (basically it makes your players have higher stats) and they warp around.
Anyways, this game sucks.