NBA THE RUN Review

Play by Play Studios has created NBA THE RUN, a basketball game that is a classic, fast-paced arcade streetball game that feels reminiscent of titles from the NBA Street series and old-school Def Jam titles. There is no offline game mode here; instead, the game focuses on online three-on-three street matches where the first team to 21 points wins. The refreshing thing is that there are no microtransactions; everything you unlock is from playing the game, not by paying extra money for it.

There are 32 NBA players unlocked, with five rookie variations to reveal as your rank goes up. There are Stephen Curry (2009—10), Luka Dončić (2018—19), LeBron James (2003—04), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2018—19), and Kevin Durant (2007—08). These aren’t just skin swaps, but they have different skills from their current versions in the roster, making them feel like additional players.

Not all the locked players are real-life athletes that you know; there are also five streetball legends. These characters are very unique compared to the regular athletes and feature El Gigante, a 7’7”, 64-year-old player, or Shen Tong, the 14-year-old influencer who is only 5'3” and has circus-style passes. Having a roster with this many players keeps the game fresh, as each game you can switch up your lineup.

When you select who you want to play as, you can jump online into a match or, for practice, enter the Shootaround mode to hone your skills and get a feel for how your character plays. In this mode, you won’t learn all the moves, like passing, because it’s only you on the court, but you can try out all your different shots, layups, and dunks before jumping into a game.

At launch, there are 11 different courts that you have a chance to play on, including Toronto, Philly, Chicago, the Philippines, New York, Venice Beach, and Beijing (plus tournament finals variants for the Philippines, Venice Beach, New York, and Beijing). When you begin the match, one of these locations is randomly selected, along with the rule set you will use during that game, like Old School, where the first team to seven wins, but each type of shot is worth only one point.

You are on a team with two other players, either the shirts or the skins, who have ditched their jerseys. You can change it so that your opponents are greyscale to make it easier to keep track of your teammates, especially since there is only one camera angle that you can’t change, making it challenging to keep track of where you and the rest of your team are.

I am playing NBA THE RUN on the PlayStation 5, so on the controller, to shoot, you use the left face button and hold it down for a charged ball. This button is also used to dunk and do a layup when you are close enough to the net. Since you are playing with other people online, make sure you pass to the other players. Playing with a ball hog who won't give you a chance is incredibly frustrating!

The standard matches are very short and only last between three and five minutes, so you don’t have much time to score points; this can be good if you are teamed up with other players whom you don’t really vibe with. But the game automatically keeps you with whoever you last played with, so if you liked the team you were on, this is awesome. The thing that I found surprising was that the game lets you quit at any time and doesn’t punish you for it like other titles do. Though having a Quick Play option would be great, so you can play one round and then leave, not having to play through three games to complete the tournament.

One of my favourite things about NBA THE RUN is the stylised look of the game. The visuals are vibrant and expressive, instead of the more photorealistic look like other NBA titles. NBA THE RUN has flashy animations that are highly exaggerated when you are shooting three-pointers and dunks that have you flying through the air on legendary streetball courts. This game has a great arcade-style look and sound effects that make it feel fun and unique.

If you were expecting an offline single-player career-type mode, this is not the game for you, at least not at this point. Everything in NBA THE RUN is online, where you are playing along with your friends and other random strangers. The problem is that when you are on a team with people you don’t know, there is no guarantee that you will get the ball. I’ve played rounds where I am totally open, and instead of throwing to me, they toss it to the other player who is totally blocked, making it pretty frustrating to play.

Sometimes, you will get lucky and find other players who want to win and will pass to whoever is open to give your team the chance to score points, and it works great. It’s just a roulette of what type of player you are working with. But I feel if you have friends with the game that you could play with, making your own group, that this would be the ideal setup.

NBA THE RUN is a fun, yet frustrating, game to play. Having to play online with other players can make it a blast if your team is working well together, or horrible if you are paired up with ball hogs who won’t pass no matter how open you are. None of my friends are big sports game fans, so it would be impossible to make up my own team, but I'm sure this would be the ideal way to play, especially if you can’t find people online to play along with.