Like Michael Young, the Creative Director of developer Play by Play Studios, I grew up playing arcade-style sports games – NBA Jam and NBA Hangtime chief among them. Lots of titles have tried to replicate the appeal and vibe of those arcade classics to varying degrees of success. Play by Play’s new game, NBA The Run, has just called next.
Drawing inspiration from those classics, NBA The Run is built on 3-on-3 street basketball that is easy to pick up, rewarding to master, and with social play at its core. Players will go on a world tour of famous outdoor courts, such as Venice Beach, with a roster of both NBA stars and fictional “Street Legends” with larger-than-life personalities. It sounds like over time, more players and courts will be added post-launch as well.
NBA The Run wants defense to be as enjoyable as offense, with an emphasis on anticipation, timing, skill, and impact. As an arcade streetball game, the on-court gameplay will be overly stylish, featuring big blocks, steals, shoves, dives, double alley-oops, posterizing dunks, backboard passes, step-back threes, and more. Ditching simulation realism for free-flowing style, Play by Play has hand-keyed each animation in hopes that every possession feels like an arcade highlight reel.
Knockout Tournaments is the main game mode, which are bracketed tournaments playable both solo and with up to three players co-operatively. Each round lasts about two to five minutes, with a new set of randomized rules each time. And yes, it will feature cross-platform multiplayer with rollback netcode for the smoothest possible online experience (LFG!).
Personally, I love the art style on display here, with bold lines, cel-shaded players, and realistic court textures. That’s some art direction that jumps off the screen. There’s no release date yet for NBA The Run, just a vague 2026 window, but it will launch for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
