Summary
Developer: Play by Play Studios
Publisher: Play by Play Studios
Platforms – XBOX Series X|S (Reviewed), PC, PlayStation 5
Review copy given by Publisher
For the first time in what feels like forever we have a new 3 on 3 basketball arcade game. Play by Play Studios brought us NBA The Run which surprised us with its late announcement and release in early June 2026. Immediately, this game gave us flashbacks to the classic NBA Street series from the early 2000s. But will NBA The Run fulfill the nostalgia we have? We’ll have to see.
NBA The Run is centered around the Run the World tournament, a four-round Knockout tournament where teams of three go head to head on streetball courts from around the world from Beijing to Harlem to Venice Beach. Every round you play will feature a randomized ruleset that will keep players and teams on their toes. You can play one game featuring only 1s or 2s and then get into another game that has 1st but also has 2s but in order to get the extra point you may need to do an alley oop or similar.
Currently NBA The Run features only three game modes at launch. Knockout Squads, Knockout Solos, and Knockout Friends. It’s not much to work with if you are someone who doesn’t like playing online. You can go shootaround in an offline mode to practice your shooting, timing, and test out which players you like to play with. The lack of game modes in this title does hurt it in my opinion. We’d like to see a little more attention to single-player modes.
Each game is usually a fast experience. Games don’t take too long to complete and even if they did take long, there is a timer. Most of my experience has been quick and just back and forth scoring. Playing Knockout Squads, at least for me, has not been an enjoyable experience. Playing with random people online on your team it’s hard to communicate and of course, everyone wants to score. Playing with friends would be the better way to go about playing NBA The Run.
In my experience, I had the most fun playing Knockout Solos because you are in control of the entire team and how they play.
The good news about the future of NBA The Run is that more content is on the way. Play by Play Studios revealed a road map up until 2027 that includes a Campaign Mode.
Another aspect and strategy to this game are the players you select on your team. If you are playing Knockout Solos you are controlling the entire team and this is where the strategy probably comes in play. Some players like Steph Curry are better at 3-point shots while others might be better for defending or dunking on opponents. When playing Knockout Squads you’ll just have to hope you have good teammates.
There is a grind factor to all this. Not all players are unlocked from the start. You can unlock players play leveling up through online and earning in-game currency to unlock player cards and such.
As for the looks and sounds of the game. It looks great, art style fits so well from the courts, crowds, to the players themselves. All are great looking. As for the audio part of things, there’s more bad than good. The commentator in NBA The Run can get irritating when trying to just enjoy a quick game of basketball. Luckily, you can easily mute the commentator in the game’s settings. I understand why they have the announcer have a certain style of voice as it fits the atmosphere of the game. But it goes too far after a while becoming irritating than enjoyable.
Verdict
NBA The Run is just a fun arcade basketball game and we’ve been itching for a new one for a while. There’s room for improvement for sure and the developer is already looking into adding more modes. The gameplay experience is often determined by the random game mode that is selected. It can be frustrating for players who only want to play single-player modes which is not a possibility right now at launch.
