Soccer
The FIFA Street series was hugely popular, if not praised critically, during the PlayStation 2 and Xbox generation. It saw two teams of five players take each other on in matches of street soccer, but standard soccer wasn’t really the focus. The insane tricks and freestyle dribbling were what fans attempted to master. Certain players were able to perform more spectacular tricks and some were better at tackling and shooting, much like the players in NBA Playground. The franchise disappeared as the core FIFA series evolved and after the underwhelming 2012 reboot.
A soccer version of NBA Playgrounds would work much like FIFA Street did. Lottery Picks could range from powerful shots or more spectacular freestyle tricks. You’ll unlock the main players from every world famous club and legends will be able to do the best tricks. You could even mix in a rating style similar to that of FIFA’s Ultimate Team mode, something that many soccer fans are familiar with. Since NBA Playgrounds morphed from the memories of NBA Jam and NBA Street, the same could happen successfully with FIFA Street.
Tennis
We’ve seen many tennis games that feature exaggerated skills over the past decade, such as Mario Tennis and Virtua Tennis. Getting the MAX power serve in Virtua Tennis and smashing an ace past your opponent, or sending a (literally) flaming forehand straight at your opponent in Mario Tennis are incredibly satisfying. Using the arcade style and focus on the spectacular of NBA Playgrounds, a tennis version could work excellently.
You would be able to pull off impressive shots, reminiscent of Roger Federer’s between the legs lob shot, or be able to fill up your Lottery Pick bar to fire 200mph serves past your opponent. Your player could perform acrobatics before they hit shots, just as the ballers do in NBA Playgrounds before dunks. There are also a bunch of recognizable tennis legends to choose from to make the Playgrounds caricature style work with the sport. We have seen similar games but the tight, simple gameplay of NBA Playgrounds and the sport would be a perfect pairing.
Ice Hockey
We have seen some popular arcade-style ice hockey games release over the past 20 years that are drastically different to EA Sports’ NHL series. 2003’s NHL Hits featured 3-on-3 gameplay and exaggerated player movements and strengths. Even 2017 has seen a less realistic hockey game release with Old Time Hockey, a game that embraced the 1970s era of the sport. There was even a ‘beer mode’ control scheme that allowed you to play one-handed so that you could hold a beer and play!
An NBA Playgrounds-style ice hockey game could be great fun. Fast movement, powerful shots, caricatured players, legends, and power-ups would all work perfectly with the sport. It’s already a fast-paced sport so the frantic nature of the game, paired with the over the top style, would look excellent.
Volleyball
You may be surprised to hear that more than 50 volleyball games, or games that feature volleyball, have been released since 1972. It isn’t a sport we see much in games other than Mario and Sonic Olympics or Dead or Alive nowadays, but it has quite an extensive video game history nonetheless. It’s also a sport that should work excellently with the style and gameplay of NBA Playgrounds.
The animation of alley-oops or dunks in Playgrounds could be moved over seamlessly to spiking in volleyball. Your player could leap 10 feet into the air to slam the ball into the opposition’s area of the court in spectacular fashion. Lottery Picks could allow you to perform a shot that ends a rally or reach a ball that seems destined to land and lose you the point. It is probably the sport that is most similar to NBA Playgrounds in terms of movement and animation, and sounds like the perfect recipe for some intense multiplayer matches.
Football
A football iteration of NBA Playgrounds would certainly have to be tweaked to allow for the tactical side of the sport to remain prevalent. 2-on-2 wouldn’t really work so the teams would have to made up of at least four players to ensure that it still resembles the sport. However, 4 vs. 4, or 5 vs. 5 could work really well. The pitches would be smaller, and the power-ups could be anything from long range quarterback throws to unstoppable runs.
You could also build your dream team, with caricature versions of legends and current players filling out the roster. It could be a great way of simplifying the sport, without losing too much of the tactical aspect, too. It wouldn’t be as similar to NBA Playgrounds as a Volleyball version would be, but we would love to see how it would turn out.
Published: May 12, 2017 11:58 am