A good arcade sports game for a younger crowd.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/73139/nba-bounce-switch-review
NBA Bounce appeared in a Nintendo Direct earlier in 2025 and I didn’t think much of it at first. I’ve been burnt before by a younger-skewing arcade sports game that puts up a brick. But then I glanced at the developer Unfinished Pixel and my interest was piqued. Unfinished Pixel put out a few solid Switch sports games, namely the two I reviewed: Super Volley Blast and Super Soccer Blast. The idea of that developer tackling a licensed NBA game sounded more promising. While NBA Bounce doesn’t ascend to dynastic status, it’s a fundamentally sound arcade-y basketball game that is fun to play even if it doesn’t have that much meat on the bone.
NBA Bounce is a 3-on-3 basketball game with no actual player licenses. It does have, if the title doesn’t give it away, the NBA league license and includes all current teams with generic cartoony players making up each squad. As you play, you also unlock mascots for each team, some of which are more notable than others. A wealth of unlockables are available to add as a carrot on the stick, mixed between playing a few matches with each team, doing specific things in certain modes, and random rewards. It’s a good blend of deliberate action and happenstance.
The game modes consist of an exhibition mode, a season mode, and tournaments. It’s all a different way of playing the same 3-on-3 basketball games, but I appreciate a lot how the season mode works in the actual NBA mid-season tournament. Local multiplayer for up to four players is present as well. The overall straightforward simplicity of the control scheme makes it a good game to pick up with newcomers. My kids didn’t wrestle with it all that much. The Party Mode, operating outside of the more traditional options, adds a good dose of nonsense to the game, though, with randomly changing three-point lines, exploding balls, and extra point zones. It’s where I had the most multiplayer enjoyment.
The gameplay is snappy and fun, though. Shooting is timing based, but not cruelly so. Aside from that, it’s relatively standard passing and stealing and jumping that wouldn’t feel out of place in an NBA Jam. The dunking isn’t quite as bombastic as Jam, but the temperament of the game flow fits the setting. This is more kids oriented, which is a space a lot of the complex sports releases haven’t had quite as much of a handle on on consoles. Flexible difficulty settings let you up the challenge if you want to. On the hardest difficulty, the computer teams put up quite the fight. On the lower end, I felt like the Dream Team.
NBA Bounce is a totally fine arcade sports game geared towards a younger audience. It’s cartoony and fun with a decent variety of modes and a solid local multiplayer experience. The gameplay and scope of the modes never elevates that far past competency, though. I left this game wanting a little bit more out of it, but I had a fun time playing it while the fun lasted. With the right local crowd, this could be a recurring arcade sports game, but outside of that, this is a sixth man of a basketball game - it’s a good complement more so than the main attraction.
Topic: NBA Bounce (Switch) Review (Read 31 times)
