NBA Street is the new game that gives you street-court action with NBA pros! Get flashy with a whole trick system and a new method of shot blocking that lets you do things that were impossible before!NBA Street is the best arcade basketball title available. Period. Why? No refs, no clocks, no fouls. Players will knock you over, and they practically live for blatant goaltending throughout the game. Realistic? No, but it’s always fun–even if you hate basketball.
Street has two different game modes–City Circuit and Hold the Court–yet the differences here are minimal. Both feature three-on-three games of 21, in which you must assemble a squad composed of (initially) NBA players. Soon you’ll play against street legends (read: bosses) that, once defeated, can be added to your team. Your ultimate goal is to defeat the biggest legend ever: Michael Jordan.
To survive the streets, you must learn which buttons to mash as you master specific stunts. This will add special points to your score and give you access to different ways to score. Though similar to NBA Jam and its sequels, Street is deeper, and sports a surprisingly developed finesse game.
Street does commit some fouls, though, with its over-the-top, repetitive commentary and lack of play modes. However, even if you hate arcade-style basketball, you’ll find Street differs from the pack, making it a solid MVP contender.
Pros:
- Good controls and gameplay
- Pleasantly cartoonish graphics
- Arcade approach makes it fun for those turned off by very technical basketball simulations
Cons:
- Horrific commentary
- Only 2 very similar gameplay modes
- No 4-player support
Taking the ball out of the hands of shoe salesman and giving it to characters based on schoolyard greats, NBA Street also plays by street rules. Off-the-backboard passes, nasty dunks, and a special momentum meter–which boosts your abilities as you humiliate the competition–let you know you’re not playing arena ball. In fact, some of the courts are modeled after real-life basketball training grounds, such as New York’s Rucker Park and the Cage. You’ll see them all when you hit the road and take on the local crew. Perform well against them and you’ll be able to recruit some special talent (did we say Mike?) to your team. Hold the Court mode will reward you with cool accessories, such as shoes and tattoos, by successfully defending the home court against challenging teams.
- The game puts you on the playground with a set of NBA players — choose your team from a group of NBA players, pick-up style
- Beat them, and you can pick one new player from the other team to join your group
- Beat the boss-team of each region to move ahead and build your rep
- Games go to 21, and you have to win by two, just like in old-school pick-up games
- Travel to playgrounds across the country in City Circuit mode, or play to earn new looks & equipment in Hold The Court mode
List Price: $ 14.99
Price: $ 21.98
Truly Revolutionary,
Remember NBA JAM? Remember how many hours you spent playing it until you were finally sickened by it? Are you thinking that this is just a JAM clone? WRONG!
NBA Street is nothing like before. It is a 3-on-3 street-ball, no rules and clock (except for a shot clock), style game. Like regular street ball, you play up to 21 by ones (2′s for long range shots) and you have to win by two, which makes it work like the “deuce” system of other sports. Here I will talk about each aspect of the game.
–Graphics
The graphics are not the best the PS2 has seen, but it certainly is awesome. The animations are really fluid and life-like. There is still some of the “plastic-ish” feel of EA Sports games, but that’s not really anything of importance.
–Sound
There’s Joe The Show talking mess the whole time, and it doesn’t get repetitive like most sports games either. The background music also suits the “Street” playing style a lot
–Control
This is where the game is awesome. There’s basically four turbo buttons, which are the four shoulder buttons L1 L2 R1 and R2. Using a combination of the shoulder buttons and the “trick” button will make players do different “tricks,” like slip-and-slide where a player rolls down while bouncing the ball. If a “trick” is done properly it can knock the opponent’s player down to clear a path. However, not all players can do these advanced tricks. If you have a player with low ball-handling ability (like Shaquille O’Neal), the player will lose the ball easily.
To perform dunks, you use a combination of the turbo buttons with the shoot buttons. There are a variety of dunks you can perform, but you need a good dunk rating to perform the advanced dunks. You get points for doing dunks.
Then there’s blocking. While this wasn’t important in other b-ball games, in NBA Street, knowing how to block is essential and very fun. With a tall player, you can have lots of fun swatting shots, but it requires timing and skill.
Besides tricks, dunks, and blocks, you also get points for other stuff like steals and picks, and doing combos and alley-oops add even more points. But what are points good for? There is a “Gamebreaker” bar for each team. It fills as you have more trick points. When the gamebreaker meter is filled, you have a limited period of time to shoot or dunk the ball, and if you make it (usually you will since gamebreakers make your shooting and dunking ability much higher), not only do you get your point (or two points for a long shot), you also TAKE OFF the same amount of points from the score of the other team. Gamebreakers are very cool, especially near the end of a match when the score is close, a 2-point gamebreaker can create a 4-point difference.
–Gameplay
There are two modes in NBA Street. First, there is a city circuit mode. In it, you tour through all the NBA teams and 6 “Street Legends.” You start out with one NBA team of 5 players and a created player. When you beat an NBA team, you can choose one of their 5 players or you can choose to get points to enhance your created player (note: you only get one created player per user ID). You can increase his/her height, weight, and different skills (2-point, 3-point, dunks, power, blocks, steals, handling, and quickness). At the very end of the circuit you play Michael Jordan, who can be quite a challenge. Then you get to pick a player from a secret team. You can go through the circuit again for created player points and NBA players you didn’t get the first time through (for example if you want to get both Shaq and Kobe, then you have to play twice to get them if you didn’t start with the Lakers).
The second mode is the “Hold the Court” mode. In it, you play on courts you have unlocked in the city circuit mode and have to get a certain winning streak and total number of trick points in each to clear the court and earn new create player clothes, faces, shoes, and points. You can also play with TWO-PLAYERs on opposing teams in this mode.
A lot of people complain that Street is too easy. This is actually not true. The game sets the default on easy (there’s easy, medium, and hard), which is very easy. But once you play on medium or hard, the game is quite challenging. But as you get monster sized players (like 7’11″ or 8′), the game becomes less difficult since you have super blockers. This tells you to start fresh with a new ID and starting team and work towards another winning squad!
–Value/Replayability
Playing the circuit alone warrants 30+ games. The Hold the Court mode requires another 40+ games. Finally, there is infinite replayability for two-player mode.
In sum, this is a must-buy. GET NBA-Street NOW!
Was this review helpful to you?
|NBA STREET vs. NBA 2k1,
Bored with the run-of-the-mill hoops game? me, too. That’s why you should check out EA’s NBA Street, a totally new take on the street game that also happens to be one of the most fun basketball games we’ve ever played. If you thought NBA 2k1 was cool wait until you see this game. It looks like the game should offer a lot of extra incentive to play it solo. In addition to being able to unlock lots of codes and other secrets, the single player mode has a really cool arrangement where you get to steal a player from the roster of the team you beat and you face a boss-like team after beating a string of regular NBA-based teams. It sounds like a lot of fun and should make playing the game all by your lonesome much more rewarding than it would be without all the cool bonuses. NBA STREET RULESS CHECK IT!!
Was this review helpful to you?
|