NBA Street

"A great basketball game, that has it's flaws."

To start off, this game is great.. Though, this is only a game that anyone can like, and also dislike. This game is like an NBA JAM, but more realistic, sort of, well like ''Street'' basketball. It's half sim, half realistic..

To start off, the game has 3 game modes, ''Hold the Court'', City Circuit'', and ''Street School''. Hold the Court mode is simple, but can get repetitive very fast. You just beat the same team, over and over on the same court, for the set amount of wins to ''Clear'' to court. City Circuit mode is simple, you have 6 regions.. In each region there are 4-6 teams to ball against, and after winning a game with each one in a region, you face off against a ''street baller boss''. Sorta like, your rise to the top. And Street School is a tutorial on how to do tricks and moves.

There is also a create-a-player feature that lets you customize your own chracter, to his height, weight, shoe design, face design, jersey, and attributes. To raise attributes, height, or weight you must recieve points by completing a team in circuit cit mode and depending on how good you did, depends on how many points you get... You may choose between points, or a new baller to join your team. To recieve new clothes and shoes, you gotta show your stuff on hold the court mode to unlock 'em.

Gameplay is simple, you choose a team, choose 3 characters from the team.. Like, L.A. Lakers you can choose Kobe Bryant, Shaq, and someone else, like you or someon you recieved in city circuit. Then, you go on a 3 on 3 street ball game with basically no rules except shot clock violation. Shoot from the 3 point line and further, you score 2 points, but if you dunk or shoot from 2 point spots you make 1 point. And the first to 21 wins. They use a trick system similar to SSX Tricky, to do a cool dunk or shot, you can hold any combination of the top 3 buttons and pressing B, alows alot o possibilities... When you do dunk, or shoot, you earn points,. Depending on the ''coolness'' of the action, is where the points stand. When you get points, it raises a bar, and once that bar raises al the way up, you reciever a ''Gamebreaker''. A Gamebreaker is a unique way of adding points to yur score, and whatever is added to you, is subtracted from your opponent. But, you gotta pull off that Gamebreaker because it is timed..

Sound is overall... Nothing special. Dull background music, and a repetitive announcer named ''Joe the Show'' makes it worse. The only plus in this department is the SFX, such as the sneakers sliding across the court..

The graphics are Dreamcast looking, all I can say.. I expect more, and animations are a bit ''querky''.

This game will last you a while on single player mode while you build up your character to be perfect, unlock all the shoes, and outfits, max out attributes, clear all of he courts.. But it can get boring fast. If it does, bring in the 2 player action and go head to head against a friend. Sadly their is no cooperative mode.

So to sum this up...
Graphics: 7
Sound: 5
Gameplay: 9
Replay Value: 8
Fun Factor: 8

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/02, Updated 09/29/02