NBA Street

"Swatting your best friend’s gamebreaker before nailing one in his eye: 6 points."

Welcome to Street, where I promise you don’t have what it takes to play... yet. However, if you’re game enough, and if you’re up for one of the greatest reinvented sports ever, step on up. You won’t be disappointed, at least until I help you off the ground from your ass kicking. But then again, without the initial losses, you wouldn’t be nearly so motivated later on to shove every bit of gloating in your opponents’ faces. Welcome to Street, where nothing is small, easy, or boring. You think you’ve played the greatest basketball games on a console? Think again, because if you haven’t played Street, you haven’t played anything.

Street is all about attitude. From the moment you pop in the game and hear the first licks off the soundtrack, you will know that this isn’t just some ordinary game. You’re greeted by serious hip-hop, and the announcer obviously doesn’t have his roots in the officiating world. Come to think of it, I don’t think that anyone in this game would get by in your normal sim basketball game. You won’t believe it until you try it, and once you do, I guarantee you’ll be hooked.

Street is all about style. How many times have you played any sports simulation where the score isn’t the all-important factor? In this game, there are two huge priorities. First off, you’re playing a game of three-on-three where the first team to 21 points wins. Points are a bit different, as anything inside the arc is worth one while anything outside it is worth 2. That’s the basic concept, at least. What really happens, and what ends up deciding the game, is the second priority: trick points. In this game, you’re given bonus points for every trick you perform. These range from an easy quick-cross with your dribble to rolling on the ground your opponent, to even slamming home a monster dunk (off a self-pass off the backboard, of course). With each trick you do, you can maximize the points by the degree with which you fake out your enemy. If they don’t buy it for a second, you get some tiny, minimal amount. If they double take and maybe misstep, you get a bit more. However, if you completely fake them out of their shoes, they will literally end up on the ground, and what’s that? Not only do you get monster points, but then there’s this wide open lane to the hoop. Is that an easy jam waiting to happen? I think so!

Street is all about gamebreakers. Given the above situation, except you’re the man who just got faked. First of all, get over it. It will literally happen almost every trip down the court, so you’d better not have too large of an ego. At least, you had better not have it on defense. When the ball gets into your own hands, though, you’d better watch out. See, what your friend didn’t remember was that you were only a few trick points away from a gamebreaker. This is the largest revolution in the game and itself accommodates for a good 5 points out of the score I gave gameplay. ;) You see, the gamebreaker is a shot that you only access once you’ve done so many trick points that the momentum of the game is supposedly going in your favor. What happens is that, when you do get it charged, you then have a limited amount of time to score and use it. But what does it do? Why is this thing so important? Why is it called a ‘gamebreaker?’ It’s simple: a gamebreaker is a higher-percentage shot, so it’s basically guaranteed points. However, it also reduces your opponent’s points by as many as your shot is worth. If you pull up for a gamebreaker behind the arc, so long as it isn’t swatted, you just caused a 4 point swing in the game. You get two, and the bad guy loses two. Sweet, isn’t it?

Street is a spectacle. The music is some of the best I’ve heard on the Gamecube yet, and the voices are simply incredible. They obviously decided that this game needed to sound as good as it played, and it does. After special tricks, you’ll hear one of the announcers tell you just what you did, which is pretty cool. On top of that, you’ve got Joe the Show running the middle of the court, and his wise cracks and lines are about as good as they come. Every word is crystal clear and obviously straight from the street. It’s just a beautiful thing to listen to. The background music is also top notch, taking the game’s atmosphere and directly translating it into hip-hop. I couldn’t be more pleased, especially since even the most repetitive of the menu music tracks are still substantial enough to keep me from hating the monotony.

You think you’ve heard enough? Just wait until you get into some multiplayer games. Not only does this game shine when you’re against the computer, but the spotlight really turns on when you sit two people down against each other. This game can redefine the way you brag, or the reason you can. Every possession gives you a chance to showboat, and if you don’t, well then something is wrong with you! This game just plays too well, and lets you gloat too much not to take advantage of it. The fact that it is insanely competitive also lends itself naturally to multiplayer gaming. There’s absolutely nothing sweeter than hitting a gamebreaker from beyond the arc to send my friends home crying, especially when they had 19, or worse yet 20. You see, in Street, you have to win by 2, and the gamebreaker is the surest way to ensure that you do.

Street is like nothing you’ve ever played, and that’s what makes it incredible. You can invite a friend over to test his skills, or you can just play it man-to-machine, but no matter what, you’d better be ready to ball. Turning up the skill level will definitely make you play harder. It also makes this one of the more challenging games I’ve played lately. Instead of a computer AI that does just what is necessary to get by, this game will do just what another player would. They won’t go straight to the basket (unless a wide open alley-oops is available), they’re going to mess around outside, crossing you up, and racking up more points than Madonna’s bras. Then, just when you think you’re pulling away, the computer will make sure they shove a gamebreaker down your throat just before proceeding to give you a dose of humble pie.

Street is simply BIG. Coming from the newer generation of EA Sports games, the BIG division delivers another solid hit. The gameplay is incredible, the music is refreshing (with several tracks that aren’t even overly annoying even after hearing them a lot), and the graphical style makes everything seem a bit bigger, better, and more intense than you’d expect. What is the only complaint I can see right now? That the sequel hasn’t come out yet. It takes the basketball game genre, which I admit had gotten pretty stale, and completely overhauls it. It’s like what NBA Jam tried to do back in the ‘90s, but this time it actually works even for single-player games.

Play large, showboat constantly, hit impossible shots, and then do it all over again just to see your opponent beg for mercy. That is Street, and it's one of the best games I've played in a while.

Gameplay: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 10/10
Replay: 9/10
Multiplayer: 10/10

Overall: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/29/03, Updated 03/29/03