NBA Street

"NBA Street is basketball broken down to the most violent, up tempo, and full flexed degree"

NBA Street is basketball broken down to the most violent, up-tempo, and full flexed degree. Sky high jam's, towering Ally-oops, and long range shooting. Let's not forget the seemingly impossible post moves. All in all It's street ball, And to best put it, it's the new generation of NBA JAM.

Graphics:

First The Graphics. The Graphics in this game are splendid. The Players move with such realism and the Blocks seem to match up to real life rejections when the ball is swiped. The shooting is smooth, even the hand motions can be seen putting the rotation on the shot. Even the Dribbling has it's splendful moments with crossovers.

But what really sets this game apart from others in graphics are the courts. City's come to life, Miami, Vancouver, New York. The Buildings are beautifully modeled. When there's rain there's reflections on the courts that shine. And the Frame Rate never seems to slow down, consistently smooth.

Mostly The Players look like themselves with sometimes a tad too cartoonish a look. But the game comes through as all players are their proper heights, and weights. The Street Legends are funny and are full of life with characters that display people such as Denzel Washington from ''He Got Game'' or even the Alien From Roswell.

Gameplay:

The Game play in NBA street, is fast, furious, and up tempo. There are 5 NBA players to choose from , from every team to play as. Each Player has different attributes, and accompany their real life counterparts quite well. For example Ray Allen and Reggie Miller are great 3 shooters, but Rasheed Wallace and Chris Webber aren't that great at 3's but are better post players with more dunks.

As For Game moods there are basically 2 to choose from. Hold the court and City Circuit. Hold the Court is basically an exhibition game were you play to break records. City Circuit is a ladder esque type game, sort of like Mortal Kombat, were you play all the teams from different regions, and earn new courts and codes as you progress. Along with playing NBA Teams you will also encounter NBA street legends to play.

There is also a create a player feature. It is sort of lacking in features, Only 9 or 10 faces and a few clothes. The attributes are customizable though and development points can be taken instead of players in City Circuit. Also there are only pre arranged nick names to choose from, so you can't make you're own. I still consider it lacking though, better luck next year.

One very interesting feature of the game play is a thing called game breakers. When you perform special moves and do furious dunks and such, a bar on you're screen fills up, and when it's full you get a gamebreaker. When used, if the shot lands you get the points you make and the other team gets those points subtracted from them. So essentially all games can be turned around easy with a gamebreaker.

The only downside to the game play of NBA street is that it only has a score limit. 21 points, and you have to win by 2. Their are no time limits, but there is a shot clock. Real life NBA 3's are worth 2, and normal shots inside the arc are worth 1. But with this exception it's pure arcade action.

Presentation:

NBA Street is presented quite well and is very energetic. It includes many sounds that brings the game to life, from trash talk, to Joe the Show, who announces basically. Though, Joe The Show does get annoying after awhile, he does his job. City sounds bring the game to life with sounds of Cars, Horns, And Trains. The Effects of the ball shooting and the rim bounces are none the less good.

The Control is tight and responsive. Offense controls consist of a fake out move(square) a pass(x) a shot (o) or turbo (l1 l2 r1 r2). Holding down turbo and square gives you any number of moves to shake you're defender. On defense you can steal (square) and jump to rebound and block shots ( Triangle or O) or just stay in front of them. Analog is used so movement is smooth, and there's no choppiness at all with it.

The Music is alright, nothing to special, Could be a little more energetic and maybe upbeat to fit the arcade style, but it's ok. Some tracks fit well in the street ball setting but other's don't. It's up to you're preference really.

Final Verdict:

Buy if you like Basketball or play it or maybe even like Sports Arcade games. I suggest renting it if you're a casual fan of the sport or maybe are a simulation fan. As for me, I like SIM games better, but there will always be a place in my heart for this wacked out game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/01, Updated 06/25/01