NBA Street

"A great Arcade Basketball Game"

Im a big basketball fan and love both the indoor game and the streetball. When I first saw an advert for this game I was quite excited with the idea of getting your NBA players out on the street.

Gameplay 8
The gameplay is fast and furious so if you’re the type of player who likes to set up and execute a perfect set play you will not win on this game.

The only gameplay format available is 3 on 3 with the winner being the first player to score 21 points. Baskets scored inside the 3 point line count for 1 point and baskets scored outside the 3 count for 2. Well to stop the game from becoming a dreary text book affair the guys from EA Big created a trick point and turbo bars. For each dribble or scoring or defensive move a team does depending on the complexness of the move the team gets a certain numbers of trick points for their trick point bar. Sounds simple huh?

Well it is but to avoid a player doing a ton of random moves in a row there is a turbo bar. The turbo bar charges up when the player with the ball and the defender without the ball is standing still doing nothing. A certain amount of turbo is needed to do a fancy dribble or dunk move, more turbo is needed for the more complex the move. Every time a move is performed the turbo goes down so it is quite possible to run out of turbo and have to wait a second or two for it to charge up again. The turbo bar charges up faster if the dribble move breaks the defenders ankles or makes them stumble. This is called a fakeout.

The defender also has a turbo bar and this decharges whenver the defender is faked out. The higher the defenders turbo the higher the chance the defender is going to steal the ball from the attacker.

The aim of the game is to charge up the trick points bar as quickly as possible and by doing so you score more points thanks to the gamebreaker shot. Once a team fully charges their trick point bar the player has a limited amount of time to get a gamebreaker shot off. A gamebreaker shot is exactly that, it changes the game by adding on gamepoints to you and taking off game points from your opponent and it is unmissable. If you score a 1 point basket by either shooting from inside the 2 point line or dunking your team is awarded 1 point and your opponent has 1 point taken away. If you shoot from outside the 2 you get 2 points and your opponent has 2 points taken away. Game Breaker dunks are unblockable and gamebreakers shots are blockable but both varieties will always go in if they are not blocked.

You know how in SSX you get more points for a combo of tricks than you do from performing tricks individually? Well it’s the same in NBA Street. If you do a fakeout and score within 4 seconds of each other you get more points than if you did a fakeout, waited for 4 seconds and then scored.

This trick points system and turbo system add some complexity to the game which ensures that the better and more stylish gamer will most likely win.

Gameplay Modes

There are 2 main modes of gameplay: City Circuit and Hold the Court mode.

City Circuit is the main mode and you go around 6 regions of America to beat every NBA team and there are also 7 Boss teams you have to beat between each region. Each boss team is built around a street legend. I personally really love the personality and game of each legend and the boss teams make a welcome break to the NBA teams. Once you beat a team you can pick anyone of their players to place on your squad or alternatively you can pick some create player development points.

Hold the Court mode is where you have to win a certain number of games in a row on anyone of the 13 courts which you unlock in City Circuit mode. Winning each game in this mode gets you a certain number of create player development points according to how many trick points you ammassed during your game. It is also a 2 player mode where you can try and hold the court against a friend.

Graphics, Animation and Game Physics 8

The graphics aren’t that photo realistic but in an arcade game I don’t really think that matters to much. Also they are good enough so you can distinguish individual players easily.

The game physics are quite good, I love the snap back of the rim after a hard dunk and all the ball hitting the rim animations. Also the players dribbling moves are really nice however there are occasions especially when passing where the ball goes through a defender, however the average player really won’t notice it and it doesn’t really take anything away from the gameplay.

Music, Commentary and Sound Effects 6

When you see the opening video with the rap and the bass you think what great music. Trouble is it all goes down hill from there.

The music in the game reflects how exciting the game is with the opening video bass coming on whenever a team gets a gamebreaker. However it is highly repetitive and you are guaranteed to here all the tracks in a single game. Im a big hip hop fan and Im sorry but the music apart from the opening video accompaniment really is bad.

Luckily in the in game options you can switch the music off and use your Hi Fi instead.

The play by play is called by this guy called Joe the Show. Hes the guy who throws up the ball for tip off and from then on proceeds to call the plays streetball style.

The play by play is on point and relatively funny and all adds to the feel of the game.

The soundeffects are good. I love the sound of a rim snap back and the sound of a vicious block. They go some way for making up for the repetitive music.

Controls 8

The controls are simple, easy to use and quite easy to remember.

Player movement is controlled by either the d-pad of left joystick.

On offense x is for pass, 0 for shoot or random dunk/ layup if close to the basket, triangle for call a pick and square to perform a random handle moves.

To perform a specific and more difficult dribble move or dunk/shot you press the square or circle and at the same time you press a number of turbo buttons (L1,L2,R1 and R2). Its similar to the SSX controls.

Replayability 7

NBA street has 4 secret teams you can unlock with one needing to be unlocked by completing city circuit mode twice.

In addition to this there are also the difficulty settings of easy, medium and hard. So if you completed the game on medium, why not show you are a real balla and complete it on hard?

Also why not try completing city circuit mode with a comparatively small team?

The 2 player mode is a big reason why you should buy rather than rent this game. Ive spent countless hours playing 2 player on it because there is nothing more satisfying than beating friend or family, with your favourite team whilst embarrasing them at the same time.

Also the depth of this arcade game is greater than one might imagine. Little things like learning how to steal the ball from the correct position can greatly impact how good a player you are and the more you play the game the better a player you are going to be.

Overall rating 8

The only downside of NBA street the games flaws lie in its lack of good music, lack of gameplay modes such as a 1 on 1.

Everything else on the game is great so if you like basketball or sports in general and have a PS2 buy this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/02, Updated 12/13/02