NBA Street Vol. 2

"Will you do the finger roll or just drive to the hole?"

Introduction
With me being a big fan of the prequel smash hit ''NBA Street'' when I went to my Best Buy to buy this game I had nothing but big hopes. Fortunately, This game didn't prove me wrong. The game pretty much excels in every portion of the game, to sum this section up pretty quick, this is a damn good worthy sequel to NBA Street.

Game Play
Now of course, this is going to be the beef of the game. Now I'm going to warn you flat out right now, if you don't like flat out arcade Basketball with over the top tricks and crazy moves, then this game isn't for you, but for the others, lets get moving. You have many modes to play from, Pick Up which is basically a exhibition game, NBA Challenge, where you go from region to region beating NBA teams and earning reward points and trophies along the way, and which reward points are used to unlock many, and I mean many things in the rewards section, which range from more players, to jerseys, to stages. And finally, you have Be A Legend mode, where you create your own character and go city to city beating people and slowly raising your status to being just some lame ass kid on the block to a Street Basketball legend. Along the way making your created character better and better. And what's really cool is that you get a nickname towards the end depending on how you, and if you want, you can do this over and over trying to get all the nicknames, which even adds more to the replay value. The actual game consists of a 3 on 3 match, going to 21, and you must win by 2, although you can always change the rules, like say you want only dunks to count as points, you can do it! Hell, you could even make a game going all the way to 50! But anyways, regualar shots count as 1 point, while 3 pointers count for 2. There are plenty of trick moves you can pull off, and not to mention many neat dunks to pull off too. Then, there are you Game breakers, which are basically your triumph card. There are 2 types of Game breakers, Level 1 Game breakers, which takes one point off the enemy while you get your points, and is not as flashy as the Level 2 Game breaker, which takes 2 points off your opponent's score while you get yours, and plus, this time all three of your team members get to join in on the fun as everyone works together to pull off a crazy ass trick. And, if you haven't guessed, it does take longer to get a Level 2 Game breaker. I guess your asking, How do I get a Game breaker? Simple my friend, you basically do trick moves (shaking your opponent with fancy moves), and combo it up with others and score. Sounds easy enough eh? So not much complication in the game. The actual game play is fun and easy to learn, heck, you can dive right into the game and still have tons of fun. The dunks and alley oops are crazy and fun.

Control
Another reason this game is so great is the controls. They are tight and precise and responsive. Never have I had a need wait 2 seconds for my character to pass the ball, its right on the fly. And if you are familiar to the NBA Live Franchise, then you will no doubt be familiar with these controls, since they are basically the same. Fortunately EA BIG was smart and made sure the controls weren't scrambled everywhere so it wouldn't be hard to play, which happens a lot in most X-Box sports games. A great arcade Basketball game with great controls, what more could you have asked?

Graphics
Well the graphics are a so/so for me. Considering this game is for all three next-gen consoles I wouldn't expect ''over the top'' graphics, but I was a little disappointed with them, since they could have been better. At first the graphics seem great especially compared to the first NBA Street, but then you will finally notice the world of jaggies and bad face models. Not saying that the graphics are terrible, which they are not, they are ok. But with other games I've seen like NFL 2k3, where the graphics have a huge increase from the PS2 version. But no game is perfect...well there is one in my book, but I'm not telling you ^_^

Sound
Now not being biased, since I like rap, the soundtrack is...well one sided a bit. The music soundtrack consists only of rap songs, but fortunately I like rap, so I have no problem with it. But for the non rap fans, You can always turn the songs off, although most of them are the instrumental versions, which means it has no lyrics in them, just the beats, but hey, whatever floats your boat. The voices are nice, the announcer, who you will be hearing the most, doesn't have an annoying voice, and the grunts and everything aren't actually bad. From the basketball dribbling, to the the people running up and down the court, the sound is great. But the music soundtrack on the other hand...

So what's new from NBA Street?

For all the people who are thinking, ''I already have NBA Street, and this doesn't look much different'', well I thought that at first, and well I was really wrong. First of all, there is tons, and I mean tons of replay value. Unlocking all the of old school basketball players and Street legends, jerseys, courts, clothes, shoes, and moves, will take you a pretty long time. And if you thought that the game play couldn't be topped from the first one like I did, well your even more wrong, the game play is even more fun, and you'll have a darn good time playing this game, I promise you this. There are new street legends, including 2 old ones, Stretch, who has taken on a more ''Serious'' look, and Bonafied, which has gotten much taller and better ^_^. And for all you stretch fans out there, he now teaches the tutorial mode, but what's even better is now he has a voice! He sounds a bit like Michael Jordan to me >_>. Oh, and speaking of Michael Jordan, did I mention that there are 3 Michael Jordans! Yeah, there all good in their own area.

So Should I get this game?
2 words, Hell Yeah! This game rocks, this game has tons of replay Value, sweet game play. The graphics are ok and the soundtrack will be terrible for you if you dislike rap, but don't let that stop you from buying this game! And if your wondering if you should still buy even if you have the first, Hell Yeah you better buy it!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/29/03, Updated 06/29/03