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NBA Street
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Score: 85%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: EA Sports
Developer: NUFX
Media: GCD/1
Players: 1 - 2
Genre: Sports
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Graphics & Sound:
NBA Street is the equivalent of the 21st century version of NBA Jam, and NUFX didn't disappoint with the graphics department at all. Whether you're playing with actual NBA players, or the "Street Legends" that were created with the game, each player model is created with a cartoonish mold, fitting for an arcade basketball game. Besides the "playaz" themselves, each street court is the carbon copy of what actual courts look like in real life. Fans whoop it up on the sidelines, cars drive by honking their horns, and the weather changes as often as Vince Carter makes a highlight reel. And speaking of highlights, believe you me, the amount of animation that's put into each dunk is unreal. Granted, the sick alley-oops are unrealistic, but that's the whole point of the game. The audio track is just as sweet as the game itself. The hip-hop music fits right into the groove, and follows the tempo of the game right up to the last shot. In the effects department, everything is completely overdone, which makes it a treat for your ears. Along with the thunderous dunks, you'll hear the ball 'tickle the twine' when you swish it through from downtown, and everyone, and I mean everyone, is trash talkin' at some point in the game.
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Gameplay:
NBA Street is one of the best arcade-style basketball games ever for any game console. By combining today's NBA stars with created street ballers in a 3-on-3-style match-up, you'll find your computerized jock strap laying around on the court half the time. The premise for the game is very simple: beat the other team to collect points and unlock cheats and a lot of other cool stuff. There are three game modes to play around with, two of which will help you achieve your goal of collecting points. First off is the Circuit mode, where you select an NBA team to play through the ranks of other NBA teams. After you defeat a team, you can then either add one player from their roster to yours, or collect Development Points, which you put towards your own created players. Besides playing just NBA teams, you must face the locals on their stomping ground. Should you beat the playaz, you get to keep them on your squad. In the second mode, it's up to you to Hold the Court. Once again, you take control of an NBA team, only this time, you're playing for wins and trick points. With each game you win, you'll unlock more bonus material. In both of these modes, you play a 3-on-3 game up to 21. Obviously, you want to have the most points in the end, but the other object of the game is all about style. You and your teammates must perform tricks, be it by dribbling, dunking, and alley-ooping. After accumulating so many style points, you'll earn a "Gamebreaker." When you hit this shot, not only will you get the points (1 or 2), the same amount will be subtracted from your opponents score. For example, if the score is 10-to-8, and you make a two-point shot, the score then becomes 12-to-6. To learn how to earn these trick points, and how to play the game for that matter, you can go through the Street School Mode. This, along with the Create-a-Player, is pretty self-explanatory.
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Difficulty:
There are three different levels of difficulty for NBA Street: Easy, Medium, and Hard. The great thing about this game is that the computer announcer, 'Joe the Show,' will let you know when you're ready for the next level of competition. Don't get too cocky if things start off easy at first, because the real competition will be showing up very soon. And believe me, you'll know when you're in for a long day; maybe you're constantly getting dunked on, or the computer could be raining threes all over the court. Either way, you'll need to back it up with some game of your own. As previously mentioned, you can always use the Street Court mode, should you find some flaws in the way you handle yourself out on the court.
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Game Mechanics:
The one thing I didn't like about this section was the fact that the GameCube's controller wasn't as easy to control all of the tricks as it was on the PlayStation 2 version. This is because of the fewer buttons on the GC controller. Nonetheless, I got a feel for it after a while, but I was still craving a couple more buttons for controlling purposes. Another thing to be aware of is that ten memory blocks will be used in saving on NBA Street. Otherwise, the loading times weren't too bad, and nothing ever slowed down in framerate and such. Bottom line: if you're a fan of arcade basketball, NBA Street will definitely get your juices flowin'. The playback value is extremely high, so it would be worth your while to get this game. |
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-Red Dawg, GameVortex Communications AKA Alex Redmann |
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