Streetball’s newest hero hits the court on PlayStation 2.
I GOT NEXT Up here in Vancouver, we have a little place called Kitsilano Beach. It is here at Kits that street ballers come every spring and summer to stake their reputation on the concrete court. Surrounded by hot babes in bikinis, and brothers looking to "get next", your street ball game gets put to the test by anyone and everyone, even the occasional NBA player. This, in essence, is what NBA Street for the PlayStation 2 is all about. Assembling a crew, taking your game to the court, and letting it speak for itself against the best opposition there is. NBA Street is the latest game in the EA Sports Big line, taking regular sports and amping up the fun while not stressing the simulation aspect quite as much as the normal EA Sports line. SSX came out of the gate with the PS2 launch and kicked massive amounts of ass, garnering several awards for its fun and creativity with the snowboarding genre. NBA Street looks to do the same for basketball, and brother, does it ever succeed.
PUT UP OR SHUT UP First off - the gameplay. NBA Street's 3 on 3 basketball stresses defense just as much as skyrising dunks. Set up your big man in the middle, watch that skinny little opposition point guard come down the paint and send that weak sauce into the cheap seats with a satisfying THWACK! Unlike other games of this type, defense isn't limited to shoving the other guy down - you can actually play D and enjoy doing so. Offence is just as much fun, whether you're calling for a pick, lifting up the rock for an alley-oop, or taking off from the foul line for an off-the-backboard-dinner-is-SERVED-SUCKA slam dunk that shatters the rim…even with an arcade feel, you can see how EA's sim background has helped maintain a sense of realism. Height and weight do make a difference here - you don't want to be a big guy on the perimeter trying to guard a much quicker Allen Iverson, but you better pray before taking The Answer down the lane against Shaquille, because you WILL end up on your can, wondering where the ball went. Whether you're playing in ladder mode, trying to beat all the NBA teams and game bosses to be the best, or playing "Hold the Court" and defending your turf from all comers, you'll be hard pressed to maintain your game. Like NBA Jam, NBA Street has a Turbo meter which you use to perform tricks, faking out defenders and setting up sweet dunks and long-distance bombs. As you perform tricks, you build up a Special meter, just like SSX, and once that meter is full, you've got a GameBreaker. Once your GameBreaker is active, you can drop a sparkling long bomb for two points beyond the arc, or head down the gut to stuff the dynamite down the opposition's throats - and the points you get are subtracted from your opponent's score. Want to lose a friend? Drop a GameBreaker on him with the score tied 20-20. Don't bother trying to just walk through the game on easy difficulty - yeah, you can do it, but the in-game spokesman, Joe "The Show" Jackson, will rip you unmercifully after the first few games.
WHATCHA LOOKIN' AT SON? THIS ROCK BELONG TO YOU? The graphics in NBA Street are great to watch. The player models are detailed, but still maintain a slightly cartoony edge, just enough to highlight the fun aspect of this game. A rock-solid 60 fps keeps the gameplay smooth and fun, with the rare frame rate drop in the closer camera settings. The lighting effects throw real-time shadows on the court, there are polygonal crowds that jump and cheer (especially in Rucker Park). The background graphic quality varies from the outstanding (Rucker Park, Yakatomi Plaza, Beacon Hill) to the pretty good (San Francisco), but overall, the courts look great. Some even include weather effects like rain and snow. The graphic quality extends throughout the whole game - the front end is clean and more importantly, intuitive, which hasn't always been the case with EA Sports products. Loading times aren't bad, with the exception of the Create Player screen. Since the various uniforms are actually different from each other instead of just using palette swaps (No Scorpion/Sub-Zero stuff here!), each has to be loaded off the CD and it takes a little bit of time. Still, the ability to customize your player from skill levels, nickname, clothes and shoes is worth the wait. Nothing cooler than hearing your created player's nickname in the game after a monster dunk.
SHOW YOU? NAH, YOU SHOW ME! Secrets galore abound in NBA Street. After beating each boss, you gain access to him and his court for your use. You can add new things for your created player, and earn extra points for use in his/her skill set. Secret teams, Midway-style cheats…NBA Street has it buried in there for you to find.
I CAN'T HEAR YOU! The sound is great. From the WHOOMP of exploding rims, cats calling each other out on the court with distinctive voices, ball squeaks, crowd noise, and sweet, sweet Ninjatune music make NBA Street an aural delight. Joe Jackson provides commentary for each game, talking smack like a hopped-up Marv Albert and letting you know what's up, whether you're running the table or getting your butt handed to you on a platter. His voice gets irritating after the 40th straight game, but I guess that's to be expected at 3 AM.
NO BLOOD, NO FOUL All isn't perfect, however. Multiplayer is limited to two players and that simply will not get the job done when the boys are over for a round of drinking (delicious non-alcoholic beverages) and brawling. Two player is tons of fun, but after years of being used to NBA Jam's 4-player multiplayer, the fact that NBA Street doesn't include this feature is disappointing. Here's hoping that the upcoming Gamecube version includes 4 player gameplay. Some of the transition animations are a little jerky, and could use some smoothing out - still, with the large numbers of animation in the game and the excellent frame-rate, it's not noticeable unless you really look for it.
MAN, IT'S NOT EVEN FUNNY I was one of those kids pumping massive amounts into Midway's NBA Jam arcade machine a few years back, but eventually the gameplay got stale and I left it alone. When NBA Hoopz was released recently for PS2, I gave it a shot, hoping that the mechanics had been revamped - no such luck, just one extra player, but it was still the same old Jam. NBA Street has taken the rock and seriously posterized NBA Jam and EA's own NBA Live 2001 on PS2. NBA Street has beaten down all other basketball games on the market and told their mothers to their faces. If you love basketball, hell, even if you're just a casual basketball fan, you owe it to yourself to get NBA Street.
