NBA Ballers is the first basketball title to bring an established, full-fledged single-player storyline to the table, referred to as Rags to Riches. You create your own baller, starting out from the very bottom of the food chain. By battling other hopefuls and winning, you earn notoriety and the attention of the real NBA players – the best of the past and present. Tracy McGrady? Allen Iverson? Stephon Marbury? Larry Bird? Magic Johnson? Wilt Chamberlain? All present and accounted for – and that’s only a fraction of the roster of players in NBA Ballers – 24 Legends and 60 current NBA players in total. By beating the best, money and all of the accoutrements of fame become yours – big homes, jewelry, phat rides, a posse that exists solely to tell you “yo, you tha man” 24 hours a day – the “bling-bling” NBA lifestyle has been captured perfectly.

Even at this early stage, the graphics on the PlayStation 2 version (the only one available for test) were outstanding. Facial textures are spot-on to the real thing – zooming in on Iverson’s face during a replay will show each of his freckles, while Ben Wallace’s scowl leaps off the screen. The attention to detail isn’t limited to texture mapping, however – the facial structure of each player has been tweaked correctly, so Bird’s nose is suitably prominent, while Kobe Bryant’s head has that same bullet shape as in real life. Player bodies are also similarly detailed, with tattoos, cornrows, body types, the works – all reflecting the real life characters. With a 6000 polygon count in the player models, you can see exactly where all the detail has gone. The courts, based mainly in various players’ homes, are bright and colourful, with lots of animation going on in the background as well as the main area. Three-dimensional crowds jump, cheer and even interact with players during the game in certain situations which I’ll describe shortly. As your created player unlocks bigger and better prizes, you’ll be able to tweak your home’s layout to reflect your tastes, right down to changing the colour of the court if desired. The amount of clothing options are staggering – and some of the choices for the NBA players are downright hilarious. Shaquille O’Neal has a styling golfing outfit, complete with plaid pants and snappy hat, while Yao Ming’s Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses make the Houston giant look cooler than the other side of the pillow.

Great as NBA Ballers looks, it doesn’t mean squat if the game plays like a slug, and despite the early nature of the build, the core gameplay is solid. No over-the-top NBA Street flying about with pixie dust shooting out of your ass here – the tricks presented are solidly based in real life, but massaged just enough to make them bigger than life…without insulting your intelligence. Ankle-breaking crossovers, quick bounces off an opponent’s head or through his legs, diving for loose balls and rebounds, even a quick pass to someone in the crowd before getting it back for a spectacular alley-oop – the animation has all of the little nuances you’d expect to see from motion-captured NBA players, and none of it goes to waste here. Midway promises to tailor each NBA superstar to reflect their specific real-life skills as development continues, so Iverson and Steve Francis will have mad handles, while the big guys in the paint like Shaq and Yao will be able to dominate in the paint despite being somewhat slower. The roster is broken up into different categories like Playmakers and Big Men, allowing you to quickly choose the style of player that best suits you. The trick moves that you pull off require skill on the part of the player – hitting a combination of buttons won’t automatically trigger a sick move. Positioning is very important when setting up for an alley-oop, or trying to establish yourself in the paint. Backing into a player will quickly trigger a gauge onscreen, where both players must pound away on the X button to get that position in the key – but the player who initiates contact can push off and make the defender bite. Hearing it described to me was one thing, but actually learning the move and pulling it off was extremely rewarding. Since the nature of one-on-one play requires that you depend on yourself to get to the basket, providing gameplay controls that reward those who are truly skilled – as opposed to being lucky or dealing with rubberband AI – makes NBA Ballers a hell of a lot of fun. It’s very similar to a game of chess, where every move has a counter that can be employed by a skilled opponent. “Gimme” plays aren’t going to help you out here – if a trick play is countered, the initiating player will be left on the asphalt while the opponent gets an easy bucket. You build up two gauges as you perform tricks and score dunks, and when both are built up – which isn’t easy at all, by the way – a player who can get into the correct position can pull off a sick move to end the game, no matter who is in charge. It’s hard enough to pull off that it isn’t cheesy, but when you perform it, your jaw will drop and your opponent will throw a controller through the nearest window. Fatality!

I mentioned the “Rags to Riches” storyline, but there are other game options available as well. Compete in a Ballers TV Tournament, complete with hosts – one of which is world-famous freestyler MC Supernatural, straight up Versus mode, or my personal favourite, 1 versus 1 versus 1. Three players out for each other’s blood, all on the court at the same time in a carnival of mayhem the likes of which I haven’t seen since my old roommate’s bachelor party. You’ll also be able to take up the challenge online on PlayStation 2, and the nature of the gameplay means that cross-country trash talking and smack laying is going to increase significantly come February.

MC Supernatural’s presence isn’t limited to the Ballers TV Tournament. He serves up in-game commentary while DJ Rocky Rock provides the beats for the court. Midway has also licensed music from artists like Jurassic 5, Phife Dawg, Jelly Joe, Iron Fist and others, so the sound of the game is faithful to the genre it’s representing. No word yet as to whether or not the Xbox version will support ripped HD soundtracks.

NBA Ballers looks great as a pre-alpha, and it’s showing a side of the NBA lifestyle that’s very attractive – but it’s built on a solid foundation of good gameplay. Bling-bling without fundamentals means nothing, and NBA Ballers has taken that lesson to heart so far. Stay tuned to GA for interviews with developers behind the scenes, and we’ll provide you with further updates on NBA Ballers as it warrants. What is on the plate right now is definitely intriguing, and I’m looking forward to seeing the end result.