Freestyle Street Basketball Updated Hands-On - Skills and Details on the Currency System

Most online games out of South Korea tend to be massively multiplayer role-playing games that let you create a fantasy character and slay dragons and other beasties. But how many of those let you do a pick-and-roll? Freestyle Street Basketball is a game that combines the persistence and character customization of an online role-playing game with the competitive nature of a sports game, and it's coming to the U.S. next year. We were impressed with what we saw of the game earlier this summer, and we recently had a chance to glean more details about this fast-paced online sports game.

In Freestyle Street Basketball, you'll be able to create persistent characters that you can use to go into online basketball matches. The game will feature support for one-on-one, two-on-two, and three-on-three matches, so you can choose to play with friends as a team or with random strangers. However, since these are persistent characters, you have a chance to customize and improve your characters over time, just like in a role-playing game.

We learned more about Freestyle Street Basketball's interesting revenue model. The game will retail for approximately $20 and will require no subscription fee to play. There are two kinds of currency in the game: points and bills. Points are free and are earned by playing the game. The more you play, and the better you play, the more points you earn. Bills are basically the equivalent of cash, in that you use a credit card to purchase bills.

Most items in the game can be purchased with points. These range from all the various pieces of clothing and accessories for your character, to skills and abilities that you can unlock. You can build up a large wardrobe of various pants, shorts, shirts, and even tattoos, which you can swap in and out for each game. These aren't just for looks, either, as some clothes and accessories boost various playing attributes. For instance, one pair of shorts might let you shoot the ball better, while another might make you a better ball stealer, and so on. Many of these items will be restricted by level as well, so you might have enough points to purchase them, but you won't be able to until you raise your character's experience level high enough.

You'll need to use bills to purchase the objects and abilities that can't be purchased with points. An example of this involves the game's skill system, which uses a concept similar to what you'd find in a collectible-card trading game. For instance, you can unlock a large number of skills and abilities, such as trick shots and moves, but you can equip your character with only five of these abilities at a time. So you might have a huge arsenal of skills, but you have to decide which ones to take with you into each game. If you know your opponent's tendencies beforehand, you might come up with a list of skills that counter your opponent's playing style. However, you can use bills to unlock additional skill slots for a temporary amount of time, such as a week. This means that you can go into a game with six or more skills, rather than just five, though you do end up paying for this privilege.

The number of customization options is impressive. In character creation, we tinkered around with the latest hairstyles and clothing options, and Sierra says it is busy tying up deals with sportswear manufacturers to feature licensed clothes and shoes in the game. The audio is also getting Westernized, and the Asian rap and hip-hop soundtrack will be replaced with a soundtrack featuring a Universal Music Group artist (Sierra is owned by Vivendi Universal), including an original song written for the game.

The controls are simple, so all you need to play the game is a keyboard. The arrow keys control your character's movement, while the W, A, S, and D keys let you perform moves, pass the ball, shoot, steal, and block. For example, holding down the W key while moving may let you try a pick-and-roll (assuming you've equipped the skill), or you could dive for the ball if it's loose. The S key lets you pass the ball and attempt to steal when you're on defense, while the D key lets you shoot or block. It takes only a minute or two to get comfortable with the control scheme.

As simple as the control scheme is, the game has plenty of depth thanks to the fast-paced action and mix of skills. Real-world basketball strategies apply in Freestyle Street Basketball, such as putting a hand in a shooter's face to lower his chances of making a shot or using your buddies to screen you so you can get an outside shot. We played in a number of matches. The most memorable was a nail-biter that went into overtime, and we lost on a missed three-pointer at the buzzer.

The cell-shaded graphical look of the game is as pleasing as ever, and one of the advantages of it we're told is that it also helps keep the system requirements to a minimum, which means the game should run well on most systems. We really like the look, since it's more of an animated cartoon and less of a game. That seems to fit in well with the game's fun and lighthearted atmosphere, though with its persistent characters and breakneck action, it could become a very competitive game. Freestyle Street Basketball will launch in early 2007.