Quick pick-up game. Very fast paced, but to pay 60$ for it? I think not.
2 days ago at Blockbuster, I noticed NBA Homecourt sitting on the shelf next to other next gen games. I was sent on an immediate trip to memory lane remember all the fun I had with the previous installments. So I picked up the 5 day rental.
Another 2 days and its sitting in its box on the ground mixed with a bunch of other games of mine. Not because I haven't played it yet, because I got bored of it and just don't want to play it anymore. I found it fun for awhile, but the crazy physics can only take you so far. The story mode is just a brick wall of repetitive matches with no variation except those tournaments which is just another set of matches with nothing different in them. Graphic wise, I wouldn't say its a big leap, but its not too bad. Disregarding the very weird lighting effects where its very bright sometimes and somehow turns red and blue during gamebreaker which is just a very head turning part of playing. Sound wise, what happened EA? what happened to those awesome tracks that you used to have on your games? Ive noticed this lack of good music in a couple of new EA games (NFS:Carbon). Now its replaced with some cheap instrumentals that can hardly match or keep up with the fast paced gameplay of Homecourt. Otherwise the sounds of slamming a ball from 15 feet in air into a hope is pretty good. The online components arent very classy either, its just playing single player with a real person, nothing different at all, hardly any rewards for doing good online except two achievements, so it wont keep people on it for a long time.
Overall, NBA Streets first crack at the next gen world looked like a current gen effort. If this was on the ps2, xbox or gamecube I would've given this game a better score, but when a game comes out on the next gen console, you expect a little more then just dunking 21 times, washing, repeating until you cant take it anymore. Homecourt would be a very good game to rent, but sadly its just another one of those games that just shouldn't be valued at 60$.
Since Homecourt was the first NBA Street series appearance on next gen consoles, I think it still has time to develop and get into more in-depth gameplay features to be the fun and zany games we all loved on the current gen consoles.