NBA Street Hands-On
We have a near-final build of EA Sports Big's SSX-influenced roundball game. Click on through to get the skinny on the latest interpretation of over-the-top sports video games.
Just when you thought the over-the-top basketball genre was becoming more stagnant than Charles Barkely's broadcasting career, EA Sports Big has decided to shake things up with NBA Street. While it has the exaggerated dunks and flaming basketballs that symbolize the genre, Street innovates in an area that Midway has slept on for far too long: gameplay. Borrowing some elements from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, SSX, and the NBA Jam series, NBA Street reinvigorates a genre that many have left for dead.
Now on its third released build, NBA Street's three-on-three gameplay is starting to shine. Games are played to 21, and just like in games on the playground, shots from behind the three-point arc are worth two points while everything else will net you one point. There is a shot clock to keep teams from milking leads, and the game is never over thanks to the gamebreaker meter. The gamebreaker meter gradually builds as you perform special moves and combos, and if you boost the gamebreaker meter to the top, your next shot will deduct points from your opponent's score. Taking a cue from SSX, special moves are pulled off by holding combinations of the shoulder buttons and pressing the square button. If you string together several special moves, you are awarded combo bonuses once the basket is made. Making the game even more compelling, goaltending is allowed, there is no out of bounds, and fouls are nonexistent. The lack of goaltending calls in conjunction with the omission of lane violations can present a problem--big men like Dikembe Mutombo and Shaq Daddy can just stand in the lane and swat balls left and right. Switching defenders can also be troublesome in the control scheme's present state because it's impossible to cycle through your defenders. In addition to shooting and performing special dribbles, you can clear out the lane by throwing some elbows, call for picks, and back defenders down into the paint. While playing defense, your player will automatically lock on to a player and break down into a defensive stance.
While there are just two main gameplay modes in NBA Street, it's what EA Sports Big does with them that makes it such an engaging game. The main single-player mode is called the city circuit, and it asks you to climb a ladder of real NBA teams. The five players chosen for each team include its obvious stars and any other guys who may have spent some serious time working the chain-link nets on the outdoor courts. As you defeat each team, you can choose any player from the opposition and make him a part of your roster. This adds a good deal of strategy to the game. Since you can select the order of your opponents, you can choose to play teams with high-caliber players that will fill holes in your starting lineup. Having a well-balanced team will help you overcome the tougher teams you face later in the game. After you defeat all the teams in a region, you face off against a region boss. Region bosses are usually heavily weighted in one specific skill, and defeating them teaches you how to overcome your friends who like to resort to the same tactic every time they play. The cast of region bosses is a varied one. There's Bonafide, a Latino with a sky-high steal rating; Takashi, a towering giant of a player; Stretch, a '70s era Dr. J with a huge afro; and D.J., a straight-outta-North-Philly dreadlocked Jamaican who plays in Timberland boots and jean shorts. Michael Jordan waits at the end of the game as the final boss.
Street features a fairly extensive player-creation tool that lets you dole out a set number of points to eight different skill categories. If you play games with your created player and win, you can choose to receive points to increase the created player's stats. The hold-the-court mode is handy for when the party atmosphere is in full gear, and when you play it by yourself, you can unlock items like tattoos and new kicks for your created players. For those of you who are having problems coming to grips with the combo system, there's a street school mode to help you along.
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