You have to love the good old days when you would go down to the local pizza joint and play some NBA Jam. The game’s over the top nature made the (ouch don’t touch me) game of basketball a fast and frenzied game of half court shots and insane dunks. Although along the way something happened to the series, and it got dull, thus you would see it less and less in the coin op world. Fans didn’t have to worry too long as NBA Street hit consoles in 2001 and once again captured the fun that NBA Jam once had. The series mixed the And 1 street ball style with NBA superstars. Now in its fourth incarnation, powered by Next Gen technology, NBA Street offers up a small slice of NBA heaven.
NBA Street Homecourt‘s brand of basketball is part And 1 show-off fest and part Run DMC music video. Developer EA Sports BIG created a perfect rendition of three on three basketball where your control of the player is matched only by how amazing he looks.
The basketball that is played on the court can look artistic in the hands of someone with a good grasp of the controls. You have the ability to mix your tricks with the use of both shoulder buttons in coordination with the X and Y. The output is a bounce passes off the opponents face as well as killer crossovers. Your teammates will even get on all fours so you can use them as launching pads, then while you are in the air pass off to a teammate who will in turn pass off to another teammate for a triple alley oop slam. Did I mention that if you time the slam right, your player will dunk, grab the ball while holding onto the rim, then dunk again for two points. I would watch the real life Dunk contest if they pulled these tricks off.
Above all tricks and air walking is the new Gamebreaker. By using your tricks and scoring, you can increase your Gamebreaker bar. Once it is filled, you can enter a Gamebreaker mode where the already awesome moves are turned up even more. You can pretty much rain in a shot from anywhere in this mode or perform even more amazing dunks. Although it’s not unstoppable; if you lose the ball, the Gamebreaker becomes the opponents’, and they can use it against you.
I can’t describe how amazing it all comes together; you simply have to see for yourself. It’s EA BIG at its finest.
The game’s graphics are pure Next Gen goodness; the players look very much like their real life counterparts, their jerseys sway like they should, good stuff here. The game’s music is a throwback mix of Motown and hip-hop, and along with the court chatter, the audio really adds to the overall atmosphere. The designs of the game’s menus, loading screens, and other visual elements are amazing. As a designer in real life, I immediately fell in love with its A
