Roark_8's Full Review: NBA Street for PlayStation 2
I pray for our future. When all was well with the economy and the Internet was going to make everything okay, things were right in world of the media. Salon.com was a free site, making it possible for me to be the hit of parties with my irregular knowledge of drive-thru strip shows. Movies like Toy Story were wowing us with the possibility of what’s to come when good writing and computers combine. And games for the new 3D Playstation were making arcades obsolete. But as we all know, the bottom fell out and the net has betrayed us. It turns out, it was all a hoax and its only good for porn. When the plane was going down, the first people forced out to lighten the load had to be the people in charge of the ideas. Either that or we as a society have reached the end and nothing new will ever be thought up again. Our movie theatres have been besieged by the likes of Jurassic Park 3, Rush Hour 2, and American Pie 2. Even the big movie that isn’t a sequel, is a remake (Planet of the Apes). The people that thought of the name “Pentium” were fired as soon as the stock dropped off and we have been stuck with PII, PIII, and the Pentium 4 ever since. Its like we all suddenly got scared of anything new and refuse to use or go see something unless its familiar to us in some way. The same goes for the Playstation 2. It’s not the “Super Fun Video Game Machine” or the “Mr. Lucky’s Happy Fun Box” or the scores of other cool new names they could have thought up for it. Nope, the Playstation 2. You liked the Playstation right? Well think of that times two! I guess people want a false security in this uncertain economic time. So at least there was some hope for the games right? Yes, you see where I’m going with this one. When the original PS came out it was a rebirth of console gaming. 3D was born and games like Gran Turismo, Wipeout, and Tekken rocked our worlds. With the new PS2 platform, there has been one decent semi-new idea for a game, SSX, and even that is spitting out a half @ss sequel in the fall. Gran Turismo, Twisted Metal, Metal Gear Solid, supposedly the big hitters of the PS2 lineup are all rehashes of something we’ve seen before. They are beautiful to look at, but none of them do anything all that new. I don’t understand all the praise GT3 is getting. It’s the same freakin game. One can only masturbate to its great graphics for so long before feeling cheap and violated.
And so we come to NBA Street, given high marks by most of what I had read. But it is just another example of the fleece that Sony is pulling over our eyes. They are spitting out mediocrity painted in a whole lotta cheap makeup and telling us that we deserve the best. It’s a fun game full of action, big slams, NBA players and stats, and a few fun new bells and whistles, but basically its NBA Jam from the arcade circa 1994.
Gameplay
The game goes like this: 3 on 3 in street ball where pretty much anything goes and does. Play to 21, 1 point for a dunk or a jump shot and 2 points for a three pointer. "Bonus points" (no effect on the score) are given for added flair in dunking, shot blocking, and general showing off. Gain enough "bonus points" and you are rewarded with a Gamebreaker: a shot that is guaranteed to go in, shown 3 times in a real-time instant replay, and counts against your opponent as well as for you. So for example, if you shoot a Gamebreaker 1-point shot when the score is tied 20-20, the scores go to 21-19. On average I was able to accumulate 1 to 2 Gamebreakers a game. This is a noticeable absence of the “On Fire” feature of the NBA Jam series where you were rewarded for hitting 3 straight shots by having unlimited turbo and perfect shooting until someone else scored. The concept of doing tricks for points and using points for a “boost” is stolen from SSX (although, both games were made by EA Big, so it wasn’t really stolen I guess). In the one player mode, you choose your team and player other NBA teams and street teams in a quest to become the City Circuit champion. As you beat other teams, you are given the opportunity to select a player off of the losing team to join yours or accumulate points to build your own player. The NBA teams have all the big names and no matter what team you start with you have the opportunity to use Michael Jordan. The “Street Legends” teams that you must play are where some actual innovation occurs. They are usually humorous and entertaining characters to play. “Bonafide” is a cocky 5’10 guard from the streets of Philly who I guess refuses to wear a shirt even in the snow. Drake is a trash-talkin’ Eninem rip-off from Detroit, etc. These players add a little flair to a NBA league that has lacked any excitement since the days Lambier and Rodman.
Controls
As said before, the controls are a bit like SSX. You have the basic NBA Jam philosophy of a button for shoot, pass, fake, and turbo, but added is the idea that depending on which combination of shoulder buttons you press (the turbo buttons are the four shoulder buttons) your guys will do different things. For example, if you press L1 +L2 as you go up for a Jam, you will do a dunk called “The Dominator.” You’re so bad @ss. This is a bit tricky to learn at first, especially if you have never played SSX, but it becomes second nature.
Graphics
Well, I’ll have to admit, as much as I complain about the lack of innovation, the PS2 graphics can be pretty spectacular. The gameplay is fairly smooth with only a few glitches here and there. The NBA players are true to their actual selves and can be easily recognized while playing. The different courts is the where the money is at, though. As you unlock different regions, you play anywhere from the rain in Vancouver, to the Snow in Boston, to the Loop in Chi-Town. Each court has a different feel, lighting, and temperature. Half of my desire to keep playing was wanting to unlock all of the courts to see them all.
Sound
Being that I get all of my knowledge of street ball from “White Men Can’t Jump” I can only assume that trash talking is a major part of the game. But in NBA Street, “Joe” the announcer does most of it. Why they couldn’t have recorded several voices and had the players do their own is beyond me. See, as with most over the top announcers, “Joe’s” quips are funny the first couple of times you hear them, then begin to drive you completely insane. I finally just turned off the sound and put in a CD. There isn’t much for music at all in the game, so have a radio ready.
Complaints
First off, I don’t like the new Gamebreaker crap at all. Ironic as I spent the first whole paragraph complaining on how we have suddenly grown scared of change. Maybe this is why. The Gamebreaker isn’t nearly as exciting as when you were “On Fire” in NBA Jam. For the sure-coming next version of this game I would suggest making the player do something extra if they are doing a Gamebreaker shot. Maybe jump a bit higher, or do a special dunk, something I can’t do in the regular game. The absence of goaltending gets real old, real quick, especially in two player. Its not much fun when your opponent can sit under the basket and block everything that comes near it. Load times for the memory card are also a real drag, for some reason the game has to load the game settings at every break slowing the game down considerably.
Overall NBA Street falls into the same category as almost every other PS2 game out there. Neat graphics, entertaining gameplay, but there’s a complete lack of innovation. For the love of god, will some gaming company hire some people with some fresh ideas?
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