Title: AND 1 Streetball

Date: 06.17.2006

Genre: Sports

Platform: PlayStation 2

Developer: Black Ops Entertainment

Publisher: Ubisoft

Introduction

As one of the most anticipated sports title for this generation, AND 1 Streetball had a lot on its shoulder being the follow-up to, arguably, the most realistic street ball game, Street Hoops. I will take into account of where Street Hoops started to the spot AND 1 Streetball has it now while going over as many aspects in this game that I can think of.

Gameplay

Off the top, I was excited about AND 1 Streetball. Being a fan of the mixtapes and the show, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this title. After firing through the amazingly simple and quick tutorial (which isn’t a good thing, I had to make a change from the easier controls in the NBA STREET series to take on the “intuitive and innovative” control scheme of AND 1 Streetball.

It was a relief to play a realistic basketball title with tricks you could actually pull off on the court. With that said, And 1 Streetball just doesn’t do that well at all. The tricks are preformed with the Left and Right Analog Sticks and while they go fluidly with the animations of the player on-screen, while playing with the controller just doesn’t work as well as it could. There are only a handful of moves that can be used in the game, most of which are from the legendary Hot Sauce. It’s understandable that being a realistic game, in general, it might fail short in quantity as there isn’t many tricks you can do to show off, but this is unacceptable.

With the controls pretty much mastered, it’s easy to get drawn into the game. Pulling off Level 3’s on someone is about as simple as drinking from a glass. Alley ops, crossovers, and hypnotic dribbling really make this game shine. Mic Checka moves are AND 1’s answer to the Gamebreaker in NBA Street and they seem to fit well however the opposing team falls victim to some really awkward glitching (i.e. Mic Checka seems to make players fall who are no longer guarding the person who’s doing it).

Playing through the Story mode gets tiresome really fast and going against the AND 1 team is like playing your high school basketball team against the Harlem Globetrotters. Your team, in essence, is a bunch of ball-hoarding pseudo legends… which isn’t a bad thing per se. However, when playing against the AND 1 team, the true frustration of having your team do absolutely nothing on defense is enough to drive anyone crazy. More than often you’ll witness an ankle break on a person who is no longer guarding the ball carrier.

All in all, at the end of the day I wasn’t impressed by what I saw. I was left with many “if they did this, it would be awesome” moments, which were many in number.

Graphics

The graphics aren’t that bad at all but the glitches are what drops the score down a couple of notches. I can’t count how many time I’m attempting to steal the ball with my back facing the other team. From hanging onto nothing in mid-air in a dunk to shooting the ball without even looking at the goal, the Graphics really aren’t what they should be on a game that is at the pinnacle of the Playstation 2’s capabilities.

Sound

This is where the game excels. The soundtrack is exactly what I would expect from an AND 1 title. There could have been better voice acting but the sounds and music are done very well.

Replay Value

There really isn’t much of a reason to play this title over any other streetball game out there. There’s not much substance to hold up to the likes of NBA Ballers, NBA Street, or even Co-op play in NBA simulation titles. Okay, but it’s AND 1 players? Yeah, that’s cool but when it comes down to it, the game isn’t as fun as it could have been.

Overall

Even for the hardcore AND 1 fans out there, this isn’t a title to toss away every streetball game for. It seemed as though it wasn’t a fully developed game with a ton of annoying glitches and really shallow gameplay. Slapping an AND 1 logo on a game doesn’t mean it’s what true streetball is all about and this just proves it. Play it over the weekend and be done with it. At least you can say you gave it a shot, right?

PROS
- Easy to pick up and play
- Realistic concepts for ankle breaking and show off moves
- Easy to build up your character’s stats to build the legend you want
- If you’re a fan of real streetball, you can’t deny the fun factor it has without being overly cartoony
- More challenging to get into but pays off when you’ve mastered your moves
- 3-on-3’s and 1-on-1’s are done really well

CONS
- Nearly impossible to steal, even with Right Analog stick (“Steal” stick) you’d think it would be easier to steal
- No female character creation; even though there aren’t any in AND 1, to think there are no female streetballers out there is ridiculous
- Really repetitive story mode with no substance to it
- There is little to no teamwork. Basically you shuffling through a 5 player team to make sure defense is being played because your team will do nothing to help out

Game Score

6.2

Reviewed By: Contributed