Title NBA Street Homecourt Date 04.08.2007 Genre Sports Platform PlayStation 3 Developer EA Big Publisher EA Games

This is the fourth entry in the successful NBA Street series. The first game was released on PlayStation 2 and one of the first more extreme versions of sports games to incorporate the SSX control method. The sequels 2 and 3 were subsequently released on PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube.

The NBA Street franchise has always been enjoyable. Each following game would build upon the last usually improving upon its weaknesses. Now is the time to review the first next generation iteration of the series, which feels redone for better or worse.

Gameplay
First, the most noticeable thing about the game is the control scheme. As mentioned earlier, the NBA street games originally used the SSX control scheme, where you would use the shoulder buttons to pull off tricks. I always thought that method of controlling your moves was great. I guess that for the launch of the next-gen Street they decided it was time for a change.

The old control method for tricks and dunks has been done away with. Now, you use the square and triangle as modifiers in with L1 and R1. To use turbo (which is infinite now) you hold the R2 button. Different combination of L1 and R2 with the square and triangle buttons will do various tricks. All of the dunks look nice and are nicely animated.

Problems I have with the controls are that I believe it is a step back from the older games. I was very used to that control scheme for the game and all of the possible combinations of dunks you could create. The new controls are not necessarily bad but I am just not a big fan of them yet. I have also noticed that because turbo is infinite I find myself with a death grip on the button which can lead to aching fingers after long play sessions. Just a minor problem I noticed.

New things in the game include the double dunk. After every dunk you are given the opportunity to continue the motion and dunk again. A bar appears and your goal is to time it so that the bar fills without going over. It isn't difficult to do and will just take some practice.

Another nice trick is using your teammate as a platform to step off of. You press one of the directions on the d-pad and they will run to crouch near the free throw line. You just run towards them and press circle.

The Game breakers are a little different this time. Once you have you game breaker full you run into the middle of the court to activate it. Once activated your game breaker bar will fill up based on how many moves you pull off which will determine how many extra points you receive. If you fill the bar all the way you can get up to three extra points. The best way to use the game breaker is to fill the bar then do a triple dunk off you teammate for 6 points.

There is also a tweaked trick system for moving the ball around allowing defense more opportunities to steal. You can also "be the Oop" as in Alley Op yourself, which I never did often because I didn't think it was worth it.

The create-a-character sucks. I am not sure who thought it was best to literally mesh together three different NBA starts heads to create your own. You really need to spend more time with it then you would want to get a decent look. You pick your position forward, guard, or center and your stats are based off that. You could say the mode is streamlined to avoid long hang-ups in the menu to make something similar.

Playing the single player mode follows the same formula. You see an NBA start then talk about how they started off as a montage of their home court plays. I actually liked this presentation. It was interesting to see where various stars started off. After the presentation you are basically in a menu where you can change your team, your outfit or play a game. Each game has different rule sets: like play to 7, play to 21 with shot, play to 10 with only dunks, etc. It's nice that they mix it up for you.

During story mode you build your created character's stats. You keep playing until you get to level up and so forth. After a while you will get a freak skill, which basically give you a 100% rating in a category. I really didn't like this because of how you can abuse it. I made shooting my freak skill so I almost always score 2 pointers with ease.

After playing the solo mode and the game types of games I got a little tired of the routine. Repetition is in all games but I was a little let down to see that they didn't had more variations to the game. It isn't a really big deal anyway for a sports game.

Graphics
The graphics are very nice. The superstars all look pretty good. The menus are nice and lively. The only complaints I have is that there is no crowd. No one is around to watch you play in any court. The graphics are solid without any big problems. Not much really needs to be said about it. The game is forced at 720p. If you are one of the people who plays in 1080i or p then you will need to uncheck 720 in your video options on the XMB.

Replay
The game is fun to pick up and play. You don't always need to invest a lot of time to get things done. A few games here and there and you can get something done in the story mode. Having a friend to play against is really beneficial because they can extend the life of the game.

I played a little of online. I won't factor it much into the review because connections vary and lag was a factor when I tried. Also in the online mode you can't see the dunk meter which adds a little more challenge to double dunking and can get really affected by lag.

Nevertheless NBA Street is still a very fun game with many positive features. If you are a fan of the series you may be a little put off with the new gameplay, but you should give it a try. It is definitely worth renting if you are a casual basketball fan. If you really like the NBA Street series then buy it.

Game Score

B-

Reviewed By: Contributed