NBA Street Vol. 2

Added August 11th, 2003 by Final Sniper

Introduction:

Brilliant is the first word that comes to mind when I reminisce on NBA Street Vol. 2. There are certain aspects that NBA Street holds that set this game apart from any other basic Sport Game. The most obvious of them is the whole ''street'' idea. It is far from professional basketball but instead stripped down rules played in out of league games. However, the most predominant aspect of NBA Street Vol. 2 is that is has character. Character is a word that doesn't coincide with the term video game very often but NBA Street gives off these old school vibes that make it all the more fun. You see this through the combined efforts of the music, cell-shading, and even the splashes. The loading screens are poses of old school ballers, and the courts themselves are committed to the traditional style. It is with this character idea that gives NBA Street Vol. 2 seem like a culture. It actually gets you into it, and of course, the game play is fantastic. The trick element was carried over from the original game in this series and yes ‘game breakers’ are here too. When you play head to head with a friend it feels more like a fantasy street ball game, yet if you edit the ‘game rules’ you could set the game to run like an NBA basketball game. Not only does this game cater to b-ball fans of all shapes and sizes, but it also offers more game modes, incentives, and features than any of the other titles that are currently out on the market. Now we all know the concept of mixing street basketball with NBA legends is far from anything new. Personally I felt this had become a dieing genre in the late ‘90s after a few companies brought almost identical releases to both the SNES and SEGA. Yes we’ve seen it done many times before, but I feel this is the peak of the genre. This is completely different from the other basketball titles, and by different I mean: good. Now aside from the five different game modes, and the simple fact that it contains enough in-game incentives to keep you playing for months, this is one game you won’t be able to stop playing anytime soon!

It’s not NBA Jam, and it wasn’t created by Midway, but does that mean we can’t love it? Without argue NBA: Street is one of the greatest fantasy sports games ever to grace the console. The fundamentals are of course, the same as you have come to expect from every game in this genre. This is one of the games were they didn’t go outside of the boundaries; they just took what’s good and made it better. I think the slogan for this title should have been, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” Instead of trying to make a new game, they took a different route. What they chose to do was build on top of what was already fun to play. There are four game modes to select from, those being ‘Pickup Game’, ‘NBA Challenge’, ‘Be a Legend’, and ‘Street School’. Pickup Game allows one on one play, two on two and all the like you would find in an exhibition game mode. Yes, you can even load your created player and team into this mode. NBA Challenge is a simple game mode. Defeat NBA players and you will be rewarded. The rewards range from new jerseys all the way to new players. When it comes down to Be a Legend, you’ll love this one. You start off as a no name street ball player, and from there you have to climb the ropes. With each victory you gain fame, and points to increase your player’s attributes. To make it even more interesting, every time you defeat a team you get the chance to recruit players from the other team, including the ‘bosses’ at the end of each challenge. While Street School is very simple and quick, I guarantee it will raise your skills to the next level. It’s more or less a twenty minute interactive help course.

The 3-on-3 basketball style is here. It contains the ‘oops’, the ‘raises up’, and even the ‘he’s on fire!’ The only difference is there’s a ‘new’ spin on things and the controls are much more responsive. The ‘alley-oop’ has pretty much survived time itself and remained what it has always been, and that would be quick and effective. In order to accomplish this b-ball feat, you merely need to time your pass with your partner as he jumps. This is very easy to setup, even easier yet to control, and yet very nice to watch as you throw a few tricks in right before driving the slam-dunk home. Now when we look at the term ‘raises up’ I would be referring to the flash of a pixilated character jumping across the TV screen and if you hit pass at the right moment, your partner makes a extra spectacular air dunk, as it was in Hang Time. The only difference is now your partner is a high resolution character model and his dunk is even more spectacular. With that you might start to feel as if there was little change in the game mechanics. But that is so far from the truth. You can do tricks in between shots by pressing a series of buttons (much like the all too familiar series: Tony Hawk), and by holding different button combos and than pressing the shoot button, you will allow your ‘baller’ to take different shots. I can’t stress enough how much variation and creativity you are allowed in making shots, and setting up dunks. Now let’s examine ‘he’s on fire’, and note what has changed. Basically, the original idea was scrapped. Now it’s the ‘game breaker’ we all strive to hit. Instead of trying to make 3 baskets in a row so that your player makes all of his shots, it has become the point issue. You want to be nailing as many tricks and combo strings as possible. This will add to your overall score, fill up your game breaker meter and eventually give you the game breaker shot. What it does is takes a point away from your opponent and gives two to yourself. But if you feel you want to go for the long haul you can bank it, and save up for a level 2 game breaker shot.

Graphics:

Do I really need to mention that Xbox is the king of consoles when it comes to graphical output? Well with that said, the graphics are as simple as cel-shaded character models over digitally perfected backdrops. What’s that mean in the simplest terms you ask? Well it means the visuals come off as absolutely stunning! This is one of the few sports games (basketball none the less) where a player from the videogame actually resembles its life like counterpart. The faces and even the hair on the players are top notch. But to break it down further, each and every character model (average, athletic, and stocky) look about as realistic as I had ever seen in any sports videogame. Now I wouldn’t go as far as to say the graphics were revolutionary, because they didn’t include players sweating, or crying when they loose and all the other eye candy other sports titles offer, but I can say that you won’t be disappointed with what you have here! The animations are very colorful and creative, even though they are more on par with fantasy basketball than simulation basketball. But we all know there is no spoon, right? Now the real perk to this game is the sequence of moves/tricks your players can do. In this specific game they are almost endless, now to top it off you can even link them together which will add variation to your shots. Actually, if you want to rack up the quick game breakers you’ll find yourself pulling off a flurry of different animations EA Big has dubbed, ‘tricks’.

Audio:

The music chosen to fit NBA Street Vol. 2 was both catchy and not driving enough that it got annoying and repetitive. A lot of it is beat-based old school rap and rap itself. There is also some DJ work but mostly rap. For those who don't enjoy the rap genre, the music doesn't phase you. It is well chosen and beat oriented so even the metal thrasher will enjoy this game. The one downside to what my ears heard was what my ears could of heard. As we all know E.A. developed the game, they didn't push their limits or spend the extra penny to throw in customizable soundtracks. NBA Street Vol. 2 is the type of game where the idea of customizable was built upon. It is really a shame that they left this out. It was little things like this that E.A. did that made my only give this game 9/10. If they had taken that extra step, this game would have been legendary. Despite this flaw, again, the music is good. The actual SFX are good and the court sounds are pretty life-like.With an in game music selection gimmick like “EA Trax” how could you go wrong with an already ‘funk-alleyciously’ loaded soundtrack? EA Big brought in the big boys of contemporary hip-hop. Musical talent such as Nelly, Lords of the Underground, and MC Lyte all add to the well suited music theme created in NBA Street, and that theme is: ‘tha funk’. On top of having the perfect background music to create a street ball gaming utopia, they also beefed up the audio with a new announcer. If you played the first you’ll know how much of a necessity this was. So without further ado the man behind the commentating would be none other than legendary Bobbito Garcia, a well known MC from New York. We just might be seeing the man who will eventually replace John Madden’s commentating; at the very least we can all hope so! The only negative I have about the audio is the simple fact that Xbox’s customized soundtracks is not supported, and I have absolutely no idea why this feature was overlooked.

Controls:

With all the great incentives I can’t imagine anyone setting the controller down for quite a long time. Control in NBA Street Vol. 2 is just fine and easy to use. Some have commented that performing the 'supermoves' or the highest difficulty of tricks is difficult as you are pressing the three special three buttons and your trick designator at the same time, however, shouldn't the most difficult of tricks be the most difficult to pull off? The rest of the controls are fairly simple and I was quite content at how accustomed I was to them. The only actual control flaw was when you were inside the opponent's foul line as it occasionally was difficult to 'get' the player to dunk or take a shot. Other than that, I was more than pleased with the control.

Replay:

As I said before, this is one of the most addictive games to come out in history. The NBA Challenge mode alone is at least 30 games long, and it’s arguably not the main game mode! Be A Legend shines, and will surely get many hours of play from a dedicated gamer. But even if you don’t want to get into a basketball campaign, you can simply play a friendly match for hours on end. Perfecting your combos will take many hours to master, and if you ever want to pull off the coveted Double Gamebreaker you better get crackin’. Once again, the big problem comes from online play. If it was Xbox Live compatible you would not need another game in your collection—period. With all the great incentives I can’t imagine anyone setting the controller down for quite a long time. Even better yet you have a ton of things to unlock, (including moves, players, jerseys, levels, tricks, and dunks) user records, and you also get multiple game modes. When it comes to playing sports games with multiple friends this is definitely the cream of the crop.

Summary:

NBA Street Vol. 2 is a force to be reckoned with. It combines the addictive playability of today's sports games with the style and character of old school street basketball. It looks, sounds, feels, and plays exceptionally well and scores high in all areas. I was truly happy with NBA Street Vol. 2 and would easily recommend it to anyone -- basketball fan or not.NBA Street Volume 2 has gone a long way from NBA Street 1. With new Street Legends, monster dunks, and ankle breaking crossovers, and now Old school legends, what NBA hoops fan could resist? It is by far one of the best basketball games on the market. Good enough to make you upgrade from the first? I just can’t say yes. There are many new features that you just won’t see in Volume I and cool game modes, but this is one of them games you really need to rent before purchasing. Because like Nelly and his music, you either feel its vibe or you just don’t like it. With the insane moves and the crazy dunks, there something in it for everyone of all ages.