NBA Street V3 – Review

Yo baller where you at dawg? – Firstly let’s say we decided to review this title together for a few reasons, neither of us had much time and we wanted to make a well rounded review rather than some botch job, after all a review may just lead you to the stores so it would be really lame to throw one together, this being Thumb Bandits we don’t do that here. We also thought we’d try this dual review idea to see how it worked out, a couple of our reviewers have done it before and it worked out perfectly… so.. enough of the explanations, let’s get to the game.

The Story, if you can call it that is simple, you’re a baller, a street baller, before you became a hotshot NBA player, while you still played for the love of the game, on the streets, building your rep.

Firstly, customization needs a mention in its own section because this title is absolutely astounding and if customizing your games is something you enjoy doing you’re going to be in customization heaven. We were both stunned when entering the create character screen only to see male OR female! YES! This is an NBA title and you can be male or female, why that in itself is almost enough to give it a high score. Add this to the fact you cannot only customise your characters physical appearance until it’s just so but you can also take your choice of so much clothing and accessories it will make your eyes bleed. Sure you need to work at it to be able to afford some of them but there’s plenty there to keep you happy as a start player. But wait there’s more, it’s like one of those bad Teleshopping ads, you also get, at no extra cost more customization, there’s court creator, shoe creator, team creator and it goes on and on, the more money you make on the court the more options are open to you. Once you’ve chosen your team you then get to choose your country name and nickname ie Chicago – Bulls or in our case Genovia – Royals .. it’s a long story I wont go into. You can choose your team logo as well and eventually when you’ve created your home court, you can have your lovely logo right in the centre of your court proudly showing for all to see. Now you’re all set to go. Choose a court, set up the game options, times etc and get your game on. There are a few options of play. You can have a quick game based on the normal rules of basketball (with a few funky additions of course since this is street ball), or you can play all over the USA to build your rep and kick the ass of other teams. Fantastic. Each of these is in itself hugely detailed and full of depth because there are numerous ways to play against other teams, play to 21, play to 11, play to 7, participate in a dunk tournament, play for the first ‘gamebreaker’ and so on. Woah. This is one monster game.

Gameplay runs smoothly and by the numbers, passing, stealing and slamming is all responsive and knowing what player you’re controlling is no problem with the highlight circle that appears around your player at any given time. It takes a little getting used to when you’re playing defence but you’ll soon get the hang of it and will be making blocks and steals all over the court. The street aspect really adds to things as you can do non basketball moves to push the game along, kick the ball to an opponent, roll on the floor, boogie it baby and so on. As you progress through the game you’ll open up even more tricks and items so longevity is definitely helped along in that aspect. Another great characteristic is the combo play, do a series of special moves to build up your combo meter than bam, get a basket and reap the rewards. This aspect of the game known as a ‘gamebreaker’ allows you a period of reward time where you can deduct points from the other team by scoring baskets and pulling off some amazing shots. This is similar to the Tricky Boost Meter in SSX Tricky and it’s a brilliant addition to the title.

Multiplayer is a missed opportunity here and is the one reason this game doesn’t get a 10. Apparently the US version has full live support with a separate character generation for your own online baller that in no way affects your offline character. You can also play on your own customized courts with friends on EA’s dedicated servers. Why the Live option was removed from the PAL versions is beyond us, clearly it would add lifespan and longevity to the title that the 1-4 player edition lacks. Sure you can play with your pals at home but hooking up with friends on Live would have been a far more credible option.

The sound in NBA ballers is brilliant and very in keeping with the NBA theme, there’s rap and hip hop music aplenty and it’s not rap music with a C at the beginning, there’s some choice tunes and they add to the game rather than distract, some classics that you’ll remember as soon as you hear them, such as De La Soul, House Of Pain and so on, great stuff. In game music too, although a little repetitive at times still has its urban feel and adds to the game. Sound effects too are crisp and clear and even the commentator, DJ Bobbito Garcia isn’t overtly annoying though you will hear the same thing quite a few times the longer you play it. There’s spectators yelling, chain fences rattling and power shots dunking, in fact the only thing missing on the NY court is the beeping of car horns and I should add it’s all in glorious THX surround.

The deaf gamer angle is a tough one, there’s no subtitles but it doesn’t really need them, if you’ve got the instructions booklet you’re sorted as far as explanations for trick moves etc and some would say the lack of DJ Bobbito Garcia’s smart comments is no great loss to the game. This title is graphics heavy, it’s all about the look and feel of the title so with that in mind although the deaf gamer is missing out to a small degree it will in no way ruin the game for them.

The female gamer angle for this title really comes down to one thing, playing a kick ass female baller is brilliant. Sure playing a male character would have been okay too given how polished this title is anyway, but the fact the developers and EA opted to give us female gamers the option to have female characters if we want to is definitely a step in the right direction to open up the female gaming market more to those who may otherwise remain uninterested and looking upon games as their boyfriends territory. The great thing is that the females aren’t lame prissy girls; they are absolutely equal with the guys and they aren’t sex objects. Hurray! Nice one EA.

Overall it’s difficult to fault NBA Street V3 for anything other than the omission of the Xbox Live feature. The graphics are crisp, the music and sound effects in general breath even more urban life into the title. Customization is amazing with so many options open to you just creating your team could take you quite some time. All this and the fact you can play a male or female character makes NBA Street V3 a fantastic addition to the franchise. If you’re into basketball games you should definitely have this title in your collection and if you’re not into basketball games but want something a little classy and urban you could do far worse than NBA Street V3. It’s a slamdunk for EA with this title.

Review by Tracy & Angela