NBA Street
Bring it!
NA release: 17th February 2002
JP release: 22nd March 2002
EU release: N/A
Developer: NuFX, EA Canada
Publisher: EA Sports BIG (NA/EU), EA Square (JP)
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack
With this generation of consoles, EA definitely wanted to spin off to attract the “cool” demographic, which meant more “hip” versions of their sports games. First up was basketball. While the style and atmosphere of the game is new, EA looked backwards for inspiration for the gameplay, most notably NBA Jam (which, incidentally, EA would eventually own), even going as far as implementing the same icon-based cheat system.
While there’s a ton of overexaggerated moves in the game, it feels somewhat lacking. I think a lot of this is there’s no visual flair to the moves, no flames or fancy light effects. This seems to be to keep the game fit the “street” style, but it comes across as unfocused. The game is also heavily balanced in the favour of who has the ball, due to the trick system.
When you have the ball, you can hold the shoulder buttons and press a button to perform a trick, which knocks down any nearby defenders. There’s no counter to these, so being close to someone with the ball is just a way to give them more trick points. I found the only strategy was just running to your hoop and trying to jump up at the right time to catch the ball, and you’ll easily work out a method to score every time you have the ball. Performing tricks and earning trick points builds up a “gamebreaker”. If you score while this metre is full, you’ll also deduct points from your opponent.
NBA Street has a singleplayer campaign where you can rank up a created player (which has extremely limited options), unlock special teams and some new courts. The court designs are rather nice, taking place in rural locations. Hopefully the sequels add a little bit more to the gameplay.
Fine
Remake or remaster?
It would be nice to see these games return. They’d be perfect as smaller, downloadable titles.
Official Ways to get the game
There is no official way to play NBA Street
(For games that NGC Magazine didn't review, I've started trying to find other reviews for a quote)
The music from Mario Kart 7 was added to the app.
Also, about five days ago, they added the option to extend some music tracks that you couldn’t before
I’m very happy to see Stickerbrush symphony and Zoras Domain now have that option.
Been really enjoying this. At a minimum it’s all around solid (but really I think it’s higher than that) but really it reminds me of some of the more obscure (heh) PS360 era RPGs that were trying to be unique but just lacked enough polish, focus or even just buzz. (The Last Remnant and Resonance of Fate both come to mind)
One unannounced thing that it seemed like they've changed is how long it takes for your estimated playtime to show up. I started Ori & the Will of the Wisps about 4 or 5 days ago but on my profile it already says I've played 10 or more hours.