NBA Street V3

Written by Vadim Leonov  on March 09, 2005

Review: shook the socks off of him....HEY PLAYA! Pull them socks back up cuz you trippin now!

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NBA Street Volume 2 was a game that re-defined the street sports genre. Following its release in April of 2003, EA Big has released two NFL Street and a FIFA Street title. However, none of those sports (football and soccer) really integrate with urban hip-hop elements like basketball. When you go downtown to a playground, you see kids trying to dunk, pull off all sorts of moves and try to show as much flair as possible. Therefore, the fusion of basketball and hip-hop was the perfect idea for a sports game. With NBA Street Volume 2, we had a game with the sickest moves, most jaw-dropping dunks, a wide array of NBA stars and legends to choose from, not to mention a lot of fun gameplay modes. But now, NBA Street V3 has dropped. And let me put it this way: NBA Street V3 is so good that you will forget that Volume 2 ever existed.

NBA Street V3 is an arcade type basketball game with 3-on-3 action. The game features five modes of play and a Сcreate a baller' feature. The bread-and-butter of the game lies in the Street Challenge mode, where you will be spending the bulk of your time. You start out by creating your own baller, who will be the captain of your team. The create your own baller feature was never so detailed, as you can literally spend hours editing his looks, features, clothes and doling out his street points. At the beginning, your character will lack skills, but as you win games, your reputation goes up and you gain skill points. These points can be spent on increasing his skills (dunking, handles, etc.) or on accessories, such as custom basketball shoes. After having created your baller, you customize your home court to your liking (select the surface, time of day, backboard), select some teammates to start out with and then you are good to go.

The objective of Street Challenge mode is to compete in up to 2 games per day over a course of 10 weeks to make your baller the king of the basketball world. Throughout these ten weeks, you will compete in various tournaments and games. You can take a game off to give your players a little rest, although two games off in a row will decrease your reputation. The rules in these games vary: sometimes you will play up to 7 with only dunks counting, sometimes you will compete with normal streetball rules with a game to 21, sometimes you will compete in games where the objective is to rack up a certain amount of trick points.

Speaking of trick points, the tricks in NBA Street V3 are sicker than ever. The way that tricks are conducted is radically different than in the past, as the right thumbstick is now known as the Trick Stick. With flicks of the Trick Stick in different directions along with trigger presses, you get to use a wide array of tricks to make your opponent look like a chump. Rolling the ball between their legs, hitting the ball off their head, no look passes and off the background passes have never been easier. You can even alter the name of the trick to your liking. To top things off, tricks come in three different chapters. After you perform a trick once, then chapter two of the same trick will be unlocked, followed by chapter three. Three chapters allow you to end up with almost 100 different tricks, although each player can only have 32 different tricks activated at a time. However, each player can have different tricks set to him or her.

Trick points are necessary to win games where the objective is to reach a certain amount of trick points Ц nothing else matters. However, trick points also have another purpose Ц to fill up the meter at the top of the screen. Once the meter is full, you can unleash a monstrous GameBreaker on your opponent. Alas, the GameBreaker 2 that was introduced in Volume 2 no longer exists. GameBreakers have undergone a major change this year, since you no longer sit back and enjoy the cinematics. This time around, the human player is a lot more into the entire process, as when you approach the basket, the entire sequence is launched in a different way. While you are in the air, you can perform up to four moves with the trick stick, then attempt to alley-oop to another member on your team, have them perform up to four moves, then attempt to alley-oop to a final team member for four more moves and the finish. If you are successful, you gain 4 points while your opponent loses a point. If only one or two of your players are involved in the process, the benefits are lower. Also, you can actually miss a GameBreaker if you're not careful, which is so depressing after all of the hard work that you put into obtaining the right to unleash one that you will want to throw your controller down and scream at the television.

My main concern with this gameplay is that it is very dunk-oriented. It's obvious that pulling off a nice dunk is usually what it's all about, yet I'm sure people would have loved if you could have done special jump shots or if a little more time was developed to improve the defensive aspect of the game. Surely you can go for a steal, stand under the basket to block a shot or even catch the ball in the air, but that is about it. I would have enjoyed a defensive GameBreaker, where my opponent would lose points if I successfully used a defensive GameBreaker.

After every match that you have won you will be able to pick up any single player on the opponents' team, which means that someone on your team must go. Shortly thereafter, your ex-teammates will show up on some other team and you will compete in heated Сrivalry' games. However, some of the players that you will be picking up will make you forget about your rivals, as all of the NBA stars, tons of NBA legends and street legends make a return. Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Stretch and Biggie Littles are all here. Even the Beastie Boys will be unlocked, although you should avoid playing as them unless you like to lose. The only missing star is Michael Jordan himself, who wasn't signed because of licensing issues. After a while in Street Challenge, you'll even be invited to participate in the NBA Summer League, where you join one of the 30 NBA teams and play a fourteen-game season followed by a post-season and three-game championship, which is a nice way to pick up some skill points and increase your reputation.

One key difference between NBA Street V3 and past installments is the fact that some players will get upset and make demands. If Kobe Bryant feels like he's not getting enough playing time, he might threaten to leave your team. He might even declare that unless Shaquille O'Neal is released, Kobe won't be back. As soon as you release Shaq, Kobe might leave anyway. This sort of drama makes the game a little more interesting since you can't just play the same three players every game. However, if you manage everyone's time, then your team won't be faced with too much drama.

Another new addition to the series is the Dunk Contest, which is completely different from the dunk contest that was thrown in with NBA Live 2005. The contest in Live 2005 was very hard, realistic and involved some thinking. The contest in V3, however, is the exact opposite Ц easy, utterly non-realistic and becomes boring after a while because of the repetition. You basically pick 8 contestants, and the standard dunk contest features three dunks from each contestant (only two of which count) until a winner is found. The maximum score for one dunk is 30 points, and by getting an alley-oop pass in the air or by jumping over various objects (such as benches and ladders) you can drastically improve your score. While you are in the air, you use the Trick Stick to do as many tricks in the air as you can, but making sure that you don't miss the dunk itself is key. It's not too sophisticated or complex, although it does appeal to most people that own this game.

The other modes of play are Game On and Pick Up Game, which are very similar to each other and are basically simple exhibition games to practice or to face-off against friends. As a single-player game, NBA Street V3 could last you a good forty hours if you spent your time only on Street Challenge. However, EA has included Xbox Live functionality, so Xbox Live owners are in for a treat. People will have issue with the fact that you must create a new baller for the online play instead of using their baller from Street Challenge, but if you can get past this fact you will enjoy playing the game online a lot. You can face-off with an opponent in a Pick Up Game or even a Dunk Contest. You can go through a World Challenge mode to increase your online reputation. You can compete in an online NBA Challenge where you will be ranked according to your win/loss record. The EA servers were terrific, and I didn't experience any lag.

Graphically, NBA Street V3 stands out from the rest of the series. The character models are more realistic this time around, and NBA fans will have no trouble distinguishing players from each other. The face models might not be as realistic as they were in NBA Ballers, yet on the whole the game looks terrific. All of the courts in the game, especially Rucker Park, look terrific. This installment has more detail, more graffiti and more of a street feel to it.

As for the audio department, it's a love or hate affair. Some will enjoy the return of Bobbito Garcia as the commentator, while others will absolutely hate it. If you enjoy a commentary full of smart-ass remarks, stupid jokes and references to rap songs, then this will be a treat for you. If you like a commentary that reflects the gameplay, then you will be disappointed. The sound effects are also subpar, as the dribbling and rim-rattling effects do not sound authentic to me. Finally, the soundtrack is also disappointing, mainly because a custom soundtrack option is not available. The entire soundtrack consists of 13 tracks, including songs by MC Lyte, De La Soul, Beastie Boys and some old school and underground rappers. Thirteen tracks isn't enough, and the fact that only the instrumental versions are heard when you are playing is a letdown.