NFL Street 2

Written by Vadim Leonov  on April 06, 2005

Review: Angry rappers, smashing guys into walls, tauntsЕ is this a new Def Jam game or something?

Tweet

Comments

The cover of NFL Street 2 basically sums up the entire game. In the foreground, you notice rapper Xzibit. Since when are rappers on the covers of sports games? Right next to him is one of the more controversial players in the National Football League, New York Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey. Not only was he named the 2002 Rookie of the Year, he also managed to utter some gay slurs. This might be a step up for the original NFL Street's cover athlete Ricky Williams, who quit professional football to enjoy a calmer lifestyle that doesn't contain any marijuana testing. On the cover of the game, you will notice that Shockey is launching himself off a wall to grab a ball, with the words NFL Street 2 below his arm.

And that's the game in a nutshell folks. You've got some football action, but this isn't normal football. This is Street football, and NFL Street 2 is a continuation of the Street franchises. What exactly does this mean? It means games are played on rooftops and parks, players don't wear helmets, wearing fancy jewelry is recommended, taunting opposing players is necessary, and slamming players headfirst into a wall is commonplace.

This is a game for everyone that doesn't understand organized football, or if you simply enjoy bone-crushing sports games. This game is for those people that hate kicking field goals, punting the ball and kicking the extra point. You won't find any kickers in this game. This game is for those people that hate having 11 offensive and 11 defensive players rotating every possession. In the NFL Street series, each team consists of just 7 players that stay on for both offense and defense. This makes picking players a little harder, because if you only go with a quarterback, two running backs and wide receivers then you will be burned on defense because Peyton Manning might end up being your linebacker. A combination of good offensive players such as Terrell Owens and LaDanian Tomlinson along with some defensive standouts such as LaVar Arrington and Brian Urlacher is recommended. The interesting thing is that any of the chosen players are allowed to play any positions, so if you wish, Peyton Manning can be your running back and Warren Sapp can be your wide receiver.

The playbook features tricks of all sorts, running and passing plays. In NFL Street 2, you can audible fairly easily. For those of you who don't know what an audible is, it's basically changing your selected play. But the fun thing about NFL Street 2 is that your play will never run the way it was supposed to be run. This is because your players can juke, spin, stiff-arm, lateral like it's no one's business, jump, dive, and even perform the new wall moves. The wall moves allow a quarterback to leap into the air and throw a deep ball, it allows a wide receiver to gain position and leap for a catch, and allows a running back to dodge a tackle by jumping over the defender. Wall moves are pretty cool and mastering them will help improve your game.

All of the other tricks are back too. You can still taunt your defender, spin a ball on your finger, dribble it between your legs, throw a no-look behind-the-back pass and pass the ball off a wall. The more tricks you do, the more style points you earn. The wall moves are a good way to earn style points, because there are some posters on the walls known as hotspots. If you perform a wall move off a hotspot, you will earn a lot of style points. As you earn style points, your GameBreaker meter fills up. After the meter has been saved up, you can unleash the GameBreaker or save up for a GameBreaker 2 (which is a new feature to the NFL Street series). If you save up and manage to obtain a GameBreaker 2, unleashing it will hurl the game into a really cool clip where your team either scores a touchdown or forces a turnover depending if you are on offense or defense.

The gameplay is still a one-sided affair, as scoring touchdowns on offense is much easier than stopping your opponent on defense. On defense you can try to swat a ball, dive for it, tackle your opponent or go for a super tackle, which frequently leads to fumbles. Fumbles and interceptions are fairly common in the game, so no lead is safe. Before your opponent calls a play, you can even try to gain an advantage by guessing what type of play your opponent will select.

Most of the well-known NFL players are in this game, even some of the rookies from the past season such as Eli Manning and Big Ben from Pittsburgh. A few talented players have been left out, most notably Roy Williams, the standout wide receiver from Detroit. And I certainly would have liked to tackle Deion Sanders into a brick wall. NFL Street 2 also has about a dozen legends that you will unlock as your progress throughout the game, but these legends are not the same legends that were featured in the original NFL Street. Guys like Barry Sanders are no longer to be found, but the current crop does include Bo Jackson, Randall Cunningham and even Darrell Green.

NFL Street 2 features a ton of modes, although a storyline is missing in every single one of them. As always there are a few different Quick Game modes, where you simply play one game. If you are short on time but don't want to play yet another Quick Game, then you should head over to the Street Events. Here you will find seven mini-games (such as Open Field Showdown and everyone's favorite, Crush the Carrier), that are fairly entertaining. But if you want something more substantial, something like a franchise mode in Madden, then you are in for a treat. There are three modes for you: NFL Gauntlet, Own the City and NFL Challenge.

NFL Gauntlet is the most basic of these three modes, as you choose any NFL team and then take on every other NFL team one by one. If you are good enough to go all the way, a showdown with the NFL Legends awaits you. Own the City, on the other hand, is your generic Street series mode. You create a character, edit his appearance and stats and start out with a team of no-name players. As you win games, you get the chance to buy new players to replace your teammates, you can upgrade the stats of your created player, you earn points to buy him new clothes, hairdos, shoes, tattoos chains and equipment. The more you win, the more Legendary your status becomes. The one thing that will stand in your way from owning the city is Xzibit and his own team. The cool thing is that you can actually import your created character into Madden 2006. NFL Challenge is similar to Own the City, but the main difference is that you keep your squad of seven players intact. You have a total of 150 days to win as many games and challenges as you can to buy as much equipment and develop each player as much as possible. The challenges are goal-oriented, such as scoring a touchdown on the first drive, doing two wall moves in one play, etc. Toward the end, some of the challenges are downright nasty. After the 150 days are up, the ultimate tournament awaits you.

The GameCube version is the only version of the game that lacks online play, which is a real shame. Sure, playing against friends is fun, but online play definitely extends the replay value of a sports game. And the GameCube version doesn't even get any extras to compensate for the lack of online play. For those that are satisfied with the single player experience, you should be busy for well beyond 20 hours, unless the gameplay becomes too repetitive for you.

Graphically, NFL Street 2 is hard to judge. The graphics are not realistic, but that is the purpose of the series. Player bodies are so exaggerated that it is plain funny Ц some of the guys in the game have biceps larger than watermelons. The player faces are distinguishable and recognizable, yet they also have this cartoonish feel to them. The player animations are very fluid, making the impossible seem very possible. The fields look great (there is total of 12), especially the more colorful ones like Imperial Tower. The concept art that you will gaze at while your game is loading is a real treat, too.

The sound department did a great job with NFL Street 2, too. Although there is no commentary, this game doesn't really need one. The trash talk and chatter is good enough, and this allows the sound effects to really stand out. Just like you would expect, the sound effects are over-the-top. However, these overly exaggerated bone-crushing tackles give the game its special flavor. The soundtrack for NFL Street 2 is huge Ц there is enough rock and hip-hop to keep everyone happy. And surprisingly, EA nabbed more mainstream artists than underground artists. Rock fans can enjoy their Papa Roach, Sum 41 and a whole bunch of rock I've never hear of, while hip-hop fans can savor the sounds of Mase, Nas, Xzibit, Royce da 5'9, Yung Wun and even the Ying Yang Twins.