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NBA Street Vol. 2 review

Game: NBA Street Vol. 2
Platform: GameCube
Genre: Sports (Basketball)
Developer: NuFX

Reader review by xxgcdxx_johnirving

December 13, 2004

The first game in this series was the best arcade sports game ever created. But it wasn't without it's flaws. That's where Volume 2 comes in and completely re-writes what an arcade style experience is supposed to be. NBA Street's mantle has been usurped and even veterans of the series will be pleasantly surprised.

The main mode in NBA Street Vol. 2 is the Be A Legend mode. You create your own baller with the set amount of skill points given to you. You start off on back-alley courts taking on unknown losers trying to prove your worth. You will quickly gain a reputation and soon you will be traveling to some of the nation's greatest street ball cities. You'll get more and more skill points to distribute to different parts of your all around game. Dunking, passing, and shooting just to name a few. It's nothing really new, but that doesn't mean it's not entertaining.

Game play in this game is unmatched by... anything. The play is extremely fast paced and eye catching. 25 seconds in to a game and you'll have seen high flying dunks, monstrous blocks, and ankle snappings to the third degree. The game was clearly meant to be a non stop dunk fest, though. Try a jump shot on any experienced player, and you'll be blocked no matter what. While that encourages you to dunk more, it takes away from the experience of basketball. Hard to explain, but easy to see if you have played.

EA has made massive improvements on the unfairness of the Trick Moves. You can steal in the game now. That means no more Shaq crossing up Jason Kidd and going in for the jam. You'll need to be a little more intelligent with your approach now. It doesn't take away from the game's fun and fast play though. If anything, it adds a little bit of need realism.

Gamebreakers are better then I could have imagined. Same system as Street 1 but with a twist. You build up trick points by pulling off combos with steals, blocks, trick moves and alley-oops amongst other things. Once you fill the meter, you can pull off an insane in game cut scene jam or shot which is worth more then other baskets. This time around though, you can pocket gamebreakers. Build up another one, and you get a Double Gamebreaker. These are worth countless trick points and have awesome cut scenes. The one I enjoy the most is when one guy lobs it up, ducks, the other guy catches it while jumping over the ducking guy. He then proceeds to dish it off the backboard to the third guy who slams it home. As much fun to watch as it is to pull off.

A step in the right direction has been taken in the look of this game. If you played Street 1, you'll know that was lacking in the graphics department. I'm glad they improved it this much, but they could have taken a little more time with the players. The physics are bad and need an overhaul. I hate games where you go right through somebody. Unacceptable. Also, the animations for the jump shots are rough. Some of them are just out right stupid. But all in all, they did an O.K. job on most of the graphics.

With all the things you can do, I'm surprised this game feels so flush on the Gamecube's controller. Everything comes natural once you learn it. The learning curve isn't all too long, either. I actually think this game plays best on a Cube controller. Thank god they made such an effort. It easily could have been major frustration id they didn't. EA Sports Big seems to handle the Cube controller well in all their games. (SSX3 and Tricky come to mind)

Bobbito Garcia. If you know where I can find this man, e-mail me. He is the commentator. Needless to say, he does a bad job. He uses phrases that you haven't heard for 10 years on every play. Bring Joe "The Show" back! That guy is a Street Ball legend!!

The soundtrack consists of two main genres: Hip hop and Funk. I love the first song that comes on in the menu, and I pretty much know it by heart. The rap songs are bad, but of course that's all a matter of personal opinion. Like the music or not, it fits the game well.

The SFX, on the other hand, are quite bad. The same repetitive sound is used every time the ball hits the ground. Same goes for making a shot, dunking, blocking, and when a guy falls down. These are the guys who make NBA Live. I don't understand why the SFX are so bad.

Out of game, things are presented in a retro type fashion. The menus have a funk to them that really sets things off. Straight outta the 70's. The urban feel to everything is perfect. Some of the features, like Create a player, are slightly difficult to navigate at first. Once you get them down, you'll have no problem with them and you'll actually see how nice and organized they are. You may get tired of the menu sounds though.

Vol. 2 has quite a few extras to be unlocked. I was shocked when I first explored the menu of things that could be purchased. You got retro jerseys, old players, and more. It adds hours to the game's single player element and EA did a great job here.

This game has to be amongst the most playable games of all time. It takes a respectable(for a sports game) 27-30 hours to complete the game and unlock most of the stuff. But the real hours in this game come in multi player. If you aren't a lonely gamer, you must have this game. Surprisingly, it doesn't get old for a very long time. Typical of an EA Sports BIG game.

Anyone who is willing to let physics go for a while should have this game. It improves on the original in every way and takes it's place above such arcade sports classics as NBA Jam and NFL Blitz. I've thought about trying to sum this game up in one sentence and I leave you with this:

This game is NBA Street 1 with gold fronts and a Cadillac.

Rating: 8.5/10

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