NBA Street

Bring it!

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

GameCube Games by Date

2001: Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

2007: Mar, Jun, Aug

basketball EA Big gamecube Sports