NBA STREET V3

For the past few years, EA Big’s NBA Street series has dominated the arcade street ball market. Now, the latest entry to the series has hit with a bevy of new customizable features and gameplay modes, a new trick stick system for more fluid control and improved graphics. Plus, GameCube owners have the added incentive of being able to play as the Nintendo All-Stars, a team composed of Mario, Luigi and Peach. If you are a basketball fan looking for your next great game of street hoops, look no further.

For those not in the know, the NBA Street series is an arcade-style basketball game where you play three-on-three matches as famous NBA stars from the current crop of players to court legends. The main object of the game is to rack up points by doing stylish dunks, alley oops and three-pointers as well as build up your score with fake-outs, steals and rebounds. Also, by gaining points and showing off a lot of style, you build up your gamebreaker meter, which allows you to perform a shot that, if made, not only gives you two points instead of one, but also takes one away from your opponent.

This entry to the Street series features the new “trick stick” control scheme. Using the C-Stick on the GameCube control pad, you can perform a variety of combos and special moves. This feels a lot more fluid than in previous incarnations of the series, in which you had to punch away at the shoulder buttons to pull off jukes and turbo moves. Now, simply pushing the control stick in a direction and using one of the turbo buttons, you can smoothly perform combos.

The gamebreaker has also been slightly changed from the previous entries to the series. Now, when you perform a gamebreaker dunk, the game slows down a bit and allows you to perform tricks and moves within the dunk, thus building up more points. You can even get a two-to-three person alley oop going if you’re good enough.

There are some great new additions to the gameplay modes. The slam-dunk competition from NBA Live 2005 has been brought over with the NBA Street touch. Using the new control aspects of the gamebreaker dunks, you must tweak your dunk and perform different combos in order to score high. You can also put different obstacles in your way, like tables or even porta-johns to get even more points.

In previous entries to the NBA Street series, you could create your own baller and face them off against the pros, and Street V.3 is no exception. However, this time around you can customize your character like never before. You can change your character’s face, skin, body, and abilities like in no other street hoops game. Plus, the changes that you make to your character’s body effect the way that they improve in certain skills. For example, shorter players will have to spend more upgrade points on rebounding and dunking abilities and less on stealing, while taller players will have to do the opposite. As you progress through the game and earn points, you can also purchase new clothing for your character, like hats and shoes and jewelry. Aside from being able to create a character, you can also make your own courts by picking a location and decorating it with logos and things like that.

The graphics are a subtle improvement from previous entries in the series. The characters look and move a bit more fluidly than in the second game, and there are some cool new lighting features and special effects. The courts look very cool, with a nice stylized aesthetic to them. The Nintendo All-Stars are also nicely represented here, looking very faithful to their platforming counterparts, although some of their animations can look a little jarring due mainly to their diminutive statures.

The music is also great, featuring a nice blend of new and old school hip hop tunes, with songs by the Beastie Boys and De La Soul rounding out the mix. When playing as the Nintendo All-Stars, certain sound effects pulled from the Super Mario canon will sound, undoubtedly appealing to Nintendo fanboys. The only real problem with the sound is the announcing, which can get a little repetitious and annoying.

NBA Street V.3 marks a good progression for the franchise, by retaining true-to-the-series’ core gameplay and making some sweet additions to the formula that would warrant a purchase from those who played the first two games to death. Plus, the draw of Mario, Luigi and Peach throwing it down in a game of street hoops is far too great to ignore.

Gameplay: 9.2
NBA Street V.3 takes the original formula and adds enough cool new features to make it worthy of a purchase. The new trick stick control scheme works like a breeze, the slam-dunk competition is a great touch and the game has more customizable features than you can shake a stick at.

Graphics: 9.2
The game makes subtle improvements over the last entry in the series by having improved character models and courts. The game also has some nice looking lighting effects as well, especially during the indoor slam-dunk competitions.

Sound: 9.0
NBA Street V.3 has a robust soundtrack, featuring new and old songs from artists like the Beastie Boys and House of Pain. The sound effects are great, especially the Nintendo sound effects present when you play as the Nintendo All-Stars, although the commentary can be a little grating at points.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 9.5 
Street V.3 has a ton of new features, a smooth new control scheme and the addition of Mario, Luigi and Peach. What more could you want?

Multiplayer: 8.5
As far as multiplayer is concerned, Street V.3 on the Cube is definitely the runt of the litter, given the lack of online capabilities. However, the four-player action is pretty tight when you are playing with some buddies on one system.

Overall: 9.2
NBA Street V.3 is a great addition to the stellar basketball game series. The customization elements are supreme, with a bevy of new ways to create a character and your very own court, and the new control elements work very well. All of these great new additions make Street V.3 the best entry in the series, as well as the best game of street hoops currently on the market.