The following recently took place at a premiere restaurant.

The waiter smiles, ready for our orders.

Reviewer 1: "I'll have the Southwestern Shrimp Scampi."

Waiter: "Can I suggest a glass of our Dom Perignon?"

Reviewer 1: "Yes, that'd be wonderful."

Reviewer 2: "Bring me the Triple-Trimmed Filet Mignon, but hold the hickory-smoked bacon. And bring me a glass of your finest red wine."

Waiter: "A wise choice. And for you, sir?"

Louis Bedigian: "As good as everything sounds, I'll go with NFL Street Vol. 2 and a Wavebird controller from Nintendo."

Everyone pauses. Dirty looks are thrown, among other things. (Hey, I didn't know they served French rolls...)

Waiter: "Would you like soup or salad with that?"

Louis: "Can I substitute a bowl of the minestrone for a 256 memory card?"

When you eat, sleep and drink video games, it's easy to mix things up, especially when you get to review a game like NFL Street Vol. 2. This game comes at the perfect time: less than one year after the first. My love for the original was quite extreme when the original NFL Street was released, earning an overall score of 8.5. Later on that score seemed too low. The more I played the game, the more its multiplayer mode (which scored a 9.0) took center stage. By fall it was my favorite and most-played sports game of the year. By December my love for NFL Street had peaked. It wasn't about to drop, but it didn't have any more room to grow.

What better time than now to release the sequel to the best extreme football game ever made?

If Vol. 1 was EA's Blitz-killer, then Vol. 2 would be EA's Blitz-killer with a Madden twist. The playbook is fatter (and phatter). The controls are more fluid. Game options are more in-depth; not on par with a simulation sports game like Madden, but closer than most arcade games get. In a nutshell, Vol. 2 lives up to its predecessor, which means I can tell you what you've been waiting to hear: this is everything the first game was and everything the first game wasn't. The annoyances are gone, and in their place is a lot more game and dozens of additional reasons to forget the original existed.

EA's BIG Sports series is big on style, so don't be surprised when your friends start wasting time and in-game cash adorning themselves with licensed merchandise. It's a nice feature (and a preferred one according to a recent study), but that didn't get me half as excited as the all-new jump moves did. The thought alone of running on walls had me fantasizing about touchdowns and last-minute saves against my highly-skilled and ever-so-sneaky cousin. He'd never see these moves coming! Of course I just had to tell them about it, which then it made it impossible for us to play the original Street without thinking of the future.

Unexpectedly, the new moves supercede the fantasy. It only takes two buttons to execute them. Once you've done it, you've done it. Repeating the action is easy. Best of all, their effectiveness depends on you and when you execute them; how powerful your player is; and the move your opponent uses in defense.

The L button was previously known as your style button, and while it still activates that important function, it is now the key to unleashing the game's newest moves. The wall (or something comparable) is the other key.

Scenario A: You're running toward the end zone, gunning for a touchdown. Attempts to get past the opposing team have been futile. Their men are faster and stronger, or at least they appear to be. The safest route is to travel along the left wall, but that makes you more vulnerable to individual tackles. If only there was a way to avoid the posse and deliver the package.

Solution 1: You could hire FedEx, or you could hold the L button and press B to perform fast and highly-effective all run. This is the coolest and most fun gameplay feature I've ever experienced in a sports game. Players can use the wall to jump over their opponents, run for a few feet, and use it to give them a boost when jumping off to make the touchdown.

Solution 2: Perform a wall juke. Similar to the wall run, wall jukes are executed by holding L while pressing the X button. As with any juke, the wall juke is most effective as a tool that's used to fool your opponents. If you're not sure where your opponent is headed, chances are a juke isn't your best bet. But if you're certain your opponent is going to tackle you into the wall, executing a wall juke will most likely prevent that from happening.

All wall moves are affected by the distance between your player and the wall before executing the move. Logic says it isn't going to work if you're too far away from the wall. Considering this is a fantasy sports game, logic doesn't reveal that it also won't work if you're standing too close to the wall. Your player isn't exempt from wall jumps just because they're standing too close, but the jump is less likely to be successful if you are.

Scenario B: Your opponent is like my cousin: a great tackler and a star interceptor.

Solution: Use the wall to jump higher before passing to a receiver. It's so easy to learn even a cat could do it. Stand near a wall, hold L as usual, and press the button that belongs to the desired receiver. If done correctly your quarterback will jump into the air, launch off the wall and throw a hard, straight pass that flies toward the target.

New modes like Own the City (create a player and take him through a series of football games, earning cash and character development points) give you excuses to play the game alone that do not include "to perfect my multiplayer skills." NFL Street Vol. 2 is a dish best served with a friend, but it is also very satisfying to eat on your own.

Gameplay: 9.0
Exciting new gameplay mechanics; 12 new playing fields; several new players; enhanced controls; a greater level of depth; improved computer AI; improved graphics.

NFL Street Vol. 2 is the quintessential arcade football game. The wall moves add so much to the experience. Each of the new fields includes a reason for playing or avoiding them, depending on the type of game you want to have. Some have few walls, limiting your ability to pull a sneaky stunt. One is completely locked in, meaning that the ball is locked into the game at all times (no out of bounds). Another is dark and thus harder to see, but has a great level of eye and ear candy (moving traffic in the background, good sound effects, etc.).

Graphics: 8.0
This is a pretty good-looking game, but considering the competition from Madden and other sports games, NFL Street Vol. 2's graphics are effective and not much more. The star players resemble the real rappers/athletes, but once again we've seen better in other EA games.

You have to wonder though: would Street really be Street if it were as realistic-looking as Madden?

Sound: 5.9
Great sound effects, sub-par music. Most of the tunes are dedicated to rappers who are up-and-coming or are already past their prime. The tunes that aren't dedicated to those rappers belong to rockstar wannabes who will likely never get the chance to be more than a moderately played single on MTV, if that. Vol. 1 had a soundtrack that spawned at least one hit song. You probably won't see that happen this time around.

Difficulty: Medium
Master the nuances, young Padawan learner. The nuances are the key to becoming a Jedi. (Yes, I know this is football, but every Star Wars fan knows that you can apply The Force to anything.)

Concept: 8.0
Upgrade what we love; fix the things we don't love; add new play modes, etc., etc. Most important ingredient: the developers made the game more fun to play just by increasing the "wall interactivity," and by tweaking the controls and the speed that the game runs at.

Multiplayer: 9.2
Best multiplayer game of...when? NFL Street Vol. 2 came out too late to be counted in our 2004 Game of the Year Awards, but came out before 2005 and will not be eligible for an award next time.

That said, NFL Street Vol. 2 provides the best multiplayer experience you could ask for. I'm almost tempted to compare it Halo 2 in that it's all about refinement. Twelve playing fields (all of which are new) gives our eyes something different to look at and something different to tackle in single and multiplayer games.

There will always be gamers who prefer Madden, but if you're like me and want a less realistic sports game experience, there's nothing better than NFL Street Vol. 2.

Overall: 9.0
In the original game, I always picked the players with the best speed ratings. My QB couldn't pass much of anything, but that didn't matter because my passes were almost always intercepted anyway. It took speed and superb evasive skills to win before. Vol. 2 changes everything by making each element more balanced. Passing is no more important than running; tackling is no more important than intercepting, etc. That's how it needs to be. I wanted an NFL Street sequel that forced me to think and strategize in new ways. EA listened.