NBA Street just keeps getting better and better...
As soon as you start the game you are welcomed to great looking bold menus filled with pinstripes with an retro documentary feel to them. I started out creating a baller. When you choose to do this it sends you right into an intro of what your homecourt stands for. It's great. Then you go out and pick a guy who plays like an NBA player. To modify his looks you must go to the morph create a player. You then choose 2 players and morph them along with the player you already have. A players looks all depend on how much you morph with the right analog stick. I've came to a conclusion that there's about 30 street ballers to choose from and about 30 NBA players. Combine that with the shape the morpher is which is a triangle. Triangles are 180*. 30x30x180= 162000. There's around 162000 different combinations of create a players you can make... amazing. Well I decided that I look like Kobe and V.C. so I took them together with a street baller that has my skin tone and gotten a person that looks very much like myself.
Once you get done creating your baller there's a message telling you to go straight to the homecourt challenge. After I was done creating I did. The homecourt challenge is very reminiscent of NBA Street V3. You first set up your team and your homecourt and then you get into games. Different games have different challenges like win by scoring 7,21,or 30 pts. first or win by getting a gamebreaker and more. When you beat some number of games you get to face an NBA player at his homecourt. I first faced Carmelo. Before I faced him it showed a documentary about his life. It was great. Even though it was only about 30 sec., it told just about everything about his homecourt and how he grew up in it. The A.I. in the game is better then in previous years. The players really really play their D. The controls are exactly the same as the demo. If you haven't played the demo then the trick stick is now gone. In replace now are pressure sensitive buttons. The move or the speed of the move you do is determined by what button(s) you press and how hard you press it(them). As you win more games your baller gets better and better. But it depends on what the player does during the games. Example... if he shoots a lot his shooting will go up, dunking, dunking will go up, and etc. Once your player gets to level 5 you can pick a master skill for him. This will boost whatever area you want you player to be good in all the way to 100%. Because of this the game is very well balanced. It also is when it comes to actually playing the game. Gamebreakers can go back and forth now since they can get stolen (and not the cheap way like in NBA Street Vol. 2). Because of this playing with other people is lots of fun. I played one online game and I have got to say that playing online is flawless. The game I was playing had no lag at all. Even though I got whooped (8 to 22 lol) it was still fun.
Now on to the graphics. This game looks AMAZING. When it comes to graphics Gears of War is to 360 FPS games what NBA Street is to 360 sports games. Yes I said it. Flame me if you want. The game is gorgeous folks. It looks better then the demo. The players are bold and smooth and the backgrounds are almost photo-realistic with deep textures. All this moving in 60 fps with a retro vibe is like buying candy for your eyes.
The music in the game goes perfectly well with the whole vibe. The songs in the game are funk r/b hip-hop along with some underground and some retro jams. All I will say is this... Mix in the Jackson 5 and the Average White Band with great underground artists such as Haiku Detat and Q-tip and you got yourselves a great soundtrack. Really this is the best one EA has come with in any of their games ever. The audio is typical EA stuff which isn't a bad thing. Sounds of block shots and dunks are great and the player chit-chatter isn't annoying either. I no longer miss Bobbito lol.
I've seen many people say they aren't getting the game because it's made by EA. After playing the game I must say that you guys are missing out on a MASTERPIECE. The game is one of the top 10 best 360 games so far and definitely is the best sports game for the 360 out now. Really as the demo is a great representation of how the game plays the demo doesn't give the whole vibe and feel to the game. Really if you are questioning whether or not to get the game please rent it. Please play this game. I urge you too. If not you are truly missing out. This will go in the books as the best NBA Street game. Yes folks... it beats out NBA Street Vol 2. EA has done it again folks. They have gave us a great NBA Street game. Now I'm off to play some more of the game lol.
Gameplay: 9
Sound: 10
Value: 9
Graphics: 9
Tilt: 9
BGAMER90'S FINAL SCORE: 9.1