Its an important side note that this formula could work wonders for arcade football, but falls flat. In an arcade game, its a fairly unfocused romp of kill whoever is holding the ball. Here's the first difference this is an unforgiving game that involves alot of focus, something I personally dont want to do when playing an arcade sports game, maybe you might though. What it comes down to though is that while involving you to focus like hell on the field just to get some yards, there's still a pretty decent chance your going to fumble for no reason. (Like having fumbles occur 1 in every 12 carries, except when they use the powerful tackle [L+X buttons] counts as two tackles against that meter.) It's just kind of pointless that you put so much effort in, only to have luck determine the fate of the game. There's an overly effective spin/juke, (which again is based on luck depending on what animation the computer decides to let you use) there's a somewhat useless stiff arm, (because just running into a guy can usually give you better results) and all the very basic running maneuvers. The spot where this game separates itself, much like NBA Street did, is in the style moves and Gamebreaker. It works simple enough: pull off enough style moves, bust open big runs or passes, dodge tackles, get sacks, deflect passes, (which to do manually is near impossible, just up the coverage on your Defensive Backs and Safety at the start of the NFL Challenge Mode) cause fumbles, recover fumbles, and pull off any variety of this manor and you fill up the Gamebreaker meter. To sum up defense its too hard, there's no stopping an offense that wants to score unless you have a Gamebreaker. Finally Gamebreakers are most useful on defense because offense, overall is a breeze. The gameplay modes are a 4 player (2 on each team max) pick up and play mode (with random team selection or choosing the teams) and a NFL Challenge Mode (2 players can play co-op). The game is hard on Easy skill level I can't imagine what its like on harder skill levels. I have many years of expience so im no slouch at games, this is tough. In pick up and play, there's options like who can score a set amount of points first. (from 1-100 points) or first to score a set amount of style points. (up to 1 million) What makes NFL Street fun is theNFL Challenge Mode. NFL Challenge Mode is so engaging because of its team creation portion of it and challenges which increase your teams abilities. Beating the team in the select divisions is cool but the main part of the fun comes from the challenges and continuously pimping out your friends. The game looks fine we actually got one created player to look just like a friend of mine. I created myself and six friends in NFL Challenge Mode, and there's a fair amount of player clothes, accessories, and cool equipment you earn that makes you players better. (depending on who has it equipped) The game has 40 player faces to choose from but you will only really have about 10 to select from since skin color changes every 10 faces. In action the game looks good, but has some glitches. There's the obvious clipping problems, (a player is tackling another player but his hand can be seen going through the guys back, etc.) and times when a man falls backwards like he was layed out when in reality he ran into a guy lying on the ground. Those are very minor gripes and clipping happens in basically all sports games. The hits though in this game absolutely brutal and great to watch sometimes even making NFL Blitz look wimpy. (there's no late hits though, like in NFL Blitz) Player models look clean and have exaggerated facial animations on the cutscenes. To sum it up I'd say its above average. Sound is hard to judge. There's the almost comically bad taunts like, "Nice play Shakespeare!" and then there's the sounds that come with the outrageous tackles that send home that feeling of 'OMG that was the most violent, awesome thing I've ever seen'. Another example of where its questionable is in the fumble sounds which almost take a page out from Backyard Football, with that little squeak sound. I'm not taking off points for that since you clearly know there's a fumble when you hear the out of place sound effect. There's also cutsom soundtracks.....for the menu's only. That's right, in game you can turn tracks on and off from the playlist they give to you, but you can't put your own songs in. The music provided works fine as ambiance for this type of game but nothing stands out. After your done with the NFL Challenge Mode I couldn't see coming back to this any more then once in a great while. The NFL Challenge Mode is somewhat lengthy, given the difficulty. Its alot of fun when things are running fairly on both sides, but when the computer gets cheap its frustrating fun. The kind of fun where you'll break a controller and laugh it off, find another controller and keep going. One last thing thats very important to note is the fun factor of the game is increased substantially when another player joins you in NFL Challenge Mode.
Once upon a time, EA Sports released a little gem called NBA Street. Inspired by the likes of NBA Jam, it stole the show with its ability to combine the NBA game and the style and flare of street basketball. The game's a... Read Full Review
Ok, I'm not one for football games. I've never done well in games like Madden or whatnot. But, I enjoyed NFL Blitz, so I figured I should rent this game. I did, and I eventually bought it. Why? Well, because its fun to p... Read Full Review
