Yo homey, I'm hittin the street NBA style. Gotta get me some respect, word!
I’m not much of a sports fan, but when EA first announced that the Mario characters would be included in NBA Street V3, I knew I had to check it out. (You can learn more about their inclusion from our preview.) I’m glad I did, because if it weren’t for those crazy plumbers, I would have missed out on a surprisingly exhilarating and deep game of basketball.
NBA Street V3 is a loose game of 3-on-3 basketball, with no fouls to worry about, aside from shot clock violations. On defense, you’ll often need to swat the ball out of your opponent’s hand or grab it from him mid-dunk. Then on offense, you may knock guys over with a trick so you can turn around and bounce the ball off their “bootay” for further humiliation. A standard game is played to 21, with inside shots worth one point and outside shots worth two, but scoring rules are relative to which kind of game you pick up.
Vital to the style of play in NBA Street V3 is the trick system, which now utilizes the C-stick as the “trick stick”. Basically, each of the eight directions you press on the C-stick performs a different trick. Combine those directions with one, two, or three turbo buttons (the shoulder buttons), and you’ll get completely different moves. You also have a trick book that unlocks new chapters of moves to assign to the button combinations as you perform earlier moves. On top of that, other button sequences allow you to make flashier dunks or pass the ball off of opponents’ body parts or off the backboard. Stringing together combinations of moves can get you extra points too.
All of these tricks add up to fill your Gamebreaker meter as you play. Once you’ve filled the bar, you can perform a special Gamebreaker dunk, which gives you a chance to show off a whole new set of moves while flying through the air, passing to any team members around for their fair share of flash as well. Completing a successful Gamebreaker (you can miss the hoop if you try to do too much) takes away one point from your opponents’ team, and adds two, three, or four points to your score, depending on the number and quality of tricks you perform. Once you get fully comfortable with mixing tricks into your game, you can devastate your opponents by pulling off Gamebreakers every two or three shots.
The bulk of the single player experience lies in the Street Challenge career mode. You start by creating your character from the ground up, choosing the gender, skin tone, muscle build, hair style, eyes, ears, nose, facial hair, etc. Then you choose from a wide assortment of streetwear with numerous options for tops, bottoms, shoes, socks, headgear, braces, jewelry, and tattoos – and there are dozens of choices in each of those categories. No matter what, your character’s going to come out looking like a thug, but the options are surprisingly deep, so you’ll be able to find the thug that best suits your personality. You’ll also have a chance to fine tune your skills to create a baller with the attributes you want, whether you’re looking for someone who can make the shots, swipe the ball, or perform sweet moves without tasting gravel. Plus, before you start, you’ll need to build a home court where your fans can jeer at visiting teams. These selections are just as deep, as you’ll need to pick the city, neighborhood, surrounding buildings, court colors, logos, backboards, nets, seating, banners, etc.
From there, you’ll need to pick up a couple no-name teammates to take with you on the court and start earning a reputation. At first, the number of courts you can play on is limited, but as you win games and your reputation builds, you’ll be allowed to play on more courts and play against more skilled players. Once your reputation is high enough, you may even be able to join up with an NBA Street team to participate in a special series of games. In addition to your Rep, you’ll also earn Street Points: good for upgrading your court or wardrobe, unlocking characters, or most importantly, improving your character’s skills.
Street Challenge isn’t as simple as playing games to 21 over and over again, either. Your career lasts ten weeks, playing day and night. Each day and night, you’ll get to survey which kinds of games are being played on each court, and often who’s playing them. Again, the variety here is golden. Some games will employ old-school rules with all shots counting only one point. Others will use NBA scoring with two- and three-point shots. You may play a game in which only dunks count or only outside shots count. You could play first to Gamebreaker, or play based on trick points, or play with no Gamebreakers or trick points allowed. You can also skip days if there’s nothing you like, but that can lower your reputation. Special events will come up from time to time, giving you a chance to participate in a dunk contest or a tournament. What this adds up to is that you’ll play somewhere in the neighborhood of 170 – 180 single games by the time you get to the final tournament.
The only downside of all this variety is that sometimes, the AI just doesn’t seem to be clued in on the rules. I played one game in which only outside shots counted, but the opponents continually took it straight to the hole, dunking repeatedly. They were playing tough, and ordinarily, I would have been meeting stiff competition, but dunks didn’t count, and that seemed to be all my opponents wanted to do.
When you beat a team, you’ll usually have the option to recruit one of their members, whether it’s an NBA star like Chris Webber, an NBA legend like Magic Johnson, or a Street Legend like the 7’8” Japanese wonder Takashi or the quick female baller, Dime. Beating players in a game of ball is also how you unlock them in multiplayer and how you get access to play as the Beastie Boys. Balancing your team with players focused on different skills can make all the difference as you encounter different challenges.
One of the new features of NBA Street V3 lies in the court selection. The team at EA Canada recreated twelve famous neighborhood courts, including several NY courts, MacGregor Park in Houston, and the courts at Venice Beach, CA and Brighton Beach, UK. Plus, there’s the Nintendo Court, complete with mushroom designs and giant pipes in the background. The authentic courts are introduced with a short narrative, giving a bit of historical background, but they’ll certainly be most appreciated by fans that live nearby or play there in real life.
On the multiplayer front, NBA Street V3 is just as engaging. Most importantly, you get options in abundance to create your own sets of rules for the types of games you want to play. You can create custom teams, putting your own characters with Legends or making a team of giants with Shaq, Yao Ming, and Takashi playing together. Multiplayer and single Pick Up games are where you’ll find the Nintendo All Stars team too. You can also engage in Dunk Contests with up to eight players. Each of you takes turns, trying to pull off the wildest set of moves possible mid-flight. Before slamming the rim, you can try bouncing the ball off the backboard and catching it in the air or you can jump over props like ball racks and soda machines. Really crazy players will combine all they can to get a perfect score of 30 from the judges.
The audio in NBA Street V3 is worth special mention. Although they will be imprinted onto your brain for years after playing this game, there’s a strong selection of fitting songs, and you can edit the playlist to your liking. The lead vocal track only plays during dunk contests and menus, so it’s not completely overbearing. EA also wisely dubbed out any profanity to keep the game at an E rating. The sound effects and editing really work to highlight Gamebreakers and other key moments in the game, and the team even added unique Nintendo sound effects to accent the Mario team’s moves. Individuals on the sidelines can be heard shouting above the din of the crowd, heckling you or cheering in awe.
The star of the audio show, though, is the commentator. This guy had me laughing so much with lines like “It’s like a tank versus a Dixie cup! Who do you think is gonna win?” It's all in his delivery though; the dude will just go off and start singing or some madness. What makes this stand out more is that his comments are natural and fit the action in the game so well. He really knows everything that’s going down on that court, and even though some comments are inevitably repeated from time to time, there’s a large enough repertoire to keep them from going altogether stale – and I was still hearing new comments after 175 games.
In all, the lengthy and replayable Street Challenge mode, multiplayer options, and abundant customization settings make NBA Street V3 a fulfilling package for anyone even slightly interested in basketball (and not completely put off by the hip-hop vibe). EA’s third entry in the NBA Street franchise is a sure shot.
