Nba Street V3- Gcn Review

[CMJ23 0]

NBA Street V3

GameCube, Xbox, PS2

Published by EA Sports Big

Developed by EA Canada

Released on 2/08/2005

Genre: Sports(Basketball)

 

Introduction: A few weeks ago, I bought NBA Street V3 for the Nintendo GameCube. I was really anticipating this game, and I was not disappointed. It's much better graphically and in sound than the first two, has the new "Trick Stick", and a deeper Street Challenge. It has a much longer replay value, and much more than the first two, like more game settings, a created court, a new Gamebreaker style, the Dunk Contest, and just a much greater fun factor. Although I like realistic sports games, V3 is THE BEST sports game I've ever played. The GameCube version has Mario, Luigi, and Peach as playable characters, with their own Nintendo Court, and the XBox and PS2 both have online play. Since Gameplay is a huge part of a game, and graphics and value are also very important, I set each score as a certain impact to the total score, out of 100. Now, on with the review:

 

Gameplay: 27/30

Gameplay is the most important aspect of a video game, and V3 delivers. It may be unrealistic in some areas, but that just makes it more fun. In Street Challenge, the main game mode, you start out as an unknown baller trying to move your way up to compete with street legends and NBA superstars. You have to make a team first. You should pick a small and fast guard with good handles, and a big man with a good dunk rating, power and blocks. You start out playing against other street nobodies, made-up players with just a first name and horrible skills. There are several types of games; a normal game, Trick Point Challenge, First Gamebreaker Wins, Old School Rules, NBA Scoring, Dunks Only, Long-Range Only, and Back to Basics. When you win a game, your Rep goes up, and you get Street Points, which are used get skill points, buy clothes and accessories, and build up your created home court. You can also pick up a player from the losing team, but you should focus on building up stats, and then wait for the NBA players to come. Then you'll play people like Dajaun Wagner, Samuel Dalembert, ect., before you start playing LeBron James and Tracy McGrady. You'll get invites for tournaments, dunk contests, and special challenges. When you dump a player off your team, they may become a rival, which means you will get a few Rival Challenges, which have a much bigger impact on your Rep, especially if you skip it, and the sometimes can get a little irritating after it's a rematch for the fifth time. Then the NBA Street League starts. You get invites from several NBA

teams, and when you pick one, you will have to play in their Street League game once a week, with their team, all the way to the league playoffs. At the same time, you are continuing your quest to become the top streetball player in the nation.

 

Graphics: 18/20

NBA Street Vol. 2 switched to a much more cartoonish look, but V3 has gone for a total change in realism. Players look a lot like their real-life figures, and have good facial expressions. Actions are smooth and life-like, unless you count jumping over the rim. Courts look much like the real thing, and you even see leaves or paper falling down onto the court sometimes. The lighting is just outstanding. It changes from day to night well, and there's even a small change in a warmer or cooler atmosphere. In the Court Creator, you can customize your home court in Street Challenge all the way down to the cracks and lines on the court. You can choose seating, banners, neighborhood, setting, color, line color, the whole basketball hoop, logos on the court, and design. So many things to customize, and it looks so good.

 

Sound: 8/10

The hip-hop soundtrack fit nicely into the street theme, but it didn't have the selection of many of EA's other sports games, and could get repetitive after a while. The announcer is pretty good, but also a little annoying. Some of the things he says are pretty funny, but it gets old after a while. He also likes to talk A LOT, and he goes on forever. He'll be talking about some big dunk you just did, then the other team scores, and he's still talking about your dunk. He also likes to talk about the DJ sometimes, and sounds kind of stupid. You can just turn the play-by-play down a bit, most of the time he's not too bad though.

 

Controls: 10/10

The controls were simple and easy for V3. The addition of the new Trick Stick was really nice, allowing you to do more tricks than ever before. Most of the controls were the same as the other two NBA Street games, and were very nice. Although the Trick Stick is good for doing moves with the ball, I still preferred using the X/Y buttons on defense, to steal and block.

 

Value: 19/20

This game should last you for a long time. The Street Challenge mode is 10 weeks long, and gives you plenty of things to do, with all the customizing, the great Court Creator, and stacking your team with legends and NBA superstars. But the game really shines when you're going head-to-head with a friend. Multiplayer is really fun, and you can make it a normal game, a Trick Point challenge, a first-Gamebreaker-wins game, with Old School rules, NBA Scoring, and even spot him a few points if he's not too good.

 

Tilt: 10/10

This game is just really fun, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Buy/Rent? If you're a sports fan, you should definitely buy this game. Even if you don't really like basketball, you should still at least try this game, and rent it, but then you'd miss out on all the long-term fun and replayablity.

 

TOTAL: 92/100 or 9.2/10