NBA Street Homecourt

Back in the early 90's there was this killer arcade basketball game by Midway called NBA Jam. At a time when sports games were taken a bit too seriously, NBA jam featured 4 player action with players that could jump over a house to make a dunk and innovations like hotspots and balls on fire (basketballs you perv). It was not very real, but hell it was fun.

While NBA Jam never managed to get much success from its sequels, the concept was well appreciated and further evolved by other videogame manufacturers that gave rise to a number of street arcade basketball games, the most notable of which was EA Sports Big's NBA Street series. Many years and a lot of iterations later the NBA Street franchise has made it to the new generation of consoles, with a highly evolved gameplay and attitude that few other games can boast. But does the novelty still hold one's attention in the fourth version of this game? This is exactly what I intend to find out.

Getting the players high on the EMO right at the start, NBA Street is full of little history videos about how the greatest names in the NBA started small, and through hard work and perseverance, made their name in the game. Though the narration of these videos can get a bit heavy, especially if you're not a big fan of the sport, the videos bring in the right mood for what lies ahead.

Though the game looks fresh in just about every aspect, there are quite a few things that stay intact from the previous versions; namely tricks. Here you carry out tricks to dodge the ball from the opponent in a crazy display of acrobatics and ball control, while at times even taunting your opponent by passing the ball from underneath the opponent, or by simply mocking him by bouncing the ball off his head. The more antics you pull off, the more points you get. Doing a certain number and types of tricks before putting a shot into the basket earns you multipliers that seriously jack up the points ratio at your end.