NBA Street Homecourt XBOX 360 Review

Is Homecourt as good as Street Vol.2?…Not so much.



Don’t get me wrong, NBA Street is by no means a bad game. In fact, it is chock full of high production values and is a vast improvement over Volume 3. Despite all of this, Vol. 2 is still the best in the series in my eyes.

Gameplay: 8/10
Pros: The new gamebreaker system is great and offers a good system of risk and reward (opposing players can ‘steal’ gamebreakers). The fluidity of animations and the countermoves (a button appears over a ball handler or defender and if you press it you will bounce the ball through a defender’s legs, or steal the ball.) are also great additions.
Cons: The intuition of the kick pass (press down on the right stick) is gone! Blocking long range shots is way too easy and makes games dunkfests. Trick Remixer brings with it a lack of differing dunks, trick moves.

Graphics: 9/10
Pros: The graphics are good, the player animations are absolutely superb and the game has an organic overall feel because of the look and especially the animations of all the players. The filters put on the gameplay and ‘biography’ videos are sweet.
Cons: The courts are not that spectacular and don’t offer the variety of looks and tones (rooftops, dark alleyways) of previous street titles.

Sound/Music: 9/10
Pros: As always EA has spent a fortune on licensed tracks which are excellent. Voice work for the player biographies is excellent.
Cons: Voice work is a mixed bag during gameplay. It bothers me that we get great Carmelo voice work for in between game segments but then have generic player voices for nearly all the NBA stars. Players just all sound the same in game- generic. This may be nitpicking, but why not get voice work from all the players or just rip it from game footage? I want Iverson to sound like Iverson.

Lasting Appeal: 7/10
Pros: Online play is great (something Vol. 2 lacked) and there area several different game modes, and street games to be played. There’s achievements and all that too.
Cons: Achievements are incredibly easy. There are only 16 and they are each worth an absurd amount (like 50 points). They are also incredibly easy to get and I had over 200 within the first hour. The flash of NBA street and it’s appeal has worn off over the years.

Average: 82.50%
Tilt: -0.50%

EA is a massive studio (which I must admit I distaste ever since they monopolized the NFL license) and they crank out sequels nearly every year. As a result, their games always have the polish in the graphics and sound department, but the gameplay can drastically fluctuate from sequel to sequel. The Street series is lucky because it doesn’t suffer from the strict annual release schedule of Madden. Nonetheless, while Homecourt is much much better than Vol 3, it’s no Vol 2.

Verdict: 82%