94
I think they may have just gone over the top instead of keeping it simple. But basketball is my favourite sport and that is one reason why I like this game. It's nearly the same as NBA Street, only smaller. It has similar gameplay and moves such as tricks with the ball, dunks and weird passes.
43
I mean it has all the same fun as Street 1, 2 and 3 but it's harder and the controls and grapics are a little off but the songs are the best part.
86
I played this game today and I must say it had me hooked onto my console and wanting to play more! It's such a great series and Sony have done themselves justice by bringing this to the PSP they done the world proud.
Graphics
They are a bit naff but to be honest I've seen much worse so I aint even gonna diss the program.The players do have resemblance of the real superstars (take heed of my advice im a keen bballer andn I know the NBA players well)
Gameplay
As I said before the game will have you hooked to your seat and holding your console gagging for more of this beauty. It's a wild game and the skills they do on this are amazing, farfetched but yet still amazing. It doesn't freeze at all and the loadtimes are a little bit long but it's better than most games.
Overall
This game is a well thought out and planned game by EA and the derserve a pat on the back for this one. It definetley gets the thumbs up from me. Definetely good if you like bball on the go without getting all sweaty!! XD It's a good buy even if you dont like bball you should try it still!! Go on you know you wanna.
85
Well, its NBA Street, and with a few console hits, why shouldn’t this one be good too? It feels and plays like the console versions, and the portability of it just adds to the overall fun factor.
Story
You start as a basketball player with a few skills, and you decide to make your own team and take over the courts. From here you play a few pickup games a la NFL Street, and get players to make a team. Then you challenge the top basketball players, and beat them and become king of their court. Your goal is to become the king of the courts.
Controls
The controls are quite easy to get used to. It's much easier to pull off cool moves and do game breakers than on the console versions. Even the analog feels right, but the game gives you the choice to choose from a few control schemes, so if you're not happy with the first one, which I highly doubt you will be, you'll get your choice from a few more. Pulling cool trick moves is simple, and so is taking the trick shots.
Gameplay
If you've played the console versions, you've played this. It's essentially the same game, insane shots, crazy moves, and of course, awesome dunks. Pull trick moves and make crazy shots on offense, mash the steal button on defense. There's only one mode to pick from, but it involves some fun gameplay and cool mini games. King of the courts mode is the story mode, and its pretty much explained in the Story part of this review.
Sound
Once again the typical slew of EA trax music. This time around it consists of ALL rap. Dribbling and missed shots all sound like what you'd expect, nothing special or extraordinary.
Graphics
Nothing spectacular, but decent graphics, you won't be paying much attention because you'll be too busy pulling tricks.
Overall
If you liked the console versions of the NBA Street series, then you should have a good time playing this game. However if you haven't played the games before, it'd be a better idea to buy the cheaper $20 console version and see if you like the gameplay.
80
I'm a Big, Big fan of the series. Love every aspect except for a loss of control in the port of this game, and the incorporation of style point scoring games with traditional scoring games in the career mode. If you suck at one, like me, it becomes drawn out.
93
The newest update to an already amazingly fun, and cool series; NBA Street Showdown is the EA’s first stab at the NBA Street franchise, on the PSP. Some of the many distinctive characteristics from the NBA Street series surprisingly translate very well to the PSP. Warning: Those that are not familiar to the NBA Street Series, and want a simulation of NBA Basketball, turn around now. This game is street ball, and brings a refreshing look at NBA games, and has a very arcade style, so this game is not for you. Now that the "NBA Game Traditionalists" are gone let’s see just how well it does.
Those who love the NBA Street franchise will feel right at home with Showdown, as it translates very well from its console versions to the PSP. There are a few different modes in Showdown, and there are also two minigames which I will talk about later. There is also a large amount of customization involved with the game. You can change the shoes you wear, customize your dunking power, strength and more.
My Street
This is where you personalize and customize every aspect of the game down to your hair. In the Options section, you can change the difficulty from GOT GAME (Easy), MAD GAME (Medium), to LEGEDARY (Hard). You can change your button configurations, save or load game data and profiles, and the volume for Speech or the announcer, SFX, and Music. You can turn on/off visual effects in the game (if your player scores a combo or a game breaker), Replays, Auto Saves, and Onscreen Help.
In the Get Creative section, you can create a baller, or create a team. This is where the personalization really kicks in. In Create Baller, you can change the hair style and color, the shorts, the shoes, accessories, figure, skin color, ect. You can either make the player look like you, or someone totally different, and you can give them a name and a hometown, which is displayed on an ID Card with a picture of your Baller, his weight, and his height. You can also customize his skills and his moves.
Now you can’t just pimp out your Baller to the max with all the bling, skills, and moves you want right out of the box, you have to earn it. The game has two different point systems, Development Points, and Reward Points. Both are earned throughout the game when you win games, score a lot of trick points, or win courts, and play the mini games. DP directly affect your personalization of the character, and are won only by playing games in Pick Up Game and in King of the Courts modes. RP are given in mini games too, but are different. With the reward points you get, you can buy DP to use on your baller. 250 RP gets you 100 DP, and 800 RP can get you 500 DP. When you create a team, you can pick a logo, a name, and the players. You can use your created baller, plus a roster of players from the NBA, and players from way back, from the NBA Legends.
The Rewards section is the place to go to bask in your own glory, which includes unlocked player, courts you own, and trophies. The Statistics section shows the high scores in different modes.
Quick Play
The first Mode is Quick Play. This mode contains a few choices. The first is the Pick Up Game. This the short alternative to the career mode King of the Courts. The name says it all, it's a quick game that is quick to set up and is a short or long experience depending on what you want. You first choose your profile, or make a new one. Then you choose if you want to be on the home side or the away side. Now you choose which team you want, the players you want from the large NBA roster I already mentioned, and the courts you want to play on from courts that you have unlocked in King of the Courts mode. Then you can go straight to playing the game, or you can start with a certain amount of points, or choose to go to a set amount. There are also two mini games. Shot blocker puts you in front of the basket, and blocking shots from your opponents. The more shots you block consecutively, the more multipliers you get. The other game is Arcade Shootout which is just like the basketball games in arcades where you try to sink shots for points. As the levels progress, the shot are harder to get, and just as the Shot Blocker game, consecutive shots that you sink, will give you more bonuses and multipliers. Quick Play is the mode to choose if you are on the go, and want to play a quick game on your commute, the essence of mobile gaming.
King of the Courts
This mode is EA’s answer to career mode. This is the mode where you progress through the ranks by beating challenges on different courts, and beat the Ballers that own them. Each court has two challenges to complete, a pick up game and cour challenge. One cool thing in Showdown is that when you defeat the opposing team in KotQ mode, you have the option of trading one of your players for one of theirs, to eliminate weaknesses, and further develop your team. Your team always has your created baller on it, but you can trade other players. There are a total of 15 courts to conquer in this mode, and this is where the long gameplay is, and where you will devote a lot of time.
Head to Head and Party Play
There are two multiplayer modes, Party Play, which uses one PSP, for up 4 players, and the other is the Head to Head mode, which involves two people, on individual PSP systems, over AD-Hoc. Sorry, no Infrastructure play over the internet in this game.
The modes overall have a lot to offer, and gives different players, different styles to choose from. 10/10
The gameplay has always been the staple for the NBA Street franchise, and that tradition is upheld in the PSP version. Over the common basketball gameplay, it has a layer of stylistic action, which immerses you in the game, and gives the game its fun. The feeling of pulling a large string of tricks and completing it in a huge in your face ending never gets old.
The game screen is uncluttered, and you can change the camera view to your liking in the options. There are no delayed button actions as said in other reviews, and I feel the responses to the buttons are very tight in this game, but if it is a problem, you quickly get used to it. The gameplay is very fluid during play, and is very addicting. Moving from trick to trick is shown perfectly, and using the game breakers are better than ever.
Don’t repeat tricks in order though, because then you will lose trick points, so change up your moves. Once you get a game breaker, you can use it by pressing the L or R shoulder buttons, and just sit back and watch. Soon, a flashy cut-scene of hip goodness will commence, ending in a broken basket, a butt load of points, and a huge "in your face moment”. A game breaker not only gives you more trick and game points; it also takes away the opposing teams game points. A feature exclusive to the PSP version is the Pocket game breaker feature. This feature allows you to get greedy and "pocket" a game breaker to go on to a Level 2 game breaker for bigger results and an even larger amount of trick points.
Two mini-games, Shot Blocker and Arcade Shootout are welcome extras, but are only amusing for awhile. It gets to the point where you play them just to get more reward points for player, and less for the enjoyment.
The load times between gameplay and menus vary. At times, they can be unbearable, and at others, they can be blazing fast not letting you even get up to got to the bathroom, unless you are already there of course. The customization in the game is huge, as I described before, and you can change everything.
Overall, the gameplay is great, and is just as good even better than its predecessors, with the occasional long load times, and OK mini games being problems. 9/10
As any other PSP game, the graphics in Showdown are great. The added style of the game produces flashy endings, huge game breakers, and great character animations. In my opinion, the games graphics are just as good as its console brother’s. As I’ve said before, it is very fluid. The backgrounds look realistic and great, and the attention to detail is great.
Overall, another great PSP game with great graphics, 9/10
From the great hip-hop beats, to the squeaking sounds of new Jordans on the court, to the swish of the basket, to the announcer with something great to say all the time, this series never fails to have the best sound. 10/10
This is the section where I like to express my thoughts of the game where it just does some great things, and didn’t have space to talk about them during the other parts of the review.
The announcer in the game is absolutely hilarious, and I am happy they did not take him out in the PSP version. He adds comedy to tricks and moves, describes locales, and makes fun of opposing teams. He always has something to say, and I am always listening for it.
Another thing that the NBA Street series always gets right is the music in the game. As I said before in the sound section, the sound in this game is tight.
And all those features I just mentioned, and the flashy, hip graphics in the game, all add up to the most amazing sense of style that is much needed in facsimiles we cal games today. The game bleeds style, and I love every minute of it. 10/10
This game is definitely worth the 50 bones I shelled out for it. It suits all types of gamers, letting beginners get into the franchise, and letting hardcore gamers take this game on the go. It is great for quick commutes, long waiting room periods, or even longer weekends. The game has great graphics, sound, and gameplay that get it right. The only problems with the game are the occasional long load times and the ok mini games. I would recommend this game to anyone that lives and breathes.
90
Personally, I think this game is great. It really is an NBA Street game and it stays true to its nature. It has two new mini games, one where you block peoples shots and a shoot-out which really does get addicting. There is a nice touch of v3 in here. It comes with three beastie boys which are also included in v3. King of the court is where it really get down to business here. It's your typical NBA Street 3 on 3, one game after another, reward winning game. Theres your average reward that you get in this game such as courts, clothing, NBA Legends and Street Legends. I was really disappointed that they didnt come with the dunk contest in showdown as they did with v3. Overall, this is a good game for your PSP, BUT if you wanna save your money and get something just as good then just get NBA Street vol 2. There isnt much of a difference in the two games.
90
Well contrary to the other review I basically have no complaints with this game. If you have ever played NBA street on a console you'll be right at home, and if not you'll be comfy in moments.
In the graphics department this game shines. The players look sharp and move with a life like fluidity. considering that this is running in the palm of your hand it is basically mindboggling.
As for controls the only complaint i have is the lack of the 2 extra shoulder buttons for a more versatile trick system, but that is a psp flaw and not a game flaw. The seemless and quick play from the consoles never misses a step on the psp. Its top notch in my humble opionion.
The ability to play the 3 on 3 streetball is offset by some mini games that are good but not great. The shot blocker game while simple can be quite addicting, but the arcade shooter leaves me wanting more.
NBA street has minimal load times on psp and the games play smooth as butter. Its absolutely fantastic and a perfect game to knock a few rounds out on the bus or something. If you like the console version or are a bball junky lookin for a quick thrill to show off on your psp this is the game for you.
83
Just picked up NBA Street last night. My first overall impression is that it's a really good, but not awesome street ballgame.
The mini games are pretty cool, but get boring quick. The 3 on 3 games are where the meat is, and where I will focus my gameplay. I'm guessing the lack of online gameplay compatability is from this being a first gen game. Had this had Wi-Fi Infrastructure included, I would have given it at least another 10 points.
You'll definetly enjoy the variety of players, although the teams have not been updated for the current season, so you may see a few players still on old teams. Graphics, for a handheld, are great. It's still a little hard to get a good depth of field when playing though. You may think you're under the basket, only to find when you jump for the rebound you're actually a few feet off.
Music, good but scant. I mean come on here, look at all the tracks in Ridge Racer, and then look at Street, about 1/4 or fewer tracks. Hopefully we'll be able to add more in the future, maybe?
All in all, it is a great little game, amazing for a handheld. But is it worth the extra 10 spot EA charges? Not really.
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