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Jun 27 2005
NBA Street Showdown Review
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| Summary: NBA Street goodness
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.
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Comments
06/28/05
4 
jasiu
| Wisconsin USA
great review. i own the game as well, and agree with you on pretty much everything
+
06/28/05
21
patron921
| New York USA
would u recommend this over NFL street Unleashed i have both nba street v3 and nfl street 2 but i lost both so i want them for psp instead im gonna get both but which should i get 1st?
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06/28/05
8
mastershake
| New Jersey USA
patron, i have never actually played NFL Street Unleashed, but if you like NBA Street, i can tell you, you eill like Showdown. But it plays more like V2 than V3, if that is probelm, get NFL Street.
+
06/29/05
21
patron921
| New York USA
ok thats good i dont have v2 so ill go with nba street
+
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