GENRE
	Sports
	DEVELOPER
	EA Canada
	PUBLISHER
	EA Sports
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-4
	CONNECTIVITY
	no
	BUY NOW AT

This may be the only instance where Nintendo’s refusal to enter the online market paid off…almost. With full online capabilities for the PS2 and Xbox versions, the GameCube left something to be desired. Nintendo tried to satisfy that desire by licensing out Mario, Luigi, and Peach as the Nintendo All Stars team exclusive to the GCN version of NBA Street V3. The result is mixed, but the game still emerges as a classic sports title.

visuals

The visuals are beautiful in Street. Everything from the lighting to the ball looks fantastic in perfectly angled courts and environments. The courts all have their own color and lighting themes, which are all executed perfectly with cascading shadows and nuanced color. Dark tones and shades accentuate the dirty, urban atmosphere of the courts. Characters move fluidly and look realistic, yet they do suffer from some lack of realism in the face because they tend to maintain a steady, stern expression. However, this does not harm the overall quality of the graphics. The special moves look nice as the ballers hurl themselves into the air, do a myriad of twists and turns, and finally land the ball into the basket, which is followed by a sudden fading of the music while the player’s signature appears across the screen. It all looks very nice and conveys a sense of power in the dunks and gamebreaker combos.

audio

Street’s audio consists mostly of rap tunes, which may please some and displease others. Either way, it is appropriate to the context and conveys the urban atmosphere of the courts. The announcer gets annoying quite rapidly. He gets repetitive and his phrases are generally annoying or just plain dumb. Luckily, you can shut him off. The players don’t make much noise-—not even Mario, Luigi, and Peach. Everything is pretty muted besides the announcer. You’ll play the game to rap beats and hear the sounds of the ball hitting the court and the rim, and hear it getting passed from player to player. When you perform tricks, confirmation noises let you know you're doing well. This is one area where the Nintendo All Stars get a little extra: when you use the trick stick with either of the three characters, their trick confirmation noises will be classic NES bleeps and blips straight out of the original Super Mario Bros. It’s a welcome addition.

The sound track is ultimately annoying in many instances, even if you like rap. Although the genre of music is appropriate, the songs of choice were not. The sound needs some work.

gameplay

The gameplay is, hands down, the best basketball experience you can have on any console. The street aspect may annoy some purists who would prefer to see the stadiums and the rest of the NBA experience, but the gameplay is, without a doubt, stellar.

All tricks, passes, dunks, and shots function smoothly without so much as a hitch. Players pass the ball with agility and fluidity, shoot the ball with accuracy, and dazzle their opponents with a flurry of fancy moves at a flick of the trick stick. An example of the calculated and polished controls is the intuitive pass-alleyoop-shoot system. In order to build up trick points to get a gamebreaker, the game requires you to perform fancy tricks, and the controls help you along the way. For a whole lot of points, try faking out an opponent with tricks, get in positon for a shot, pass in mid shot, rebound it off the backboard, and catch the ball with another player in midair and dunk it to instantly fill the trick meter. If you can pull that off, you’ll know you’re a master, but it’s certainly possible thanks to the highly polished control, and it’s extremely rewarding.

Once you’ve built up trick points, you can execute a gamebreaker, which will add a lot of points to your score and subtract some from your opponent. Once in midair, you can use the trick stick to perform combos, which, if performed correctly, will add even more points to your gamebreaker score.

The game offers an impressive career mode. In Street Challenge mode, you can create your own baller and tweak everything from hair, to skin tone, weight, hair, and stats. Play the career mode to get more stat points to attribute to your character and improve his or her attributes. As you win more games in the 40 hour career mode, you will be challenged by tougher NBA ballers such as Kobe and Eddie Jones. If you are successful in defeating the advanced players, you will be rewarded with more customizability such as shoes and tattoos, which improve your reputation and skills. Your ultimate goal is to create the best baller on the court, and, eventually, your own court. By building your very own street court, you can annihilate all the pros with the skills you’ve earned along the way. The Street Challenge mode offers hours upon hours of play—up to 50 or 60 hours depending on your skill level.

Beyond the Street Challenge is the slam dunk contest. It is something along the lines of trick modes in 1080 Snowboarding and Avalanche or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. The goal is to do as many tricks and fancy moves as possible and bring a crazy dunk to the hoop in order to get as high a score as possible. String as many tricks and moves together as you can before you reach the hoop and you will succeed.

The addition of the Nintendo All Stars seems more like an afterthought. They did get their own court, but it doesn’t look too different from your standard course and it doesn’t offer any crazy bonuses or fanboy-pleasing goodness. Mario and Luigi are short compared to Shaq and others, and it affects their success on the court. No signature moves were included to truly justify their inclusion in the game, which is disappointing. If you’re looking for Mario Basketball, keep waiting. Chances are Nintendo’s got three of them in development somewhere anyway.

The single player will offer you a massive quest to complete, and it comes with all the fixings. Extra such as the dunk contest add even more depth to an already gloriously deep and intuitive interface. If you’re a basketall fan, this game is, without a doubt, for you.

multiplayer

Street is the Super Smash Bros of multiplayer sports titles. If you know someone who loves basketball and basketball games, you’re both going to be in for the long haul. You’ll find the multiplayer incredibly addictive for the encouragement to do tricks, which causes a great amount of competition and suspenseful gameplay. If you could do it without breaking concentration, you’d be biting your nails as you dexterously juggle the ball in your opponents face hoping he or she isn’t adroit enough to steal it away from you and land a gamebeaker in your court to make a comeback from behind. If you’re equal in skill, games can last for quite a bit of time because of the gamebreaker feature, which will subtract points from the opponent. This dynamic ends up adding time to the games as you gain points and lose them to your opponent shortly thereafter. As long as you and your opponent tune your skills sufficiently, there is a blast to be had with the multiplayer for quite a bit of time to come.

overall

I must admit, I am not a basketball fan. I’m willing to shoot some hoops (or miss them entirely in most cases), but I usually don’t like watching the sport or playing basketball video games. The only reason I bought this game was for Mario, Luigi, and Peach; however, I ended up getting a lot more value out of it than I expected. Although my personal rating for the game differs from that which I am about to give simply because I don’t enjoy the sport, I recognize the fact that this is, essentially, the pinnacle of virtual basketball. For that, this game deserves the following score.

9.5/10