Addition of Mario characters inappropriate for most recent installment in ‘NBA Street’ series

By Michael Becker

NBA Street V3

Genre: Sports

Platforms: GameCube, Xbox, Playstation2

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Ranking : 2 stars out of 5



Sorry Mario, you can’t save this franchise. Despite Nintendo’s attempts to cash in on the streetball craze, ‘NBA Street V3‘ falls short. Allowing gamers to play streetball as Mario, Luigi or Princess may be cute for the pre-teen demographic, but it’s just not the age group this game is trying to reach.

The graphics are strong, the rosters are updated, but other than that, ‘NBA Street’ is just one repetitive button mashing session. The trick moves – the premise of the game – are difficult to pull off without memorizing the instruction book. And they’re made even more difficult on Nintendo GameCube’s small controller buttons.

The MC for this year’s game is so obnoxious gamers will yearn for the ‘NBA JAM’ days, which glorified such phrases as ‘Boomshakalaka,’ and ‘Cowabunga.’ Now, the MC for Street will have players searching for the mute button.

There are some new features to the game, which makes ‘NBA Street’ more exciting than previous years. The Dunk Contest is the best addition, and allows gamers to perform as any NBA player, a few past legends, and yes, even Mario.

Another perk: Gamers can customize their own streetball team and choose amongst a slew of cities in which to play. Even Syracuse is an option, and is represented as an inner-city cement playground, with graffiti on the walls.

Also, ‘NBA Street’ allows gamers to create players, picking wardrobes and tattoos. The game even allows gamers to send their custom ballers to the barber shop. But while these features were fresh when the original ‘NBA Street’ came out, it’s quickly becoming passé. Now, even the most mainstream sports franchise games allows players to buy accessories for their teams, and Street no longer stands out.

‘NBA Street’ can be fun to play with friends for bragging rights, but it suffers in one-player modes. It hasn’t improved enough since its inception in 2001 to merit high marks. If gamers have the other two Street versions, and are just looking to update their rosters, go ahead and buy it. And while the prospect of Luigi nailing a 360-summersault dunk over Pau Gasol is enticing, it’s simply not cool enough to make this game worth it.





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