Street Hoops
Activision keeps it real?but not too real.
True to its name and goal, Street Hoops captures the look and style of playground basketball?all the skills of the NBA but with a hell of a lot more personal expression and hip-hop flava. Motion-captured moves and a high frame rate support the killer crossovers, smooth spins, and outrageous dunks that personify street basketball. The hip-hop soundtrack (Method Man and Redman, DMX, Ludacris, and others) never intrudes on the game, but the announcers get annoyingly repetitive. Intuitive and responsive controls on both platforms make the hard stuff easy. Street Hoops straddles the line between arcade and simulation nicely. Players move, look, and behave in a realistic fashion, but fatigue, substitutions, and playcalling don?t interrupt the fun. It?s like a two-way bridge from NBA Street and NBA Jam to NBA Live and NBA 2K3, and it?s worth a rent (at the very least) for just about every basketball fan.
NOTE: All the screens below are for the PS2 version. Check out the Xbox review for more shots.