NBA Ballers

Lifestyles of the Rich and Roundball Famous?starring you.

NBA Ballers tries to unseat NBA Street by diving deep into the lifestyle elements of playground basketball?and thankfully there?s some good gameplay in there, too.

1 on 1 And 1
NBA Ballers features a lot of Street-like elements?multiple Juice buttons, used in combinations, that unleash slick jukes, spins, and other embarrassments. Fancy dunks, passes to friends on the sidelines, and buzzer-beating threes are all par for the arcadey course. As players (ahem, playas) win matches, they can upgrade their skills as well as their wardrobe, crib, ride, and even social circle. (That?s right?money can?t buy happiness, but it can buy some honeys that will hang out in your posse.) But is Midway celebrating the flashy style of street ball, or is the company actually playing the hip-hop lifestyle for laughs? When you hear mighty whitey announcer Bob Benson using street speak, you?ll know it?s a little of both.

Ballers? best perks are its astonishingly hi-res textures (almost too hi-res?seeing the pores in the faces of player models isn?t exactly a pleasant thing), its depth of customization, the wide variety of smoothly animated street moves, and the intriguing 1 vs. 1 vs. 1 mode. Instead of dipping back into the two-on-two well, Midway throws a third man on the court, mixing up strategies and opening up the gameplay considerably. It?s worth renting just to play that. The Rags to Riches career mode gives a cheeky reality-TV spin to the standard single-player proceedings, too, but why your R2R created player is totally separate from your regular one remains a mystery.

Profit & Floss
The soundtrack features play-by-play by MC Supernatural and a lot of rap songs specifically recorded for (and about) the game by such hip-hop heavyweights as Jurassic 5?but there are only so many times you can hear someone namecheck ?NBA Ballers? before it gets tired. The complex controls are fairly confusing at first?there are almost too many button combinations to remember?but think of it instead as ?depth.? Once you learn how to pull off the wealth of stunt shots and ankle-breakers at will, it?s pretty satisfying.

If nothing else, check out NBA Ballers for its fresh ideas?the three-man matchups are worth it, online play (PS2 only) extends the replay value, and the game has a sense of humor about itself that you can?t help but respect.

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment