NBA Street Homecourt: EA got this one right.
Munky55
90% score
Presentation: The game has an oldschool feeling in almost every aspect of it: oldschool tunes, slow and subtle cutscenes and hometown stories help set the mood. The menus are beautyful and easy to navigate. Graphics and Animation: This is one of the best looking sports games out there. The courts are modeled with attention to detail and seem photorealistic. The player models are above verage and the physics of the clothing are superb. The strongest part of Homecourt is the animation. Transitions between dribbles and passes are smooth, and the execution and creativity in the dunks is a must-see. This game is fun even for the bystanders. Gameplay: The two modifier buttons add a lot to gameplay and strategy. Dribbles, dunks and even passes can be modified. The Gamebreaker is especially hectic because you can try to make a long trick combo to add to your score with the risk of loosing the ball and one point with it. You can hold the dunk button to the very last moment of a dunk to make a double-dunk, but hold it too long and you'll miss embarrasingly. Single and Multiplayer: Multiplayer is, not surprisingly, a blast. Playing online is definetively cool, but the game lags sometimes. The single player is the weakest part of Homecourt. There you'll find challenges which consist in winning games with different rules or restirctions. You'll also recruit players and buy clothes for yourself, but it's nothing to write home about. The create-a-player is not what it used to be. It is way more shallow and limited than what similar or past games have. Final Opinion: This game has come a long way and it shows: it has been fine tuned both graphically and in gameplay. The lack of a true single player experiece is what keeps this game away from greatness, although it is still the best of its kind.
