NFL Street was one of the games that I've been looking forward to ever since I first heard about it.
NBA Street Volume 2 was one of my favorite sports games of all time; therefore I knew that a football game based on the same principles would be just as fun, if not more. Lately, there has been a lack of good arcade football games, so you could say that this is just what the doctor ordered. In my opinion, arcade football games make the best sports game because even though that are not familiar with the sport can catch on quickly, and throwing "long bombs" and tackling guys into walls never seems to grow old.
When playing NFL Street, forget about football stadiums and arenas. All games are played on eight different "courts" ranging from the beach to a typical American park, from a rooftop to a warehouse. There are a lot of objects in each environment, some that are useful (trashcans, trees used as first-down markers) while other aren't. When playing on these "courts", many things must be taken into consideration. For example in the warehouse, if you throw a pass too far and with too much power, then you all bound to hit the rafters. On the beach, players are slowed down due to the sand, unless you run beside the water. In the park, there are brick walls that you can use to tackle others players into, hoping for a fumble.
The gameplay itself is very different from any other football game on the market. First of all, there are no puny kickers in this game. No more field goals and punts, just go for it every single time. When it comes to extra points, either run it in for one point or go for two with a passing play. There are no penalties, so hold, obstruct, and taunt as much as you wish. Even the first down rules have been re-written. If you have a 1st and 10, and run for 17 yards, then the following play will be a 1st and 3, which is a bit strange at first but you can easily get used to. When playing the actual game, each team has only 7 players. Each player must play both offense AND defense, so when selecting players you should balance your line-up. If you stock up only on running backs, wide receivers and quarterbacks, then you will be burned on defense. So even if you have Laveranues Coles, Terell Owens, Peyton Manning and Eddie George, you should make sure that you also have players like Champ Bailey, Lavar Arrington and Ray Lewis. Players are rated for their passing, speed, blocking, agility, catching, run power, carrying, tackling, coverage, and defensive moves. Tinkering around for the perfect line-up for the perfect strategy is fun by itself. Every player can play any position, so you can try out Sapp at wide receiver, Manning at running back and Moss at linebacker. Some players are great all-around, and Champ Bailey is definitely such a player.
However, playing the game itself is even more fun. Obviously there is a playbook with dozens of running, passing and trick plays, however you will rarely run a play the way it was designed to be played. When you have the ball after a catch or when running with it, you have the option of juking, spinning stiff-arming, jumping, diving, running with a turbo boost, performing various moves and lateraling the ball. When playing defense, you can jump for the ball, swat at it and dive tackle. Although this may seem like a pretty normal football game, the key to this game is lateraling. The play is never over until it is completely over, and this is especially true in this game. Frequently do plays turn into triple lateral TDs, with a guy being tackled in mid-air, getting rid of the ball just in time. Flea flickers and laterals have never been so much fun! When on defense, forcing fumbles and intercepting passes is very common, so even the best offense can suffer an enormous amount of turnovers. Performing bone-crunching tackles into walls looks awesome, and even though offense is fun, playing without the ball doesn't feel like a chore either.
To spruce up the gameplay, when you are running with the ball you can perform tricks to build up your style points. Tricks include stunts like spinning the ball on your finger, dribbling the ball, making no-look passes, making behind the back passes, passing a ball off a wall, various taunts, etc. Style points can also be gained while on defense, but building them up is easier on offense. The only disadvantage is that if you get tackled, you are much more prone to fumble the ball. As you gain more style points, your GameBreaker meter fills up, which is a concept borrowed from the NBA Street series. When you have completely filled up your meter, you can use the GameBreaker. When you use a GameBreaker, your team becomes almost unstoppable for an entire series. If you use it on offense, your players will break more tackles, run faster (unlimited turbo) and catch more passes. If you use it on defense, your chances of picking off a pass or forcing a fumble are sky high. The GameBreaker can easily change the momentum of the game and is a devastating tool, yet must be used strategiously.
There are three modes of play in NFL Street. The first one is the regular Quick Game. You just pick an NFL team, select your seven players, select the amount of points that you will be playing to (there is no time limit in this game), pick a "court" and play. The second mode of play is "Pick-Up Game". This starts out with one player selecting whether they want the ball first or when they want first pick in the draft. After they have made their decision, 40 NFL players are randomly selected and are available for you to choose from. These can get total chumps, NFL superstars or even NFL Legends like Barry Sanders. During some drafts nabbing an awesome player with the first pick might lead to an easy victory, yet you never know which players will be available. The third mode, "NFL Challenge" is by far the most deep and very similar to its NBA counterpart. You start out with a team of seven fantasy players with horrible stats, and must progress all the way up to a legendary status. You go from region to region, participating in tournaments and competing in challenges. Challenges require you to accomplish some feat (score TD on first drive, perform 2 stiff-arms, get x amount of style points, etc.) as well as win the game. Tournaments are more comprehensive, as you face off against teams in that division, which leads to an All-Star team for that division. By beating tournaments and challenges, you unlock more of them. You can also win special items that you can put on a player, such as speed-enhancing shoes, edit the faces, tattoos and clothing of your players, and get development points. With development points, you can build up the stats of your players. Also, pretty soon you can nab professional players off teams, so soon you will have the likes of Michael Vick and Ricky Williams on your team. This mode culminates with a final game against an All-Legends team.
Playing all of these modes by yourself is fun, yet playing with 2-4 players is even more fun because after a while, you can anticipate which play the CPU will run or you might find some particular plays that gain you big yardage each time. This can make the game boring so finding a friend or two or three to play with will result in even more fun. Finally, the great thing about the PS2 version of this game is that you can play this game online, which is a total blast. Not only can you play regular matches with normal teams; you can use your team from NFL Challenge, and face-off with other people's fantasy teams. Online play is one of the highlights of this game.
The sound department is exactly what I expected from this game. When you are not playing the game (in the menus, etc.) there are a lot of licensed tracks to listen to. Most of these are either hi-hop, rock or a mix of the two, yet hip-hop dominates, which is what you would except from a game named NFL Street. During the actual game, the only tunes that you hear are just nice beats, but no real songs. The sound effects in this game are splendid. You can hear cars driving by and honking. The in-game sound effects were done beautifully, as each tackle sounds bone-crunching, each caught pass has a nice "pop to it" and a smash into a wall sounds like a smash into a wall should sound. There is absolutely no commentary throughout the games, and the only dialogue is the trash talking done by the players, which can get repetitive and annoying, yet I still cope with it.
The graphics in this game are nice. The players are not wearing helmets, only street clothes and tattoos, which personalizes them a bit. Players are made to seem a bit huskier and muscular, yet their facial features were incredibly well done. I noticed the attention paid to the player clothing, and really liked how their outfits were drawn. The animations, including the tackles and running motions, are all extremely fluid and graceful, in a way. The trick animations were also nicely down and felt real, not some made-up moves. The framerate was constant throughout, and I experienced no slowdown, even when playing online. One cool thing that I noticed was the very attracting graffiti art that they showed during loading screens, and too bad there is no art gallery so that you can look at it more carefully.
Overall, NFL Street is one awesome arcade football experience. Despite the fact that it borrows many ideas from its NBA counterpart, it still feels original. This game will definitely attract a large audience, as football and non-football fans will all find this game to be extremely entertaining. I highly recommend this game to all sports fans, especially to football fans. I also believe that you should purchase this game, not rent it because you will want to replay this game in the future without a doubt. I am extremely looking forward to a NFL Street Volume 2, as there are some minor issues that should be looked at, but for the time being, NFL Street is a very solid game.
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