March 29, 2005 - The "Street" titles are some of the most memorable running sports games in the industry. They give you all the fun of basketball without the details of a typical simulation. With all the acclaim that these games have earned through the years, it comes as no surprise that EA has an NBA Street slotted for PSP, and so far it nothing short of H-O-T. One wouldn't think that the dazzling tricks and wild-ball antics from the console versions would have nearly as much impact on such small scale, but PSP proves otherwise. NBA Street: Showdown has a nice set of simple controls and clean graphics that are crisp enough to make this one of most promising PSP titles yet.
The presentation is straight from NBA Street V3, with all the updated menus, fonts, music, and glitz you'd expect. But some of the core game mechanics are modeled after NBA Street Volume 2, which means that the controls are somewhat limited in comparison to V3. For one, the amount of tricks you could do with the right analog stick on the PS2 are gone on PSP -- your tricks are primarily limited to the square button on Showdown. But you can still manage combos with this, which lead to dazzling dunks that help build that almighty "Gamebreaker." Also, Gamebreaker here is more similar to Volume 2 in that when activated, an animated scene will play out when you go to score. Nevertheless, the ball sparkles and explodes at the final slam with all the glory of V3's presentation, and it's still a remarkable feat to see on a PSP.
The modes are set up very similar to the latest NBA Street title, NBA Street V3. The Quick Play option gives you the three immediate games to play. The first is "Pick Up Game," which is the easiest way to set-up a street match-up with NBA teams. Here is where you get to see all the "Rucker Park" mayhem. The pacing has been tuned to a sweet flow of give-and-go that helps make the all the beautiful chaos manageable. All of Showdown's player models (they're detailed enough to illustrate the white spot on Rasheed Wallace's head), lush colors, shadows, and lively animations are stunning sights. The first open locales like Bridge Point and Uptown don't skimp on detail either. The cage you play in at the Uptown location is illustrated so well, it's worth sitting there and scrutinizing every corner of it.
