Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Rent it first"

I haven't played any other NBA Street Showdown game before, so I decided to try this out..

When I first got into the game, I decided to check out the quick play mode just to see how the controls and graphics are... to be honest the graphics isn't top notch like NBA Ballerz, but it gets the job done, the controls were responsive and easy to use and learn. There isn't really a commenter, just the sound effects of dribbling, shooting and dunking... the sound track was pretty nice, consisting most of hip hop and rap.

So of course, every game has a career mode, in this game, it's called "King of the Courts". You first create a baller to use for the rest of the mode, you can customize the characters fitness, height, hair/facial hair, and face, there isn't like a deep custom face design thing in here, so all you get is about 10 presets with different skin colors. Next you dress your baller up with gear, from jerseys to tank tops to T-Shirts... jeans, shorts, to sweat pants, and top that off with some bling or headbands.. there isn't a lot to choose from though, but there's enough to make it work...

The career mode is basically you, a no-nothin baller who's trying to take over courts of different cities by first playing a few games than challenging the owner of the court. It seems like a neat idea at first, and there's a total of 11 courts (if i remembered) to conquer and unlock.. the gameplay itself gets really repetitive, all you do everytime is play a 3 on 3 game, dunk every basket and watch your player break the hoop and win the game. Plus it's sorta easy, you can just slam through your opponent and make an easy dunk. only thing to freshen up the gameplay is the different moves and dunks you can unlock and assign to your player .

But after you have seen all the moves and tricks, there isn't really anything to play with.. cept for the 2 really boring minigames... Im not sure if theres online or not, i basically focused on the career mode...

Pros:
-The full NBA roster, with 5 of the top players of each team in the game.
-Lots of moves, tricks, dunks, shots to choose from.
-Dunks are amazing.
-It's addicting at first.

Cons:
-Repetitive after 5~10 hours of play.
-You have the same goals every game. Dunk, dunk, dunk.
-It's 3 on 3 everytime, no 1 on 1 or 5 on 5.
-Character customization isn't deep.

Basically if you're just finding a good freestyle basketball game, either NBA Ballerz or this one is an ideal choice.. it's fun to just pick up and play when you're out or going to the washroom, but if you're focusing on this game for a month I swear you'll die of the repetitiveness and boringness that it gets near the end. If you're a real fan on the series, than buy it. But if you just want a fun little game to keep busy for a week, rent it.

Thanks for reading, hope it helped!