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While writing this I literally couldn’t wait to get back on the court, and that’s about the biggest compliment I can pay to EA’s latest NBA Street title – schooling your opponents (or better yet, friends) has never been this much fun. Imitators beware: EA’s stranglehold on the arcade-basketball scene has just gotten a whole lot tighter.
Because NBA Homecourt is the first of the Street titles on next-gen consoles, I expected a few upgrades, mainly in the visual department, but EA really went all out with the controls, refining the trick system, which has now been re-dubbed the trick remixer, allowing ballers to manipulate and string together a series of flashy moves to humiliate your opponent. Now, instead of shifting the right analogue stick like previous iterations (which is used for passing this time around) to unleash a flurry of crossovers and behind the back plays, you can use the X and Y button, along with the bumper buttons. These act as trick modifiers of sorts, to juggle the ball through your opponent’s legs, bounce it off his head, or create some killer crossovers to help break through the D and drive to the basket. The entire process finally gives players the chance to be in complete control of their players and while you’ll likely ignore the fruits of the combo system during your first few hours of play, modifying tricks later becomes a staple to winning some of the more challenging competitions and ultimately helps fill up your gamebreaker gauge at a faster rate.
Speaking of which, gamebreakers have seen a facelift as well. No longer do gamebreakers mean guaranteed points as your opponent can steal the ball just as easily as you can execute the move, creating some tense risk/reward moments, especially since you can earn bonus points by building up multiple gamebreaker meters. On more than a few occasions I set off a potential game winning gamebreaker only to have the CPU rob me of glory.
As sweet as the gamebreakers are, standard dunks are equally as awe-inspiring and deserve a paragraph of their own. Street has always been known for its gravity defying spectacles with multiple mid-air alley-oops and off-the-backboard jams, but Homecourt takes it to a whole new level with some of the coolest, tricked out baskets I’ve ever seen. Take for example, when I was playing as Kobe, and in true Kobe fashion, kept the ball for myself, then commanded a team-mate to bend down at the free-throw line so I could launch off his back for the J – sick. Better yet, a gauge appears when you take off for a jam, and if timed right, you can slam the ball through the hoop a maximum of three times (the third time requiring the use of a gamebreaker) for extra points.
As for the A.I. itself, Homecourt features some solid computer controlled opponents, with one glaring issue. The A.I. can jump 30 feet into the air. In other words, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kapono have no place in Homecourt; neither do any shooters for that matter. Instead, the game boils down to driving to the basket, launching yourself into the air and bringing down the house. But then again, who in their right mind wants to shoot in a Street game anyway?
But by far the game’s biggest flaw is its lack of single-player options to keep ballers coming back for more. Granted, the game’s an absolute blast to play either way, but without a friend, the standard game modes, like gamebreaker battles (pretty self explanatory, execute the most gamebreakers) and back-to-basics (gamebreakers are turned off), aren’t enough to keep your attention for more than an hour or so. Of course there’s always the Homecourt Challenge single-player campaign to keep you occupied (with an especially neat create-a-player feature), and levelling up your baller is as addictive as ever, but the campaign is neither lengthy nor particularly challenging. Unfortunately this doesn’t bode well for Homecourt’s online play as well, which, like the majority of EA games, seems to have received the least amount of attention during the development process with only a few game modes to choose from (each a slight variation of the other) and your standard leaderboards to work your way up.
Regardless of these shortcomings, there’s no denying how gorgeous Homecourt is. Using a sort of dirty film filter, the game’s given its own, unique look that meshes flawlessly with its equally impressive character models and silky smooth animations (with some of the most impressive transitions I’ve ever seen). Further to that, the game runs at a stellar 60 frames per second, at least in 720p. When set to 1080p (which is supported on PS3 and 360) the frame rate notably drops to 30 fps.
All-in-all, Street’s debut on next-gen consoles is an impressive one and if you’re into arcade basketball goodness (as you likely are if you’re reading this) then Homecourt is most definitely for you. To be perfectly honest, we would have liked to have seen a few more game modes, or in a perfect world, the ability to play as the NBA legends (nothing beats nailing the air Jordan over your friend in Street 2). Nevertheless, minor gripes aside, Homecourt is a deliciously addictive baller and a commendable next-gen Street effort on EA’s part.
