Street Ball Games
- The "Street" series of sports games includes football.Football official standing next to football image by Pezography from Fotolia.com
Sports games have become an annual staple for many video game studios, consoles and fans of the genre. While many sports video games take a straightforward approach to the action, others give fans an alternative look at their favorite professional sports. Among the alternative games are the "Street" series of ball games. The series gives fans of basketball and football a chance to play games as professional players in a casual environment. - Electronic Arts released the original "NBA Street" ball game in June 2001 for Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube. Establishing the formula for the "Street" ball series, "NBA Street" focuses on faster action, exaggerated physical moves and teams with only three players. While the players in the game are real, their attributes are tweaked to alter the feel of the game. Rather than arenas, the games take place outdoors on asphalt courts. Games are played until one team reaches a total of 21 points.
- "NFL Street" was the first football game in the "Street" ball series. EA Sports released "NFL Street" for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Microsoft's Xbox in January 2004. Much like "NBA Street," "NFL Street" features actual professional football players out of uniform. Players compete on short, outdoor fields and are enabled to perform moves that are impossible in real life. Rather than line up 11 players on each side, "NFL Street" gives each team seven men and starts each set of downs, with only eight yards to go instead of 10.
- EA Sports Big released "NBA Street Homecourt" for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in February 2007. Still focusing on real NBA players competing outdoors, "Homecourt" lets players perform special moves and shots by hitting specific button combinations and building up performance meters. "Homecourt" gamers can also change the rules to remove some of the special moves if they desire. A game mode called "Homecourt Challenge" lets players create a fictional character and then play against real professional basketball players.
- EA Sports came out with "NFL Street 3" in November 2006. Developed by EA Tiburon, "NFL Street 3" is available for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable (PSP). Keeping mostly to the same style of the original "NFL Street," "NFL Street 3" features an updated group of professional football players to choose from. Players are also given additional controls of the game rules to make the action more entertaining. Unlike other football video games, the playbacks contain only a basic amount of plays to keep things simple.
