I would recommend sticking with the normal difficulty level as “easy” is, well too easy. The hard difficultly level is hard. Good luck getting a shot off let alone scoring. Normal seems to be just right.

In the game, you have a shot button, a pass button and two trick buttons. EA calls this the trick remixer, but I call it a gimmick. One of the things I despised about the 2nd game was how cheesy some of the gamebreaker meter filler moves were, and here, the same thing happens. It’s not very realistic and even though this game is supposed to be an over the top basketball game, it just feels silly to me.

Filling up the GameBreaker meter is not easy and when it is activated (in this game you’ll have to stand in a special circle on the court and press Y – which is rather silly), you’ll be treated to Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit.” Activating the gamebreaker automatically deducts one point from your opponent. You’ll then want to fill up your meter by doing multiple moves, including, of course, break dancing—after all, what basketball game isn’t complete without break dancing? The more moves you do, the better your score when getting a basket. The drawback is that as you do more moves, there’s more of a chance the ball might be stolen and your opponent can then enjoy all the benefits of the gamebreaker (except losing a point).

The dunks that you can do are very impressive…one includes leaping off the back of another player and getting nothing but net. It’s a very enjoyable way to tell off your opponent. It’s a great “booyah” moment.

The gameplay is not all good however – this game gives new meaning to “brain dead AI.” When you attempt to steal the ball or when trying to get a rebound, your computer teammates quite often stand around and watch rather than attempt to dive for the ball. It is very frustrating. Of course this is never a problem with the computer controlled opponents who grab every rebound and attempt to get every loose ball.

The online play can be fun as well. There’s a really nice page showing your online career stats and the game is definitely much more of a challenge when playing a human. The only drawback with the games is that you often find people don’t care for a challenge and only pick the NBA All Stars rather than individual teams. I found online games very difficult when playing as anyone other than the NBA All Stars.

NBA Street Homecourt has it’s moments – the graphics are incredible but the audio is only decent. There’s no play by play but there is quite a bit of trash talking and players will tell you the score and talk to one another and say don’t allow a 2 pointer..things like that.

Overall, NBA Street Homecourt is leaps and bounds better than EA’s other basketball game, NBA Live, but still isn’t gaming perfection. It’s not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but there isn’t a whole lot of depth or replay value in the game. Instead of “just one more game” you’ll probably be saying “ughh one more game to get this next achievement.” Fans of the series will love it, but for the rest of us, it’s probably only worth renting.