EA has done it again with another great EA Big title. NBA Street Vol. 2 has to be one of the best sequels to a basketball game I have ever played. They took a game that was already good, and made it not only better…but ridiculously fun. Just what is it that makes this game so addictive? Why does it stand out from the rest of the pile of Basketball games out there? Besides the sleek look of the character models, the sweet old-school hip-hop soundtrack, and the TONS of unlockables. It is the LEGENDS!!
You cannot believe the how happy and content you will be when you have unlocked all of the legends. Let me tell you right now it doesn't get any better than this: '85 Jordan (yes the gold chain wearing, young, dunking on everyone, beating Dominique in the dunk competition, Jordan). The list of Legends is great. You can finally play all those Dream match-ups. Wilt vs. Shaq, Dr. J vs. Kobe….etc. It is also really funny to see the old guys running around in the super high thigh, ugly, short-shorts. I especially love it when you do a lay-up with someone like Jerry West and they shoot it granny-style. Little touches like that make this game awesome. I do have one complaint for EA, this list of Legends is sweet….but, what happened to Kareem? AND Barkeley?
GROUND-SHAKER!! If you had played the first NBA Street you would be all too familiar with this exclamation to a rim-rocking dunk which the sassy female voice would taunt. In the new NBA Street Vol. 2 that voice is gone, but is replaced with Bobbito. This character is a non-stop verbal assault on your game. Don't get me wrong, he does have some funny material he pulls out every once in a while, but this guy never shuts up. Everyone has that one friend who will constantly talk trash while playing video games…well now you can play all by yourself because this guy will do all that talking for your friends. The only good thing is you can go into the option menu and turn him off.
When it comes to gameplay, there is a massive amount of moves you can pull off in this game. Dribbling, shooting, and dunking all have numerous amounts of different button combinations you can use on your opponent. My favorite one, and probably most annoying is the "Off the Heazy". Your character bounces the ball off your opponents head and makes them fall down. This is the move that will annoy most of your friends if you can pull it off repeatedly, plus it builds your gamebreaker up in no time. Another special move that was added to the game is the kick pass. By pushing the R3 button your character will do a variety of kick passes. Try doing a kick pass into an Alley-oop for big gamebreaker points.
The Dribble animations are done very well. Your will have no problem breaking the defenders ankles with all the different moves, just make sure you do them with someone who can dribble. If you try an advanced dribble move with say…Shaq, or worse yet Bill Walton, your character will wind up losing the ball and on the floor like a fool. The special dribble moves are sweet but not invincible like they were in the first game thanks to the new counter system. When guarding the person with the ball, if timed right you can counter their special dribble moves and take the ball for yourself. This can put a stop to them repeatedly dribbling the ball off your head and laughing at you.
Shooting the ball is still pretty simple. There is however a new addition that lets you know whether or not your character is in range of a shot he will make. Beneath each character is a circle, which will change color if you're in a hot-spot for the shot you are choosing. One thing you will definitely catch on to quickly is that shooting, doesn't mix well with goaltending. There is plenty of goaltending allowed in Vol. 2. Everyone thinks it will be great to have Larry Bird and hit threes all day. NOT if the other team has Shaq. You can stick your big man underneath the hoop and perform a turbo block just about every time to swat or grab a three right out of the air. This feature is deadly if you know how to perform it. Choosing dunkers over shooters becomes a very easy choice after a while. One of the best combinations of teams I found on the stars is: McGrady, Webber, and Shaq. All are dunkers, but McGrady has the handles and the hops, while Webber and Shaq are the shot-block monsters. Honestly, Shaq is ridiculous in this game. He really can dunk, block, and take just about anyone under the hoop out. I thought maybe when I unlocked Wilt the Stilt it would be a good matchup….No. Wilt still got used repeatedly by Shaq. Learning to block well is the key to dealing with shooting, and winning the game. Also, make your friends feel like a cheap chump for repeatedly picking Shaq every time.
Everyone loves to dunk. Especially a windmill from the free throw line. Most the dunks in this game can actually be performed by a human. The distance and the height of the dunks are crazy, plus the fact that Steve Nash can pull off Alley-oops. There is a pretty good balance on which dunks can be blocked over which dunks will be a sure thing. Single turbo buttons dunks are easy to pull off and won't get blocked as easy. Pushing all four turbo buttons, and throwing the ball off the backboard for a self alley-oop, however, will get blocked by most players unless your character has a very high dunk rating. The best way to get easy points off dunks is alley-oops to other characters. Especially when playing with another player controlled teammate, otherwise you will have to wait for the computer controlled character to jump up for the alley. Once you have an alley-oop in motion there is the chance that another teammate will be in the air above the person with the ball, if you pass it again you can perform a double alley-oop which gives you a ton of gamebreaker points.
The Gamebreaker has had an improvement in Vol. 2. Now you can fill up your first Gamebreaker meter and instead of using it right away, you can push select and "pocket" it . This way you get a new gamebreaker meter to fill. When this second gamebreaker bar is filled you get a special shot animation involving either your whole team, or you dribbling off the head of an opponent and making the shot. Depending on if you dunk or shoot the three you can take either 2 or 4 points off your opponent, which can turn a game around real quick. This shot still can be blocked if timed correctly, it also can be cancelled by the opponent which will really tick-off the person who has spent the whole match build up the two gamebreakers.
NBA Street Vol. 2 has passed the dreaded sequel slump some sports games suffer from nowadays. It has solid gameplay which creates a big-time replay factor. Even after you unlock everything you will still be down to take on your friends with the multitude of things you acquired; such as throwback jerseys, courts, legends and street ballers. This game will stay on my list of games to play for a long time. It doesn't look like there are many games out there that can top this one. I will have to wait and see how good the new NBA Jam is going to be when it hits stores. However, it has quite the job ahead of it to take out NBA Street Vol. 2.
