Freestyle Street Basketball (FSB) is a surprisingly fun little online-only “playground" basketball game. It’s heavy on player development with competitions ranging from 1-on-1 to 3-on-3 on a variety of street courts, including famous sites like Rucker Park and Venice Beach. The premise is to create your ‘baller’ and improve his or her attributes through purchasing training, skills, and freestyles—and by wearing a variety of attribute-enhancing articles of clothing, showing off a wild haircut or sporting a fancy tattoo. There’s no monthly fee, but you are “encouraged” to spend more money to buy certain upgrades. There’s always a catch, eh?

The arrow keys control player movement while the WASD keys control shooting, stealing, rebounding/shot blocking, passing, and other basic moves. Many skill/freestyle moves require a combination of both sets of keys. Although the keys are fairly responsive, being able to move basically in only eight directions in a 360-degree environment is limiting and more than a tad annoying. The action is pretty smooth, but it moves slowly compared to other street games on the market – especially those available to console owners, like NBA Street or And One. If you’re looking for fast-paced up-and-down action, FSB will disappoint. It’s definitely methodical.

The one thing that FSB absolutely nails is the feeling that you really are playing a pick-up game. There are lots of random opponents, with many different looks, attributes, and playing styles. Playing with a ball hog, just like on the real court, is frustrating. Taking your team of guards against a team with size will result in them abusing you in the paint. Good, fundamental basketball by a relatively weaker team will beat a selfish stronger team most games. Another fun fearure is the ability to auto-text some trash-talk using the numbered keys from 1-6 (usually, it’s someone yelling for a pass!).

The game is designed to be accessible to the masses, so it will not stress out most relatively newer CPU's. The test rig used for this review is three years old, with built-in video and audio on the motherboard, and the game runs smooth via a broadband connection. Due to this design decision, the graphics are not cutting-edge; they're 2-D and cartoon-like. The courts look pretty good, though. The audio is limited to some generic hip-hop beats and trash-talking chatter that you'd hear at the local playground, but it does a fair job of creating the appropriate atmosphere.

Each position is typecast, meaning that guards are typically short, quick, better ball handlers, and 3-point shooters. Centers are taller, and they are better rebounders, dunkers, and shot-blockers. Forwards fall somewhere in between, focusing on a midrange game with the ability do a little bit of everything fairly well. The attributes that are assigned to your player are based upon which position he plays, with small modifications based upon your chosen height (which is restricted based on position). They can’t be adjusted at the start; once you reach level 15, you have the option of converting your guard to a point guard or a shooting guard, and converting your forward to a small forward or power forward. You really can't create a high-flying guard or a big man with handles from the get-go, but through experience, training, and equipment, a variety of playing styles can be achieved, depending on which attributes you focus on improving.

You also select your baller's, sex, skin color, body type, and shirt. Your player’s weight is assigned based upon his or her height and position. There aren't a lot of options for your player's basic look, but you can purchase changes to that look, allowing for a significant amount of customization. The items for purchase include shirts, shorts, shoes, accessories (wrist bands, earrings, etc.), haircuts, and tattoos. With some items, you can purchase an enhancement to one of your attributes for an additional cost. Other items are only available when you reach a certain level. However, with a little bit of in-game cash outlay (points and bills), it's easy to create a unique-looking player with unique attributes, to some degree.

The retail purchase of this $19.99 game will net you 10,000 points and 3,000 bills. Generally speaking, points are used to change the appearance of your baller (with the exception of training, which does improve a specific attribute), while bills are used (usually in conjunction with points) to upgrade skills, freestyle moves, and attributes. Some of the effects you gain are only temporary, like the impact from certain clothing or tattoos. It’s pretty easy to spend all of your points early on, but fortunately, you earn more points as you play the game. Bills, on the other hand, must be purchased. The 3,000 bills that come with the game are enough to build a decent player, but serious ballers will spend more to add characters, additional skill/freestyle slots, and attribute-enhancing gear. Bills sell in-game at the rate of 3,000 per $10, with volume discounts.