The original NBA Street was one of my favorite games for the PlayStation 2. The game was very unique – it didn’t have the over the top-ness like a player ‘on fire’ of NBA Jam or the much maligned NBA Showtime for the Dreamcast.

As you know based on the success of the original, EA has released new versions of the Street series, and the games haven’t been as good as the original. Now dropping the number from the title, NBA Street Homecourt attempts to reclaim some of the series former glory.

First off why do all games that run on a console with a hard drive ask you if you want to auto save? Of course I want to, that’s why I have a hard drive! Minor gripe aside, upon booting the game up, the first thing you want to do is create a “baller” who is based off of NBA players. The customization isn’t as deep as I expected it to be, but I am thankful that you have the ability to create a character.

After you’ve created a baller, you can go right into a pick up game, or choose one of the other game modes: homecourt challenge (kind of like a career mode); GameBreaker battle (self explanatory if you’ve played the series before), Trick Battle (duh), Back to Basics (old skool basketball) and you can also create a custom game or practice. Custom games are fun to setup.

The Homecourt Challenge is the area you’ll spend the most time in when playing as a single player. You’ll choose from a few no-name players to start your team off with. Of course as you progress, you’ll have more teammates to choose from. Within Homecourt challenge there are four options to choose from – go right to individual challenges, choose your team for this game, recruit other players or check out your gear.

The player recruitment isn’t as good as it sounds. Basically it’s just a place for characters to go that you’ve unlocked. It’s not recruitment in the NCAA sense.

There are some diverse challenges … a dunks only game, a shots only game, etc. The game not only has NBA players but also WNBA players (which I’m guessing is some sort of NBA licensing requirement).

The gameplay can be fun – depending on the difficulty level. New in the Homecourt game is the ability to get multiple points from single dunks. On the easy levels, you’ll see a dunk meter…if you fill it all the way up and release the shot button at the right time, you’ll do an amazing double dunk. If you wait too long, you’ll miss the dunk. In harder difficulty levels and when playing online, no dunk meter is available so you’ll have to rely on your own timing instincts.