I have a
confession to make. I am an NFL Street junkie. While others are out soaking up
the sun during the summer’s warmest days, I’m inside with my PS2 and PSP –
playing the best arcade football series on the planet.
I’m not
afraid to admit that, over the past three years, I’ve invested more than 200
hours in the PS2, GameCube, and PSP versions of the game. (That might be a
conservative estimate.)
Now that you
know how deeply addicted I am to the series, I think you can understand why –
upon playing NFL Street 3 for the first time – I walked away in extreme
disappointment. "It’s a rehash!" I thought. "Two years of waiting…for a
rehash!"
My shock was
not completely false. NFL Street 3 is, in many ways, a clone of the first two
games. But what I could not tell from the first few touchdowns was that the
game has been made more intense and more demanding with one small change:
real-time Gamebreakers.
If It
Ain’t Broke… Bah, Screw That!
In the first
NFL Street, players used the Gamebreaker – which was and still is acquired by
performing style moves – to infuse the team with near invincibility. Similar
to the on-fire aspect of Midway’s classic, NFL Blitz, Gamebreakers increased
the strength, speed, and durability of the player holding the ball. The
temporary agility upgrade made it difficult for opponents to keep up. On the
off chance that they were able to go for a tackle, the invulnerable player
could easily ward off most attackers and continue down the field.
NFL Street 2
doubled the Gamebreaker feature for an added bonus. Earn twice the number of
style points and the player could unleash a special Gamebreaker that triggered
a non-interactive play. On defense, this allows you to steal the ball
automatically and run for a touchdown. If the ball is already in your
possession, the quarterback will team with the others to execute a play that’s
flawless every time. You’ll have a big head start to the goal, leaving few
opportunities for your opponents to catch up.
NFL Street 3
throws auto-wins and invincibility out the window, replacing those
once-interesting ideas with several moves that are much more strategic. Every
major action – passing, stealing, jumping, blocking, charging, stiff-arm, and
other defense moves – have Gamebreaker potential. Earn points as you normally
would. Perform no-look passes, clean evasions, and other moves deemed
"stylish." You’ll be able to take advantage of the real power of the game as
soon as your first Gamebreaker has been acquired.
As the
quarterback, players can throw a pass that’s too fast to intercept. The ball,
now engulfed in flames, whales toward its target like a missile locked-on to
an enemy jet. The throw is so powerful that it will briefly halt the movement
of its receiver. A small explosion erupts as soon as the ball is caught,
giving temporary paralysis to any nearby opponents.
Performing
this cool, game-changing move is simple: hold down the L2 button while
pressing any other button. For quarterbacks this eliminates the possibility
for interceptions. But if you’re attempting a run with the QB (a sneaky
strategy I like to use) or any other player, it opens the door to explosive
stiff-arms that push away anyone who dares to get too close.
While
running with the ball, you can jump several feet into the air to avoid getting
trampled. Hoping to do a little trampling yourself? That’s possible too, and
it triggers a fumble almost every time.
Three
Gamebreakers can be scored and stored till the end of the game, allowing
players to stock up and use their power when they need it most.
This is not
innovation, but it is growth. NFL Street 3 controls and moves at the same pace
as NFL Street 2. Most gamers won’t think too much about it unless they play
the PSP version, which actually feels faster.
But you know
what? I found fault with the other NFL Street releases and ended up playing
both of them more than most sports games combined. So I can’t say, "The game
is too slow." Sure, I would have liked the player movement to be faster. But
the new, fully interactive Gamebreakers add just enough – not any less nor any
extra – excitement to keep me from removing the disc from my PS2.
Cocky
Street
You
disrespect the street, you disrespect yourself. To pay your respects, enter
the game’s new season mode. Rather than throw together a series of mini-games
that most of us will want to skip, and rather than rehashing the past with
another straight season, NFL Street 3 opted for "Respect the Street."
With a
fictitious team under the player’s control, you’ll take on a multitude of
opponents in unique and challenging scenarios. Goals are far from the only
thing you have to worry about. Many of the challenges involve a different
objective, such as gaining points for every additional yard, and losing points
for every lost yard. In one game type you’ll compete for style points that are
banked – from either team – until someone scores a touchdown. The team that
scores gets the pot.
The time
attack mode limits ball control to 60 seconds. Winners are decided by who has
the most points when the clock runs out (4+ minutes).
Elimination
is by far the most painful. Every fouled play causes you to lose one of the
options in your playbook. Lose ’em all and it’s game over.
|
|
Gameplay: 8.2
A very, very
entertaining game that, new Gamebreaker features aside, you have played
before. EA is known for having brilliant tweaks in their yearly sports
updates, which almost makes the lack of a gameplay engine harder to deal with
– since NFL Street 3 took 23 months to get here. Yet, in all its familiarity,
the series has once again pulled through as the leading arcade sports title.
Graphics: 7.0
NFL Street 3 is
not an ugly game, but we’ve seen these graphical goodies before – most of them
three years ago in the first NFL Street, the rest in NFL Street 2.
Sound: 5.0
Not worth two
seconds of your time. The sound effects are a pain, but that annoyance can
hardly compare to the torture that is this game’s soundtrack (comprised of rap
and a genre I refer to as “complain metal”).
Difficulty: Medium
Moderately
difficult arcade-style sports action.
Concept: 7.2
NFL Street 3 nabs
a few points for its Gamebreaker changes, as well as the Respect the Street
mode. But it’s still a rehash.
Multiplayer: 8.6
Whether playing
online or offline, there is no addiction like NFL Street addiction. This third
iteration doesn’t have the freshness of its predecessors, playing more like
the Tekken Tag or Ultimate Mortal Kombat of sports games – imperfect but
impossible to put down.
Overall: 8.4
The new
Gamebreaker moves are out of this world. For the die-hard, obsess-bordering
fans like myself, that’s all the series needs (at this point). I’m hooked and
will stay hooked for the next several months, and most likely through next
summer.
Casual
players who own the first two, however, should try NFL Street 3 before making
a commitment.
