NFL Street
They can't all be perfect...
Published: February 11, 2004
When EA Sports formed their BIG spin-off with the release of SSX back at the start of the PS2, they did something few developers could do with a first effort; they crafted a wholly original take on snowboarding the no game since has been able to touch. In much the same way Neversoft all but created the formula for modern skateboarding games, the boys and girls up in Vancouver at EA Canada made all previous snowboarding efforts essentially pointless.
While impressive on its own, this accomplishment was duplicated with the follow-up and then again with the release of NBA Street. Again trumping all previous arcade basketball efforts (even the venerable NBA Jam), and improving on it with a follow-up, it seemed any of the EA BIG efforts at turning a major sport into an easily accessible arcade effort couldn't help but succeed.
When it came time to give football the BIG treatment, however, the task was delegated to the capable hands of Florida-based EA Tiburon, the same folks responsible for the Madden series. The decision was a wise one, since the pigskin studio was arguably the most logical choice. The problem is, as good as Tiburon is at crafting more sim-like football titles, they still have plenty to learn about an arcade football title. There's plenty of promise here, but it's buried under horribly unbalanced, cheap gameplay that all but ruins the overall experience.
NFL Street is, at its heart, an attempt to duplicate pick-up games of rough and tumble football between friends; no helmets, no refs, and very, very simple rules. In typical BIG fashion, just about every aspect of the basic game has been ratcheted up a notch. While playing in the game's main NFL Challenge mode, you'll take a slapped-together team of seven guys (names, attributes and looks are all determined by an picking a defensive, offensive or balanced team) up against another seven star players from each major team in the NFL as well as a handful of legends near the end of the game.
These seven-on-seven games are played much like regular football with the addition of the BIG series' trademark style moves. Nearly everything in the game, from passes to pitches to hurdles to spins and jukes can be tweaked with style that gets you extra points which add to your GameBreaker (also a BIG sports game hallmark) meter, which makes you nearly invincible on offense and a fumble-causing tank on defense. All this styling, however, comes at a price, while the moves certainly look good, and can be comboed into some impressive point totals, they also increase the risk of the ball popping out or getting intercepted on a pass. This forces you to strike a balance between style and safety, though it's not quite as well formed as NBA Street's style and GameBreaker moves.
Six unique environments ranging from rooftops to the dusky underside of a crisscrossing set of overpasses to a good ol' game on the beach with four NFL teams apiece mean plenty of length in the Challenge mode, which is good, because the other two game modes, Quick Game (where you simply pick a team and play as you normally would) or Pickup Game (where you craft a team by hand from the 40 greats from past and present) don't really offer much in the way of single-player fun. The Online mode is more of derivation of the Challenge mode, since you basically use the team you've built up in Challenge mode online (including all unlocked plays and player stats).
It's the Challenge mode itself where all of the problems in the game are compounded to the point of being ridiculous. After playing for just a bit, some of the games more unbalanced aspects start to really show through. For instance, the CPU catch-up, even when turned off in the options is in full effect during the challenge games, where you wager tokens earned by besting all the teams in a particular environment for development points to upgrade your roster, suddenly starts forcing more fumbles and steamrolls your defensive line while sprinting at uncatchable speeds when they break for TD's if you manage to get ahead by more than about 10 points.
The aforementioned upgrade system can be exploited rather heavily by simply beefing up your running back early in the game and then resting heavily on NFL Street's bias for the running game, milk running plays over and over to gain yardage. Passing plays, once your team is more significantly beefed up, can be fun, but they're rarely effective unless you've really cranked up your teams stats across the board.
The game is also rather difficult, forcing you to struggle rather early on with an imcompetant team against actual NFL lineups, resulting in a steep learning curve right from the get-go, and a challenge that never really seems to let you feel like your time is improving all that much as you progress through the game until perhaps the end. Many, many attempts at the challenges and plenty of hours will be sacrificed to get your players pumped up to the point where the game is enjoyable if you don't exploit the RB's efficiency early on.
Once you've put a couple of hours into completing challenges and getting your players juiced up, it's easier to force turnovers and recover from interceptions and fumbles, but it's a largely uphill battle, and the top doesn't net you a very rewarding finish. While the challenges for the most part -- especially the lower-reward ones -- are easy enough, some of the hardest challenges can seem all but impossible (as near as I can tell, actually pitching the ball six times in a single play is impossible without two players). I'm not criticizing the challenge goal difficulty as a whole, but the cheap AI quickly turns what could be a legitimately challenging game into a race to milk the outside run over and over. Couple this with the fact that even successful moves are cancelled out if the play ends too quickly for the points to be added to the total score or how even running out of bounds can count as a sack, and there's a lot of frustrating moments that can happen
Madden 2001 was probably the best showcase of the PS2's power at the system's launch and since then EA has consistently shown they know their way around the hardware like few American developers do. NFL Street is no exception and proves yet again that aside from the inherent problems that come along with the system's funky resolution (read: slight flickering and just a hint of aliasing), it can absolute go toe-to-toe with the other systems. NFL Street looks strikingly close across all platforms, which is to say things are more than a bit purdy.
The player designs themselves, aside from minor features like nose, hair and skin color, follow one of three basic forms: chubbo, wiry or slightly built. All of the different looks are appropriately stylized, but if you were to combine all the general attributes of all the players in the NFL and add a little flavor to them, you'd probably end up with Street's body types. Even with the relative sameness of the overall look, the previously mentioned subtle differences go a long way towards creating variety, especially on replays (though the replays themselves are dumbed down significantly from their Madden version, which makes watching replays more of a passive and nearly pointless affair).
Texture variety is decent, pooling rather heavily in the different gloves, shirts, jerseys and the like on players while maintaining a decent level of detail on the fields themselves. Sideline objects like beach balls or boxes bounce or skitter or break according to hits or falls, and serve to add a bit more interactivity to the otherwise static environs. Aside from the occasional hitch, all of this detail is met with an equally solid framerate, which is, again, quite impressive, but should probably be expected from EA at this point.
While the effects are the over-the-top grunts and crunches you'd expect, and are quite well done, the commentary from players is either chuckle-worthy or repetitive and annoying depending on your take on the overall flavor of the game. This extends to the menu music as well, where the hip-hop-flavored tunes make for a more urban feel, but don't offer much for those not interested in that style. Luckily, the music that plays during the game is plenty entertaining, coasting just under the overall audio level to provide a nice, comfy bed of scratches and percussive loops. Turntable maestros The X-ecutioners provided scraches for everything from music on each field to GameBreaker ramp-ups to little bits and pieces on events like fumbles and interceptions. It's all incredibly understated, but works perfectly with the game's visuals. I honestly can't think of a better in-game soundtrack accompaniment for a title like this.
NFL Street, like any sports game, is best played against other people rather than the computer, but for guys like me that flat-out suck at most proper video games, I was hoping the BIG treatment would help level the playing field like NBA Street did so well. Unfortunately, some of the game's larger flaws can either be exploited by the gamer or the game AI, and ultimately creates a game that doesn't feel nearly as solid as the other first-time entries in the BIG sports lineup.
If you have friends around and a couple controllers, this is a must-rent and probably a solid buy for football fans with a penchant for online play (which is, arguably, the most solid online-enabled sports game EA has kicked out so far), but all but the most patient and understanding gamers will walk away with a positive overall experience. There's just too many things stacked against the core design to keep some of the truly fun parts from really breaking into their own.
While impressive on its own, this accomplishment was duplicated with the follow-up and then again with the release of NBA Street. Again trumping all previous arcade basketball efforts (even the venerable NBA Jam), and improving on it with a follow-up, it seemed any of the EA BIG efforts at turning a major sport into an easily accessible arcade effort couldn't help but succeed.
When it came time to give football the BIG treatment, however, the task was delegated to the capable hands of Florida-based EA Tiburon, the same folks responsible for the Madden series. The decision was a wise one, since the pigskin studio was arguably the most logical choice. The problem is, as good as Tiburon is at crafting more sim-like football titles, they still have plenty to learn about an arcade football title. There's plenty of promise here, but it's buried under horribly unbalanced, cheap gameplay that all but ruins the overall experience.
NFL Street is, at its heart, an attempt to duplicate pick-up games of rough and tumble football between friends; no helmets, no refs, and very, very simple rules. In typical BIG fashion, just about every aspect of the basic game has been ratcheted up a notch. While playing in the game's main NFL Challenge mode, you'll take a slapped-together team of seven guys (names, attributes and looks are all determined by an picking a defensive, offensive or balanced team) up against another seven star players from each major team in the NFL as well as a handful of legends near the end of the game.
These seven-on-seven games are played much like regular football with the addition of the BIG series' trademark style moves. Nearly everything in the game, from passes to pitches to hurdles to spins and jukes can be tweaked with style that gets you extra points which add to your GameBreaker (also a BIG sports game hallmark) meter, which makes you nearly invincible on offense and a fumble-causing tank on defense. All this styling, however, comes at a price, while the moves certainly look good, and can be comboed into some impressive point totals, they also increase the risk of the ball popping out or getting intercepted on a pass. This forces you to strike a balance between style and safety, though it's not quite as well formed as NBA Street's style and GameBreaker moves.
Six unique environments ranging from rooftops to the dusky underside of a crisscrossing set of overpasses to a good ol' game on the beach with four NFL teams apiece mean plenty of length in the Challenge mode, which is good, because the other two game modes, Quick Game (where you simply pick a team and play as you normally would) or Pickup Game (where you craft a team by hand from the 40 greats from past and present) don't really offer much in the way of single-player fun. The Online mode is more of derivation of the Challenge mode, since you basically use the team you've built up in Challenge mode online (including all unlocked plays and player stats).
It's the Challenge mode itself where all of the problems in the game are compounded to the point of being ridiculous. After playing for just a bit, some of the games more unbalanced aspects start to really show through. For instance, the CPU catch-up, even when turned off in the options is in full effect during the challenge games, where you wager tokens earned by besting all the teams in a particular environment for development points to upgrade your roster, suddenly starts forcing more fumbles and steamrolls your defensive line while sprinting at uncatchable speeds when they break for TD's if you manage to get ahead by more than about 10 points.
The aforementioned upgrade system can be exploited rather heavily by simply beefing up your running back early in the game and then resting heavily on NFL Street's bias for the running game, milk running plays over and over to gain yardage. Passing plays, once your team is more significantly beefed up, can be fun, but they're rarely effective unless you've really cranked up your teams stats across the board.
The game is also rather difficult, forcing you to struggle rather early on with an imcompetant team against actual NFL lineups, resulting in a steep learning curve right from the get-go, and a challenge that never really seems to let you feel like your time is improving all that much as you progress through the game until perhaps the end. Many, many attempts at the challenges and plenty of hours will be sacrificed to get your players pumped up to the point where the game is enjoyable if you don't exploit the RB's efficiency early on.
Once you've put a couple of hours into completing challenges and getting your players juiced up, it's easier to force turnovers and recover from interceptions and fumbles, but it's a largely uphill battle, and the top doesn't net you a very rewarding finish. While the challenges for the most part -- especially the lower-reward ones -- are easy enough, some of the hardest challenges can seem all but impossible (as near as I can tell, actually pitching the ball six times in a single play is impossible without two players). I'm not criticizing the challenge goal difficulty as a whole, but the cheap AI quickly turns what could be a legitimately challenging game into a race to milk the outside run over and over. Couple this with the fact that even successful moves are cancelled out if the play ends too quickly for the points to be added to the total score or how even running out of bounds can count as a sack, and there's a lot of frustrating moments that can happen
Madden 2001 was probably the best showcase of the PS2's power at the system's launch and since then EA has consistently shown they know their way around the hardware like few American developers do. NFL Street is no exception and proves yet again that aside from the inherent problems that come along with the system's funky resolution (read: slight flickering and just a hint of aliasing), it can absolute go toe-to-toe with the other systems. NFL Street looks strikingly close across all platforms, which is to say things are more than a bit purdy.
The player designs themselves, aside from minor features like nose, hair and skin color, follow one of three basic forms: chubbo, wiry or slightly built. All of the different looks are appropriately stylized, but if you were to combine all the general attributes of all the players in the NFL and add a little flavor to them, you'd probably end up with Street's body types. Even with the relative sameness of the overall look, the previously mentioned subtle differences go a long way towards creating variety, especially on replays (though the replays themselves are dumbed down significantly from their Madden version, which makes watching replays more of a passive and nearly pointless affair).
Texture variety is decent, pooling rather heavily in the different gloves, shirts, jerseys and the like on players while maintaining a decent level of detail on the fields themselves. Sideline objects like beach balls or boxes bounce or skitter or break according to hits or falls, and serve to add a bit more interactivity to the otherwise static environs. Aside from the occasional hitch, all of this detail is met with an equally solid framerate, which is, again, quite impressive, but should probably be expected from EA at this point.
While the effects are the over-the-top grunts and crunches you'd expect, and are quite well done, the commentary from players is either chuckle-worthy or repetitive and annoying depending on your take on the overall flavor of the game. This extends to the menu music as well, where the hip-hop-flavored tunes make for a more urban feel, but don't offer much for those not interested in that style. Luckily, the music that plays during the game is plenty entertaining, coasting just under the overall audio level to provide a nice, comfy bed of scratches and percussive loops. Turntable maestros The X-ecutioners provided scraches for everything from music on each field to GameBreaker ramp-ups to little bits and pieces on events like fumbles and interceptions. It's all incredibly understated, but works perfectly with the game's visuals. I honestly can't think of a better in-game soundtrack accompaniment for a title like this.
NFL Street, like any sports game, is best played against other people rather than the computer, but for guys like me that flat-out suck at most proper video games, I was hoping the BIG treatment would help level the playing field like NBA Street did so well. Unfortunately, some of the game's larger flaws can either be exploited by the gamer or the game AI, and ultimately creates a game that doesn't feel nearly as solid as the other first-time entries in the BIG sports lineup.
If you have friends around and a couple controllers, this is a must-rent and probably a solid buy for football fans with a penchant for online play (which is, arguably, the most solid online-enabled sports game EA has kicked out so far), but all but the most patient and understanding gamers will walk away with a positive overall experience. There's just too many things stacked against the core design to keep some of the truly fun parts from really breaking into their own.
