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NFL Street

I've never been a fan of realistic sports games. NBA Live, Madden, and All-Star Baseball are all incredibly lame in my book. I'll take NBA Jam or NFL Blitz any day of the week. Now, the Jam series died many years ago, but EA Sports Big, one of my new favorite publishers, reintroduced it in the form of NBA Street in 2001 and again in last year's fabulous sequel. Blitz, while amazing in the N64 era, faltered in the current generation. And then, for reasons beyond my comprehension, the series opted for a simulation setup this year. It seemed that gamers like myself, who hated Madden (I realize that it is a very good game with a host of options, but it's too realistic for me), would be left out in the cold this season. But then, EA Sports Big, our knight in shining armor, galloped over the hills and brought us NFL Street, albeit only three weeks before the Super Bowl (they pulled this with NBA Street Volume 2 as well). Would NFL Street be able to live up to the hype, and moreover, would it be more fun than Blitz?

Gameplay

NFL Street is worth the purchase simply because it's the only arcade football game out there. It runs in much the same respect as Blitz, pick your two favorite NFL teams and duke it out in a seven-on-seven match. Plays are divided into three categories: Running, Passing, and Trick. If you've played Blitz before, you should have no trouble diving right in. And like that game, each and every team is fairly well balanced, so you can pick your favorite team and still be competitive (Detroit fans will no doubt appreciate that). Defense, well, it's really tough to be good on defense, regardless of your stats, simply because you only have seven men on defense to cover the entire field. If anybody breaks through, there's no one to cover, so I prefer to play a defense with three men always in the back just to prevent the big plays.

This is not your conventional football game; it is street football. There is no play clock, just whoever gets to 36 points first wins. When I used to play football with my friends, we played with the "Cross midfield and get a first down" rule. NFL Street reflects this by dividing the field into three sections, and you have to reach that line to get a first down. If you happen to have an exceptionally good play and finish close to the next first down marker, then you get a whole new set of downs to only go a few yards. There are no such things as field goals and punting in this game. If you get a fourth down, you have to go for it, and if you don't make it, well then tough noogies. When you got a touchdown in Blitz, you could get a free extra point or opt to go for two. In Street, no extra point is safe. If you want one point, you run it in; if you want two, you have to pass it in. This adds an extra layer, but can be terribly frustrating when you have to get 36 points and you botch the 1-point conversion to leave yourself at only 35 points (so then you have to score another touchdown). Also different is the fact that you only have seven players for your entire team to play both offense and defense. Let me tell, it's pretty damn funny to see Peyton Manning try to tackle somebody. Never fear though, there are no injuries in this game, so you can't hurt your star quarterback.

In Blitz, if you got two sacks in a row or completed three consecutive passes to the same player, you would go "on fire." Being on fire was kind of cheap, because you had unlimited turbo and were essentially unstoppable for a few plays. In NFL Street, you earn Style Points based on how well you play and when you fill up your meter, you get a Gamebreaker. A Gamebreaker lasts for one possession and basically it comes to this: if you're on offense, it's an automatic touchdown; if you're defense, the other team is gonna give up a turnover. The same goes for when the computer has a Gamebreaker. Sure, there is the possibility of squeaking by (I have scored a touchdown against a Gamebreaker, but that was almost a fluke). It's cheap, unfairly wins games and I utterly despise it.

The main selling point of this game is that it gives you your arcade football fix. And that's great. The only problem is the same thing that plagued the Blitz series and most sports games in general is that is gets incredibly boring by yourself. You can't take your favorite NFL team and play through a full season or franchise mode and there's nothing really satisfying in just playing random games with your favorite NFL team or even teams composed of NFL legends. Well, there is, but you'll tire of it within a week or so. The only way you are possibly going to have an enjoyable and lengthy experience with Street is if you partake in the NFL Challenge mode.

It's essentially a glorified create-a-team mode, but it's simply amazing. My team: the N-philes Ninjas, is comprised of seven members from the N-philes staff. Looking back, I should've made my team the N-philes Staff, but I'm crazy for ninjas. My three trusty linemen are none other than Founder/Director Ethan Pearson, Kenny Lee, and Vincent Anderson. At the receiver positions are our very own Ahmed Abowath and Michael Quiroz. Adam Caporello fills in at running back and at quarterback is none other than yours truly. Upon starting out, this bunch was absolutely terrible. They couldn't block; they couldn't run, and I frequently referred to one team member as "Butterfingers Quiroz." All of their beginning stats were atrocious. The only way to boost them was to play in little challenges designed to give you points to customize your players' stats. Some of these were easy, like "score a touchdown on your first drive against the Cardinals," and others were downright ridiculous, like "complete four successful pitches and score on your first play." But I loved every minute of it, because it was so radically different than any other sports game I've played. I can always pick it up for couple of minutes and try to beat a challenge. I've never really seen anything so well developed in a sports game.

At the beginning of the game, all of your challenges are pitted against the NFC West and the AFC West. Everything you do will be against those four teams. If you want a new division and a new stadium, you have to duke it out in the Laddder Challenge. In it, you face off against the division's teams in games to 36 and then a final game against an All-Star team made of the top players in the division. Now, you can't just immediately start with the Ladder, because your players suck. You need to play through the challenges to boost your stats. For instance, Ahmed was bloody fast, but he couldn't tackle anybody. The phrase, "Dammit Ahmed!" frequently was uttered when I first started playing. I love this game, because I started out with such a crappy team, and through completing a ton of challenges I have created quite the formidable team. I feel a connection with the N-philes Ninjas, because I have grown with these players, watching Adam become a strong and amazingly quick running back and seeing Ethan become the most dominant defensive force on the field.

Visuals

NFL Street is a rarity in football games, in that the players' faces are actually seen. David Carr bears a rather striking resemblance to his real life self, as do most of the other players. Also, none of the players wear conventional football uniforms. They just wear what most people would wear if they played football, jeans, t-shirt, basketball jerseys, rugby sweaters. Some hardcore players, just like in real life, like to bring actual football pants with the pads and everything. I tried to saddle up the N-philes Ninjas with faces and clothes I think they'd wear. There are already an infinite number of combinations (40 faces, a ton of haircuts, and too many sets of shoes, socks, shirts, and pants to count) and every time you complete a challenge, you usually unlock yet another set of clothes. The fact the players' outfits are not uniform can cause problems when playing against teams with a similar color scheme, because you'll think someone is blocking for you when actually it's an opposing team member.

Each of the environments is uniquely different. There are no real stadiums in this game, just different playing areas. There's a park, a warehouse, and a Roman coliseum, just to name a few, each with their own differences that alter your gameplay. For instance, the street is extremely narrow, making a running game absolutely impossible. Picking up speed on the beach is incredibly difficult, just like in real life. The rooftop casts everything in a neon fuchsia light and the snow-covered street is simply amazing. Sometimes obstacles, like beach balls or trashcans, find their way onto the field. Also, you can't go out of bounds on certain levels, just get slammed against the wall and potentially fumble. The camera does not display the entire field from left to right, so a lot of the time, you can't see all of your players. Sometimes I just have to toss the ball up and hope that the receiver ran his route properly. It's problematic to an extent, but this in general ails most sports games.

Audio

Like Madden, every time a new song comes on, a little display pops up telling you what song it is. After a while, you get to learn the game's all rap soundtrack pretty well, and I find myself busting into rooms singing, "We going down down tonight! Uh ohhhhhh!" Whether or not that's a good thing is up to you. All of these songs remain in the menus, and I must assert that I prefer the actual in-game music. It has a slight techno/synth beat to it, and I seriously wish that I could find the mp3 for what plays during the Gamebreaker. There are also a multitude of different one liners from players, most of which cause me to laugh out loud, like my personal favorite, "I got internet stocks in better shape than you!" Sure, they get repetitive after a while, but it's not bothersome. I'll tell you what is bothersome, John Madden and Al Michaels talking during the entire game and criticizing your every move. NFL Street does not have a color commentator, and it is much appreciated.

This game gets an N-Philes score of A-.

Playing NFL Street made me re-realize why I hated Madden so much. Arcade football is just more fun, plain and simple. And, on top of that, it offers quite the extensive one player mode that will keep players busy for months. EA Sports Big has done it again, and I frankly couldn't be happier to have my favorite sports game of the generation came from them. It's just a shame that it came out so late in the season.

Posted in: Reviews