Back in 2001, EA BIG’s fledgling franchise, NBA Street, established itself as a strong competitor among other basketball titles. Combining elements that made previous basketball games enjoyable with over-the-top moves created a refreshing experience that had not been available since the days of NBA Jam. Since then the series has evolved quite a lot. The fourth sequel, NBA Street: Homecourt, is the first iteration on a next-gen console. Is the series still interesting enough to warrant a fourth sequel?

The NBA Streets were EA BIG’s first venture into making sports games more enjoyable and arcade-y while staying true to what makes the sports fun in the first place. In NBA Street’s case this meant normal 3 on 3 basketball on street courts but with over-the-top dunks and a system where you fill up a Gamebreaker meter while pulling tricks on your opponent. Once that Gamebreaker meter is filled you’re able to go into Gamebreaker mode for a limited amount of time, which allows you to get up to 5 points in one dunk and pull off even crazier moves. This concept led to a nice mixture between standard basketball and trick-based gameplay.

NBA Street: Homecourt presents you with the standard features you’d expect from a NBA Street game. The game has the option to play pickup games against a CPU or a real life opponent like every other sports game but in good NBA Street fashion also has an extensive career mode. In this career mode your goal is to create an athlete and assemble a team to climb up the ranks. The player creation tool is an interesting one, albeit a bit limited. You pick 3 existing NBA players and mix up their faces via a triangular slider. It isn’t nearly as extensive as the one in Def Jam: Icon for example but it gets the job done and you’ll probably end up with a player that more or less looks like you want him to look.

When you’re done assembling a team you’ll have to play other teams to gain experience points, new courts and the like. Matches vary from a simple 12 point game to exhausting shots only matches with an insane amount of points. As you work you way through various matches your skills will increase gradually. In an RPG-like manner you can upgrade your dunk and steal skills, making them more effective by using them very often. These skills are really noticeable, you’ll be pulling double dunks off way more easier as you dunk a lot.

The double dunks are one of the new moves in this iteration and they really affect the way the game is played. Previously the dunk aspect was only there to get some style points to build up your Gamebreaker, this time you can score 2 points by doing a single double dunk if you get the timing right. It doesn’t hurt that this is one of the coolest looking animations in the game. One of the other cool new moves is the one where you launch yourself off of the back of a crouched teammate, only to get massive airtime resulting in a neat dunk. You can also pull off a double dunk with this manoeuvre, but like with regular double dunks, it’s hard to pull off and if you get the timing wrong you’ll get your foot stuck in the basket.

Like every other game in the series, one of the most important aspects of the game is still the Gamebreaker. When you rack up enough trick points by doing stylish dunks and dissing your opponent by using one of the two trick buttons (mapped to X and Y) and one of the two trick modifiers (mapped to the bumpers) you fill up your Gamebreaker meter. When this is filled you can go into the previously mentioned Gamebreaker mode and not much has changed to that, you can still do larger-than-life tricks, building up for the ability to score multiple points by doing one single dunk. However, Gamebreakers can be stolen, when the opponent grabs your ball while using it, the Gamebreaker is handed to the opponent, something that’s far from desirable.

This isn’t the only new power in the hands of the defense. You can now block virtually anything; dunks, alley-oops, Gamebreakers, you name it. Some say this is an open invitation to goal tend but if you pass around and switch your game up enough it isn’t much of a problem. EA BIG did a great job of keeping the tedious job of defending interesting without making it too easy.

You’ll be delighted to know that the gameplay isn’t the only area where EA BIG managed to improve upon the previous NBA Street titles, they’ve managed to utilize the power of next-gen consoles to make NBA Street: Homecourt feel as authentic as possible. With superb animations, a unique color filter for each court, and excellent player models, the game is real easy on the eyes. Before you start a match you can pick shirts or skins and both look terrific, EA clearly put a lot of effort into the character models and that it has paid off. The whole thing runs at a smooth 60 frames per second (30 frames per second in 1080p) which makes it one of the best looking sports games on next-gen consoles thus far.

The game has a very basic online mode, don’t expect a Halo-esque feature set. You can create a game, set your rules, invite a friend, and play a game. There’s no lobby system or anything but it gets the job done. NBA Street: Homecourt is basically made for multiplayer, whether it’s online or offline, and the fact that we finally get to play it via Live is nice enough. An option to play 3-on-3 with 6 players would’ve been nice, but don’t forget this is still EA we’re dealing with. Regardless, you’re still able to invite 3 friends over for some offline 4 player mayhem.

All in all NBA Street: Homecourt is a great title. There are no outstanding issues to dwell on, and it has enough improvement compared to previous installments to warrant a purchase. Fans of the genre should feel right at home with this title and it’s still recommendable to those who don’t play sports titles too often. There’s little room for improvement and the online and offline multiplayer options should be able to keep you occupied long enough.

Final Score: 8 out of 10 - Good (How do we rate games?)