Pros: A cohesive game style, well rounded game, dunk contest mode
Cons: Not Live Enabled anymore
The bottom line: A cool style,Globetrotter moves, and NBA stars provide hours of fun. Environment and gameplay more than make up for the lack of Xbox Live play.
The main reason why I purchased NBA Street V3 is because I had just gotten Xbox live and I wanted a basketball game that was live enabled to play. I was disappointed when the game would not connect to Xbox live. I called up Xbox live customer service and they told me that the server had been deactivated because the game was not popular enough. So anyone looking to buy this game thinking that it is Xbox live enabled should know that it no longer is.

At first I was disappointed because of the deactivated Xbox server, the game made up for most of my disappointment because it is very good. The game play reminds me of playing NBA Jam. The camera view is side court like NBA Jam, it’s small teams like NBA Jam, 3 on 3 in this game, and there is even a feature similar to the “on fire” mode of NBA Jam. The graphics are in a more realistic style set in an urban environment. At times it really feels like you’re on the court in a hazy summer afternoon.

In addition to the regular pick up game play is a dunk contest mode. The camera for this mode is at half court, with close-ups of the dunks. This is a really fun mode to play, it takes a little practice to get some really cool dunks going. The moves in this game, in both modes of play remind me of the Harlem Globetrotters. The more moves you do, the more points you get. In dunk mode it gets you the win, in the pick up game the points build up to the “game breaker” or “on fire”. The “game breaker” is usually a cool dunk in slow motion with special effects, if you get it in your team gets points and the opposing team loses points.

The sounds really fill out the urban basketball style of this game. There are lots of hip hop and rap tracks to play the game to. I especially like the play by play announcer, he has some funny things to say if you mess up or are boring with your moves, and also he is impressed if your moves are really cool.

This game is great to play alone or with friends. Even though it’s not on Xbox live anymore I still think it is well worth the purchase. The only thing I can think of that I don’t like so much is that if you want to make a custom player it takes a lot of play time to build up his or her skill level. Other than that, this game is a slam dunk.