Wanna see my new trick?
The gameplay itself is exemplary and the animations of players dodging, weaving, dribbling and jumping around the court are superb. One of the coolest features in NBA Street Homecourt is the Gamebreaker system, which allows you to pull off some insane tricks, such as jumping higher than a kangaroo on a pogo stick to dunk hoops or cart-wheeling past your opponents. The action speeds up and the variety of tricks on offer becomes even more ridiculously entertaining than the standard array of great moves.
The Gamebreaker has been amended slightly from EA's last iteration and works like this: During a match you have a gamebreaker metre, which fills up when you score hoops. The more tricks you pull off in the lead-up to the scoring opportunity, the more points you are awarded and the quicker the metre fills up. Fill it up to the top and you'll then be able to head to the centre of the court and press the 'Y' button to activate the mode. Following a brief cut scene, that's accompanied by the sweet sound of Herbie Hancock's classic tune 'Rockik', the action speeds up and the tricks you can pull off are insane. Aside from being visually impressive and easy to execute, it's just so much fun that you'll be keen to reach the next Gamebreaker so you can do it all over again. The twist in this mode is that if your opponent manages to get the ball from you before you've scored, when the metre is re-set, they'll be able to use the Gamebreaker function to pull off their own tricks that will have you running around in circles frantically trying to stop them from making you look a fool. If you score during this period you'll knock a point from the opposition's score, but if they score you'll lose two points.
Click for larger imageThe bulk of the gameplay in Street Homecourt is designed to encourage you to pull off these tricks, so each game becomes a showcase of your button pressing talents. Surprisingly though, there's not a great deal to remember to pull off a trick, despite there being an impressive array of different style tricks to pull off. By using the 'X'and 'Y' buttons with a combination of the triggers and changing the amount of time you hold down the buttons you'll be 'walking the dog', knocking the ball between the legs of your opponent, executing cross-overs and pulling off some impressive alley-oop slams in no time. Put all these moves together and you'll pull of combos, giving you additional points that help fill up the Gamebreaker metre
Click for larger imageAside from the tricks, it's simply a case of pressing 'A' to pass and 'B' to shoot, although slamming the ball through the hoop does require a certain amount of skill. As you hold the 'B' button down a metre appears and points start to rack up. The idea is to loose the 'B' button as close to the end of the metre as possible is order to gain the most points, if you over do it you'll miss.
