NBA Street V3 Review

Customization Options

A great aspect of NBA Street V3 is that there is a ton of customization options available. You can create your own player and almost every part of your character can be customized just the way you want them. What is interesting is that depending on what your character’s body type is upgrading their skills cost different amounts of points. Short, skinny guys, for example, take more points to upgrade their dunks and jumping skills than taller players do. Bigger players focus more on power and dunking, so their shooting and general ball handling skills cost more to upgrade. This is a great feature that keeps the game more realistic and interesting than it would have been otherwise.

Your player has skills and the right look, but they gotta have shoes, right? NBA Street V3 also has a shoe editor where you can create custom kicks for your player. Interesting and sort of weird, but very much appreciated.

Another customization mode allows you to build your own court. You can install seating, put up ads, improve the blacktop itself, install better baskets, and put logos on your court however you want. It is fun to actually have a real home court that actually represents what you are about.

Online and Multiplayer

The best part about NBA Street V3, and all sports games really, is playing with your friends. You can play multiplayer games with up to four people or you can jump on Xbox Live. Xbox Live games are all one human against another which is somewhat disappointing because you aren’t allowed to have multiple human players on a team. Everything is still great fun, though. You can create a custom team and player to use online and winning online games will earn you points you can use to upgrade your player, so it is like a real life version of the street challenge mode. You can also use regular NBA teams if you want. The game runs very smoothly online and it is a very fun experience overall.

Graphics and Sound

Graphically, NBA Street V3 is an extremely detailed and nice looking game. Characters are drawn in such a way that they look sort of like moving graffiti. They are detailed and realistic, but are stretched and exaggerated and highlighted so they don’t look too realistic or perfect. The courts all have a very realistic look and many of them have different kinds of lighting and filters over them when you play which gives the game a great unique look.

The sound is also well done. DJ Bobbito Garcia provides the commentary and is usually fairly entertaining even though he tends to repeat himself. If you have ever watched the And 1 tour on ESPN you should have some idea of what to expect from the commentary here. The music is also pretty good and is an agreeable mix of new and old school hip-hop and is overall a better selection of songs than what was in NBA Live 2005.

Bottom Line

Overall, NBA Street V3 is an amazing game that is good enough that even if you aren’t a big basketball fan you will still probably enjoy it. I have to admit that I’m not a fan of the NBA these days, but the gameplay in the NBA Street series is so fun and addictive that it keeps me coming back again and again. Even if you already have NBA Street 1 and 2, there is enough new stuff in V3 along with the addition of an online mode that it is definitely still worth picking up. I highly recommend NBA Street V3 for a purchase. You’ll play it enough that you’ll more than get your moneys worth and that’s always a good thing. Just play it!