NFL Street 3

Posted June 2, 2012 by Speed - 0 comments

Several years ago people at EA Big started with a somewhat fantastic version of the most popular sports. Basketball, soccer and American football. The last one is the subject of this game. The very first NFL Street was very promising, but the later version (the second) proved less special and innovating. Let’s hope the third can out-class its predecessor.

NFL Street is very much comparable to the Madden NFL series, but with the addition of loads of tricks you’ll never see on an actual football field. Receiving the ball under your leg while doing some kind of crazy flip, maybe pass the ball behind your back to the other side of the pitch, … Another thing you’ll never see on a real field are the base and sidelines being replaced by walls. Those walls can come in handy in offense as much as defense! When attacking you’ll be able to run on them, make a back flip to sack the defenders. As a defender you can smash the runner into the wall and that’s something they do very, very hard in NFL Street 3!

Next to that there are many other objects to be found within the field. However, they can only be used while in offense. They are the perfect springboard to evade those diving and tackling opponents. The last unreal element are the Game Breakers. Just about every street-game has them. It are special moves which are totally impossible and surreal (but cool to see). A ball travelling through the air at a height of several meters being intercepted with a super-jump, making all defenders within a five meter radius just drop to the floor with one move, … That and many more superhuman actions that can totally divert the course of the game.

All these moves and Game Breakers were put into different game modes. Four on four, Elimination Play and the most important: Respect The Street. In Respect The Street you have to start your own team and earn, as the name states, respect by winning games against other teams. The more respect you have, the more options are made available. You’ll be able to play in new cities, against official NFL teams, get new gear for your team and there’s lots more where that came from. The final goal of this game mode is to make your team the ultimate champion in the NFL Street leagues.

Graphically there’s been put down a relatively good atmosphere (although not very detailed), mainly thanks to the lighting of the environment. The nightfall on a playground somewhere in the middle of San Francisco, the dirt in a deserted industrial area, … The players themselves are displayed in a fairly cartoonish form, which isn’t too bad since this isn’t the most realistic game I’ve ever seen (on the other hand it wasn’t meant to be realistic either).

The soundtrack (and this time there’s something in there for everyone) consists of some topnotch Hip-hop and Rock tracks. Every one of them being solid tracks which in turn have their addition to the in-game atmosphere. Rock during the game may cause you to play much more aggressive, while Hip-hop made me play with style and tricks. A perfect example of the impact of music…

NFL Street 3 has no real improvement in comparison to its predecessors, but it didn’t make a descent in quality either. A cool game, for a while that is. However, it does keep its ‘entertainment value’ when played with a bunch of friends. Just imagine you tackling the man or woman next to you in the couch so hard that everyone starts yelling ‘oooooooooooh’… That’ll be the cause of some nice laughs for sure

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