As for the play itself, the controls are responsive although you won’t always be
sure of what’s going on. The players are oversized and the fields undersized,
making for some crowded situations in which it can be difficult to tell exactly
where your ball carrier is and what he should be doing. The game allows you to
pitch the ball and this seems to be designed to be a major feature of play, but
you just can’t control where the ball is going or see to whom it is going well
enough to rely on pitches. Pitches are effectively random and seem to wind up in
the defense’s hands as often as your teammates.
 |
| Racking up the style points. |
NFL Street can be a lot of fun, but only when taken in small doses. Play
more than a couple of games in a row and the action will begin to feel
repetitive. To break up the repetition the game provides challenge and
ladder modes. In challenge mode you are given goals to accomplish such as
earning a certain number of style points on a single play or being the first
team to score two touchdowns. Complete the challenge and you earn
development points that can be spent to improve your players' skills or you may
unlock new jerseys for them to wear. The ladder mode challenges you to
beat each of the four teams in one of the NFL's eight divisions once in a series
of games. This is unfortunately made harder by the fact that you must do
it all in one sitting. For some odd reason if you exit the mode or game,
you'll lose credit for any victories already won. Beating a ladder unlocks
another division and a new field, and also earns you challenge tokens that can
be used as entry fees to certain challenges. These challenges carry higher
rewards such as NFL players for your squad or equipment to boost your team's
stats.
Challenge mode can be difficult at first because you play with a custom team of
no-name players. This puts you at a decided disadvantage when facing NFL
competition. You'll have to plod your way through the challenges trying to
earn development points until you have enough to compete in the ladder games.
While it is a bit of a disappointment that you do not use an NFL team in the
challenge modes, the game does give you a lot of leeway in customizing your
team. Each player is rated in 10 different categories, and you can
customize their height, weight, and appearance. There is also a huge
variety of team logos to choose from, and you can customize your team's colors,
even applying these colors to the logo so that it fits in with your color
scheme.
NFL Street is also a part of EA Sports Nation, so if you have a Network Adaptor
you can go online and compete against other gamers. A quick match feature
will find an opponent for you and get you right into a game, or you can visit
the lobbies to look for a custom game against a friend. The EA Sports
Network will track your stats and let you check them out through a web browser.
I found the online play to be one of the best features of the game, as the
competition is a lot tougher and unpredictable when you play against live
opponents.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
80%. At times it can feel a little repetitive, but NFL Street can
provide for some fast-paced and exciting sports gameplay especially when played
online.
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