GameCube

Street Hoops

The concept behind Activision's Street Hoops is simple enough: tried and true arcade basketball wrapped up in the bandannas and sleeveless tees of playground ball. In their efforts to differentiate Street Hoops from arcade basketball games like NBA Street or Midway's Showtime: NBA on NBC, Black Ops drew on every element of hardcore playground basketball they could -- from the music, to the clothes, to the jewelry -- to give their game an unrivaled sense of street credibility. The only problem is somewhere along the way, the basketball itself got lost in the mix. Going to barber shops, pawn shops and FootAction stores can be a hell of a lot of fun, but in a videogame called Street Hoops, we want good basketball, not a great shopping simulator.

Street Hoops was hoping to be another NBA Street -- a fast-paced, hip-hopping hoops bash. Unfortunately, while EA was hitting nothing but the bottom of the net, the folks at Black Ops have thrown up a series of bricks that clang unceremoniously off the rim. Street balling could be a long-running sub-genre of the basketball sim, and with some retooling, Street Hoops could make for a solid franchise. That's two "could's" though, and a lot of speculation. If you want your blacktop action now, grab NBA Street.

Street Hoops could be a strong basketball contender - it has all the equivalent modes and features plus some moderate challenge from the AI - if it learns from it’s shortcomings and does something to address them. It might be worth a rental to see how much potential SH has; otherwise, just give it a miss.

Street Hoops is, quite simply, poor. The simplistic and boring gameplay makes it seem like the developer spent more time making sure the licensed clothing fit into the game than making sure that the basketball gameplay had any merit to it. If you were a fan of Strawberry Shortcake Musical Match-Ups for the Atari 2600, or any other game where the main function is dressing people up in various clothes, then Street Hoops is nonstop excitement. But anyone looking for basketball, arcade-style or otherwise, would be better served by NBA Street, NBA 2K3, or just about any other GameCube basketball game.