PlayStation 2

NFL Street 3

This is American football for violence-loving show-offs, letting you perform acrobatic stunts, one-handed catches, spectacular diving tackles and taking-the-piss celebrations that'll make your opponents want to rip your arms off. Ingenious and thrilling.

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.

The more cool things this series adds, the more you realize how much of an overhaul the basic gameplay needs. Controlling your WRs, the different winning conditions, wall running, and increased Gamebreakers are all smart additions, but they get mired in the poor AI and unresponsive controls. My favorite was the time I was pulling some moves in the open field and slipped without being touched like I just stepped on a banana peel. Or the time when the CPU AI earned three Gamebreakers and didn’t even bother to use them. There will be a point when you don’t bother either.

And, in the end, that's the biggest trouble with NFL Street 3--it plays it too safe. Though its fast-paced play and pick-up-and-play simplicity work to the game's advantage, there's simply no sense of menace or danger to the over-the-top antics. Sooner or later, even the varied game types and multitude of real-life NFL players begin to blend together and you wind up simply slogging through, match after match. A story mode might have helped here to add a bit more immediacy and involvement to what amounts to simply playing game after game for little more than respect points. Whether a matter of being constrained by the NFL license, or simply going through the motions for one more go-around on the PS2, there simply isn't enough that's new in NFL Street 3 for fans of the series to pick this one up. Series newcomers might enjoy this alternate take on football, as there is some fun to be had with the game. But if you're an NFL Street vet, you've had this kind of fun before.

Unlike EA's FIFA games where a real attempt has been made to enhance the series in the light of competition from Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer, NFL Street has no real rivalry. Maybe EA just need a few more sequels and a brand new console to perfect the series, but this writer has a sneaky suspicion that EA knows that a brand name and a few famous faces will be enough to encourage strong sales. Ignoring the scepticism, NFL Street 3 isn't a 'must-have' title by any means, but for die-hards and curious newcomers it presents more of a touchdown than a Janet Jackson Super Bowl booby.

NFL Street 3 features just about everything you have come to expect from the Street franchise. There's nothing groundbreaking here, and it provides more of the same, with few improvements, and therein lies the rub: NFL Street 3 plays it far too safe. The new features work and the new modes are entertaining, but as a whole, it is sometimes too close to the previous edition.

NFL Street 3 is actually a pretty fun game. It has its share of flaws but if you can get past them there is enough to be enjoyed here. It’s a worthwhile purchase for fans of the series or people who might want to try something a little different from the standard Madden and NCAA games. All in all, for $30 you could certainly do a lot worse when it comes to PlayStation 2 games at this point in its lifespan. It’s not great by any means but it certainly doesn’t come anywhere near the point of being bad either.

With all the good intentions in the world, though, overall enjoyment in the modes quickly loses steam within too short a time. Even with a spit and polish to the visuals and the usual effortless presentation it can't help but feel tiring after a while. Maybe if it hadn't been much more than a re-iteration of the last couple of games, or if it had been two steps instead of one away from Madden, I'd have liked it more. Of course, EA Sports fans are used to minor increments in their games and this is no exception. As always, it's a safe bet to say that this is the best in the series so far, although if you've played previous and don't have a single-minded devotion for any kind of sports-corporate cool, you'd be better off holding your breath for the inevitable next-gen instalment.