by:	April 10, 2004

The concept of the game in simple enough, you can choose from many street 'ballers' and play on various courts across the world. The trouble is the majority of people who play the game have never heard of these wacky players. "1/2 Man ? Amazing," "Headache," "Hot Sauce" all seem to be very good at basketball on the videos, but you can plainly see the transition didn't make it to the game.

The first thing you notice when you first begin the game is that this is obviously a direct port of a much lesser version. Unlike most other system's ported games no effort was made to touch it up for its Xbox release. Like Activision's other sports games this has an innocent enough beginning; a flashy video, with bumpin' music to draw your attention as fast as they can, yet unlike being drawn in further and further like you would with Activision's Tony Hawk series, the shoddy in-game graphics trip you and slam your head on the black top and hard. Perhaps comparing it to Tony Hawk isn't fair though, after all this is a basketball game. Compared to the graphics of other basketball games such as NBA 2k2, or Electronic Art's basketball games Street Hoops will leave a nasty after taste in your mouth. The players don't move fluidly at all, and their bodies are plain, stale and blocky. The courts are just as bad they have no buff or shine to them and they attempt to make the backgrounds interesting but they would have created a better effect just putting a curtain there.

The replays are short lived, and they use fairly cool Matrix turn-around effects in them but it is still not enough to give them any excitement. When someone slams the ball into the hoop every time it looks like their hand is either going through the rim, or like they shot it in on the side somehow. The games videos are a unique change of pace, as they give you quite a few to start off. While some of them have slightly grainy quality to them many of them, which are music videos is fun to watch. Hip-hop music fans will get a kick out of watching Cypress Hill, Master P, and Xzibit videos.

Sadly the games high point is its sound. The chatter, noise, and announcer may be annoying sometimes, but it gives somewhat of a street feel. All the sounds are their, and while they may be a bit muffled they serve their purpose. The games music is all hip-hop, and a mixed bag. It really all depends on your taste, but a lot of it is recycled jargon that most hip-hop fans have probably heard. If the soundtrack doesn't suit you however just pause the game and switch your sound options to play your own personal track on the Xbox hard disk.