Year Released: 2004 (Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox)

Number of Players: 1-4

Previously, EA Sports Big has taken Baskeball to the streets in what could very well be the two best arcade basketball games out there. Now, they're taking Football to the streets in the same way.

Graphics
The professional Football players from the NFL in this game are here, but they don't look anything like they do in real life. Well, they do look like the real pros, only much bigger. The players in this game have cartoon proportions, though the game doesn't look like a cartoon. It looks real with realistic-looking cartoon football players.

Sound
There's no end to this game's street talk. Before and after each play, and even before the game starts, you hear the players goofing around saying things to make the other team feel bad about the play they just did, saying things like "If I had a nickel for every yard you just ran, I'd have a hole in my pocket!" and other such talk. There's enough attitude in just the players' talk to last a lifetime.

Music
The menu music is a mixture of the newest rap and rock music, but mostly rap. If you don't like lighter rap like Jurassic 5 type stuff, you won't like the rap in this game, with tracks from DJ Kayslay/Three 6 Mafia, Bravehearts featuring Nas and Lil' Jon, Lil' Flip, and so on, but there's an option for turning of the tracks you don't like if you like some of them. The in-game music is all by the X-ecutioners, but no rap, just beats and scratching mostly.

Control
If you're used to the controls of any other football games, you should catch on to these controls pretty quickly. If you haven't played other football games before, you can quickly adjust to the controls. If you know the maneuvers in football, just learn which keys do what and you're good to go, but even if you know nothing about football, it's still easy to learn all the controls. Tricks are very simple as well. You just have to press one of the shoulder buttons for a random trick, or a different shoulder button and one analog stick and you can do signature style moves.

Challenge
What makes the NFL Challenge mode hard is that your team starts with low stats and it's possible to increase the stats a little bit, but to do more, you have to beat an NFL Ladder to get more challenge tokens. Each challenge to get development points, new plays, new gear, and new players costs a certain number of tokens you spend on the challenge. When you do the NFL Ladders and you realize you need more development points, you can't go back or you'll lose all the games you've already won.

Gameplay
This game feels extremely solid from when you juke out the defence to when you dive for a touchdown. If you convert NBA Street to football, you won't notice much of a difference. It takes the tricks from NBA Street and practically just sticks it into this game, and the block-any-shot defence from NBA Street is turned into hard-hitting defence with the most extreme tackles around. What makes it more fun is the tackle recoveries. If you get slammed into a wall, you're likely to fall to the ground, but you won't always fall. If you don't, then you keep charging for a touchdown.

Bottom Line
You should be able to find a reason to want to buy this game. Wether you're a fan of football, or you just like the "street" aspect, you should have fun with this game. I never was interested in football, but I picked it up on the first day and that was all I played for months. Whichever system you can get it for is okay. If you can get it for multiple platforms, the choice is yours. Which feature do you want that only one has? Get that one. But whatever you do, get at least one copy of the game.

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