Xbox Review
NFL Street

So I went to my friend's house one day and he had NFL Street a short time after it was released. He told me it was a good game, so I had to find out for myself. I had played NBA Street 1 and 2 beforehand, and I liked them both. I figured I'd like this one also. We played a game and I loved it. Within a few weeks, I had bought it for Xbox for $50. My friend and I aren't that big on sports games. I mean, we've both played THPS and THUG and various other sports games, but I don't own too many games that are sport games. And we both like this game.

This is a very unconventional football game. There aren't too many rules while playing, and that makes it very fun. There are three main game modes: Quick Game, Pickup Game and NFL Challenge. The quick game is exactly what it seems; you and your opponent (human or CPU) choose a team and duke it out on the field. Pickup Game is similar to Quick Game, but it isn't as quick. You actually draft players and form your own team. Some NFL players are sometimes in the draft and unknown players. Both players (CPU or Human) try to get a better overall team. The NFL Challenge is the best part of this game (1 or 2 players that is) and you will be spending a good chunk of your time playing this game in this mode.

You get a team of seven players, and you have to raise them from nothing to all-stars. You can give them pre-designed stats, or customize them completely with 8000 stat points. Once you have your team ready, you can spend tokens on the game challenges. The challenges vary from easy to VERY hard. Some of these challenges seem impossible to complete. Of course, if you attempt a challenge and fail, you can try again without having to repay the token cost (which is a very good thing). I love challenging other teams to steal there players. Marshall Faulk on your team at the very beginning can be very helpful.

Once you run out of tokens, the only way to get more (without cheating) is to go into the ladder and face real NFL teams. If you beat the four teams, you have to face a fifth team, which consists of the best people from the four teams you played.

Game play: 9/10. This is one of the game's major strengths. The game is pretty easy to learn to play, but takes some time to master. The small amount of rules makes it more enjoyable, but it is still pretty close to real football. When you're on offense, you can run threw the defensive lines and perform jukes and spins to get passed, and you can pitch the ball when tackled, unlike other games. Or, you can throw a bomb, and you have a better chance of catching it then in another game, like Madden. On D, it's actually possible to stop your opponent from scoring a TD, and you have no pass interference to worry about.

One unique thing from this game, are the Style Points and Gamebreakers. When you have the ball and you're running for the TD, you can taunt your opponent to gain points. If you fake your opponent out, you get points. You can throw the ball behind your back to gain points. Whenever you gain points, your Gamebreaker Gauge fills up. Once it reaches full, you can activate it at any time before a play, on offense or defense. On Defense, your players can jump way higher, are way faster, and fumble the offense much easier. On offense, you can throw the ball farther, run faster, and hold it much longer. This is the trump card of the game. The only way to stop a gamebreaker is to activate your own during your opponent's. That way, both are negated and both gauges go to zero.

Graphics: 9/10. The graphics of this game are great. You can see people easily, and can actually tell who is who by looking at them.

Sound: 5/10. This is one of the lacking categories. The menu music is pretty good, and I like it. You can also load up music saved on your Xbox into the game, and that makes it so much better. Problem is, you can't change in-game music. And there are only about 6 in-game songs, and they get boring really fast. To top it off, there are no announcers.

Replay Value: 6/10. After the NFL Challenge, the game isn't very fun single player. I made another file a few months later, but it got boring pretty fast.

Overall: 8/10. It's a good game to play. It's fun and addicting, but can die after one time through. I say rent first, see if you like it. If you find it cheap, buy it. $50 is a bit much for it.

Pros:
Game play
Menu Music
Unique style of play
NFL Challenge

Cons (not from E0):
Replay value
In-Game music

Overall: 8/10

By: MajinZidane