NFL Street

History Lesson: In 1998 NFL Blitz appeared on the N64 and was dubbed as one of the best, if not the best football games ever made. Since then the series has been going downhill. No longer is it just a quick action packed arcade style game, it has been leaning more towards the simulation aspect of football games; but what Blitz fan wants that? If you’re the type of gamer that misses the good old days of the fast over exaggerated football experience, then NFL Street might just be what you’re looking for.

As the name suggests, you won’t be playing in official team arenas, instead you’ll take to the street, the beach, and a handful of other locations. Each location is very well done, but once you get into the game, you realize there is not a whole lot of difference between them.

NFL Street features all the official teams of the National Football League, but with many differences. All of the players are fitted out in their street clothes, which hold no resemblance to the uniforms they wear in real games. Although the street clothes are a fun idea, they can be a major problem. Especially when creating your own team, you’ll find that you can make your entire roster look nothing like each other, so when you get out onto the field you will have a very hard time figuring out who is on your side.

Gameplay wise, Street is down right enjoyable. You’ll find yourself constantly hitting the replay button to watch and re-watch those insane hits, catches, and just about everything else. Clipping is very minimal and they did an excellent job to make sure there are none of those “how did that happen?” moments. The biggest problem in this game is the fact that when you chose your play, your opponent can see exactly what you are going to do, so the defense can base their play on whether you choose to run it, or pass it off.

As with NBA Street, you can perform tricks to fill up a meter, and when this meter is full your team can perform a ‘Gamebreaker’. This was a great feature in NBA Street, but when trying to convert it over to a football game, it’s almost just a throw away feature. To even fill up your meter takes a lot of purposely running slower to get more trick time in, and above all it just isn’t worth it. If you do manage to get a gamebreaker, your whole team becomes invincible, and no matter what anyone does, they won’t be able to stop you. It is safe to say that after a while, you’ll forget all about the tricks.

There is no doubt about it, NFL Street is a hard hitting action packed football game. Even with its flaws, you won’t find yourself dissecting this game before you have a few hours of fun and laughs. And when it comes down to it, if you’ve been waiting to fill that hole in your heart where NFL Blitz used to be, this will surely help.