NBA Street Volume 2

"Ummmm, uhhh, welllll....beeeehhh beeehh beehhh!!" That, ladies and gentlemen, was the first words out of my mouth after playing NBA Street Volume 2. Most of the moves you can do in this game are so advanced, I am surprised they can even do them in a video game. New tricks like "Off-da-heezy" (where you bounce the ball of an opponents head, much like J-Rich against Boozer in the rookie game), "Back-2-Papa" (where after you pick up a dribble, you throw the ball against the backboard to yourself, freak everyone out, then resume your dribble), and the kick pass are innovative and fun as hell, yet fairly easy to perform. In fact, the only difficult thing about tricks is choosing when to do them, so you get the most trick points possible. Some other new features in the game are the "Dunk-to-layup" (when performing a dunk, press the shoot button in midair to avoid getting sent into the 10th row), "Be-the-oop" (by passing to someone using the other control stick, you remain in control of the player without the ball, then when you call for the ball, you are the oop to your teammate's ally), "Turbo-block" (hold both turbo's and the block button so you hold onto the ball instead of knocking it away. Do this against a monster dunk, and you feel like God), and the Level 2 Gamebreaker. This time, you can save your first round of trick points and when you fill up the bar again, you can really kill the other team. Hit a 3, and your team goes gains 2 points while taking away 4. Dunk it instead, and you go up 2, opponents go down 3. One of the best parts of NBA Street Volume 2 is the announcing by Bobbito Garcia. It's always fresh, funny and amusing but definately adds to the experience in a good way. NBA Legends such as Darryl Dawkins, Dominique Wilkins, Pete Maravich, Wilt Chamberlain, Connie Hawkins, Larry Bird, Magic, Jordan, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Bill Russell, Rick Barry, Nate Archibald, and my personal favorite BILL WALTON are just a few surprises. Trust me, there's a lot more of them. There was one person I particularly missed, however....Hakeem Olajuwon. Wasn't he street enough for this game? He's been retired a few years now! Remember the Dream Shake? My god, call the po-lice, we need to find this man!!!! That's about the only sad thing I've found in the whole game. As for game modes, you still have your basic pick-up games against the PC or your friends. This time however, you can pick the rules with which you want to play, such as NBA scoring, shorter shot clock, most trick points wins, only dunks count, and so on. You can also create a baller from scratch, scrounge up a sorry-ass team, and work your way to becoming a Street Legend. As you yourself get better and you beat other teams, you are allowed one player from each team you beat. So eventually, the game gets more fun and stylish as you go on in Be A Legend Mode. Well, I've basically written about everything, so if you are still undecided about NBA Street Volume 2, all I can say is rent it, buy it, or borrow it from a friend. And remember, bring your A-game.