NFL Street 2: Unleashed

8.3
Great

Gameplay	7.0	"An excellent portable Gridiron game to keep you going "
Graphics	8.5
Sound	7.0
Value	8.5

By Alan Jordan

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I love the idea of EA Big's Street series. I loved NBA Street as it brought back warm fuzzy memories of NBA Jam. What it also did was translate an American sport into a form which I could easily understand. FIFA Street was an intriguing concept too, although, being a Football Purist, it didn't appeal to me as much as NBA Street. I neglected to pick up NFL Street on home consoles but the pick-up-and-play nature of the Street series led me to believe that the game would be perfect on Sony's little handheld.

Gridiron is a difficult concept for me to grasp. Football to me involves kicking around a round ball like the one you see there attached to my head. It doesn't involve wearing lots of pads and running up and down a field. So NFL Street 2 is the ideal video game to ease me gently into the big bad American sport. If you aren't aware, NFL Street 2 involves reduced games of Gridiron with smaller teams playing in urban environments. Everything is kept incredibly simple which suits me just fine; Madden heads might not like it quite as much though.

Play calling is also kept incredibly simple and easy for non-Football fans to follow. They are limited to Run plays, Pass plays and Trick plays. The controls are fairly standard; receivers and runners are assigned a button (which magically appears over their head) and you pass to them using the corresponding button on your PSP after your Quarterback gets the ball.

There are some additions from a standard Gridiron game though. As in the other Street titles, you are rewarded for playing with style. Grab the L button then perform a move near a wall and you will leap of the wall while doing it. Holding the L button when not near a wall will allow you to pull off Style moves which rack up the points for you. Football purists may scoff at getting points for dancing around like an idiot, but oh well.

Game modes are extensive to say the least. The bread and butter of single player is a mode called Own The City. In this mode, you'll be guided around by none other than X- 'Pimp my ride' Z-bit. Whether that has you jumping up and down with excitement or running for the hills may be personal preference; I know which camp I am in though. Anyway, in Own The City mode you create a player, build up a team of ragtag players and eventually work your way up to challenging Xzbit and a team of NFL All Stars. You'll play mini games, called Street Events, which will challenge you to get a certain number of points or play Crush The Carrier, which is basically chasing the ball carrier and smashing him into next week.

Other modes include the NFL Challenge which again involves building a team to challenge the best of the NFL. You will have to play through a series of challenges in order to reach the top. Apart from that, we have some Tutorials, Quick Games, Street Events, Pickup Game and NFL Gauntlet. All are fairly standard.

Multiplayer is an area where the PSP excels and NFL Street 2 is no different. We have peer to peer wireless modes as well as a Party mode which has up to four players drafting from a random pool of players and competing in a number of Street Events.

The game's graphics aren't quite as impressive as some other PSP titles. To keep frame rates smooth, the models have been simplified quite heavily and this is clearly visible in close up shots. However, this keeps the game running at a brisk pace and controls are tight too.

You are either going to like the sound or hate it. The sound effects are suitably bone crunching but the music is another matter entirely. I personally can't stand the generic Hip-Hop and Metal contained within but you might love the kind of stuff; it is an acquired taste I'm sure.

The game's only major flaw is some serious issues with loading times. The thing takes its sweet time loading levels.

NFL Street 2: Unleashed is a fun and enjoyable portable sports title. There is a lot to do in single player and multiplayer gaming should keep you busy for some time. While the graphics aren't fantastic, they do keep the frame rate smooth. Give this a go if you tired of waiting for Madden on the PSP and need your portable Gridiron fix.

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