NFL Street
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NFL Street is a series of sports video games developed by EA Tiburon and published by Electronic Arts. Currently there are two games in the series, NFL Street and NFL Street 2, both released in 2004, and NFL Street 3 is in development. The NFL Street series is made in the same vein as NBA Street and other franchises such as NFL Blitz. Similar to Blitz, Street is seven-on-seven American football.
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[edit] NFL Street
[edit] Arenas
- EA Field — San Francisco, CA
- West Coast — San Diego, CA
- City Limits — Detroit, MI
- Legends Park — Cleveland, OH
- Da Roof — Atlanta, GA
- Warehouse — Miami, FL
- The Pit — New York City, NY
- The Courtyard — Houston, TX
NFL Street was released for GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox on January 14, 2004. It featured an artist's rendering of Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams on the cover.
Like every other American football game, NFL Street has the basic rules, but as with NFL Blitz this game has no fouls and low penalty gameplay. Naturally, this leads to a much more violent game than its real-life model.
[edit] NFL Street 2
| NFL Street 2 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Tiburon |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Release date(s) | December 22, 2004 |
| Genre(s) | Sports game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Everyone (E) |
| Platform(s) | GameCube, PS2, Xbox |
NFL Street 2 was released on December 22, 2004 for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox video game consoles. It was also ported to the PSP in 2005. The cover featured tight end Jeremy Shockey and rapper Xzibit.
[edit] Arenas
- The Back Lot
- Sportsplex
- The Tracks
- The Aqueduct
- The Dig
- 2nd St. Station
- The Cage
- The Alley
- Royal Park
- Imperial Tower
- EA Field (Unlockable)
- Gridiron Park (Unlockable)
[edit] Own The City Mode
This game mode is the newest mode of NFL Street 2, the player must create a character and win all of the street games in the city. The player must play pick-up games to recruit talent for a team. The pick-up games are made up of randomly generated players. As the game progresses, the player will need to find better talent. If the player is successful they will face Xzibit and his team of NFL stars. When the player completes Own The City mode, the created player can be imported to Madden NFL 2006, another successful football title, or can be imported to the NFL Challenge.
[edit] NFL Challenge
NFL Challenge is the official mode of the NFL Street series. The player must build up a team in 150 days to face the NFL Stars by completing challenges, such as scoring 250,000 style points on the Philadelphia Eagles. Winning the challenges gives the player development points to spend on the players but also at the expense of days. When 5 days remain, a tournament opens up and the player's team must win the tournament to complete NFL Challenge. If the player advances into the final round, they face the NFL Legends, a team of NFL stars from the 1970s and 1980s.
[edit] NFL Street Cover Athletes and the Effect
- The original NFL Street featured Dolphins running back Ricky Williams on the cover. Williams had a 1000-yard performance in 2002.
- NFL Street 2 had Giants star tight end Jeremy Shockey, rapper Xzibit and Falcons star tight end Alge Crumpler on the front cover. The New York Giants went 6-10 and the Falcons lost to the Eagles in the 2004 NFC championship game. Xzibit on the other hand, sold his third album.
- NFL Street 3 will feature Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson on its cover.
[edit] NFL Teams In NFL Street
The teams feature 17 players on the 32 NFL Teams from the 2004 NFL season, but the rosters are accurate as of November of 2004. Jerry Rice is with the Seahawks, Tim Brown is with the Buccaneers, Randy Moss is with the Vikings and Eddie George is on the Dallas Cowboys. The game also has eleven unlockable teams: the NFL Legends, NFC East All-Stars, NFC West All-Stars, NFC South All-Stars, NFC North All-Stars, AFC East All-Stars, AFC West All-Stars, AFC South All-Stars, AFC North All-Stars, team Reebok, and team Xzibit.
[edit] Trivia and Interesting Things in NFL Street 2
- Level 1 is the worst level of attributes level 20 is the best level of attributes. Reebok equipment can raise a player's attributes over 20.
- Neither rookie Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals nor LaVar Arrington of the Washington Redskins appear in this game.
- The player can import the player in Own The City to Madden NFL 2006 or NFL Challenge Mode.
- A sequel, NFL Street 3, will be released on November 16.
- Rapper Xzibit is the guide character in Own The City Mode and appears in the opening scene.
- The Minnesota Vikings home jersey design is incorrect, the correct home jersey in 2004 was purple and had yellow stripes on the shoulders. In the game the home jersey has yellow stripes on the sleeves and a Vikings logo on the sleeve, but the away jersey (white) is correct.
- Michael Vick's name in the game is spelled as simply Mike Vick, the same is for Michael Barrow, whose name is spelled Mike Barrow.
- NFL Players Jeremy Shockey, Alge Crumpler, Javon Walker, and Xzibit appear on the front cover, Daunte Culpepper is on the back cover.
- EA Field is a field-representation of EA Sports Studios.
- The businesses on the field Gridiron Park are direct representations of football definitions and jargon--example First Down Bank and Endzone Pizza.
- Jeremy Shockey's Giants jersey on the cover is incorrect, the jersey has the player's number on the front; Shockey on the cover art has the Giants logo on the front, but the numbers on his shoulders.
- The rookie player in the opening scene is Reno Mahe of the Philadelphia Eagles. Mahe daydreams of being a star on and off the field until Jeremy Shockey snaps him out of the daydream and asks him "Are you just going to stand here or are we going to play ball?"
- There are no punts and kickoffs or field goals which means that the player must go for it on fourth down every time and only try a one-point on the 5 yard live or two-point conversion on the ten yard line.
- Reebok apparel and Steve Williams are product placements in the game.
- The name of the city to own in NFL Street 2 is named Bay City which could possibly mean it is in San Diego, California, but some features give it a complexion that it could be in Miami or New York or just a combination of these places.
- In the game, everyone plays defense and offense, even the quarterback.
- Unlike a real football game, the system of play is touchdowns and there is no time limit unless it is in Two Minute Challenge.
- Joey Galloway of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is in concept art on the loading screens.
- Artwork is unlockable if the player wins a game on a desired stage.
- Peyton Manning, Randy Moss, Ray Lewis, Mike Alstott, Brett Favre, rookie Reno Mahe, and Xzibit are chosen for a pickup game in an abandoned parking lot, their names are being called in the opening cutscene.
- If a Need For Speed Underground 2 or Burnout save file is available in the player's memory card, they receive 25,000 credits which can be used to purchase clothing, tattoos, and accesories.
- The player can edit any NFL team's gear, but the player cannot edit attributes.
- The NFL Gauntlet is a tournament featuring all of the NFL teams from worst being the San Diego Chargers (in 2003, which is a long time ago in football years), and the best being New England Patriots.
- Sterling Sharpe, Eric Dickerson, Joe Greene, Jack Lambert, Anthony Munoz, Randall Cunningham, Mike Singletary,Cris Carter, Darrell Green, and Joey Browner make up the NFL Legends team.
- Many of the random player's names in Own The City are spoofs of real NFL player names such as Lorenzo Fabre for Brett Favre, Stephen Smith for Steve Smith, Walt Payton for Walter Payton or Steve Davis for Stephen Davis.
- These NFL rookies appear: Lance Briggs, Eli Manning, Reggie Williams, Tommie Harris, Ben Roethlisberger, Kellen Winslow Jr., Julius Jones, Rashaun Woods and Sean Taylor.
[edit] NFL Street 3
- Announced for November 14, 2006. Developed by EA Tiburon and published by EA Sports Big
- PSP and PS2
- Chad Johnson of the Cincinnati Bengals will appear on the cover.
- Special Thank you to GameSpy for this special on NFL Street 3.
NFL Street 3 is all about ups. Maybe Ben Roethlisberger can't get up as high as most basketball players (or wide receivers, who allegedly in real life are vicious in a street ball game), but he can jump up and get air to throw a bullet pass to Hines Ward. Tiburon really wants to reward players for utilizing the jump feature now, so rather than waiting to hit a wall and rebound, anyone can launch off from anywhere on the field. Also, obstacles and objects placed in the area can be used as launching pads to soar even higher. All of the game's unlockables, including gear, player photos, and NFL Legends, are above the field, so the savviest of gamers will be able to catch them off of rebounds and leaps above the action.
Gamebreakers have been transformed in this game as well. Instead of using a cutscene to emphasize the action (at the expense of taking the player out of the game, even if for a few moments), all special moves will take place in real-time. Players can now select their Gamebreakers while on the field. New Gamebreakers can tear through an opponent, be it on defense or offense. Players on defense can now perform a lock-on tackle, which is something like a heat-seeking missile that blows through obstacles (or in this case, offensive linemen) to get at the ball carrier. On offense, there are bullet passes that literally shoot across the field and pierce past defenders to get straight to a receiver. NFL Street 3 will also include ten environments, with weather having an effect on gameplay. If it's raining, the terrain will be slippery. It will also be tough to get around in snowy weather. So, even with the emphasis on air, real-time Gamebreakers, and weather, what's really different about this new game? What's going to draw those who didn't care for either of the first two games? Nothing really, although EA Tiburon says that they're going for more of a Blitz-like game than in the past. How the game can feel more arcade than it already has, yet manage to convert die-hard sim football fans is beyond me. So, essentially, the game feels like it's going to really be a hit with NFL Street fans, kids who liked the first two games, and their parents who will buy them anything.
The build we saw is currently about halfway done, and the game looks to launch in November as a PS2 exclusive title. Sorry, Xbox fans. There really wasn't a particularly strong explanation as to why the game is staying on PS2, but it looks like that's how it's going to be. It will also be released on PSP, although it appears right now that there's no cross-compatibility between the two games. However, not all is bad or downtrodden by any means. Street 3 will be online, just like the last game was, enabling one-on-one pigskin combat. The mode will be a bit barebones, just for two players, but it should continue in the tradition of the last title. Other than that, we only spent a brief period of time perusing the half-done build of NFL Street 3. It's still got some bugs to be worked out -- the game crashed once during our session -- but all around, it should be quite satisfactory for fans of the previous titles. Will it win new fans from the Madden contingency? It's doubtful. However, it's certainly got enough, in the way of new Gamebreakers and emphasis on the air game, to keep NFL Street fiends content for now. We should hopefully get more face time with the title prior to its release in a few months. The legends are to be announced
