Having never played the first NBA Street game I slid the DVD for NBA Street 2 cautiously into my Xbox as the only 'street' type basketball game that I've played recently has been the fairly average Street Hoops. Both games attempt to present the street and grass roots side of the sport which is pretty popular across heaps of genres at the moment but I'm happy to tell you that where Street Hoops failed, NBA Street 2 absolutely shines.

If you liked NBA Jam at the arcades or on older consoles (if you're as old as me) and have yet to rush out and buy this title, then off you go! It isn't as over the top as NBA Jam, no dunks from the back court or balls catching on fire, but the gameplay is pure arcade basketball goodness. NBA Street 2 oozes atmosphere, the dunks are wild but still pretty realistic (most of the time) and with heaps of courts and items to unlock there is plenty in it to keep you occupied for ages. What's even better is that instead of being filled only with obscure American street ballers, Street 2 is also filled with NBA basketballers such as Kobe Bryant to classic players such as Pistol Pete Maravich, Wilt 'the Stilt' Chamberlain and Magic Johnson.

The controls in Street 2 are pretty straight forward but there is a learning curve because to pull off the dunks you will have to rethink the way that you've played previous basket ball games. In the past we've only had to worry about a single 'turbo' button but in Street 2 there are 3! And pressing these, or combinations of them while you do dunks, will allow you to access bigger dunks and score more combo points for them! Now I'm not talking about points that go on the scoreboard but rather points that fill up your 'Gamebreaker meter' which lets you to pull off the mega cool dunks but also take points off your opponents score! Pretty cheeky eh :-)

A cool feature is that once your Gamebreaker meter is filled up you have the option of performing a Gamebreaker move or you can 'pocket' (store) it for later use. Simply fill the Gamebreaker meter up again for a Level 2 Gamebreaker move which looks even better and takes even more points from the other team! It's been the cause of some serious arm bashing from all my mates that helped me test out the multiplayer mode.. The name really is appropriate as you can chose to store it in the hope of achieving the Level two move but if your opponent also fills their meter, they can cancel your Gamebreaker move, emptying your meter and forcing you to start filling it up again. In a close game, it really is a make or break decision. Pulling off a Gamebreaker move is very simple as well, once your meter is full all you have to do is hit the L & R triggers together and shoot and you can sit back and watch a nifty animation that shows your players doing some insane special moves and a big dunk. The ball even leaves a nice 'stars and stripes' trail behind it and the special effects look very nice.

The graphics elsewhere look great too. All up there are 11 courts that include Rucker Park, the Cage, Green Lake Park and Soul in the Hole. The courts themselves look very nice with some great and very realistic looking art, texturing and lighting. Even the traffic driving in the background of the street courts looks good! The players also feature great detail and are very smoothly animated. If there was one criticism to make about the players is that they appear 'dark around the edges' which gives them a slight cartoonish appearance. All the moves are pulled off nicely and the animation never skips a beat at all and when you pull off some special moves followed by a nasty dunk or a massive alley oop it really looks very cool. Some of the moves are totally out of control such as "Off the Heezay" where you can pass the ball off the backboard or an opponents head back to yourself or another player!

But here's one of Street 2's great features that you will be messing with for ages. Not only can you create your own player, his height, colour, hairdo, clothing, skills etc but you can also select what moves your player will pull off. And the further you progress through the game modes, the more special dunks you can unlock or buy and use yourself. So while it's good to see the unlockables include Basketball trading cards and guernseys of the NBA greats, it's great to see special features that you will actually use in the game and can allocate to your created player.

NBA Street 2 is filled with great audio and commentary that suits the game nicely. Personally I found the commentator Bobbito Garcia eventually annoying but I will say that it took longer than normal before I went into the options and turned him down. He comes out with some pretty funny comments and gets pretty excited at times but like all commentary in games, eventually gets repetitive and before long you're hearing the same lines again. The music suits the game as well but as I'm a bigger fan of Basketball itself than the sort of street tunes on offer it would have been nice to see the custom soundtrack option included for us. I don't think I've seen Xbox only features like custom soundtrack on any Xbox title yet from EA and I hope that changes soon.

The great thing about Street 2 is that while it's very easy to pick up and start pulling off dunks, the game has plenty of depth which was a nice surprise. With all the dunks, tricks and blocks to master as well as all the courts, dunks and items to unlock Street 2 will keep you occupied for ages! I couldn't put it down until I finished every game mode which includes :

NBA Challenge where you tour the country region by region and beat all the 29 NBA teams. Pick an existing NBA team or create a custom team to take them on.

Be a Legend : this is the main street mode of the game. Create a new basketballers and take him on a America wide tour of all the most popular street courts. With each win you earn development points to upgrade your player and purchase locked items such as extra clothing.

Lastly there's Street School where you can go and practice over two dozen lessons to learn the ins and outs of NBA Street 2.