IvanF's Cut and Paste, No-Name, Nintendo Gamecube Reviews of EA Sports' NBA Street V3 & Nintendo's 1080 Avalanche 2005...

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IvanF's Cut and Paste, No-Name, Nintendo Gamecube Reviews of
Electronic Arts' / EA Canada's NBA Street V3
and Nintendo's / NST's 1080 Avalanche 2004

Well, I've only really played NBA Street V3 for the Xbox, really... and the game wasn't bad on it. Kept me busy for a week pretty much, since my brother loved the heck out of the trick system...

If the Gamecube version of V3 is anything like the GC versions of Vol. 1 and 2, which I have played, then the graphics and sound are definitely a notch down from the Xbox version. And unfortunately the controls are too, as the C-stick just doesn't feel the same as a real second analog thumbstick does... The Gamecube also never seems to get the turbo button down right in sports games. The R trigger messes things up on the GC pad, which is not a good thing for a game that requires as much turbo use as NBA Street V3 does...

However, we all know by now why the Gamecube got the best damn version of NBA Street V3 out there...

It's hilarious how they put Mario characters into the NBA Street series, for really no apparent reason whatsoever...

At least Link sort of looked like he belonged in the Soul Calibur world... but Luigi and the Princess playing basketball? WTF?...

Well, I haven't tried the Nintendo characters in NBA Street V3 yet... and I haven't tried V3 for the Gamecube just quite yet either...

And while the fun factor just ain't the same as it was with the first two NBA Streets? The game still definitely has some moves...

"As one of the few remaining Toronto Raptors fans still out there, I think I speak for us all when I say...

How the fuck could EA Sports leave him out of NBA Street V3? Not only is he a mad dunker, but he's also one of the best big men in the entire damn sport today...

It's little things like that, that keep Electronic Arts' at the bottom of the barrel, as far as I'm concerned...

Still, for the most part, NBA Street V3 was perhaps a nice step forward, and yet a nice step backwards for the NBA Street series as a whole...

For example, the graphics. I love the new, more artistic style for the street ballers, as their fluid animation just looks amazing when viewed on a nice television... On the other hand, I can't say I'm impressed as I should be with the stadiums. EA definitely tried to illuminate the situation with good lightning. But except for a few scant basketball courts here and there, the backgrounds just look barren... with no-one in the stands, and benches that just don't look high res...

And take the sound, as the next example... While I do enjoy the EA Trax in this game, as the rap flows well with the overall flavour of the game, I just can't stand the announcer. He adds nothing to the series, except for making a few annoying comments here and there about repetition (ironic, really...). And his loud, obnoxious mouth overpowers every single damn sound effect in the basketball game...

And what about the changes to the gameplay?... On the one hand, I love what they've done to the trick system. It's now much easier to pull off the wicked showtime moves, thanks to the right analog stick. And dunking is even more intense than before, as all the trick combinations in the game really end up flowing well together, when you've got the right dunker at the foul line that is...

But if there was one damn problem with the game, it was all the damn stealing. Why the hell can I swipe the ball from any street baller, by just button mashing like an arcade? The amount of steals in this game is simply ridiculous... And why did they move the shoot button to B? I don't know why, but it just confuses the hell out of me whenever I need to use a gamebreaker... And I don't know, but something just feels off about the turbo buttons on the Xbox. It almost feels like the game was meant for the PS2 controller only or something, because the sensitivity on the L and R triggers just feels whack...

And as for the single player, Street Challenge? On the one hand, I adored how there are rivalries now, and your street cred matters most above all... But why the fuck did EA have to put in player attitudes? If I want to only play my best three players on a team, then why the hell can't I all the time? Instead, EA thought that having teammates squabble over playing time was an actual fun thing. And without a trade button in sight, I really can't stand having my Toronto Raptors as the real life Toronto Craptors... with fucking street baller, Rafer fucking Alston...

WTF is wrong with the team rosters this game? You've got almost all of the great legends in the game, and yet Charles Barkley is somehow missing... You have almost every single decent NBA player on all the key teams, but when it comes to the little guys?...

I mean seriously, how the fuck could EA Canada not put Chris Bosh in the fucking game, and fucking replace him with Eric fucking Williams?

... Now, I admit, NBA Street V3 is an amazingly addictive game at times. I've already played a ton of 3 on 3 basketball against my brother, and I always get a kick out of playing the Detroit Wallaces, and kicking his ass when it comes to blocks... On Legendary difficulty, three pointers come at a proper pace, and I just love the clutch factor of key shooters in the game... Add in the fact that gamebreaker dunks complete with alleyoops are truly kickass to sign and watch, and what do you have?

Probably the overall best NBA Street game made so far... and probably the most addictive NBA 3 on 3 type of game, since the first NBA Jam really...

Game Design - 7.0
Enjoyment Factor - 7.5
Overall (not an average) - 7.0

I was never a big fan of the original 1080 Snowboarding for the N64, no matter what all the critics said...

Back then, extreme sports were the in-thing, as Tony Hawk Pro Skater strangely enough, didn't have a ton of shit ass sequels at the time... and 1080 Snowboarding was really the only decent snowboarding game out there on the block. Until EA came in with their SSX, and Microsoft joined the fray with their Amped series...

As a result of increased competition perhaps, the critics really expected much more from 1080 Avalanche that we got... They expected a deep, involving trick system like SSX had or some shit like that. And they wanted to be wowed by all the graphics, like they were with Amped when the Xbox was still fresh and a newborn babe...

Neither of these things happened with 1080 Avalanche... the game was passed onto NST, a company which had already ruined the Wave Race series as far as most disillusioned, former Nintendo fanboys cried foul for...

... and like I said before, I never really gave a damn about 1080 Snowboarding either...

... so ironically enough, 1080 Avalanche is my favourite of the snowboarding games so far... though obviously, coming from me, that ain't saying much...

Presentation wise, Avalanche does definitely suffer. The character models don't look that much improved from the old N64 days, and the backgrounds lack all the bump mapping and shitty ass bloom lighting that EA likes to jazz up their games these days with... Nothing really happens in the backgrounds to make the game seem interesting as you're racing. At least Wave Race: Blue Storm had dolphins and other creatures roaming about as your raced, so why do we get only a few random people and deer caught in the headlights in 1080 Avalanche? It just feels so barren... like you're duking it out in Antarctica or something...

If there's any collector's reason to get 1080 Avalanche, it's because this game is perhaps the first ever Nintendo-made game to feature licensed music... Now, all the music in the game is pretty much shit. And the sound effects are too, compared to sports games on the Xbox at least... But really, as a novelty item, how the hell can you go wrong with the only Nintendo game with a shitty ass licensed soundtrack? It makes 1080 Avalanche that much more special, knowing that the proud and true company of the big N, actually gave into the pressure of the extreme sports movement sadly still going around these days...

The critics have ripped 1080 Avalanche apart for its controls. Or its oversimplistic ones, to be precise... Tricks are now so ridiculously easy to do, that you only really need to hold the R button down and spin the analog, to pull off a 1080 hanging in mid-air... Holding L speeds your racer up, and A lets you jump. I think that's basically all you need to win races in this game, as there isn't much more depth besides that... If anything, I do definitely agree with the critics, that 1080 Avalanche just pales in comparison to all to other extreme sports games out there in terms of having a deep trick system that really makes it worthwhile to practice endless hours on the halfpipe...

... of course, I don't want to practice endless hours on the fucking halfpipe... I'm not a pothead of a moron smoking pipe, you know...

1080 Avalanche was kind of made for people like me... I don't give a damn about tricks. I don't want to waste countless hours just to figure out how to do a fucking backflip in the air... I wanted a quick and easy game to pick up and play, and that's what NST delivered for the most part... They didn't bother with a deep trick system (although I wish they had, if only to silence the critics). Instead, they made a snowboarding game for the novices out there like me... and risked pissing off every critic out there...

1080 Avalanche is probably the best of the snowboarding games at doing what I actually care about in racing games...

I hate how showmanship has taken over so many goddam sports in the past few years (... or decades...). Like, I don't care about what kind of moves or tricks you can do in basketball... I just want my fucking team to fucking win as a fucking team. Is that so hard to ask for?... with the Toronto Raptors, I guess it is...

In snowboarding, all I really want to do is race. And that's what 1080 Avalanche delivers... The normal races are decent enough, with a sense of speed that does put to shame the old 1080 Snowboarding... The real gem of the sequel however, are the avalanche maps. They're simply insane to race, and ton of fun to try to beat... With the entire mountain crashing down on you, it really makes for an exhilarating experience to never slam on the snowboard brakes. You just keep on sliding down full throttle, with the world literally falling apart around you, and somehow it just feels right... somehow, it just feels better than every other snowboarding game out there, in terms of actually giving you a rush...

It's a short lived feeling, however. As the game is simply too damn short for its own good... There are what, like only three avalanche stages in the entire game? And there are only about 3 or 4 circuits to go through in total, giving you the same sort of disappointment you felt when you first found out the track numbers had been diminished and dumbed down in Mario Kart DD as well... 1080 Avalanche tries to make up for it by adding nice things to time trial and the Gates mode in the game. But all I really wanted to do was race... and unfortunately, the remarkably few amount of actual racing stages in this game, simply can't be ignored by any critic... not even this noname whining one...

1080 Avalanche sort of makes up for the lacking single player with multiplayer that really is fun. With the sense of speed everywhere, it makes the game accessible to all ages, as you don't need to be a genius to pull off stunts. And you don't need to be a master at the controls just to be able to race downhill and grind it out on railings... It was nice that NST tried to implement a decent LAN mode, no matter how short lived that turned out to be. And NST did a lot of nice things all in all for multiplayer gaming in Avalanche... But even so, even at parties, it's blindingly obvious that there just aren't enough stages in the goddam game to keep the sense of variety going...

Now, I'll gladly admit along with the critics, that 1080 Avalanche was a disappointing venture in many regards... It lacks the kind of polish and longevity that we've all come to expect from Nintendo branded games. And the shitty ass licensed soundtrack just makes my eyes roll and my ears peel at its embarrassment...

But 1080 Avalanche still is the best damn thing out there, at the only thing I really care about in a fucking snowboarding game...

Now, I was never a big fan of the original 1080 Snowboarding, so obviously I must know nothing about snowboarding...

SSX and Amped make you work too hard at times, to ever allow you to enjoy their goddam games...

... and despite all the avalanches of criticism against 1080 out there, I still think Nintendo has proven once again that all they really care about?...

... is letting n00bish players like me, actually get the chance to have some sense of fun for a change...

Game Design - 7.0
Enjoyment Factor - 7.0
Overall (not an average) - 7.0