4. NBA Street (GameCube, Playstation 2, Xbox)
I said traditional sports games, didn’t I? I have spent more time with NBA Street over the years than with any other sports game, and yes, that does include the first few years of third-generation Madden that wowed everyone repeatedly. I feel like this game fits more into the licensed build because it took an established franchise in the NBA and made it into something different, with street ball to 21. The create-a-player mode was excellent, especially as you earned skill points to turn your rookie into a force of nature, and the wide array of moves, tricks and dunks made this game so much more rewarding than a realistic sim. The game didn’t take itself seriously at all, but that was why it stayed in my GameCube for almost an entire summer.
NBA Street also allowed me to exact gamer revenge on some close friends of mine. Once again, at that LAN place, Planet Syrinx, a few of my friends had introduced me to Warcraft 3 and Defense of the Ancients. Since they had been playing DotA, they destroyed me repeatedly (you have to love the lack of tutorial from the DotA vets) for a few weeks. One day, I convinced them to play NBA Street 2 for Xbox, because it “looked like it could be fun”. I told them I had never played, because I had not played the sequel yet. The beating I put on them is still something we joke about today, and is also why the phrase “Serving it up!” is injected into certain conversations where it seems fitting. It’s also why we spend a little more time explaining the mechanics of games we’re introducing our friends to, rather than throwing them to the wolves, DotA style. Sadly, they never want to play me in NBA Street anymore, so I don’t get to play this as often as I would like these days.