Review: NFL Street 3 (PSP)

We've already had the awful Fifa Street games with their DJ's and incessant rap music, and on the other side of the spectrum is the great NBA Street series which is one of the best basketball series around at the moment. It certainly shows that taking a sport and giving it the street treatment doesn’t necessarily reap the rewards. Disappointingly the NFL version is closer to the former than it is the latter.

Watching the opening intro will make players who have craved a more arcade version of the sport's eyes lighten up. As some annoying NFL star (no, we don't know who he is) starts spouting nonsense about "respect" and the "ghetto" you'll watch characters perform amazing spins, running along walls and many more special moves. It looks like a great, fun experience bringing back memories of Madden games of old with the classic ambulance moments and less of an emphasis on realism, but once you start playing though your opinion will quickly change. A lot of the moves are simply there to look good and more often than not you can win just by using the standard throw and run technique that really makes this no different to Madden.

A lot of the problems come from the small size of the playing field - which can literally be run the length of straight from the opening play. You may choose to perform a wall run as you go to make a touchdown, giving you extra style points along the way, which in turn can give you the ability to perform a Game Breaker. A move that is supposed to the ultimate way of beating your opponent. Ultimately - much like the rest of your move set - Game Breakers aren't crucial to winning and the time it takes to perform the move using the triggers you may as well save your finger energy and just hold up on the analogue nub.

NFL Street 3's main mode of play is "Respect the Street". As you'd expect,you work your way up beating everyone in order to build up your respect. Gamestyle's problem comes from the rules in each game. Far from a standard game of American Football, the rules range from reaching a set amount of points, a time attack game and the worst of the lot - play elimination - where a team loses a play if they fail to gain yards. It's the worst because unless you have a very good understanding of American Football plays then it's very difficult to choose the correct defensive move to counter what offensive play your opponent has remaining. With all of these unusual game types it's odd that EA have left out an actual real game of football.

In line with it's arcade gameplay are the graphics which look slightly cartoon-like. While the field of play looks realistic enough your football stars on the other hand look shockingly beefed up, much like the characters from Gears of War. It's an interesting design choice and one that certainly works, which is something that can't be said for the atrocious music. NFL Street 3 manages to take EA Trax to a whole new level of dreadfulness. There aren't any pop rock style songs here - that would be a blessing if we knew what EA had up their sleeve for this one - nope we instead have terrible death metal rock from the likes of Korn and other goth bands. Screaming lyrics until your ears bleed; EA must really hate us to make us suffer through this.

On the plus side the animation for each sports star is top-notch with them managing to make us squirm with discomfort when they are viciously being thrown to the floor. Respect the Street is quite lengthy with various ways of improving your chosen team courtesy of drills. You do also get standard modes of play for a quick fix and multi-player to tide you over if you happen to buy the game by mistake.

Although we're not fans of the 'ghetto street' feel of some sports titles we looked past this in the hope that we would be pleasantly surprised - like we were with the NBA Street series. Unfortunately it soon became apparent that we wouldn't be getting a game of this quality. From the dire music to the drab gameplay - NFL Street 3 can be described as nothing more than average.

Rating: 5 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver