It's that time of year again, and any sports fan will tell you what that means ... European Cricket Playoffs! There is also some basketball thing going as well, the Finals they call it. Anyways, in the heat of the playoffs, I received NBA Street Showdown, another title from EA's Street Franchise. Though I was concerned with the control of the players and the camera system, I was delightfully surprised of how solid the gameplay was.

All 30 teams and their star players are ready to play ball in a 3-on-3 game style that allows for more gamplay action than the standard 2-on-2 matches we are used to from previous titles. In choosing your favorite team, you can select key starting players as well as glance at bars displaying their strengths and weaknesses for everything from dunking to rebounds (I was half expecting, due to recent events, the developers would implement a bar for 'likelihood of beating up fans').

If you are like me, an eclectic fan of NBA teams, then you have the option of choosing NBA Legends from the past as well as current NBA All Stars and pick pros from the best of the best teams. The courts vary from the streets of one ghetto neighborhood ... to the streets of another ghetto neighborhood (leading me to question why in God's name would multimillionaire superstars voluntarily play in places like these).

The nice thing about playing street ball is dismissing all the rules. You can foul, you can goal tend, you can do victory dances. You will also see trick moves and shots never before attempted on the NBA courts. I did feel a little limited with the square-button as this is the only option to perform tricks. I also found using the tricks was only useful to mix up the repetitive gameplay of pass-pass-shoot, guard, guard, rebound. Pickup games are fairly easy to win and EA's patented "GameBreaker" (where you perform trick shots and plays that cause your "GameBreaker" meter to fill up to eventually unleash a killer play) isn't as useful as other EA titles in scoring points.

The offense's artificial intelligence is impressive considering it's a PSP title, but both opponent and team AI when on defense is sub par. Blockers are essentially there to keep you as far away from the basket as possible and rarely attempt to knock down a potential long-range shot. I don't know how many times I was yelling at Yao Ming because he preferred to stand randomly in the corner rather than play some D (although this minor flaw isn't too different from what the real Yao does).

Besides pickup games, there are two great mini-games you can play to practice for the main mode, King of the Courts. Arcade Shootout is a free-throw challenge where you must score in the three hoops provided. It's a game of power judgment, where how hard and long you hold the shot button could mean the difference between a "swish" and an "air ball." The hoops also move, adding to the challenge. The other mini-game, which is much more fun to play, is Shot Blocker where you have to swat 3-pointers as quickly as possible with as many roaming NBA players as you can. What makes it especially fun is that you sometimes can be faked out by opponents who pass to teammates and throw you off. The mini-games aim to add replay value as well as help you earn upgrade points for the customized team you design in the King of the Courts mode.

Here, you can design your own player from scratch in either gender. You choose your team name and logo as well as your teammates. Then, you challenge local teams to rights of the courts until you rule them all. As you progress, new pieces of clothes are yours to decorate your players.

Showdown goes one step further in providing gameplay entertainment by including two great multiplayer elements, Party Play and Head to Head. Party Play lets you and three friends compete in the mini-game challenges for bragging rights. The Head to Head mode allows you to play with another PSP through an Ad Hoc connection (not online infrastructure) in a quick match. If there is a history between the two players, your head-to-head win/loss record is displayed onscreen.

Graphically, NBA Street Showdown pushes the PSP to it's limits. The court activity and camera angles/movement sometimes causes it to slow down under the pressure, but I was impressed with how solid the whole package was. Creating your own character has become a norm in sports titles, but the diversity of choices (especially for a PSP) was a definite plus. Playing hoops in the hood wouldn't be complete without a collection of Hip-Hop music. All those artists you've never heard of like Ali Vegas, Ak'Sent, and MC Lyte are jammed into EA Sports Big Pocket Trax, mixing and rapping to liven the environment. I'm not much of a rap connoisseur and it would have been nice to add my customized PSP play list into the game, but you can't have your cake and eat it too (although that saying never really made sense to me). The sound effects get the job done, but the announcer sounds like a wannabe gangsta-rapper who is more likely to say "YEAH BOIIIIIII" than the scores.

Let's conclude: Electronic Arts has delivered yet another solid game for the PSP. Although its not innovative, creative, or action-packed as it could have been, its the best basketball title currently available in the PSP market. Plus, who doesn't like a good street game?

Gameplay 8.0
A strong basketball title with few thrills.

Graphics 8.1 
A pleasure to look at, the courts and the models have great detail with usually always smooth animation.

Sound 7.6
It's predictable that rap music would be in a NBA Street game, but most of the artists are relatively unknown. The sound effects make up for it, but the commentary from the announcer is just plain stupid.

Difficulty: Easy/ Medium 

Concept 8.0
Until the PSP came along, a sports title on any portable system was usually guaranteed to be horrible. How I love the PlayStation Portable!

Multiplayer 8.4 
As if playing with a nearby PSP wasn't cool enough, a 4-person mini-game competition makes for a good time no matter where you are.

Overall: 8.0
NBA Street Showdown will find a welcome home for any basketball fan or any casual PSP player that is looking for a solid sports title. $49.99 is a hefty price tag, but it's a game you will continue to play whenever you have nothing better to do (for me, that accounts for most of my day).