NFL Street 3 comes to us from the fine folks at EA Sports and EA Tiburon. In their latest installment, they hope to expand upon the wild, arcade action, with a few slick, new features and modes to keep fans coming back for more pigskin goodness.

Visually, the character models stand out right from the start. Instead of your typical NFL players with full pads, these guys wear simple top jerseys (that look quite spiffy, I might add) with shorts, jeans, cargo pants, with tennis shoes, in proper street ball fashion. Even the different sizes and shapes of various players are modeled well here as well; from the lithe Reggie Bush (yes rookies are included!) to the bulky physique of Julius Peppers, a ton of players await your gawking eyes. Some of the bigger name athletes even have life-like facial features mapped too! Thankfully, they animate rather well, displaying a host of wild, acrobatic and powerful dekes, stiff arms, bull charges, tackles and more. Some of the slow-mo blur effects during GameBreakers(GB) are also pretty cool as well. The fields of play are also quite well done, and run from simple alleyways, abandoned hangars and more, in a variety of sun-filled skies, or rain-soaked turf. However, there doesn’t seem to a great deal in graphical improvements from years past, nor does anything push the limit of the PS2 engine.

Soundwise, with a robust offering via EA Trax, featuring such artists as Rob Zombie, KMFDM, Megadeth, Dem Franchize Boyz and more, there is a stellar soundtrack that supports the onscreen action nicely. Throw in a host of vicious sound bites and smack talking, and some bone-crunching sound effects, and you have a very solid showing in the audio department.

You will spend most of your time NFL Street 3 in the Respect the Street mode, whereby you travel around the nation taking on bonafide NFL teams, and those with a mix of both NFL and their backyard buddies. As you earn more and more clout in the this ad-hoc league, you can get players from other teams to sign on with your group, garner additional plays, build up your stats and more. This area of the game should keep you busy for quite a while, as you battle your way up the ranks.

There are a few other modes as well to keep you interested, such as Exhibition (“pick-up games”) and Street Events (Open Field Showdown, Crush the Carrier, 4 vs. 4), but EA also adds in a few new additions. The first of these is Bank, where all the GB points are thrown into a shared pool, rewarding the first team to score with more points, leading to the winner eventually owning the lion’s share. Play Elimination is another interesting wrinkle - if you don’t gain yardage you may lose that very play, so those money plays are pretty much in jeopardy depending solely on your execution. Whoever eliminates the opponent’s playbook first, wins the day. Lastly, the Time Attack mode puts you into the hot seat, forcing you to beat the clock or lose, almost like a smack-talking, full contact version of speed chess. The latter mode was easily my favorite; there is nothing quite like being up against time, perhaps harkening back to those dreaded NES games where a time limit mattered and you felt the added anxiety of said moments. Think about late game dramatics. How can it get any better than the famed “2-Minute Drill” in the 4th Quarter?

So how exactly do you win these rowdy, no holds-barred games? Well first, you have to master the GameBreaker system. You accomplish this via a number of ways, but simply put, if you can chain together enough specials, your meter builds and builds, but there is no guarantee your GB will actually work, unlike in years past. You have to be wary of your position on the field, your opponents' positioning etc., or you may find yourself stuffed and sulking. Some of the various GBs can be simply beefed-up versions of a stiff arm or spin move, others can be laser-beam passes from your QB, or homing tackles for the defensive side of things.

Another key addition is a host of new acrobatic functions in the various arenas. Depending on how you use the walls, boxes and other objects on the fields, you can earn bonus items, or simply gain extra yards. The aforementioned bonus items take the form of touchdown modifiers, instant GameBreakers and more, that can dynamically alter the course of a game, turning it from a blow out to a hotly contested match.

Finally, there is multiplayer online support, utilizing many of the aforementioned modes, so you can reach out to other football lovers and pound them into the dirt, from hundreds of miles away.

If anyone has played one of these titles before, it should be rather easy to get back into the groove of things. If you have not, and you come from a more realistic football background like Madden or ESPN, there may a slight learning curve as you realize that offense is king here, and being able to manage your GameBreaker is paramount above all else. With adjustable difficulty and other tweaks, most gamers should feel comfortable with NFL Street 3 after a few hours.

First, the controls need to be snappy and responsive in an intense game such as this, and luckily, they come through for the most part. Early on, you may feel a bit odd cart-wheeling over defenders after air-walking off a tower of crates, but after a couple contests, this will become second nature. Also worthy of note is the solid camera work, it doesn’t seem to get into funky positions, even with all the off-the-wall action.

Overall, NFL Street 3 is another fun-filled addition in the EA Big line-up, with a host of new gameplay modes, a killer soundtrack featuring big name artists, and a wealth of intense gameplay. Best of all, my boy and fellow OSU grad “Ocho Cinco”(a.k.a. Chad Johnson) graces the cover, blinging his grillz and throwing up signs. If that doesn’t get you to at least rent this title, I don’t know what will…