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Where is the current generation NBA Street and Def Jam?

Flowmoney

Member
These were the only two EA series that I have ever spent money on in my lifetime.

I still fondly remember these games and wonder what got EA to stop publishing games like them?

I liked the over the topness of the street games and the soundtracks that they usually featured were amazing , well my preference in music.

I remember Homecourt being decent and never heard of it getting bad reviews. I thought that this would be an annual series or close to one but the last game was in 2007 as I remember.

Def Jam Fight for NY was amazing and redefined the Vendetta system to break away from the wrestling roots to be more of a street fighting game. Nothing felt more satisfying then going in and beating up your opponent to finish them with a brutal finisher. I'd be hyped for a Def Jam FFNY2.

It would be amazing to see something like these games on the PS4/XB1/PC , as I can't really name anything like them nowadays.

What does Gaf think about these EA games?
 

Messi

Member
Def Jam Icon tanked and killed the series. Just to show how little they got why icon was shit. They were making a sequel to it with the air dj stuff still in it.
 
Jam got redone last Gen, honestly it was pretty good, not perfect but a 8/10 compared to te.

It didn't sell for shot though so why would they make another one.

Speaking of which I should get some ofe action this week since the population seemed pretty decent when the playoffs started
 

Jamie OD

Member
If I remember correctly NBA wanted to tone down the street culture stuff because they don't want to be associated with any implications towards gang culture. Or I might be mixing them up with the NFL. I know one of the leagues didn't like how the Street series was presented.
 

Card Boy

Banned
NBA Jam On Fire Edition was and is amazing, I want another. So much content for its pricetag. Online was always dead, not sure if the servers are still up.

Give me this as well, not just NBA Steet and Def Jam. Two games this thread is about reminded me of it lol.
 

Village

Member
If I remember correctly NBA wanted to tone down the street culture stuff because they don't want to be associated with any implications towards gang culture. Or I might be mixing them up with the NFL. I know one of the leagues didn't like how the Street series was presented.

i'm interested to know who and why exactly
 

MMaRsu

Banned
They stopped making awesome games. Nba Street v2 was the best, went in a wrong direction.

They killed Def Jam when they didnt let Aki work on another one.
 

Flowmoney

Member
Def Jam Icon tanked and killed the series. Just to show how little they got why icon was shit. They were making a sequel to it with the air dj stuff still in it.

I honestly forgot that Icon existed , I played it once or twice and got bored of it. Wasn't the air dj thing adding some weird execution system to win the fight? I can see why something like that would be disliked. Old games were just about beating each other up and feeling good , not using DJing magic to win battles.
 

BokehKing

Banned
If I remember correctly NBA wanted to tone down the street culture stuff because they don't want to be associated with any implications towards gang culture. Or I might be mixing them up with the NFL. I know one of the leagues didn't like how the Street series was presented.
Maybe they should tone down the players on the court throwing up gang signs instead of worrying about a fun 2 v 2 or 3 v 3 game of ball on a video game system.
 

Dereck

Member
Maybe they should tone down the players on the court throwing up gang signs instead of worrying about a fun 2 v 2 or 3 v 3 game of ball on a video game system.
Link me to a video of an NBA player throwing up gang signs in any NBA Street game.

Not being a wise guy, I'm actually curious.

The only thing I can think of is NBA players dancing after dunking on people.
 

Alphahawk

Member
The NBA took issue with the NBA Ballers series, I'm not sure if they also took umbrage with the Street series but I would imagine EA stopped doing both just to be safe.
 

Sesha

Member
This is one area where I wish indies would step up and fill the gap. Take something like NBA Street. They could just make original characters for each of the teams. There could be some crazy weird-looking characters. Monstars-inspired team, anyone? :p

The NBA took issue with the NBA Ballers series, I'm not sure if they also took umbrage with the Street series but I would imagine EA stopped doing both just to be safe.

That definitely sounds like something EA would do.
 

BokehKing

Banned
Link me to a video of an NBA player throwing up gang signs in any NBA Street game.

Not being a wise guy, I'm actually curious.

The only thing I can think of is NBA players dancing after dunking on people.
I'm talking about players throwing up gang signs in real life not the video games

This is one area where I wish indies would step up and fill the gap. Take something like NBA Street. They could just make original characters for each of the teams. There could be some crazy weird-looking characters. Monstars-inspired team, anyone? :p



That definitely sounds like something EA would do.
I think that would be a great idea
 

Housh

Member
I still play Fight for NY on PS2. It looks amazing upscaled through XRGB-mini. I should capture it to show you folks sometime.
 
This is one area where I wish indies would step up and fill the gap. Take something like NBA Street. They could just make original characters for each of the teams. There could be some crazy weird-looking characters. Monstars-inspired team, anyone?

Or a party fighting game with Broforce-style off brand rappers instead of actual ones.
 
If I remember correctly NBA wanted to tone down the street culture stuff because they don't want to be associated with any implications towards gang culture. Or I might be mixing them up with the NFL. I know one of the leagues didn't like how the Street series was presented.

How asinine if true. So much of American basketball is tied to street ball, but nothing about those games in any way promoted gang culture. Vol 2 is one of the best sports games I've ever played. Fight for NY was damn awesome as well, its these kinds of games that are sorely lacking on the market nowadays. Its regurgitated AAA/annualized franchises and indies...
 

Arkam

Member
Def Jam Icon tanked and killed the series. Just to show how little they got why icon was shit. They were making a sequel to it with the air dj stuff still in it.

Oh the memories... To this day, DJ:Icon is still the worst game I ever worked on (Not bad too eh?). The fighting was pretty damn terrible and the DJ mechanic made less sense than it should. But surprisingly the story and bits of create a fighter were impressive. Besides who doesn't love a game where the real goal is to sleep with all 4 women while moving up the hiphop/thug ladder?
 
If I remember correctly NBA wanted to tone down the street culture stuff because they don't want to be associated with any implications towards gang culture. Or I might be mixing them up with the NFL. I know one of the leagues didn't like how the Street series was presented.

they made the players wear suits pre game because they started to show up with 'hip hop' clothes and jewellery.
so i can see that being true.
 

TomShoe

Banned
NBA Street Vol. 2 would be fucking amazing.

NBA Street Vol. 3 was OK, but Homecourt was poor, because they both focused too much on high flying dunks and crazy tricks, and it was impossible to stop anyone from scoring. In Vol. 2, defense won you games. That's what set it apart from the others.
 

Dereck

Member
NBA Street Vol. 2 would be fucking amazing.

NBA Street Vol. 3 was OK, but Homecourt was poor, because they both focused too much on high flying dunks and crazy tricks, and it was impossible to stop anyone from scoring. In Vol. 2, defense won you games. That's what set it apart from the others.
Fucking double dunks, what were they thinking
 

Sesha

Member
I think that would be a great idea

I know, right? They could do the Hotline Miami thing by getting indie rappers off soundcloud or whatever and license some of their music. Or at least ask around. There are plenty of artists that would be cool with stuff like that. I bet Cunninlynguists would at least consider it.
This is another one of those times when I wish I could do programming / knew scripting languages and had some drawing talent, or at least could use photoshop.

Or a party fighting game with Broforce-style off brand rappers instead of actual ones.

I can totally see that. That would have been neat.
 
NBA Street Vol. 2 would be fucking amazing.

NBA Street Vol. 3 was OK, but Homecourt was poor, because they both focused too much on high flying dunks and crazy tricks, and it was impossible to stop anyone from scoring. In Vol. 2, defense won you games. That's what set it apart from the others.

Agreed, defense in Vol 2 was as fun to play as being on offense.
 

Robcat

Banned
I'm still playing nba street vol 2 to this day. I have so many destroyed controllers from playing this game.
 
I believe it was the NFL that wanted EA to tone things down, which is why we went from NFL Street to NFL Tour before it flopped and they closed up shop on the entire series. I don't recall hearing anything about the NBA in that regard, but I could be wrong. I think NBA Street was just a victim of poor sales like most of the rest of the "EA BIG" lineup.
 

Sizzle55

Member
I would also really like to see The Bigs 3 as well, I love The Show to death but sometimes you just want to smash balls in times square. I would also be down for a new NHL arcade style game.
 

jwhit28

Member
Streetball in general is dying. Around here everyone waits for courts at rec centers and gyms. I think moving Street's framework into a NBA setting (like a corss between Street and Jam) would work better for EA and the NBA. I only want Def Jam if Kanye is an Akuma style secret boss.

Also if someone complains to EA throw in a word for Fight Night.
 

FaintDeftone

Junior Member
Both Dej Jam Vendetta and Fight for New York were amazing fighting games. I still own both and pull them out from time to time.
 
I don't get the hate for homecourt, I loved everything about that game. I would love a new def jam or a new NBA / NFL street. Playing the unrivaled madden and 2k can be boring sometimes. Just make it like the good street games and everyone will buy them.
 

Ascenion

Member
I honestly think NBA street could come back as a nice counter to 2K, since well let's be honest NBA Live isn't really doing anything currently and I don't think it has a good chance of coming back.
 
NBA Jam 2015. 2v2 just like the original. LEBRON JAMES IS ON FIRE!!


I would definitely buy a new NFL Blitz-type game, too. Too bad the NFL (and EA) killed their video game reputation with the EA exclusivity. Madden is such a tired franchise.
 
NBA Street might happen, and I hoped it will, considering I liked how FIFA Street 2012 played. But I think that street ball 3 on 3 mode in the NBA 2K games might have effectively replaced it.

As for Def Jam, I seriously think the amount of money needed to get the rappers of today would be ludicrous, and I doubt even EA would have the dough to make it. Besides, aren't most of the AKI guys working on WWE 2K now?
 
I would buy a remaster of Def Jam FFNY 60 frames and online on PSN for a huge amount of dollars. My favorite fighting game of all time.

I still can't forgive Kudo Tsunoda for killing Def Jam.
 
As with most "Why doesn't ________ make another ________" threads, I imagine that there simply isn't enough consumer interest to offset the licensing/production costs for the game.
 
I definitely think we're due for another NBA street, its not a game I'd want to see annualized or anything, but there's like a completely new generation of stars. Durant, Curry, Harden, Rose, Westbrook, etc weren't even in the NBA when Homecourt came out. I'd prefer if the gameplay more resembled vol 2, IMO that was the best version, and having the multiple versions of Jordan and the other legends with signature moves and animations was cool. For example, Magic Johnson had a pretty unique looking full speed gallop and they actually captured that in the game.
 

SSReborn

Member
Maaan both of these need to come back.

Quick question with the past two Def Jam games were all the artists that were involved signed to Def Jam at the time? I'm looking at a list of the current artists and can't really see how it would work nowadays. Maybe if it wasn't called def jam and they opened it up to any artists across multiple labels.

NBA Street would be really easy for them to do.
 

Korezo

Member
For NBA Street to be good it needs to be exactly like the park but without all the brokenness and terrible gameplay.
 
I would buy a remaster of Def Jam FFNY 60 frames and online on PSN for a huge amount of dollars. My favorite fighting game of all time.

I still can't forgive Kudo Tsunoda for killing Def Jam.
Icon was such dogshit, he killed that franchise so fast. I remember being pretty underwhelmed by the first demo.

FFNY had an awesome roster too, it even had Jacob the Jeweler lol.
 

Into

Member
I think SSX did well and i suppose NBA Street did well since they made 3 of them, and then it all just evaporated.

Its a shame, but people just did not buy those games to justify them being made. Especially a shame since Fight for NY was a fantastic game. I think the hip hop license hurt it more than it helped it. I like rap a lot, have done since i was 8, but many wrestling and fighting game fans just assumed it was dog shit because it seemed so tacky, add in EA logo (despite AKI guys making it) and it just did not do all that well.
 

Allforce

Member
Oh the memories... To this day, DJ:Icon is still the worst game I ever worked on (Not bad too eh?). The fighting was pretty damn terrible and the DJ mechanic made less sense than it should. But surprisingly the story and bits of create a fighter were impressive. Besides who doesn't love a game where the real goal is to sleep with all 4 women while moving up the hiphop/thug ladder?

I'd love to hear more about the development of this game from your perspective. I actually didn't outright hate the game, I think I beat it and enjoyed the mechanics enough and my created fighter to see it through.

This was the game that Kudo (sp? The Kinect/Hololens guy) helmed at EA Chicago right? I feel like there were some cool concepts like tying damage increases to hitting opponents on major beats of the song mid-fight.

What was the vibe like working on that game? Were there fans of FFNY on the team who didn't like the new direction?
 
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