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To me, NBA Ballers felt like the true return of NBA Jam in an evolved form. The same frantic, button mashing, finger hurting, temper flaring, crazy dunking insane basketball nirvana I experienced back on the Super Nintendo (much to the chagrin of my parents), was finally back after lukewarm sequels like NBA Hangtime, Showtime, etc, throughout the Playstation/N64/Dreamcast era.

After two years, Midway returns with NBA Ballers: Phenom, a game that feels a little too similar to the original, but is still a game worth renting for those who own the first, and a game worth owning for anyone new to the franchise and a fan of arcade style basketball.

If you’re familiar with And1 Streetball or the Entertainer’s Basketball Classic in New York City, Phenom takes those contained 1 on 1 moments, arguably the main appeal behind streetball, and brings them exclusively into focus. You can perform different tricks and dunks with different combinations of turbo (left or right trigger or clicking the left thumbstick) along with buttons on the gamepad (right thumbstick is used for most dribbling tricks). If you’ve played NBA Jam, or the more recent NBA Street games, the exaggerated style of basketball is akin to what Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater does with skateboarding.

Phenom features various game modes which lets you practice your skills or set up different game formats (2 on 2, 3 on 3, etc), but the main emphasis in the game is around its Story Mode, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on in this review.

As the game begins, you are in Los Angeles for the NBA Finals, where a week-long tournament will be held to find the next great baller. Also on the scene is Hot Sauce (a famous real life streetball player), your former partner who turned on you when you were about to hit a big money contract together, then took the contract for himself and stole your girl along the way. You’re in the city looking for revenge to make back your name, possibly win back your girl, and one would assume, become rich and famous.

Although I had played the first game, it still took a while before I could figure out the controls again. Ballers’ manual painfully sticks to the basics, and there isn’t a tutorial mode or help section in the game either. While I can understand there being a discovery process in the game, sometimes you’ll actually unlock moves and features that the game won’t discuss at all, so you’ll be left to message boards or pure luck to figure out what you’re supposed to do from there. As far as I can tell, the moves you perform are for the most part random, which makes it annoying if you’d like to see a particular move performed or if you just want to know if you’ve seen every move your player can do. Perhaps Midway did that for the sake of replayability; you won’t be able to check every move or dunk out unless you try out an extensive number of players (or create them in Story Mode) in the skirmish modes.

You’ll always need to win each match you play in, though how you play stylistically is a big determiner of the credits you earn for Story Mode. The more you’re able to link up big combos (tricks followed by scoring), the more you’re able to get the crowd on your side via the House Meter. Fill the Meter, and you will be able to “Bring the House Down”, a special dunk (this is an example of a move that you’re never told how to do) that instantly ends the game, no matter who’s in the lead.

Virtually all of the basketball games you’ll be playing in are multi-game tournaments; you have to win the entire tournament before you officially pass it. Most tournaments have a set number of continues, so this alleviates a lot of the frustration from losing. This also means though that you’ll have to play the game in 20-30 minute blocks because you won’t be able to save mid-tournament.

With almost all the games coming in the form of 1 on 1 matches, Phenom tries to force some variety by offering different rules for matches, things like goaltending being permitted, no fouls, or a 5 second shot clock. While these do help, the basketball part of the game can become very tedious, and most matches tend to feel the same the deeper you get into the game. I found myself just wanting to get through later tournaments as fast as possible so I could continue along with the plot of the game. One of the few exceptions to this was the ability to play Kobe Bryant to a game of 81 points, emulating his stunning NBA performance from only a few months ago.

When you’re not playing basketball, you can explore several different parts of Los Angeles, some with their own shopping areas and all with their own unique basketball tournaments to participate in. You can go around different areas dribbling a basketball, talking to people, unlocking new areas, and exploring. The people you meet will present you with different tasks that if completed, will earn you special rewards.

As often as it is used incorrectly, I suppose still that the best way to describe this mode is as a Grand Theft Auto (GTA)-like exploration one. The fact is, it is nothing like GTA in scope, freedom, or interactivity, but this may give you the best sense of what else you can do beyond the basketball courts.

Before you start Story Mode, you’ll create yourself an identity: name, number, size, and move set, which allows you to pre-pattern your game after an existing NBA Superstar. The exploration part of the game is an extension of the player creation mode. As you earn credits by playing basketball or finishing tasks, you can use them to buy new clothes or items to fully customize your player however you like. One of the most interesting things I found was the ability to purchase a specific player’s tattoos and have them on your own body.

The player creation mode is quite extensive, and people who really enjoy the process of making a character truly their own will enjoy the depth of detail available.

Some nice diversions from pure basketball are the mini-games you’ll find in the exploration mode. While some of the mini-games are rhythm based (car washing with cheerleaders or rap battling Jin), you can also play NBA Trivia and NBA Spelling Bee among other things as well.

Unfortunately, I learned that after you beat the game, you won’t have access to the exploration areas any longer (or goals that you may not have finished), which really is a needless hassle, in my opinion.

Like many sports video games, Phenom features its own licensed soundtrack, and the hip-hop flavor of the music complements the game well. Those purchasing the game will get a CD Soundtrack of the game’s tunes, a nice bonus. Sound effects are as they should be, and the commentary during the basketball action provides a nice aural backdrop to the game. The voice acting for the main characters in the game typify the stereotypes of what you would expect in this type of game, for good and bad, with Ludacris (rapper), Hot Sauce, and Chauncey Billups (Point Guard for the Detroit Pistons) voicing their roles well.

Graphically, Phenom seems to look the same as Ballers. While the graphics are still strong, my feeling is that little has changed since the first game. Players faces are the game’s most notable asset- you won’t find better ones in any basketball game on the XBox. Body models are realistic, and though there may be nothing flashy about the courts or other facets of the game world, everything is reasonably attractive. Animations are smooth and fluid, and there are no noticeable framerate issues.

(Note: NBA Ballers is also playable via XBox Live, but this was not attempted.)

After I finished the game, there wasn’t a lot of replay left for me. Although I think many will find creating another character enjoyable, getting through so many tournaments that all played the same tired me out. The basketball action on the court is pretty fun, but going against different players never feels that much…uh, different. The story mode, while enjoyable to work through, is not particularly good. Most players should get through the game in 10-15 hrs.

Despite these criticisms, Phenom is a very enjoyable game. For those who have played the original, the only real difference is the inclusion of an exploration mode that lets you do other things than just play basketball. For those who did play the first game, you’ll notice that much of the graphics and player homes that are featured are the same ones from the first game. I would recommend that owners of Ballers rent Phenom first before deciding if it is worth the upgrade. For anyone interested in arcade-style basketball, or better yet, enjoyed NBA Jam in its heyday, I would recommend Phenom as a game that once people get the hang of, will make them feel like they’re playing NBA Jam again. If you’re not interested in Xbox Live Multiplayer, however, and can rent the game for a week, it might be worth only a rental as well.