FreeStyle Street Basketball

Rating ESRB: Everyone Genre sports Publisher Sierra External Links Official Sierra Entertainment

FreeStyle Street Basketball is a new massive multiplayer online sports game distributed by Sierra. It’s the North American version of a game that was wildly popular in Asia. The game plays out as a cross between a normal sports game and a role-playing game and it’s the RPG-like features that really add a lot of depth.

The first order of business is to generate your character. Initially you can choose one of three possible positions: center, guard, or forward. Each has its own pros and cons and your position will go a long way toward dictating what abilities your character is going to have and what they’re going to be good at during a game. For instance, a center should not be bombing 3-pointers and out guarding on the perimeter. They’re set up to stay by the basket grabbing rebounds, posting up, and going for dunks. If you try to chase down the smaller, faster forwards and guards, they will run circles around you and it will get embarrassing in a hurry.

The initial character options are pretty basic, but that’s OK as plenty of customization options come later. There are a few options for body styles, skin tones, etc., but for the most part it will be your clothes and other options that will set you apart from everyone else. More on those in a minute. Once your character is set up, it’s time to hit the court.

While the game mostly focuses on actual games between online opponents, there are a few one-player choices. You can hit the practice court where it is simply you and a rim. You can try out moves, take some shots, and grab your own rebounds. It’s kind of a waste of time, but for the first couple of times out, it helps somewhat get you used to the controls and player movements.

Speaking of controls, they couldn’t be simpler and this is an aspect of the game that I think really helps it shine. The arrow keys move your character and the W-A-S-D keys control everything else you’ll need to do on the court. It literally takes minutes to learn the controls, which is a welcome relief. Of course, while learning the controls is simple, learning the timing and how to use the controls effectively takes some practice.

In addition to the practice court, there are a series of tutorials you can go through as well. These are useful in helping nail down that timing, but I think the system could be better arranged. You are forced to go through the tutorial segment by segment and you can’t try another ability until you get past the first. I would rather be able to try out each skill separately and work on them as much or as little as I want rather than being forced into a rigid lesson. However, you can work on your skills just as easily in real games, so if you skip the tutorials completely it’s not exactly the end of the world.

The only way to build your character is in the online games and that’s the goal after all, isn’t it? You’ll start out at level 1 just like everyone else, but depending on how you do, you earn experience and level ups. You also earn currency in the game that takes the form of points and bills. Points will buy you most of the basic customization options I mentioned earlier. This includes just about any kind of wardrobe you could want, new hairstyles, tattoos, etc. You can also buy new abilities such as special dunks or dribble moves.

The really cool stuff can only be purchased with bills. But, as they say, there’s a catch. While you can earn some bills within the game, the easiest way to get them is to buy them with real life money. The prime advantage is that many of the things you buy with bills also enhance the abilities of you character. In other words, the brand new jersey that you bought is not only something rare that most of the other players won’t have, but it could also give you a speed boost. It works as a pretty good setup because you can still have a great time with plenty of options if you never buy a bill, but if you really want to push the limits and compete on the elite levels of the game, you’ll probably need to buy some bills and boost your skills.

One concern is that someone could come in and just because they have cash they can buy their way high into the game. From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t really work that way. Having bills certainly helps, but many of the items and boosts aren’t available until you reach certain experience levels. So one way or the other, everyone has to work their way up before they can splurge on all of the extras.

Finding games to jump into has been pretty easy so far. They’re nicely broken down by experience level and you can see where everyone else is at so you don’t have to worry about stumbling in as a level 1 player against a team of level 30 guys. You have the option of choosing 1v1, 2v2, or 3v3 games in the different lobbies.

For a game that is simple as can be to learn, the RPG aspects and various possible team strategies make this a game where you can easily play for hours. It’s also nice that you can put in as little or as much as you want into the game and still have a good time. It’s not an earth-shatteringly realistic sports simulation, but it is a good game and a neat concept. If you’re into online sports games at all, I can definitely recommend it.