November 20, 2006 - Two years ago, EA Sports Big took some liberties with the standard football experience by taking NFL players out of stadiums and putting them back onto the streets and vacant lots where they learned the game. The NFL Street series was about style as much as it was about substance, and showing up your opponents as you took the ball to the house was a key part of the game. But while the console version of the previous games often stretched the extreme football genre, the translation over to the PSP side of the ball wasn't as effective. The same could be said of the recent release of NFL Street 3, which demands that players Respect the Street, but still comes up a bit short in the gameplay department.

Take it to the Sandlot

The previous NFL Street titles focused on using stylish moves to show up your opponent on the football field. Whether you were performing no look passes with your QB or went high stepping into the end zone, every successful showboat move you pulled off added to your Gamebreaker meter. Once full, players could trigger this feature which would run a canned cinematic and give you either an automatic six points or a crushing defensive stop. However, in Street 3, Gamebreakers take place in real time, putting the success of the move squarely in your hands.

Offensive players have the most versatility with these Gamebreakers, because just about any one of their standard moves are significantly boosted. Pulling off a typical spin, stiff arm, jump or juke results in a flashier version of that action, along with a shockwave emanating from that player that knocks nearby athletes flat on their backs. Quarterbacks also find that their passes get turbocharged. These streak towards their target with such force that it knocks the receiver an additional five yards or so down the field. While defenders have fewer moves, they're just as effective. When you're on the other side of the ball, you can perform a homing interception that lets you immediately pull down any pass in the air. Similarly, you can perform a homing tackle on an offensive player, which will often force them to put the ball on the ground.

You're not guaranteed to be successful if you decide to pull off any one of these Gamebreakers, though, which is new to the series. For example, opposing defenders can time their tackles to hit you shortly after your offensive move has dissipated, and ball carriers can actually be far enough down the field that your homing tackle will miss its intended target. What's more, it's now possible to dynamically cancel out the other team's Gamebreaker if you pull off your move at the right time. The added risk or reward to using these actions during a game or racing to collect up to three of them for your team forces you to improve your strategy for these moves during each match up.

Redesigning Gamebreakers isn't the only change that's been made to Street 3. The previous game introduced the ability to get vertical by jumping off walls to avoid tackles or make incredible catches. This time around, players will be able to perform aerial moves to further extend their hangtime, helping throw off defenders and adding to their gained yardage count. It's not explained in the in-game tutorials, but it's something to know about, especially since it's shown off in the intro video of the game: once a player has jumped onto a wall and performs a secondary jump off the wall, there's a small window of time to hit the analog nub in any one of the four cardinal directions, which will perform a flip or spin in mid-air. This move is usually good for at least another five or six yards, and can sometimes be the difference between breaking a run wide open and turning the ball over on downs.