Tag Archives: The Cage

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at the courts used in Street mode and 24/7: Road to the EBC in NBA 2K6 for Xbox 360.

Revisiting NBA 2K6 for Xbox 360 on a whim has retroactively made it one of my favourite basketball video games. Way back in 2006, I’d been unimpressed by the PlayStation 2 version, but since coming to enjoy the Xbox 360 release, I’ve greatly warmed up to its sixth generation counterpart as well. Fittingly for a game that I overlooked for so many years, NBA 2K6 has also allowed me to develop more of an affinity for a mode I seldom bothered to play, namely Street. Yes, after all these years, JaoSming’s love of Blacktop and its predecessor mode finally rubbed off on me!

It undoubtedly helps that Street mode in NBA 2K6 boasted some fantastic locations to hoop in. They were also a part of 24/7: Road to the EBC, providing great backdrops to a fun and challenging barnstorming mode. Of course, it’s just as fun to assemble a couple of squads and hit the virtual blacktop (and in some cases, hardwood) for once-off showdowns. And so, just as I once took a look back at the memorable one-on-one courts in NBA Live 2003, today I’m giving the same treatment to the Street courts in NBA 2K6 for Xbox 360. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at Street Hoops.

There was a time when multiple studios threw their hat into the ring with basketball video games, providing a choice beyond the brand leaders such as NBA Live and NBA 2K. Of course, while that era is nostalgic now and many of us miss having a plethora of hoops games, the market glut definitely wasn’t sustainable. Not every game ended up being a big enough hit to spawn sequels or a series, often for very good reasons. Still, there are some overlooked gems and interesting releases that became cult classics and personal favourites for gamers who grew up with them.

As I’ve expanded my collection, it’s been fun to experience games that I overlooked back when I was primarily playing NBA Live, NBA Jam, and NBA Street. Even the titles that lack the polish of the all-time classics are still fun to revisit, and they’re definitely fascinating to dive into all these years later. That’s an apt summary of Street Hoops by Black Ops Entertainment! Like its spiritual sequel, AND 1 Streetball, this 2002 release for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube is rough around the edges, but unquestionably had ambitious ideas and potential. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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