NBA Street Homecourt’s gamebreaker system explained

IGN has an insightful talk with Todd Batty, one of the producers of NBA Street Homecourt. In it, they discuss what makes the latest version of EA Sports‘ gamebreaker system so different from previous tweaks they’ve implemented to the NBA games.

The gamebreaker system relies on a money ball that can be activated after successfully pulling off a couple of sweet gameplay tricks. When the money ball is activated, the person holding it can do all sorts of acrobatic things you’d only see in kung-fu movies. Moves that you could execute before get even more stylish when in gamebreaker mode, so the fun factor’s there.

As for scoring, one thing they note is that by simply activating the money ball, you automatically take a point away from your opponent. After that, there are a couple of ways you can go, from automatically shooting the ball for basic points and no bonuses to performing even more tricks (try the trick remixer!) to increase your meter and add up to 3 more points to your final basket. In other words, you could potentially fire off a seven-point play by activating the money ball (-1), doing tricks like mad (+3), and ending it all with a three-point shot (+3). Definitely a potential for turnovers there.

Speaking of turnovers, Batty also mentions that you shouldn’t expect to be invincible in gamebreaker mode. He says,

…with every trick comes an added possibility the defense will counter your moves and steal the money ball, thus stealing the gamebreaker. If that happens, they will then be faced with the same decision.

Sounds like a very tense sort of mechanic. No wonder they call it they gamebreaker system. In any case, expect Sony and Microsoft to pass the money ball to you, along with this game, some time in February.

IGN has an insightful talk with Todd Batty, one of the producers of NBA Street Homecourt. In it, they discuss what makes the latest version of EA Sports‘ gamebreaker system so different from previous tweaks they’ve implemented to the NBA games.

The gamebreaker system relies on a money ball that can be activated after successfully pulling off a couple of sweet gameplay tricks. When the money ball is activated, the person holding it can do all sorts of acrobatic things you’d only see in kung-fu movies. Moves that you could execute before get even more stylish when in gamebreaker mode, so the fun factor’s there.

As for scoring, one thing they note is that by simply activating the money ball, you automatically take a point away from your opponent. After that, there are a couple of ways you can go, from automatically shooting the ball for basic points and no bonuses to performing even more tricks (try the trick remixer!) to increase your meter and add up to 3 more points to your final basket. In other words, you could potentially fire off a seven-point play by activating the money ball (-1), doing tricks like mad (+3), and ending it all with a three-point shot (+3). Definitely a potential for turnovers there.

Speaking of turnovers, Batty also mentions that you shouldn’t expect to be invincible in gamebreaker mode. He says,

…with every trick comes an added possibility the defense will counter your moves and steal the money ball, thus stealing the gamebreaker. If that happens, they will then be faced with the same decision.

Sounds like a very tense sort of mechanic. No wonder they call it they gamebreaker system. In any case, expect Sony and Microsoft to pass the money ball to you, along with this game, some time in February.