NBA Street Homecourt (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)

NBA STREET HOMECOURT features four modes of play: Homecourt Challenge, Gamebreaker Battle, Trick Battle, and Back to Basics. The highlight is Homecourt Challenge, a career mode that allows players to create their own players and develop their skills. As they ascend through the circuit of legendary street courts, players face stiffer competition from squads of NBA and (in a refreshing twist) WNBA players. Players recruit new ballers to upgrade their team, expand the flamboyance of their moves, and freshen up their look with new (often branded) uniforms and shoes.

Trick Battle strings together combinations of the Homecourt's signature tricks -- from simple crossovers to the elaborate "Trifecta Dunk" where the ball passes through the hoop three times. In the Gamebreaker Battle, players score only when they fill a power-up meter that allows special moves and deducts points from opponents. Back-to-Basics is simple three-on-three ball, with the special rules turned off.

NBA STREET HOMECOURT sets a new standard for the arcade-style basketball games that trace their lineage back to NBA Jam. And while impossibly acrobatic dunks still define the game, it's a new twist of elegant realism that elevates the title to Hall of Fame status. In beautiful, HD video, Rip Hamilton talks about using the courts of Philadelphia to get out of a desperate situation, MVP Steve Nash details his unlikely Canadian high school history, and Carmelo Anthony recounts the time he won the respect of everyone in his neighborhood.

This understated sense of history is a welcome addition to the cartoonish court showdowns. All of this, plus impressively rendered, stylish court settings and fluid -- if demanding -- gameplay make NBA Street Homecourt the basketball arcade game to beat.