NFL Street (PlayStation 2, Xbox)

By taking the traditional NFL game played in large stadiums and moving it to the streets, EA Sports has created a new brand of smash mouth football with the release of NFL STREET. Players choose their team of seven from real NFL rosters and a stellar legends lineup. Like sandlot football, you'll find no refs and no rules to keep the play clean.

NFL Street allows players to choose from seven unique playing fields that include such destinations as a sandy beach and a park full of obstacles. The create-a-team and create-a-player modes give players the ability to create their own version of a NFL player and team.

The only downside is that players won't have a prayer of winning when they take on one of the pre-selected teams. The process is also very time-consuming, as players have to pick out everything from uniforms, accessories, colors and team logos. But overall, the game provides hours of entertainment for players of all ages.

Players do strut around the field with a lot of attitude, and smack-talking is a big part of the game. Violence is also an issue as players are slammed to the playing surface on a regular basis. However, they quickly bounce back up and show no signs of injury, which presents another issue: younger kids may get the idea that you cannot get hurt when playing football. You might want to give them a reality check here.