NBA Ballers E3 2003 Preshow Report

It's been a while since Midway had an arcade-style basketball game out there, and EA has since staked a claim to the territory with the release of two games in the NBA Street series. But now Midway is returning to the sport with its upcoming one-on-one game, NBA Ballers.

Ballers is similar in look and feel to Midway's last NBA game, NBA Showtime, but being a one-on-one game, the final product will have a focus on offensive and defensive trickery. The game's developers have described these tricks as having an almost fighting-game-like effect on the gameplay, which definitely sounds like an interesting twist on the genre. Unfortunately, the version we were shown just prior to E3 didn't really have many of these tricks in place, so it's difficult to say how this facet of the gameplay will turn out in the end.

The game's main story mode is said to focus on the "baller" lifestyle, and you'll travel to various lavish half courts, each modeled after the NBA player who "owns" his specific court. There will be plenty of action going on in the background, including a DJ working some turntables and a rapper doing his thing on the microphone. A two-man team will handle commentary. As in other Midway sports games, one man will focus on calling the action, while the other--in this case, an underground freestyle rapper--adds flavor to the proceedings. The story mode will have lots of different challenges and scoring modifiers, and along the way you'll participate in handicap matches that put your player up against two or three opponents. Since you'll be playing a half-court game, you'll have to clear the ball on possession changes.

NBA Ballers is scheduled to come to all three major consoles in October, but only the PlayStation 2 version will feature online play. We'll have more details on the game's online options and gameplay modes as it becomes available.