After the highly enjoyable, yet flawed, NFL Street I had high hopes for this game. Thankfully EA have done what they have started to do with alarming frequency; actually delivered a great game.

NFL Street is an extreme, no holds barred version of American Football. No rules, no pads and plenty of attitude. If you like trash talking then this is the game for you! You play with teams of 7, with each player fulfilling roles on both Offence and Defence. The pitches are not traditional pitches. There are no hashes or posts and they certainly aren't full size. They are short and narrow plots of land, for example parking lots, roads and aqueducts. Whilst playing, in addition to (hopefully) scoring some touchdowns, you also get style points based on any style moves you completed or any notable events that occurred in each play, like sacks, touchdowns or broken tackles. Once you have achieved a certain number of points you get a gamebreaker, and double that many to get a gamebreaker 2. These drastically increase your chances of scoring or creating a turnover, and should be used wisely. Games are not timed, but run to a certain number of points, usually 24 or 36.

If you played NFL Street then you will be very comfortable in this sequel. Bear in mind there were only 11 months between the two games if you want to analyse how much has changed. The first thing you will notice (aside from the bizarre appearance of rap 'artist' Xzibit) is that the whole appearance is a lot more 'street'. Loading screens are adorned with surprisingly good graffiti style images of American Football. There is also a huge amount of jewellery available from the shop that you can use to bling your team up (solid platinum chain, anyone?). Oh, and the gameplay has changed quite a bit too.

Now that's more like it Americans, non of that over padded malarky.

When you start the game, even if you are a seasoned NFL Street veteran, the essential first move is to play the tutorial mode. There as a host of new moves, and a much improved, expanded playbook that you need to familiarise yourself with. This is where the improvement starts to surface. The pitches are very narrow, which made a successful passing game very tricky in the prequel as there simply wasn't room for your receivers to get clear of the defence. The inclusion of wall moves' has changed all this. You can now run routes down the walls on the sides of the pitch, and leap off them to give you a bit of extra space. Whether you are a receiver, leaping off the wall to catch a ball, or a running back, wall-jumping to avoid a tackle, it is a much needed addition that has changed the whole nature of the game. As a result you can really add a lot more variety to your tactics, rather than having to rely on running plays to gain you the yards.

It is also easier to change your formation in play. Rather than trying to remember what call each direction on the d-pad represents you simply tap R, which brings up a menu, showing you which plays you can change to. On defence you can not only change your formation but you can also predict whether your opponent will play a running, passing or trick play to try and prepare your team based on the formation the offence takes.

There are 3 main gameplay modes. The first is 'Own the City'. In this mode you take the role of an up-and-coming quarterback, desperate to make a name for yourself in the city. You assemble a team and play a mixture of challenges and matches against other local teams winning credits to spend on equipment for your team and development points to enhance your own skills. You will also get the opportunity to win new players for your team. As you win matches you will gradually open up more areas, until you 'Own the City'. This mode is very enjoyable, with a sensibly judged difficulty curve.

Now that's got to hurt.

'NFL Challenge' is actually very similar. The main differences are that your whole team now has upgradeable attributes and that you are taking on NFL teams, instead of local teams. You still play a variety of matches and challenges, although the challenges are more varied, and include style point goals too. This is more reminiscent of the main game mode in the original. It is not as enjoyable as 'Own the City', although it certainly has a longer lifespan. The challenges from both these modes are available to play as mini games, either 1 or 2 player.

My favourite mode was 'NFL Gauntlet'. In this mode you pick an NFL team, and then take on the other 31 in a series of matches, culminating in a match against a Legends team. The teams have been seeded in the order of last seasons NFL rankings, so the difficulty curve is well judged. You don't have to worry about upgrading your players or who to pick as it's all done for you, making this the most accessible of the 3 main game modes. However, I do have a quibble with this mode. When I played I used the New England Patriots, so naturally I had a pretty easy ride for the majority of the games. I would have liked to go back after I finished it to play with a worse team and really show my skills; but sadly, once it's done you can't do it again with your profile. On the plus side, you will win a vast amount of credit that can be spent on buying equipment for your teams in the other 2 modes, much of which, like pads and gloves, actually has a use.

Yeh.. well.. your mother.

There is of course also a multiplayer mode. This is done very well; its simple with few options to mess around with meaning it's very quick and easy to get into. Once you have played the single player mode for any length of time you will have developed some skills and tactics that work really well against the computer. People however are not computers. Your tactics will have to be developed and refined to succeed in multiplayer. NFL Street 2 has been flavour of the month in my household, with three of us getting pretty hooked on it and starting to feel pretty confident in our ability, however we agreed that the thing that really got us excellent skills was to play against an unpredictable and more intelligent human opponent. That's exactly what multiplayer should be all about – refining your skills and advancing your tactics.

Final Say:

Of course, the game isn't perfect. The main game modes are too similar, the sound track is possibly the most random play list ever created by man and the graphics really aren't as great as they could be – 'Resident Evil 4' really has raised the bar for this generation, but nonetheless it really is an enjoyable game. If you are an avid American Football fan then I couldn't recommend this over Madden. It's surprisingly tactical and entertaining, but keep in mind you can't design your own plays, create an awe inspiring franchise or even win the Superbowl. If you own Madden, or are just looking for a fun sports game that isn't FIFA then you can't really go too far wrong by giving this game a whirl.