Midway hopes to cash in on the NBA Playoff craze with its arcade hoops game, NBA Ballers: Chosen One. Except instead of going crazy over blown calls and awful coaching, you can bust out tons of special moves that'll make you the king of the courts. That is, if you can put up with the game's issues. Although we appreciate the sick animations and pummeling our friends with monster dunks, a lackluster single player mode and some strange design decisions have us more confused than the New York Knicks.

Ballers is about flash. Midway takes the mega millionaire NBA player and pumps him up with so much platinum and outlandishness that we can't help but chuckle. After all, it's not like we get invited to pick-up games at an airport, but forget about the fancy suits and the bling. This is all about recreating just a slice of glory that is old school NBA Jam, and Midway's version of boomshakalaka involves bouncing the basketball off an opponent's head, spinning it around their torso and physically rolling your player between their legs before slamming it home.

For that, Midway deserves a pat on the back. Ballers has tons of sick moves. You'll pass the rock to a crowd member that'll set you up for a jam, crossover your adversary and tap the ball off the glass, then pound it through the cylinder. Because of that, the game offers some nice thrills, but the happiness is short-lived, especially with Story Mode. Here, you'll create your baller using a pre-set number of faces and facial hair, then divvy up attribute points across a host of skills, such as steals, 3-point shooting and dunking. From there, you'll enter a tournament in which the most talented street ball player wins an NBA contract, and that's about the gist of it. Midway doesn't enhance this mode with cut scenes or even text explaining why things happen, aside from some lackluster video sequences with Chuck D. from Public Enemy. You're never told why certain NBA players team up with you, or whether you attract unwanted attention from a rival. Things just happen out of the blue, with the game dropping you into one-on-one, two-on-two and even one-on-one-on-one games, the latter being all sorts of ridiculous. If you're unlucky enough to play the ones that don't feature take backs (clearing the ball after it's hit the rim), they quickly degenerate into mindless, sloppy affairs where all three players crowd around the basket and swat each other's shots until time runs out. Sorry, but after losing several straight times, we reached for the power button.

Furthermore, we're not down with the attribute system. It sucks having a scrub that can't dunk or hit jump shots because his stats aren't good enough. As a result, we lost more games than necessary.

Then there's the artificial intelligence, "intelligence" being the key word. It's far too easy blowing by a defender. Once you learn the game's combo system and its benefits (like tacking on extra points for successful makes), you can exploit the computer en route to fortune and glory. It just doesn't put up much of a fight.

Midway also needed to update its roster. Ballers has Ben Wallace on the Chicago Bulls (he plays for the Cavs), Jason Kidd with the Nets (he's on Dallas) and Shaq on Miami (plays for Phoenix). Those trades happened well over a month ago.

On the positive side, the game shines in multiplayer. Get some buddies over and you'll have a blast smack talking each other and pulling off Super Moves and Act-A-Fool combos. And if you're lonely, you can hop online via Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network and challenge hoops fans to a dunk fest, complete with leader boards.

And although Ballers doesn't sport the best graphics around, it's still an attractive game, with fairly accurate player faces and over-the-top courts adorned with airplanes, statues and attractive architecture. Animations are a bit stiff, and we detest not seeing the ball touch the net, but this isn't an ugly game.

With that said, it's not a great one, either. NBA Ballers: Chosen One has its moments, but none of them justify dropping $59.99. Midway just didn't do enough to flesh out the street ball experience. Otherwise, this could have been the new NBA Jam we've craved. As it is, it's just a passable bball game that's worth a rental to extract its Xbox 360 Achievement points. Ball up.

Related Links

NBA Ballers: Chosen One Xbox 360 Game Guide

NBA Ballers: Chosen One PS3 Game Guide