For many years now gamers have been opting for that over-the-top experience in their basketball titles; From the early days of Arch Rivals, Jordan vs. Bird, and NBA Jam, to the recent NBA Street and NBA Ballers series. While Midway owns the bragging rights for the success of the early goings of this style of b-ball action, it is EA who has really looked outside the box and made the genre their own. Well, Midway ain't going out like that, as they are trying to take back what's theirs with the NBA Ballers series.

While a lot of the same fundaments and visual flare are continued in the sequel titled Phenom, the series seems to remain at a stand still even with the enormous Story Mode. It almost seems like the story was built around the core engine and the only new additions were the modes, character creation, and Bling. This being said, the game play remains virtually untouched, for better or worse. If you are a fan of the series, then you'll be hard pressed not to expand the game's lifespan with the in-depth story mode. Fans of EA's Street ball titles will find the move variety a bit shallow in comparison. The game's visuals, while impressive when compared to NBA Street Vol. 2, pale in comparison to EA's latest offering, especially since the graphical engine is nearly untouched.

The biggest draw to Phenom is the story mode itself. Never mind the character creation, which is fairly deep, forget that the game has plenty of 1 on 1 and 2 on 2 action, and ignore the fact that there is a fun and competitive crowd online, NBA Ballers Phenom's Story mode will keep you ballin' till the break of dawn. Live the Dream Mode allows you to live the 'life' of a NBA Baller. You come to town in the thick of the NBA Finals in L.A., and it is here where you will make your mark on the city and in the NBA. Here you will enter a number of tournaments that will give you the proper credit and even earn you some hard cash to buy those necessities to impress the players and the ladies. How well you do and who you impress determines how fast you become a rising star. I personally recreated Billy Hoyle from White Men Can't Jump, including the low dunk attributes. It was funny to see agents and ballers give credit to such a goofy, white, chump.

Gameplay is your typical 2 on 2 (or 1 on 1) basketball action, complete with dunks, jukes, dekes, spins, jams, fakes, slides, and more. Even though the game is very fun, you can't help but after a few matches have that, been there done that feeling all over again. This is Phenom's biggest issue, as it really does nothing new to expand or make the genre its own. It is the same old schlock we've been dealing with for over a decade and I was hoping for a bit more.

In the end, if you love the excitement of the non-standard style of basketball, then this may be a buy for you. This also holds true to if you absolutely loved the original and wanted more meat in your single player action. For the rest of you, and those who are biased to the EA series, this may just be a rent for you, nothing more. I just hope both companies come up with something big when making the transition to next-gen, as this genre needs a shot in the arm... but please no performance enhancing substances.

1. Deep and involving Story Mode
2. Sharp Visuals

1. Doesn't really improve on the Sharp Visuals of the first game
2. Not enough new here that expands this genre
3. Who writes this stuff?