EA Ended This Franchise 14 Years Ago, And It’s Time They Brought It Back

EA Sports has been one of the defining brands in the gaming world for decades, with franchises like Madden keeping them atop the competition in some major ways. However, there’s been a relative lack of arcade-style titles from the publisher for a while. While franchises like Madden, EA Sports FC, and EA Sports PGA Tour have given players a realistic experience of playing on the pro circuit, there’s a lack of the kind of hard-hitting, easy-to-play, multiplayer titles that used to define the EA Sports BIG brand.

Launched in 2000 and defunct within a decade, EA Sports BIG had a number of great games launched under its banner. For gamers of a certain age, that EA Sports BIG intro is seared into their brains, along with plenty of memories of nailing absurd shots in NBA Street, making incredible catches in NFL Street, and delivering amazing goals in FIFA Street. It’s been 14 years since there was a formal entry in the “Street” sub-series; it’s high time that EA returned to the arcade approach for one of their sports games.

How The Street Series Became Some Of EA Sports’ Best Games

The “Street” series of games remains an underrated highlight of EA Sports’ library, and they deserve a modern remake. Although EA Sports BIG got its start with the SSX series of snowboarding games, it quickly expanded ot include other styles of sports games. Freekstyle, Shox, and Sled Storm brought the same colorful bombast to motocross, auto racing, and snowmobiles, respectively, while Def Jam Vendetta fused a wrestling game with the gangster rap scene of the era. However, the most successful games in the subseries besides SSX were the “Street” series.

While EA’s other marquee sports franchises like Madden or NBA Live were more focused on recreating authentic sports experiences, the Street games took more cues from the arcade sports titles of previous generations to deliver quicker gameplay. Each entry in the series — which included multiple releases for NBA Street, NFL Street, and FIFA Street — took a combination of then-modern players, legends of the game, in-universe all-stars, and unexpected ballers to a street court for a game of pickup sports. These games did away with the countless pages of potential plays, relying more on a few specific strategies and relying more on the play-by-play mechanics to determine the outcome of any game.

Pulling off trick shots or showcasing impressive moves was the key to the gameplay, as it could steadily build up until players could unleash a special move to catch their opponents by surprise. Even if you weren’t very well-versed in sports, the EA Sports titles were intended to be straightforward and fun, with a simplicity in design that made pickup games a snap. The entire premise of the series was to replicate the feeling of playing with friends, amplified by the kind of moves that fans can only dream about seeing on the court or in the field. The result was sports games that put fun first and pushed realism to the side for the sake of a good time.

Why The “Street” Series Would Be Great In The Modern Era

The “Street” series more or less fizzled out over a matter of years, especially once EA Sports BIG label was discontinued in 2008. Since then, there have been a few games from the publisher meant to replicate the feeling of those arcade games, but none have quite matched the easy-to-play game mechanics and deceptively deep selection of game modes available in those titles. NBA Street 2 and NFL Street 2, in particular, both benefited from tight gameplay that made multiplayer a blast, as well as enough single-player content to justify a deep dive.

As the years have gone on, though, sports games have retreated from the arcade approach and leaned more heavily into realistic approaches. It’s a shame, too, because there’s definitely a place for games like the “Street” series, especially in the modern era of online gaming. A modern NBA Street or NFL Street would be a delight to play online, especially if players could find their custom characters suddenly filling out larger rosters of pick up games from around the world.

The world of sports is full of new players who could bring their own flavor and personality to their digital avatars if they were included in the game, while reflecting on the histories of the sports by bringing back legends — similar to what NBA Street 2 did for some of the best basketball players of all time — could be a clever way to honor their legacy and teach a new generation of fans about the history of the sports they love. The “Street” series could be expanded in the modern day to work with plenty of other sports, too, or embrace the growing popularity of women’s sports to expand the potential rosters in a meaningful way. The “Street” series remains one of the best sub-franchises EA has ever done, and it’s high time that they bring those titles back.