Beastie Boys Join NBA Street V3

January 20, 2005, 6:31 am EST
Total comments: 14

Also, the game's song listing is announced.

EA ROCKS THE COURT WITH BEASTIE BOYS IN NBA STREET V3

Redwood City, Calif., – January 20, 2005 – Kicking off the new year with some noise, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that Beastie Boys’ song "An Open Letter To NYC" headlines the in-game soundtrack for the hottest street hoops experience on the market – NBA STREET V3. The game features 13 explosive tracks including new music from some of the coolest names in hip-hop and rap. The street courts of NBA STREET V3 will never sound the same.

In NBA STREET V3, the Grammy-nominated rappers take their antics beyond the soundtrack and step into the game itself. Decked out in gear from their hometown New York Knicks, Mike D, MCA and Adrock are unlockable characters in V3, and each has skills that help the Boys own the court. Face off against Beastie Boys in NYC’s Dyckman Park in NBA STREET V3’s “STREET Challenge” mode, and if you win you unlock them for all modes of the game, including regular 3-on-3 action and the all-new Slam Dunk Contest.

Beastie Boys lead a line-up of hard-hitting, high-energy music that has been hand-selected to keep the action jumping. The in-game soundtrack for NBA STREET V3 also features hot tracks from Elephant Man, Guerilla Black and old school favorites, De La Soul, House of Pain and MC Lyte.

The songs in the games are selected by EA™ TRAX - the music initiative that EA debuted in 2001. The program is dedicated to bringing gamers today’s best music through EA’s videogames.

"Once again, EA TRAX delivers the ultimate in game music. Beastie Boys are among the most influential artists of all time, and their participation in NBA STREET V3 represents an unprecedented new coming-together of hip-hop, basketball and videogame culture," said Steve Schnur, Worldwide Executive of Music at EA.

The complete song list includes:

Artist	Song Title
24K feat. Elephant Man	Move Out Remix – radio
Ak'Sent	Bounce
Ali Vegas	I am Street (NBA STREET V3 Mix)
Beastie Boys	An Open Letter to NYC
De La Soul	Me, Myself and I
Dirtbag	I Ain't Going Nowhere
Don Yute	A Lot of Girls (NBA STREET V3 Mix)
Duece Poppi feat. Trina	To The Floor (NBA STREET V3 Mix)
Guerrila Black	Trixxx
House of Pain	Jump Around (Pete Rock Remix)
MC Lyte	Ruffneck
Nitty	Hey Bitty
Shells	Ladies and Gentlemen

The highly-anticipated third chapter in the multi-platinum-selling NBA STREET series expands on the fast-paced and larger-than-life game play that has made the franchise a hit. The all-new Trick Stick and interactive Game Breaker control elevates the game to new heights with unmistakable style and attitude. NBA STREET V3 is also packed with highly detailed authentic street courts, deep player customization options, and new Court Creator.

Developed in Vancouver, BC at EA Canada, the studio that also is home to the industry-leading NBA LIVE and NCAA® March Madness® hoops video game franchises, NBA STREET V3 will be available for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox® videogame system from Microsoft, and Nintendo GameCube™ on February 8, 2005.

Talkback

KDR_11kJanuary 20, 2005

I know none of those groups (except for the Beastie Boys but I don't like them) and that list doesn't sound like there's a single good track in there... Hiphop doesn't mix well with video games. Count me out.

joshnickersonJanuary 20, 2005

Hrm... Mario Vs. the Beastie Boys...

Intriguing...

Bill AurionJanuary 20, 2005

""Once again, EA TRAX delivers the ultimate in game music."

Ahahahahaha! Sorry EA, but licensed music can NEVER be the "ultimate" in game music...

Ian SaneJanuary 20, 2005

Licenced music usually doesn't work in a game for one reason: games are repetitive and hearing the same songs again and again sucks. When a movie has songs in it it doesn't matter. I only watch movies for 2-3 hours at a time and then I don't usually watch that film again for at least several months. But games don't work like that. It's common to play a game for several hours a day for several days in a row while still encountering new parts of the game. So thus the music gets annoying really fast. Plus in games often the licenced music plays the WHOLE TIME. Imagine a film where instead of a score you just heard songs in the background the whole time? That would be terrible.

I remember when I rented the first NHL Hitz game. It was a lot of fun but it had this terrible Limp Bizkit song playing in the opening screen and the menus. This is a pick up and play game so you're going to play it a lot. You don't want a song in your face every time you play the game. Even if you like the song you're going to get sick of it.

I think there is room for licenced music in games but it has to be used correctly. If I made a game where I felt licenced music fit it would be limited to concert scenes or clubs or the radio in a car.

dmanjdbJanuary 20, 2005

The Need for Speed Underground 2 soundtrack was so-so.

The Burnout 3 soundtrack was horrible (I love Franz Ferdinand but "This Fire" is not a high speed song) with the excpetion of Fallout boy's song .

Now this soundtrack is much better. With the Beastie Boys and the Pete Rock remix of House Pain's "Jump Around" sold me.

It not much it the best EA Trax title right now.

DjunknownJanuary 20, 2005

Quote
Hiphop doesn't mix well with video games.

I disagree. I remember this was brought up a while back but it bears repeating. It depends on the mood, and it depends on the game. For Street, its perfectly. It fits the ubran enviornment like a glove and gives a bit of authenticity to the game. Street ball players don't usually have death metal or techno music as their first choice. GTA San Andreas would be a joke if it ignored the early 90s gangsta rap. CJ and his homeboys would be shot on sight if they were banging Guns N Roses, you can't really low-ride with hydraulics to that type of music.

The last example I'll give is painfully obvious: The Def Jam Vendetta series. Aside from solid gameplay, its a perfect marriage of style and substance (Especially Fight for New York.) The raucous beats match the visceral, over the top carnage flawlessly.

Mario vs Mike D? Who would've thought?

KDR_11kJanuary 21, 2005

I don't see hiphop as fitting for anything that involves action (or, hell, anything but walking around in two-sizes-too-large trousers). "Gangsta"s be damned, I want music that goes with the action, not music that the main character might like (a game is worthless to me if the main character pisses me off). I don't think I recall a single movie using hiphop as its score, no matter what kind of background the protagonist had.

ssj4_androidJanuary 21, 2005

Hip-hop is good sometimes. A nice thing about the xbox: custom soundtracks. So instead of Burnout 3's soundtrack, I can listen to whatever I want to, which includes various stuff (I've been listening to my Project 86 soundtrack)

MaleficentOgreJanuary 21, 2005

Street+hiphop>penut butter and jelly. seriously. I can't stand when people start dissing the genre left and right. and KDR must not watch a lot of movies because hip hop is all over them now. If you can't see that hip hop fits perfectly with nba street then I really feel bad for you and your sheltered existance.

KDR_11kJanuary 21, 2005

You're right, I don't watch many movies. But then there weren't many interesting movies recently, either.
Hip hop focusses on the lyrics. In a game I'm so focussed on the game itself that all I still notice is the melody. Too many hiphop songs have uninteresting or even painful melodies that make me want to hurt people (though that's true for a lot of pop songs as well). Hell, I got sick of hiphop in games back when I played THPS 3 and wanted to have background music instead of having some guy ramble about how he digs that chick or something like that.
But then I prefer composed soundtracks over licensed ones, they usually fit the mood of the situation better.

BloodworthDaniel Bloodworth, Staff AlumnusJanuary 22, 2005

For a game like street, yeah, I'd say hip hop fits perfectly. It's just like going out to the park, where some guy's going to be blasting his boombox so loud that it sounds awful because the speakers can't handle it and start buzzing and crap. Whether you like it or not, nothing could be more true to the sport.

RennyJanuary 22, 2005

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
Imagine a film where instead of a score you just heard songs in the background the whole time? That would be terrible.

....

I think there is room for licenced music in games but it has to be used correctly. If I made a game where I felt licenced music fit it would be limited to concert scenes or clubs or the radio in a car.

You just described American Graffiti. The music was naturally worked into the background by just having it playing through radios. It provided the necessary music for the film without being at all out of place. I'm not sure how this would work in action-oriented games with dynamic music. Maybe all the enemies would be carrying ghetto blasters. :¬]

Edit: I forgot to make a snide comment about how Green Day bombed by debuting their song in Madden. So there.

FamicomJanuary 22, 2005

Well if it's anything like two of EA Big's previous games (Fight For NY and SSX3), during gameplay you don't hear lyrics (or very little), just remixed beats of the music that go along with the gameplay. SSX3 especially, the dynamic sountrack is quite awesome since it really adds tension to your big jump tricks when the lyrics cut out or the beat goes silent then comes back if you land it right. I didn't play enough of Street V2 to know if it did this or not, but I don't see why they wouldn't for V3.