This is a classic example of what happens to an EA franchise once enough people have bought into it and its had a few revisions. Look at Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf pre 2003, FIFA a few years back or even FIFA Street now and what you see is a watered down version of a masterpiece. Then a couple of years and updates down the line and BANG! They absolutely nail it - just like they have with NBA Street V3.

This is a truly fantastic game; the first thing you notice is the intro sequence. It looks smooth, detailed and expertly animated. It's accompanied by an appropriately "Street" soundtrack and we have a voiceover telling you how "You are Baron, before he made the NBA" etc. It sounds really cheesy but it works, it looks cool and it sets the stage for what is currently the best basketball game ever made.

This classy approach is also adopted at the start of each game, when you are presented with a slow moving aerial camera showing you the court, each of which is immaculately designed and realised; not just the court itself, but the surroundings too - the lighting, the cars going past in the background, the trees blowing in the wind, everything is perfect. We're then treated to a voiceover giving us some back story before being thrown into the game itself.

Let me make something plain at this point: I'm not a basketball junky, before I played this the only players I'd really heard of were the ones who had trainers (sneakers, my American friends) named after them, so this score and review isn't from someone who eats, sleeps and breathes basketball, it's written by someone who ordinarily couldn't care less about it. That's how good NBA Street V3 is.

As the game begins, the first thing you notice is that the quality of visuals you've seen so far in the intros isn't compromised one iota in the throes of an actual game; the players are wonderfully designed and animated. Obviously with my lack of basketball knowledge I can't tell you whether each player moves as they do in real life, but this is EA, they did bring us FIFA, which although nowhere near Pro Evolution in the gameplay stakes does surpass it visually, so I can't see them skimping on detail here.

Even from the first time you pick up the control pad, this game's accessibility really shines. There's very little learning curve; it's possible to come straight in and put up a fairly decent fight for a while but it's in mastering the tricks where the true skill really lies. The only comparison I can make, although they're completely different, is Soul Calibur II; it can be beaten fairly easily by simply button bashing on your first few attempts but then you want to beat it on your own terms and make it look cool while you do it.

The game is a three on three match, with a lot of the rules that slow the game down stripped out. The button layout should feel familiar if you're used to the other street titles or FIFA and then you've got the right analogue stick, which is used to trick. Stringing tricks together builds up a combo bar and once you've ramped up enough, you'll be able to play a gamebraker, which is a pretty much unstoppable, elaborately flamboyant dunk. As with everything else, this is animated to near perfection - this game just doesn't stop looking unbelievably cool for a second. Once you've given it a couple of hours, you'll be buzzing around the course like the Harlem Globetrotters and in much the same way as FIFA Street if you've got a few people playing that are pretty good at the game, it's just as much fun to sit and watch as it is to take part.

As is standard and expected from EA, the commentary, soundtrack and sound effects are all fantastic. The game is THX certified and is great through a decent surround sound set up; you can clearly hear the crowd cheering or jeering, the leaves blowing in the wind and the thud of the ball bouncing across the floor. The soundtrack is vast and boasts artists such as De La Soul and the Beastie Boys. Obviously, if you hate hip-hop it doesn't matter how good the track listing is but the music fits the game's style perfectly.

The game modes are again as you would expect - quick play, training, multiplayer and a career mode. Called Street Challenge, you have to design your own player and as you progress he can be upgraded, in quite some detail. New trainers, new hair cut, upped stats. You can even edit your list of tricks to give you that extra edge. The list of challenges on offer is expansive and the difficulty curve is once again pitched just about right. It does get a little tough towards the end but hey, a challenge is to be expected from any self-respecting game.

Another nice inclusion is the court editor, which on the face of it sounds really boring but actually works really well. Choose a location, build your court, give it a logo, choose how new or beat up you want it to look and playing through the Challenge Mode your customisation options grow and grow. Once again, this is another element of the game which is handled fantastically.

The training section suffers in the same way FIFA Street suffers, in that rather than giving you some set plays and instructions so you can play through the tutorials, it simply demonstrates the moves. This makes the game a little shorter and means you have to do most of your learning on the court. The only thing left is a little extra called Dunk Mode, which again is great and as you can probably guess by now, isn't as much about scoring the dunk as it is about making it look as cool as it possibly can.

NBA Street V3 is a truly remarkable game - not just the best basketball game ever, but also one of the best games around at the moment full stop. It's a shame that a lot of people will pass this by because it isn't their usual cup of tea; the single player game looks fantastic, plays amazingly and is huge. The multiplayer is again out of this world, with up to six players via system link - it makes me wish I had two televisions in my room. So if it's so good why, haven't I given it the perfect ten? There is only one reason and that is an omission - it would have been excellent to go online, taking my own customised player and competing against a real opponent on my own customised court. Sadly that's not an option, at least not in the European version. Well, there'll doubtless be an NBA Street V4 next year, so I'll just keep 'em crossed until then.

Reviewed by Mark Hayhurst for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).