NBA Ballers: Phenom is a street basketball game with a surprisingly deep storyline where you seek to climb the ladder of fame so you can exact revenge on an old friend who stole all your glory, your big money NBA contract and even your girl. Oh, the humanity.

Being the second release in the NBA Ballers series, you'd think that NBA Ballers: Phenom's developers would have learned from the mistakes and criticisms of the first game. Alas, such is not the case; controls are as rough and difficult to master as ever while gameplay flows like a Shaquille O'Neal free throw attempt. Yes, it's that bad. As such, completing even the first tournament seems more like a chore than the showtime-dunk-fest it should be and leaves you wondering what else you could be playing.

Unfortunately, the same can be said for its graphics, which are a throwback to the orginal Ballers from two years ago, which were pretty good for the times, but stood still for this new version, making no better than regurgitation. And the single camera view (what were they thinking?!) makes rebounding and chasing down loose balls more difficult then it should be. 10'll get you 20 you check to see you didn't mistakenly put in a PSone game in there. Anyway, Phenom shows no real improvements over the original; does nothing to push the PS2, graphically or technically.

That said, one of the game's few redeeming features can be found in the wealth of unlockable content; there is literally a ton of stuff to unlock and rummage through--character and crib customizations, trick moves, accessories, the works. Said stuff seems to indicate back-assward priorities in game development, however, as inane little things like control and graphics seem to have taken the bench to the superfluous, interactive pimp-me functions.

Also on the upside (or back on it), Phenom's soundtrack is great--all the greater when you consider the absolutely-brutal loads times you're forced to suffer (especially on the PS2 version) are at least dulled by some decent tunage while you sit there looking at a picture of an NBA player and otherwise wait-for-it waaaaaaaait-for-it wait for your game to start.

So while NBA Ballers: Phenom is overflowing with unlockable goodies, from new moves to new clothes, new cars to palatial homes, and while it has a well thought-out, appreciably deep storyline, you can't help but think that if they'd spent a quarter of the incidentals' energy on the actual basketball game, the controls and graphics, then Phenom might have made for a rave-worthy sports title with extra pimp content. But, to reiterate, they didn't.