NBA Ballers
Developer(s)	Midway
Publisher(s)	Midway Sports
Engine	RenderWare
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Xbox
Release	NA: April 5, 2004 AU: April 14, 2004 (PS2) EU: October 15, 2004 (PS2)
Genre(s)	Basketball
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

NBA Ballers is a streetball game which is similar to AND 1 Streetball and gameplay similar to the NBA Jam series. The game features fictional NBA analyst Bob Benson (voiced and depicted by Terry Abler) and MC Supernatural doing the commentary. Supernatural makes many references to the Mortal Kombat series and NFL Blitz, two games published by Midway. The game also maintains the 'player on fire' feature that is in many, if not all sports games published by Midway. Most of the moves that were in the game were from real-life street ballers who provided some of their moves for the game. Stephon Marbury is on the cover.

The game was followed by a version for the PlayStation Portable, NBA Ballers: Rebound and two sequels, NBA Ballers: Phenom and NBA Ballers: Chosen One.

Rags Player is an application offered by the software company Rags Game LLC. Some computer users decide to uninstall it. This is troublesome because doing this by hand requires some advanced knowledge regarding removing Windows programs manually. This page is not a piece of advice to uninstall Rags Player by Rags Game LLC from your computer, we are not saying that Rags Player by Rags Game LLC is not a good application for your PC. This page simply contains detailed instructions on how to uninstall Rags Player supposing you decide this is what you want to do.

Gameplay[edit]

Most matches are 1-on-1. Others can be 1-on-1-on-1, meaning you have three players each playing solely for themselves. The matches are 2 minutes in length and winner is the best of three rounds, each round being a game to 11 points where the winner must win by at least two points. If time runs out, the player with the most points will be declared the winner of that round.Jackpot: Located in the top left of the screen during game play: as the player pulls off style moves he earns points that go into a jackpot at the top of the screen and when a player scores he gets all accumulated jackpot.

Juice Meter

In gameplay the player has a 'Juice Meter' that fills up like a fuel gauge and it is used at the turbo boost meter. It is the players energy and if it used up the meter will diminish.

House Meter

The second meter below the Juice Meter is the 'House Meter' which is raised by pulling off style moves and scoring points. The meter is filled until the word 'HOUSE' is spelled. When totally filled, the player may choose to 'Bring Down the House' by holding all shoulder buttons and throwing an alley-oop to himself that tears down the rim and ends the match.

Rags to Riches[edit]

Rags to Riches is the main story mode, in which the player portrays a relatively unknown rookie with certain abilities and must take on the best in the NBA to become arguably the greatest player in the association. Each match is done by tournament style and the player must defeat every opponent to advance to a new tournament to move the story along, and attributes rise during progression.

This game mode featured a full story told over 21 different cut scenes as the player progressed throughout the game. With the inclusion of this game mode, NBA Ballers became the first video game officially licensed by a league to contain a story mode.

Reception[edit]

Reception

Review scores
Publication	Score
Publication	PS2	Xbox
CGM	A^[1]	A^[1]
EGM	8/10^[2]	8/10^[2]
Game Informer	8/10^[3]	8/10^[3]
GamePro	^[4]	^[4]
GameSpot	8.3/10^[5]	8.2/10^[6]
GameSpy	^[7]	^[8]
GameZone	7.5/10^[9]	7.8/10^[10]
IGN	9/10^[11]	8.9/10^[12]
OPM (US)	^[13]	N/A
OXM (US)	N/A	6.5/10^[14]
Playboy	75%^[15]	75%^[15]
The Village Voice	8/10^[16]	N/A
Aggregate score
Metacritic	83/100^[17]	82/100^[18]

The game received 'favorable' reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.^[17]^[18]GameSpot named it the best PlayStation 2 game of April 2004.^[19] It received a runner-up position in GameSpot's 2004 'Best Alternative Sports Game' award category across all platforms, losing to Mario Power Tennis.^[20]

Maxim gave it a score of eight out of ten and stated that 'Eighty-four hyper-detailed players are represented, or you can create your own baller and go rags-to-riches, racking up pimp-wear and Scarface-worthy real estate.'^[21]The Village Voice similarly gave the PS2 version eight out of ten and stated, 'Like the sport itself, you can easily start a pickup game, or put all your time—and high hopes—into it. Playing D, of course, isn’t nearly as fun.'^[16]Playboy gave the game 75% (nearly two months before its U.S. release date) and said, 'Victory is accompanied by flashy jewelry, fancy cars, and the truest measure of a champ, a larger posse.'^[15]

By July 2006, the PS2 version had sold 670,000 copies and earned $23 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 94th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in the U.S. Combined sales of the NBA Ballers series reached 1 million units in the United States by July 2006.^[22]

References[edit]

^ ^a^b'NBA Ballers'. Computer Games Magazine. No. 165. theGlobe.com. August 2004. p. 6.
^ ^a^bEGM staff (June 2004). 'NBA Ballers'. Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 179. Ziff Davis. p. 92.
^ ^a^bReiner, Andrew (May 2004). 'NBA Ballers'. Game Informer. No. 133. GameStop. p. 92. Archived from the original on May 26, 2005. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
^ ^a^bDan Elektro (April 7, 2004). 'NBA Ballers'. GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on February 9, 2005. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
^Colayco, Bob (April 6, 2004). 'NBA Ballers Review (PS2)'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
^Colayco, Bob (April 5, 2004). 'NBA Ballers Review (Xbox)'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved December 25, 2019.
^

Rags Game Player