Midway targets spring 08 for next-gen NBA Ballers

Despite expectations to the contrary, the original NBA Ballers was actually a fairly decent arcade-style basketball game, provided you could get beyond all the ridiculous 'bling' and 'street cred' nonsense and just play ball. The sequel, on the other hand, plastered on an extra layer of stupid with a paper-thin story mode and more attitude than gameplay. So when Midway announced this morning plans to bring the series to the Xbox 360 and PS3 with NBA Ballers: Chosen One, we were understandably conflicted. However, the company's promise of a return to the series' one-on-one and two-on-two roots with no mention of story or street cred gives us reason enough to be less apathetic than we might be otherwise.

According to the publisher, nestled among the game's new shinier graphics, which Midway boasts as offering "the most true-to-life athlete likenesses seen in a sports video game," will also be new competitive combo and super-move systems that we expect to check realism at the door. In addition, this third game in the series will also include more than 65 selectable NBA players, as they compete to become "The Chosen One," which we're pretty certain is street lingo for some kind of religious awakening. NBA Ballers: Chosen One is expected to shoot for the net from mid-court next spring.