Afterthoughts: NFL Street.

Afterthoughts: NFL STREET Talkin' X's and O's with the kings of the gridiron

Spring sucks...well, at least for football fans. Gone are the Sunday afternoons and Monday nights of beers, buffalo wings (that's chicken, Jessica), and cheering on your favorite NFL team. Thankfully, developer EA Tiburon's back-alley take on the pigskin sport, NFL Street (PS2/XB/GC), helps fill the gridiron void until training camp starts. We spoke with NFL Street's Associate Producer Jason Barnes and Senior Product Manager Tom Goedde about Tiburon's respect for another no-holds-barred football franchise, NFL prima donnas, and a potential sequel.

EGM: Street draws a lot of comparisons to Midway's old NFL Blitz games. Are there any Blitz junkies at Tiburon?

Jason Barnes: Yes. There are some die-hard Blitz fans on staff, and we have a couple of Blitz arcade machines. Of course, we looked at those games and what they did well, plus what areas we wanted to improve upon.

EGM: Some of the development team worked on Madden in the past. What was it like creating a football game that's so drastically different?

JB: It was great. It allowed us to take a lot more risks with gameplay and style.

Tom Goedde: This is the first non- simulation product Tiburon's developed. Our goal with the …