Not many basketball games have the Super Mario Bros. dunking over the Beastie Boys.

But &NBA Street V3& does. It has been a long time coming since Vol. 2 was released almost two years ago, but while that game was a minor upgrade over the original, this new sequel packs enough innovations and extras to guarantee gamers will be playing for weeks.

The most important addition to this three-on-three basketball game is the new &Trick Stick& system. Using the right analog stick, players can pull off a series of tricks straight out of an &AND 1& mix tape.

Combine the Trick Stick with the turbo buttons and more tricks become available, creating a combo of moves that build up trick points. Complete the series of tricks with a successful dunk or basket and that builds up the &Gamebreaker& meter.

With a full meter, the player can unleash the most spectacular, rim-shaking, three-man dunk ever seen in a basketball game.

In addition to the new gameplay mechanics, new modes have been added to V3. &Street Challenge& lets the player create his or her own basketball player, court and team to compete against other street ballers and NBA professionals over a 10-week period.

Everything is customizable in this mode, including the court design, the player&s face, body type, clothing, shoes and the team members who are added and traded.

If some of the team members don&t get along, it can affect the team&s performance. The dunk contest mode is fun for a quick play to test the player&s trick combo skills and to earn points to buy more extras. With the earned points, players can purchase special teams like the Beastie Boys and classic NBA players, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Larry Bird.

Wrapping up the new features is V3&s online mode. Using the NBA pros or a customized character, the player can compete against others online in the dunk contest or a street challenge.

The more a person plays online, the more points he or she can earn to customize the character&s abilities and clothing. The online mode only supports player versus player, so there are no cooperative or team modes online, which is an unfortunate omission.

For all of the game&s greatness, it does manage to throw a few bricks in the player&s direction. In a basketball game as good as this, one would expect an impressive audio presentation to back up the excellent visuals and gameplay.

Sadly, it can&t be heard here. The soundtrack does feature some great music, including a new track from the Beastie Boys& latest album and some old-school songs by De La Soul and House of Pain, but the soundtrack tops out at only 13 songs, and players only hear the orchestral versions of songs while playing a basketball match.

Players will hear the entire soundtrack within the first hour of play, and it only becomes repetitive as more time is put into the game.

Possibly more disappointing than the limited music selection is the play-by-play announcer, DJ Bobbito Garcia. Instead of saying anything useful about what&s happening during the game, he sings, makes sound effects, is very loud and is more focused on using catchy slang words and referencing hip-hop culture.

The PlayStation 2 version of the game gets the best control setup, with an extra turbo button allowing up to 32 additional tricks in the game, and only the PS2 version lets up to six people play against each other on the same console.

The Xbox version has the best graphics, fastest load times and convenience of Xbox Live for online play, but unfortunately lacks custom soundtrack support.

The Gamecube version, while missing the online modes from the other versions, lets gamers play as Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach from the Super Mario Bros. series of games. Their presence in V3 is more humorous than obnoxious, and it&s funny to see Peach, in pink short-shorts, dunk over Shaq.

If you&ve had thoughts about picking this game up, there&s no need to hesitate as this is a solid purchase for basketball fans.