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With Lebron James signing with Miami this week, the web's been abuzz with basketball talk. And though there's no denying that the James-Miami deal was totally newsworthy no matter how you feel about him or the Cavs, I was far more concerned about Paul Pierce becoming a free agent. You see I'm a big Celtics fan. And Pierce is a pretty big deal to me -- a big enough deal that I bought Backyard Sports Basketball 2007 solely based on the fact that it was the only GBA basketball game to feature Paul Pierce on its cover. Certainly that makes it a nice collectible for me, but how does it stack up as a playable game?

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Backyard Sports Basketball 2007 features "NBA pros as kids" as its gimmick. But really, what you're getting is super-deformed (big-head-little-body) character sprites. That's perfectly cool with me. It's really just the same formula that developers have used to port fighting games to the Game Boy and make the sprites usable on such a small screen. Similarly, it's not too different from what the upcoming NBA Jam revival title is expected to look like. So while it's easy to pass this one over because it looks like a "kid's game," really it's a lot closer to classic arcade basketball games like Double Dribble or NBA Jam.

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Mainly Backyard 2007 is a straight up arcade-style game, as made evident by it's three-on-three format. It also features the sort of power-ups (cyclone speed, on-fire ball, etc) and literally unbelievable dunks found only in the arcades. However, the game differentiates itself from the simple concepts of most arcade b-ballers by offering up a rather deep customization menu. Not only can you adjust the difficulty level or the length of the quarters -- you can also toggle fouls, power-ups, fatigue and shot assistance on or off. Basically you can adjust just how "arcade" or realistic you prefer the game to be.

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Just as impressive as the in-game customization is the rest of the games options. You can create your own player, pick your team roster and manage substitutions. Your team has its own page with pictures of your players hanging out together and fully updated stats based on how your crew is performing throughout the season. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Although it's arcade style basketball, it allows you to follow your team (or three) throughout an entire season. If they're having a tough time keeping their shit together, then you can practice them on three skill-learning mini games.

Ultimately my feeling is that Backyard 2007 is an incredibly impressive and advanced basketball disguised as a so-called "casual game." In fact, up to this point I've yet to find a better basketball game for the GBA. Oh and if you're wondering, my Celtics team naturally features Pierce and KG, but we also picked up Lebron -- and kept him on the bench.

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