When an Xbox 360 basketball game starts blaring the classic song Rockit by Herbie Hancock, you know it's got the groove.
For those too young to know, Rockit was the anthem for breakdancers during the early '80s.
Its furious turntable scratching and liberal use of synthesiser still sends electricity down my spine.
Rockit also goes perfectly with the sheer over-the-top special effects in Electronic Arts' NBA Street Homecourt, the latest in a highly-successful sports series.
The anthem comes on when your players hit their performance peak and start breakdancing to skirt around opponents - doing the toprock, downrock and other slipsliding power moves.
If you're frowning by now, know that the Street series was never meant to be a serious simulation.
The players are all licensed NBA superstars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, but that's not the point.
Once the ball gets thrown into the court, the players turn into superhumans.
Imagine this - you grab a ball, fling it around as if gravity doesn't exist, then snake around your opponent gracefully.
Then you run towards the basket, step onto and leap off the back of one of your teammates, spin like a bullet and slam the ball into the basket with a deafening dunk.
But that's not all.
GONGFU STUNTS
If you time your dunks correctly, you can grab the ball with your ankles, do a body flip off the hoop and score yet another point before landing back on the ground.
It's one thing to describe this new take on gongfu, and another thing to see it in action.
The numerous special moves have cool names like Jurassic, Monster Mash and Way Back, and you will never tire of admiring the animations.
Fouls are encouraged, and you can even pass the ball with swift kicks.
Set in the 1980s, there is an air of nostalgic with hints of sepia and careful attention to environmental styling to reflect the run-down neighbourhoods that today's superstars emerged from.
The soundtrack also features retro greats like Quincy Jones, The Commodores and The Jackson 5.
Homecourt improves on its Xbox predecessor NBA Street V3 by allowing more combinations of tricks in one fluid motion.
Players also get to disrupt opponents' tricks instead of just being relegated to spectators.
Each match is furiously fast-paced - even on the easy setting - and the computer opponents cheat whenever they can just to make you sweat.
GLITCHES
All opponents have a take-no-prisoners attitude and Homecourt just keeps getting more challenging as you play on.
Some minor bugs do crop up, though.
Like the fact that a dunks-only game allows opponents' lay-outs to count towards the score.
Or the in-game camera that sometimes gets stuck looking at the centre court and not the player.
Still, even if you are not crazy about hoops, this is one game that you shouldn't pass on.
