I'm not sure how close they are to the Purple, but I am impressed with what I've seen of them so far. Three guys in my sport league have them so far. One is kind of a knuckle fudger so I can't get much of a read from then. Another is kind a classic stroker. He typically throws a red Brunswick (Attitude) urethan on shorter patterns and the NU is a little stronger overall and stronger and quite a bit more continuous down lane. My team mate is a Hammer urethane junkie. He's a higher speed heavy handed guy who throws his purple on just about everything. We were on Cheetah last week and the lanes got a little funky after a while. Neither his Purple or Pink gave him a good look, so he pulled out his NU right out of the box. The NU is probably a little cleaner than the Purple and for him it's quite a bit more down lane and again very continuous. Both guys had super good looks with the NU and the carry was super good. I haven't seen the original banned/"cheater" Purples but based on the descriptions I've read, I would guess that the NU would be a pretty good replacement. It can be sneaky strong, so it might be more ball than you're thinking of when it comes to a urethane replacement. Regardless, the NU looks like a winner than you will see everywhere. I wasn't planning on getting one originally, but the reaction is tempting. It just sort of reads the lane where and how you want, at least on shorter sport shots where these types of balls excel.
