Throwback Thursday NBA Street

Throwback Thursday NBA Street

Robert Knuckles

It’s been awhile since I've done a Throwback Thursday game. I apologize with the delay with school and all but I’m back with another classic with NBA Street.

Now I’m not a sports game fanatic but NBA Street is one of the only sports game I really enjoy.

NBA Street was released for the PS2 on June 18, 2001 and released on the Nintendo Gamecube on Feb. 17, 2002. It was developed and published by EA games

This game features NBA players from the 2001-2002 season, that was a golden year era for myself especially after watching that 2001 All-Star Game. You have favorites such as Allen Iverson, Paul Pierce, Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, Chris Webber and so many more. Michael Jordan makes an appearance as well in this game as well. Granted there are only five players on each team. There are also made up characters called Street Legends who are inspired by real people for example Street Legend Stretch resembles Julius Erving and you also have a white boy named Drake who acts hood but is actually from the suburbs. There are plenty of other unlockable characters in this game.

NBA Street features three on three basketball with street rules. Fouls don’t exist in this game. Two point field goals are one point and behind the three point line are worth two points. There is no time limit but there is a time limit with possession of the ball. Players that score up to 21 points win the game but you have to win by two.

Now while playing players can build up meter for their game-breaker. Game-breaker is build up by scoring but mainly doing special maneuvers such as faking out defenders, dunks, alley-oop, block shots and so much more. Once players build up their meter they can perform their game-breaker. Players can either shoot the ball or dunk the ball. It increases your score and it also decrease your opponent's points all well.

Players can create a player and use them in the mode City Court. An arcade type of mode where players face NBA teams in certain regions and face the Street Legend of that region. After every win players have the option of taking one player from the losing team or gain more points for your created player to increase their stats

Now City Court’s PS2 version is a bit different from the Gamecube’s version. Now the objective is still the same but in the PS2 version Michael Jordan helps the player by being on their team but he’s also the last boss to beat. Where in the Gamecube version he’s not helping out the player but Jordan is still playable on the Washington Wizards that is if the player chooses that team

There are also cheat codes. Before the game starts players have a time limit to make certain patterns for example players can have pictures of a basketball,basketball,turntable and shoe this makes players use the NBA ball. There are even more cheats where players can’t do alley-oops, no dunks and so much more. In this generation you can go to any website and get the cheat.

In the end NBA Street is so much fun. If you love basketball this is a must have or if you love sports in general I would pick this game up as well. The music is good and you get that street vibe from playing this game. A guy like me that isn't too much into sports games but I can make an exception for this game. It's a shame that we haven't seen this game re-leased as a downloadable game on the current game systems. You're better off buying this online or at an old school game store. The rating I would give this game would be an 8 out of 10.

Throwback Thursday Super Smash Bros. Melee

Throwback Thursday

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Robert Knuckles

It’s Thursday and players knows what that means. Time for another throwback Thursday game and this one is a classic.

Super Smash Bros. Melee is the successor of the first Super Smash Bros. that was released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64. It was released in 2001 soon after the release of the Nintendo GameCube.

The Super Smash Bros. series featured an all star line up of Nintendo characters such as Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, Samus and many more.

The Super Smash Bros. series is a different type of fighting game. Instead of health bars players have percentages. The goal of Smash Bros. is to inflict damage on their opponent to give them a higher percentage. The higher the percentage the bigger chance the player has a chance of being blown off the stage. Which I’m sure everyone knows the rules by now.

Melee followed the same rules from its predecessor but upgraded to a huge level. The presentation of Melee is beautiful. The graphics were amazing making the characters look extraordinary. The Stages looked awesome and a lot of fun to play on. Many people believe that Melee had one of the best graphics on the GameCube to this day.

Everyone’s favorite Nintendo characters return from the previous game with a few new moves and also adding new characters such as Princess Peach, Princess Zelda, Bowser and even more surprising new characters.

The game play in Melee was extremely fast compared to its predecessor and Brawl. Melee introduced air dodging making players able to dodge attacks in the air but costing them for a desperation move to get back on the stage. Air Dodging made it possible for players to perform wave dashing making characters extremely fast on the ground. This feature was taking out in Brawl not making players to happy.

The single player mode updated to a new level as well. Melee introduced Adventure Mode where players travel to famous worlds in the Nintendo franchise defeating goombas from the Super Mario world or fighting ReDead from the Legend of Zelda series.

Another feature introduced in Melee is Event Matches where players must perform different tasks weather it’s defeating a character, defeating a character that’s over powered. Sometimes the odds are not in the players favor but they’ll still have to find a way to complete the mission.

There’s so much to do in this game. Whether it’s playing a classic match, adventure mode all-star mode or four player battles there’s always an option to do something. I definitely recommend having friends over to reminisce on the good old days of gaming.

Super Smash Bros. Melee is still being played today and many tournament players they believe this is the best Smash Bros. Game. Many can argue with that but the bottom line is that it’s a lot of fun and that’s always the goal for every game. Melee is must buy for every GameCube or Wii owner. Hopefully Melee will be a DLC game in the future.

This was one of Nintendo’s biggest achievements. It will definitely go down as one of the best games of the 2000 era.

Throwback Thursday Static Shock

Robert Knuckles

“I’ll put a Shock to Your System!”

            In honor of Black History Month I would like to talk about one of my favorite television shows when I was a little kid and that is Static Shock. Now although it’s a comic by DC we’ll be focusing on the TV. series.

            Static Shock appeared on September 23, 2000 on the Kids WB when they use to have morning shows. The show revolves on African-American teenager Virgil Hawkins who has the secret identity of the superhero Static Shock after exposure to mutagen gas during a gang fight that gave him electric powers.

            Virgil lives with his older sister Sharon Hawkins and father Robert Hawkins in Dakota City. Virgil’s mom past away when he was a baby and there are some episodes where losing his mom still hurts him and a lot of people with a lost parent can relate. He attends high school with his best friend Richie Foley who later in the series gets super powers as well. Virgil pretty much goes through the same stuff normal teenagers go through in high school. He deals with a bully named Francis who always gave Virgil trouble. Virgil later gets help from a gang leader named Wade who wants to recruit Virgil to his gang. Later that night Virgil meets up with Wade and his crew at the docks where a huge a fight that had all of Dakotas gang including Francis being there as well. Virgil becomes hesitant when Wade gave him a gun because his mom was killed by one. As Virgil is trying to leave the scene the police had arrived in helicopters. While the police were trying to stop the fight they accidentally exploded chemical containers releasing purple gas that causes mutations. This was later known as The Big Bang. The gas gave Virgil abilities to create, generate, absorb and control electricity thus giving him the superhero name Static. Together with the help of his best friend Richie who designed new technology for Static they would stop other people who were exposed to the gas that use their powers for evil. They call people with super powers “Bang Babies” in this show.

            As the series goes on you see Static battling many dangerous enemies such as Francis who now has fire powers calling himself Hot Streak one of Statics major enemies in the season. Another dangerous enemy is Ebon who leads an underground group known as the Meta-Breed. Ebon is a living shadow that creates dimensional portals. Static runs into Ebon and his crew on many occasions.

            Later in the series you see Static teaming with many iconic people such as Batman and Robin fighting against The Joker who has also teamed up with some bang babies. Other familiar faces like Shaq, AJ McCain and many other celebrities make an appearance as well.

            Season 3 and 4 is when of Static Shock is where the series got really interesting. Richie becomes a bang baby due to the first episode when Virgil showed him his abilities his clothes still reeked of the purple gas. Richie gained the ability of artificial intelligence designing rocket-powered boots and “Backpack” which is a high intelligence device that’s worn on Richie’s back detecting surveillance of super human activity. With all this equipment Richie adopts the name of Gear helping Static fight crime together. They also team up with the Justice League in an episode called “A League of Its Own.”

            A very important thing about Static Shock is that at times it takes away from the action and goes into real life situations. Episode “Sons of the Fathers” had Virgil staying at Richie’s house and meeting his father for the first time but it is revealed that Mr. Foley is a racist which makes Virgil uncomfortable and goes home and later makes Richie run away from him. The show also talks about the effects of bullying in the episode “Jimmy.” I don’t want to spoil too much of the episode but it’s an important episode that everyone should watch. Another episode is “When the Rubber Meets the Road.” Children with dyslexia will relate very will to this episode. An episode called “Static in Africa” has Virgil and his family goes to Africa and meets the African Hero Anansi. I don’t want to spoil the ending but it does have a special ending that many African-Americans would relate too.

What makes Static Shock different from any other superhero in my opinion is that it goes outside the superhero world and talks about real life issues. It covers racism, bullying, friendship and so much more. Static Shock is also a diverse cartoon show where we see many races of people, we don’t see that too often in cartoon shows.

            Static Shock also had a huge impact on not just the African-American community but for the whole country as well. Static Shock left a huge legacy you also see him guest star on Justice League Unlimited and Young Justice. You can buy Static Shock on DVD but I’m not sure who would carry it. You might be better off buying it on Amazon or EBay. You also have the internet to watch some episodes as well. I would really love to Static Shock make a return. I believe we will in the future never say never!!

            

Throwback Thursday Devil May Cry 3

Robert Knuckles

        Lets Rock Baby!!! Players will definitely want to rock after this Capcom Classic. I just recently played Devil May Cry HD collection and finished playing Devil May Cry 3 and I definitely had to talk about this game.

        Devil May Cry 3 is a hack and slash action and adventure game which was released in February 17 2005 for the PlayStation 2. A month after Resident Evil 4 was released. You can say that Capcom definitely had a strong year in 2005.

        Devil May Cry 3 story is set before the events of the first Devil May Cry with a younger Dante getting an invitation from a mysterious man named Arkham sent by Dante’s twin brother Vergil. Just like Dante Vergil is half human- half demon. Unlike Dante Vergil expresses his demon side and wants nothing but power (probably my favorite quote from Vergil.) Vergil’s plan is to open the demon world to the human to unleash hell on earth but in order to do that he’ll need Dante’s blood in order to open the gate to the demon world but as players progress through the story they’ll learn it’s more than just the two brothers blood to open the gate.

        Now the gameplay of Devil May Cry 3 is fantastic. Devil May Cry 3 features new styles that players can choose for Dante. First there is Swordmaster where Dante can do special moves with all of his swords, Trickster allows Dante to perform dodge attacks and run on walls, Gunslinger allows Dante to perform special charged up gun shots and Royal Guard allows Dante to repel attacks. Players will also be able to find more styles as they process through the game and players can also level up their style by defeating enemies that gain them experience points and they unlock new moves with their styles.

        Now at first Dante doesn’t have the ability to transform into his demon form. Players will have to unlock that throughout playing the game. Devil May Cry 3 still consist of players complete ting missions and being graded at the end of every mission. Players are graded on how stylish their combos are. Combos are the key to becoming a good player in this game. Players have to link up their combos and while they are linking up their combos they’ll see a small gauge saying crazy, the longer the combo players we’ll see it change to Blast. Dante cannot be touched by enemies and must continue to combo to retain the combo gauge. Players are also graded through Time and accuracy and collection of Red Orbs.

        Now as player’s progress through the game they’ll battle challenging bosses and at the end of some boss battles Dante keeps their soul as a weapon. In DMC 3 Dante can have two type of weapons and two type of guns in their innovatory. While battling enemies players can switch into their weapon or gun while performing a combo.

        Last thing I want to talk about is the music in this game and all I can say is it’s FREAKING AWESOME. Every time Dante battles an enemy or boss the music is always on point. There isn’t one single song that I don’t like in this game. Hell you might want to hear this music while you work out.

        Now the one downside about this game is the camera angle. When you move to one section players will sometimes have to move the opposite direction. It can especially be annoying when you’re fighting against enemies.

        In the end Devil May Cry 3 is a fun kick ass game. Cool characters, great gameplay, kick ass music and so much more. Players will also love Dante’s personality. He’s definitely one of the biggest names in Capcom and in the gaming world also. Vergil is definitely an awesome character as well. Also if Players have the special edition of the game they can play as Vergil and learn more about his story after beating the game. Devil May Cry 3 is definitely a great throwback game and is worth playing. You can download it on the Xbox Live Marketplace or PlayStation store.

Throwback Thursday: Kingdom Hearts

Throwback Thursday: Kingdom Hearts

Robert Knuckles

Simple and Clean

With Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue being released a few days ago I thought it would be a good idea to talk about the game that started it all. The original Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts was released in America on Sep. 17, 2002 for the PlayStation 2. It was developed and published by SquareEnix but at the time it was called SquareSoft.

Kingdom Hearts bought a collaboration of characters from Walt Disney and Final Fantasy. I’m pretty sure everyone including myself wouldn’t imagine a combination like that.

The Story focuses on the main character Sora (who the player controls throughout the whole game) and his friends Riku and Kairi who plan to leave from their home Destiny Island to explore new worlds. One night Destiny Island was attacked by Heartless (creatures that have no heart). Sora then obtains the keyblade, a weapon that is used to fight the heartless. Sora gets separated from Riku and Kairi. At the same time when this event is happening, Donald (who is a wizard) and Goofy (who is a knight) notice that King Mickey is gone from their castle and leaves a note saying he’s going to fight the forces of darkness  and that Donald and Goofy need to find the key-blade wielder (which is Sora.) Sora ends up in Traverse Town where he meets up with Donald and Goofy. Together all three go on an adventure to not only find Riku and Kairi but to put an end to the Heartless and close all the keyholes.

The gameplay is very unique and the reason why I say unique is that SquareSoft goes away from their RPG style and into a hack and slash action role playing game in a third person style. Donald and Goofy are controlled by the A.I. Since Donald is a wizard his magic which is called MP is the highest of the group and since Goofy is a knight his health is the biggest of the cast. Players obtain experience points by defeating enemies and bosses, which can unlock more moves for longer combos, more magic, more health and so much more. What I find pretty cool is that since players can still edit Donald and Goofy’s moves although they are A.I. controlled.

On your adventure you’ll enter Disney worlds such as Halloween Town, Never-Land or Agrabah. Player’s will also team up with other Disney characters such as Aladdin, Jack Skellington, Ariel and so much more. Now you can only have a team of three so you’ll have to switch out Goofy or Donald or just play with the original three. I normally tend to take out Goofy since Donald heals everyone when they are low on health.

You’ll face Disney Villains on your adventure as well. It really felt good beating up Captain Hook, Jafar and Ursula. Many more tough boss battles await Sora and his friends.

There are tons of backtracking in this game. Since you beat a world doesn’t mean you fully beat it. There are tons of secret locations to find secret items that will come in handy in your adventure.

Kingdom Hearts is a fantastic game the only downside is that if you die at a boss fight you’ll have to re watch the whole cut-scene again. The soundtrack for this game is truly amazing. I’m pretty sure we’ve all fell in love with Simple and Clean. I honestly never get tired of hearing that song. It’s also pretty cool to see Disney characters kick some butt. Kingdom Hearts is a very long game worth every minute. If there is something this game had teached me is that the importance of being there for your friends. Kingdom Hearts is definitely a must buy if you own a PS2. Players can also play Kingdom Hearts on the PS3 with Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix. Players can also get the upcoming release of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 Remix on March 28th 2016. It contains: Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, RE: Chain of Memories, Birth By Sleep Final Mix and cut-scenes of 358/2 Days and Re:coded.

Be sure to check out my review of Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue this weekend!

Throwback Thursday: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie Sega Genesis

You know what day it is time for another Throwback Thursday. With the release of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Mega Battle recently released I thought that I talk about a similar Power Rangers game that touched my heart and that’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie for Sega Genesis.

There is also a Super-NES version of the game which played differently but we're going to focus on the Sega version of the game. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie came out for the Sega Genesis on September 1995 made by Bandai.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie is a 2 player beat em up game that focus on parts of The Film that came out on June 30 1995 with the Power Rangers saving Angel Grove from the evil Ivan Ooze. A few stages focus on the movie while the other stages focused on past events focused from the TV episodes of Power Rangers. Players can choose between the six Power Rangers each with their own special move. On the stages focusing on the Film players choose between Tommy (White Ranger), Adam (Black Ranger), Kimberly (Pink Ranger), Billy (Blue Ranger), Aisha (Yellow Ranger) and Rocky (Red Ranger). Players also have past Rangers Zach (Black Ranger), Jason (Red Ranger) and Trini (Yellow Ranger) but only play as these Rangers on past reflection stages.

Now the past stages are pretty cool. Players get to fight the Putty Patrols and familiar monsters such as the three S. Sentinels; Ear, Neck and Ring, Goldar and Lord Zedd.

Now whats a Power Rangers game without the MegaZords. MegaZord Battles are fun. Players can choose between the Ninja Megazord or Falconzord who is O.P.!!! Past Stages players can choose between the Thunder Megazord or White TigerZord.

My only grips with the game is that I believe it’s too short and skips major scenes from the movie for example the game doesn’t allow players play on Pheados. It would be cool to have the players play as the ninja rangers in the Neola Jungle and fight the Skeleton Creatures and Stone Gargoyles. Now I did say the past stages were cool but I believe they were unnecessary because they didn’t follow the movie. I think Bandai only added these stages to add more to the game because there are only three stages that focus on the film. You can pretty much beat this game in under an hour.

In the end Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie is a fun game. The soundtrack is awesome. It follows the music from the TV series. I would only recommend this game to Power Rangers fans.

Throwback Thursday Mario Party 3

Throwback Thursday Mario Party 3

I’m giving you guys more and more Throwback Thursday games. I just can’t stop. Another game that’s close to my heart is Mario Party 3 which is one of my favorite Mario Party games.

Mario Party 3 was released on May 7, 2001 on the N-64. Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Wario and Donkey Kong return alongside new characters such as Princess Daisy who actually first appeared in Super Mario Land as the damsel in distress and after her first appearance in Mario Tennis she’s been in almost every Mario game. Another newcomer is Waluigi who’s Luigi’s nemesis who first appeared in Mario Tennis.

Mario Party 3 plays just like the previous two games. Four players play on game boards then play mini-games. Boards still have the classic Blue, Red, Happening, Battle, Bowser and many more but there is a new space called Game Guy space which is probably the most hated space ever and it’s my only dissapointment. Players who land on this space have to surrender all their coins to Game Guy. You’ll have to face Game Guy in a mini-game. If the player wins they get double the amount of coins but if the player loses they lose all their coins.

Now what’s a Mario Party without the mini-games. Snowball Summit is a mini-game where players build snowballs and hit players off the hill. I also love Toadstool titan where players break bricks to find the mushroom to knock players off the screen. Now one mini-game i found interesting is M.P.I.Q. This is a questionnaire mini-game that test players about their knowledge in the Mario world. Players still have 1 vs 3, 2 vs 2, Duel mini-games, Battle, Item and some secret mini-games. Now players for the first  time need to unlock mini-games. When selecting mini-games players will notice question marks which means the mini-game hasn’t been played yet. So players will always be curious to see what mini-game it is.

A new feature that Mario Party 3 are the Duel Boards. This can only be played by two players and the objective is to defeat your opponent by attacking them with their partner by depleting the opponent's health. Players use partners such as Koopa Troopa or Goomba but there are partners that have special abilities. Chain Chomp attacks opponents simultaneously. Now players have 20 turns if players are still alive during those 20 turns the player with the most health wins. I thought duel mode was pretty interesting but it didn’t appear in any other Mario Party games after 3.

Mario Party 3 features  Story Mode a first in the series. Now you can only play as Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario and Donkey Kong. They all want the Millennium Star now I don’t want to get to get too much into the story but I’ll give small details. Player has to win on each of the  game boards and get a star stamp. Now players will also have to duel it out against other characters in the game to get their stamps and there will be one final battle for the player to win and get the Millennium Star. I thought it was pretty cool to have a Story Mode in a Mario Party game. I believe that Nintendo wanted to do something different and they probably took a risk by adding this mode but it was worth it.

Now you still have the mini-game room where you can pick out which mini-game you want to play but like I said before you have to unlock them first in order to play them.

In the end Mario Party 3 touched my heart as a kid. I remember getting the game like it was yesterday. I liked the new addition of characters, the mini-games are fun, Story is a blast to play and Duel mode is fun. My only grip with the game is the Game Guy space. It’s completely unnecessary. I sometimes don’t even blame the players for wanting to reset the game for losing against the Game Guy maybe it’s salty but just that space alone is my only negative thing about this game. Now it is hard to find this game in a store or find a cheap price online. Players can download this as an emulator but I really want this game to be on the Wii U virtual console. I’m just waiting….