My favorite Games of All-Time #16: The Ocean Hunter - Originally published on 1UP - April 28, 2006

Before we explore the Ocean Hunter we have to set the stage. I'm going to go back in time, seven years ago, the beginning of the end. Back to a time when Sega was the undisputed king of the arcade! In 1998 Sega had developed a slew of games for the Model 3 board. Daytona USA 2, Dirt Devils, Emergency Call Ambulance, L.A. Machineguns (sequel to N.Y. Gunblade), Magical Truck Adventure, Ocean Hunter, Spike Out, Star Wars Trilogy and Sega Bass Fishing. Many of these titles are classics in their own right and I have even made mention of Spike Out and Daytona 2 a few blogs back. By far 1998 was one of Sega's most creative years.

Sega had several arcade divisions back-in-the-day. The most famous being Yu Suzuki's AM2. Less known were Kazunori Tsukamoto and Rikiya Nakagawa of AM1. The team at AM1 crafted one of the most overlooked arcade gems ever, the Ocean Hunter! Ocean Hunter was a great game from a great company. It would even hold up well against the best of Yu Suzuki.

All arcade titles interest me, some more than others. The more creative and immersive the story behind the game the more likely I'll become a fan. I'm not fond of shooters like Virtua Cop or Gunblade N.Y. so it was odd that I would say Sega's best game in 98 was a shooter called the Ocean Hunter (OH).

There are two types of cabinets for the OH, try to find the sit down cabinet with the giant display. Read the Boss FAQ if you want to know what you're getting into. Have a seat, make yourself comfortable, become familiar with the controller. Appreciate the time and effort that AM1 went into the design of just the cabinet itself. The Japanese are industrious people. OH is testament to AM1's commitment to detail.

Many arcade games come with some backstory. "You are in a race" or "you are fighting for your life" or even "you are a pro wrestler." Like all forms of entertainment there is some suspension of disbelief, a chance for you to let yourself get caught up in the virtual world. The Ocean Hunter has one of the best plots I've ever read. Taken from the Japanese flyer for the game.

"In the Seven Seas of the planet, seven terrifying monsters lurk... a new civilization is flourishing, but in the oceans giant monsters attack both boats and harbors with increasing frequency. Frightened for their lives, people put a bounty for the monsters. This game is the story of two young people who head out to defeat the horrible creatures in the seven seas..."

Sounds straightforward right? At least it is a little more back story than is provided in the English flyer. Both flyers are at the Arcade Flyers Database. The story and art from the flyer are mirrored in the art and direction of the game itself.

Visually the game is impressive. Graphics aside the game has a unique design. The world created is highly-stylized, somewhat storybook, and almost Victorian. The names used in the game like Poseidon, Leviathan, the Kraken are mythological and biblical. The ships, science and clothing are fantastic... along the art and fiction of writers like Jules Verne and Alan Moore. Some of you might know it better as a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen-type of world. I'd say OH is a watered-down (no pun intended) version of the LoEG world, scaled to focus on just the adventure.

What sucks for me is that the only images available online are rather grainy and dark. The closest arcade to me that had the game was about 38 miles away, I'm not sure if they even have it any more as I write this. Most of my experiences with the game are from memory. So please bear with me and try to use your imagination as I bring the Ocean Hunter back to life.

Most of the gameplay revolves around you shooting mini harpoons from your sea scooter. If you've ever played a shooter in the arcade then you know that you must face wave after wave of enemies. You are usually on an invisible rail dictating which direction you are going. In this case each level is filled with dangerous uniquely-named fish, shark, rays, jellyfish and eels. There is a mid-boss consisting of a larger fish and eventually an actual boss consisting of a massive creature. Most of the game is frenetic shooting but power-ups and health recharge items (hidden in the game) require a much more refined shot. The bosses can be defeated by finding and exploiting vital areas. None of that is new to arcade shooters. The total package is what sets the Ocean Hunter apart from the other shooters.

When you start the game you are given a cinematic featuring the same story on the flyer. You could skip the cinemas in the game by pressing the triggers on the controller. That would be taking away one of the most important components to the game. If you get a chance try and go through all the cinematics and enjoy the story.

 

As one of the bounty hunters it is your job to stop the monsters of the ocean bent on destroying ships and sailors alike. The characters are unnamed, the one with the long hair is Player 1, the one with short blue hair is Player 2. I'm certain somebody at AM1 (eventually renamed Overworks and then Sega WOW) knows their true names. Your vehicle and weapon is a nifty, repeat-action harpoon gun and underwater scooter. You don't actually get to steer the scooter, only aim the harpoon.

The "Seven Seas" in question are not based on our oceans. In this game the seas and the fish within are unique to each level. There is the Baroque Sea, the Luna Sea, the Tartarus Deep, Texcoco Great Lake, the North Sea, West Sea and Panthalassa: the Sea of Evil. Each environment is special. In one stage you fight within a great sunken ship. In tight spaces shooting quickly advancing eels and avoiding falling debris. In another level you will be taken to the arctic and end up fighting underneath icebergs where deep sea divers are pinned in by sharks.

 

The level designs are great and the detail is all there. Ahuizotl is the monster harassing the waters off Texcoco Great Lake. The lake has a sunken city, designed after Mayan or Aztec ruins. It is easy to get lost in the scenery. If you spend too much time looking at the details in the game you'll end up surrounded by piranha and other underwater nasties.

Your transportation between levels is pretty neat. Your base of operations is a mobile semi-submersible. A large bathysphere (Google it) attached to a balloon and driven by a propeller. A cable drops you into the ocean when you go deep sea diving (on later levels). One can assume it also pulls you up between levels. Still it's one hell of an invention that would make Da Vinci proud.

 

The bosses themselves are a sight to behold. Many of the creatures are based on myth and legend, a few of them are based on dinosaurs like the Plesiosaur and Megalodon.

It isn't enough that you have to fight giant bosses for money. A dinosaur would fight on instinct and run away when shot with a harpoon machine gun. The bosses in the Ocean Hunter are relentless. They chase you, cut you off and corner you. They are tougher than hell and require hundreds of shots to fell. You quickly learn why the bounties on each monster are so high.

 

The last boss in the game is no joke. He, (it?) has several transformations. You know this wouldn't be any type of shooter if at least one boss didn't transform multiple times. The "Sea of Evil" is not as ominous as it sounds. Sure every monster that you have faced turns up there, but the water is not boiling blood (that would have been truly evil!). The boss Dagon is a giant frog-humanoid that hops around the ruins of what looks like Atlantis. After taking enough hits he transforms (rather stands up) into Poseidon. If you dish out enough damage to Poseidon he transforms a third time, his legs fuze into a tail (and even grows a third eye on his forehead) and is renamed Rahab, a gigantic merman.

Shoot with everything you have and make sure you have plenty of credits. This game, like all great shooters, can be a quarter cruncher. When you defeat Rahab you hit the big payday but you are also left with the final cinema before the credits.

Rahab was angry at humanity for polluting his waters. It was then that he sent out his bosses (represented as the fingers on his hand) to reclaim the ocean. Although you started out protecting the ships in the end you have claimed the bounty for creatures, and gods that existed millennia before man. You have destroyed the only ones trying to protect the oceans.

The moral is a heavy pill but the adventure was well worth it. AM1 should be proud of their work and the fact that years later I am still thinking about the game. If only I had an arcade cabinet to call my own... If only Sega had taken that extra step with the IP they created... can you imagine?

The Ocean Hunter could have come out on consoles. It could have been a sister title to a game like Panzer Dragoon or perhaps it could have been like Phantasy Star.

Space may be the last great adventure but it means very little in a videogame. In terms of mechanics not much separates Final Fantasy from Phantasy Star. A turn-based fighting system, an epic plot, players can customize their character... none of that is new. Break that third dimension though. To be able to quest (with direct control) into the sky and underground as well as on land and we have something special. GTA is not a fantasy title but being able to steal and use cars and fighter jets is about a fantastic premise as I've ever heard.

For an RPG, riding, fighting and adventuring on horseback bends some of that reality. Riding on a dragon in all three dimensions opens up the possibilities of the game-playing experience. Fall off that dragon and gravity does us in. Water allows us to experience the same things and more. We can float, we can sink and we can swim in all three dimensions. We can glide on the surface of water or power through it. Very few people have ever seen the bottom of the ocean, who needs outer space when the most exotic and unique forms of life can be found in the big blue? The game also reminds me of an important part of gaming history that is lost for many people.

Arcades were the place for gamers to hang out and socialize. The best players became mini-celebs at the arcade, the social order from school did not apply there. There was no internet to hide behind, people could not be anonymous posters on a message board. If a player showed up to an arcade, and talked shit about the other visitors then they had two options, prove they were something amazing, or leave before they got a beat-down. The rule was the bigger the city the bigger the arcade. The best players drove, or took the bus. Going from arcade to arcade looking for competition. This competition caused beefs to build up between some audiences, with some rivalries stretching coast-to-coast. New visitors were however always welcome at the arcade. That sense of community among active gamers is not as strong today despite chat programs within MMORPG, Playstation, and Xbox Live games.

Before 60" HD Plasma Displays and 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound were in home entertainment centers there was only one place to enjoy games on an epic scale. The arcade was always the home to the biggest displays, flashiest marquees and even custom built cabinets. For 25 cents a gamer did not only play a game, they were treated to an experience. The arcade experience was akin to watching a movie in a theater, the home console just couldn't compete.

Arcade cabinets were a unique beast. Some cabinets were shaped like cars or motorcycles. Some surrounded the player and could flip and rotate a full 360 degrees. The control was not a pad but an actual joystick or steering wheel, the buttons firmer and more responsive than anything the console makers could invent. Some cabinets had players sitting, pedaling a bike, rowing a boat, firing a shotgun or balancing on skis. Can you imagine a God of War game that required you to actually swing blades of chaos at the screen? These were the experiences missing when arcade treasures were translated to the consoles. Many did a good job but none could ever capture the magic of the arcade.

Not many gamers today know or remember the golden era of arcades. The era when arcade games meant more to the game industry than consoles or PC titles. When the arcade crowd was a genuine community, gamers shared common experiences, competed, strategized and had fun all in the same place. The internet and booming console market soon took gamers out of circulation, took away that sense of community and just about destroyed the arcade. At least for today we will raise a glass to one of the last great arcade games.

The Ocean Hunter, like the best arcade games, was bigger than life. By sitting down at a deluxe cabinet players got a sense of scale, a sense of awe. This game was anything but ordinary. By watching the story unfold, reacting at every bump and turn in the game, studying the detail that went into every level, we could tell that the game was much deeper than the display showed. Sega had managed to capture a grand scale adventure, something meant for a movie screen, and compressed it into a few levels. It was something that we could enjoy in one sitting. On paper it all looked so simple. It was about hunting mythological sea creatures with a harpoon machine gun. The actual game transcended all of that. It became a symbol for one of the best experiences that I will ever have the honor to play.

The Ocean Hunter reminds us of what arcade greatness was. It was, and remains the game that I consider one of the best titles ever. It is a game that is long overdue for a second chance. I hope someone at Sega still remembers the legacy of AM1. Track it down if you can, or watch a long play on YouTube so you can get a glimpse of this fantastic experience. I’d like to hear your personal top-10, top-20, top fighting games, top sports games, or top games in any genre. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

My favorite Games of All-Time #17: Bionic Commando - Originally published on 1UP - April 21, 2006

Bionic Commando should need no introduction. 1UP's Crucial Classics rank Bionic Commando in the #20 spot. If you are a fan of the action platformer then Bionic Commando should be a game that you not only play but have to beat. The version that makes my #17 spot is the Nintendo one, not the arcade and not the Gameboy versions.

Bionic Commando came out during the 8-bit golden era, when arcade classics were being turned into console titles by the boatload. Capcom had mastered a gameplay technique rarely used in a platformer or in the arcade. Pitfall was the first game that allowed players to swing from vines, Jungle King/Jungle Hunt soon followed. The game mechanic in Bionic Commando blew these games out of the water. The main character, Captain Rad Spencer, ran and used a gun, not unlike his Contra contemporaries. What made him special was that he could also attack enemies and swing through a level via a mechanical claw.

The arcade version did look better than the NES one. However the NES version had changes to the story, tighter control, hidden features and more polish with the ending. Just like the other Capcom arcade to home games (Trojan, Gunsmoke) these details helped make the NES version better than the arcade game.

Bionic Commando will be most remembered for the swinging element. Players could perform, and often times had to, death defying movements through enemy compounds. All the while avoiding spike pits and soldiers. The high ratio of near misses and miracle claw grabs helped keep gamers on their toes. Those that bothered to snoop around levels were rewarded with not only weapon upgrades but plot advancements as well.

The story in the game was one for the ages. It still ranks as one of the favorite game plots for my brothers and I. Despite censorship and translation issues we could tell right away that the opponents were Neo-Nazis trying to bring Hitler back from the dead. To make things worse they also planned on taking over the world with a giant airship called the Albatross. Solid Snake and Metal Gear eat your heart out!

As Rad Spencer you not only did you have to defeat the Nazi menace and their diabolical machine but you also had to rescue "Super Joe" the previous super soldier sent to stop the Albatross. If you want to read all about the plot and characters just visit these two sites. They have all the particular details that I'm leaving out.

There are very few games that capture the sense of high adventure in the way that Bionic Commando does. The final level was one of the most memorable levels of all time. After defeating Albatross you must swing up to reach a hangar, then in one fluid motion swing out and drop down and fire a missile into the cockpit on Hitler's escape helicopter.

As if that wasn't difficult enough you have to locate Super Joe and get out of the military base before it explodes. And you thought the end of Metroid was a nail-biter! The ending to Bionic Commando was one of the best, if not the best videogame endings ever.

After defeating the Nazi menace and saving Super Joe you are caught in the middle of an explosion. Cut scenes tell us that your rescue helicopter can't stick around because the base is about to explode. When it does you are left wondering what happened to our hero.

Suddenly out of the fire a helicopter emerges. The bionic claw attached to the landing gear. We pan back and see our hero holding onto the other end of the claw. Rad Spencer and Super Joe are alive!!!

That was one of the first videogame endings that my brothers and I remember cheering for. The adventure was worth the payoff. The game delivered the complete package. It controlled great, had a fantastic story and delivered an ending better than Hollywood could ever do.

Since that time the mechanic of a ranged weapon and a way of locomotion that worked for Bionic Commando has come up in games. Most recently with Rygar, God of War and of course Spider-Man.

It looks like Kratos will even get to use his Blades of Chaos to do some swinging in the next God of War. See, even David Jaffe knows that the Bionic Commando had something special. To see a speed run of the game just check this link. Until next time, have a great weekend!

I’d like to hear your personal top-10, top-20, top fighting games, top sports games, or top games in any genre. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

My favorite Games of All-Time #18: Final Fantasy VI- Originally published on 1UP - April 14, 2006

Final Fantasy is an epic series of games. Many young gamers only know of the series dating back to FF VII. They would tell you that it was the best in the series. Go ask a person that has played every version of Final Fantasy and you will get a different answer. Most will agree that the one prior to VII, the last on the Super Nintendo was the best in the lot.

Final Fantasy VI demonstrated what Square was capable at its peak. There were no long, boring drawn out cinemas. No pop music videos featuring the main characters. No androgynous characters. No complex and unnecessary combat systems

The battle system was straight forward. Skills and weapons could be combined into some fantastic attacks. Players that explored every inch of the map were rewarded with rare items and valuable back story. The graphics were outstanding for the time. Yoshitaka Amano's art direction has few rivals in any Japanese RPG. His style complimented the characters and world. Who could deny the musical genius of Nobuo Uematsu? A man that managed to turn MIDI bips and bleeps into something fantastic!

I dare say that the opera scene in VI was one of the most memorable videogame experiences in my life. People on both sides of the industry argue that the holy grail for videogame developers is to create an emotive experience. To get gamers to cry. Many within the industry believe that they can achieve that through next-generation, high resolution graphics and pre-rendered cinemas. The opera scene counters that logic.

Producer Hironobu Sakaguchi and Directors Yoshinori Kitasa and Hiroyuki Itou manage to craft a moment within a game, part PaRappa the Rapper and part Phantom of the Opera. A moment where we take control and play through a scene, one of the best ever written. By using the candy colored buttons of the Super Nintendo we become the main actor on the stage, we sing of heartbreak and promise. We are made to laugh, cry and overcome adversity. We are connected to the action, we are engaged performers and not a passive audience. The illusion achieved through some simple pixels and midi sound files, not Hollywood caliber special effects.

Final Fantasy games have since taken us out of that moment. Rather than letting us play through the game they now make us sit back and watch the action. It happened as a series of music videos in FFVIII, FFX and FFX-2. When FF XII comes out and we are forced to sit through longer and longer cinemas we will hear the complaints. "Too much watching and not enough doing..."

It was the story in FFVI that sold the game. A story that harkens back to the themes in all great Final Fantasy adventures. The crystal of life, the brave warrior, the wayward guard of the empire, the reluctant hero, the ancient magical creature, the generous soul and a traitorous villain.

If you were to ask a group of people from around the world, that have been playing for over 15 years, to name the top-5 console RPG's of all-time they would rank FFVI in that group. Some might easily put it in the top-3. Those same people might say that FFVII would barely crack the top-10. They are not ranking the games based on sales, graphics or fancy cinemas. They are not ranking the games on popularity either. They rank the games based on the whole package. Those are the games that delivered the best all-around experience, technology be damned!

Critics argue that the story is too corny, too simplistic and too neatly wrapped up. I argue that many of those critics have become cynical with the genre. They truly believe that every Japanese RPG has to end with sacrifice and heartbreak. No story should ever end with "happily ever after."

I counter that argument with what a gamer needs versus what a gamer wants. This applies to every branch of the entertainment industry. We have become saturated with media that satisfies the consumer at every opportunity. The popular music all sounds the same, entertainers are rappers with a rhyme and a hook, every movie is eye candy and every game a 15-minute fix. When the industry suffers they blame the consumer rather themselves. People will always have a need to be entertained. They will always want to share in an experience. It is up to the industry to figure out how to fill our needs without catering to our wants.

Pixar is good at entertaining in the way that Disney studios used to. This is because they give us fun, family stories rather than caustic, animated adult comedy. Pixar still believes in the magic of storytelling, rather than the business of animation.

Final Fantasy VI represents the peak of what the series used to give gamers. It represents the period where gamers basic needs were all satisfied. Before Square catered to the demands of the public and began putting longer and longer cinemas in their games. When we could take a coffee break when summoning Knights of the Round... before Square just about went bankrupt on the dismal Final Fantasy the Spirits Within?

Remember what I said makes for a great game? It is the bare bones, immersive experience? FFVI is a near=perfect RPG template. Contrary to popular opinion the game does not have any weak points. If you are willing to give the game a chance you will not be disappointed. In fact, you will cheer at the end of the opera. You will spit every time you hear the name Kefka. And, God-willing, if you wait until the very last second on the collapsing island at the end of the game you will be rewarded. With what I will not say. You just have to take the adventure for yourself.

The Game That Almost Was #18

I have to make mention of the game that almost went in this spot. The one game that in all honesty gives FFVI a run for its money. Persona by Atlus missed this spot by only a fraction, it too has an opera singer but not an opera scene. If this list was my top-10 RPG's then I might rank Persona ahead of FFVI. That is because it takes the grand adventure of Final Fantasy VI and contemporizes it. It makes it both mature and profane.

Persona, as part of the Shin Megami Tensei series, is the best example of the contemporary role-playing game. It is the battle between good and evil, angels and demons, men in black and illuminati set in the here and now. Localization issues aside it is a well written and well conceived series that appeals to our imagination.

The game has its own combat system, unique weapons and an unusual magic system. It combines arcane magic and pagan summons with the tarot and astrology. Persona has loads of style thanks to the talented art of Kazumo Kaneko, the Atlus equivalent of Amano. Few in the industry can paint humans and demons with as much sex appeal and personality as Kazumo.

Persona is no stranger to controversy. It raises some very deep questions and covers a lot of taboo subjects, including the Catholic ideas of purgatory, Hell and suicide. If anything the upcoming version will cross the line, as characters shoot themselves in the head in order to summon their demon counterpart. But that is Persona, perpetually crossing the line. Daring to raise questions about reality and then ask us to look within. Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? What is the nature of man? What is the nature of monster? Who pulls the strings and what happens when we cross over? The issues dealing with "awakening" and reality were better written and presented in Persona than in the Matrix trilogy.

Many gamers did not give this series a chance. Those gamers miss out on experiences and questions that no other game asks.

If you have only seen ads or trailers of the game you will notice a butterfly. The butterfly is a symbol in the series. The butterfly relates to the Taoist story of transformation. The meaning of awaking to truth and reality. Who would ever imagine that a butterfly could become one of the most powerful symbols in the history of gaming?

"I Dreamt I Was a Butterfly"
by Chuang Tzu

Once upon a time I dreamt I was a butterfly
fluttering hither and thither
to all intents and purposes a butterfly

I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly
and was unconscious of my individuality as a man

Suddenly I awoke
and there I lay
myself again

I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly
or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man

I’d like to hear your personal top-10, top-20, top fighting games, top sports games, or top games in any genre. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

My favorite Games of All-Time #19: NBA Street - Originally published on 1UP - April 7, 2006

NBA Street by Electronic Arts BIG is the only "sport" game on my list. The snowboarding game SSX is the cornerstone for EA's Big division, NBA Street serves as the ambassador between "extreme" sports and traditional sports.

NBA Street meets just about all of the criteria in my definition of a great game. It is the self-contained, boiled-down basketball experience. Don't confuse the popularity of the NBA with the actual game of basketball.

Playground basketball is possibly the last pure form of sport that I know of. Yes companies like AND1 have built their rep by taking playground tricks into large arenas. The game itself is best enjoyed on the playground, free from sponsorships and advertising. The playground where the real legends play day in and day out for the love of the game.

As far as videogames go the basic components for basketball are 3-on-3. This is until the industry learns the nuances of the 1-on-1 game, which NBA Ballers completely misses.

NBA Street was the first basketball game in a long time to capture the fun and creative freedom of basketball. It was arcade in almost every sense of the word. Plays, tricks and dunks were exaggerated but believable. If a character didn't have a high enough "handle" rating they could easily lose the basketball if trying to do a fancy trick move. This gave the fictional and real players in the game a sense of balance.

The control scheme was easy to pick up and get used to. Within a few minutes you could begin pulling off crazy tricks like it was second nature. Not unlike the other great combination-building trick system in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. NBA Street rewarded players that figured out how to string together long trick chains ending in a monstrous dunk. The sense of realism, the "attitude" that the industry is always trying to create felt genuine in this game.

NBA Street is a nod to the playground game and the legends that never made it into the league. While there are some big NBA names in the game, the biggest personality was the fictional main character, the afro-sporting "Stretch" Monroe. Stretch is based on the NYC playground legends of the 60's and 70's. Many consider those decades the golden years of playground basketball. The days where the best in the NBA would actually show and prove in the playgrounds every summer, instead of retreating to their palatial estates in the Hamptons. The other fictional characters in the game are based around modern players or, like Japanese center Takashi, foreign players that were never given a chance to enter the NBA.

I consider the original Street superior in concept and execution than the sequels. NBA Street 2 and 3 showed an improvement in the graphics and control. Unfortunately those games lacked soul. They lacked originality. They played as uninspired sequels featuring a number of NBA Legends in addition to modern players. They followed a formula of "more is better" rather than the bare bones actual heart of the game.

The fictional legends that gave the original game so much personality now seemed out of place. Stretch served little purpose as his template, the retro afro-sporting Julius "Dr. J" Erving was also a playable character. To add insult to injury EA also began using relatively unknown playground players as the templates for fictional characters and unfairly compensating them for their motion-capture sessions, likeness and moves. EA Sports Big have built enough revenue for the company that they began exploring other licenses to make Street games around.

By the time NBA Street 3 debuted it had become a gross exaggeration of the original game. Players could do ridiculous moves that even the Harlem Globetrotters would be embarrassed to do and enter dunk contests with moon-like physics.

Lest we forget, the moment that Midway gave us a "lot more of the same" in NBA Jam it just about buried the franchise. Half court dunks, bobble-head players, catching fire and unbalanced gameplay. Yeah, it is very easy to take a good idea and push it too far.

NBA Street has been buried. The whole concept of "street" goes out the window when the license and the names are pushed over the game. EA has destroyed a good thing. But for what it's worth the original NBA Street will always remain in my top-20.

To read more on the bigger picture of streetball, where it's been and where it's going check out my 4-part series from ages ago. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4. EDIT: I am trying to see if I have saved this series so I can repost it.

I’d like to hear your personal top-10, top-20, top fighting games, top sports games, or top games in any genre. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!