Legend of the River King Made Fishing Games Extremely Fun

Prior to playing this, I’d played a few other fishing games such as Sega Bass Fishing but that was more of an arcade-style game. It wasn’t even a fishing sim—which I would later play and found them enjoyable enough. However, it wasn’t something I was going to finish.

Legend of the River King had the appeal of being a Natsume game off the bat. I was playing Harvest Moon 64, a hard game to find at the time when I saw Legend of the River King GBC being mentioned along with Harvest Moon GB 2. I was planning to play that HM game but LRK was intriguing.

Getting into it, I found that it had a sliver of story—just enough to get you started on your adventure. Honestly, Harvest Moon was similar because after a while, the reason for you being there to take over the farm doesn’t really matter and it’s mentioned every now and then.

It drives you to straighten up the farm but its not an ongoing story for the game. That was the same case in Legend of the River King. You just have to retrieve a legendary fish to prevent natural disasters on this island—if I’m remembering correctly—but it won’t be easy at all.

You’ll make a lot of progress in the game with money and you have to catch fish to sell. As the game advances, you run into more methods to make money. The next one is in combat—which is somewhat odd that something that isn’t fishing-related made this one of the most enjoyable fishing games.

Before moving into the next method, the combat in this game is simple and works. Players just have to stop the moving fish on an enemy—usually wildlife—or their weak spot. That’s it! It’s the combat and leveling that move this game into RPG territory.

I mean, otherwise it would’ve been a slog of a fishing game. There’s also diving, a very profitable way to make money and deep-sea fishing. Once you get the hang of the fishing and combat mechanics, this game is pretty self-explanatory.

It’s also a game that came before the lengthy tutorials we find in-game now, so you’re diving right into the mess right after the brief opening. Then again, the mechanics in this game aren’t complex at all. If you’ve visited a store and upgraded your gear in any game, you’ll know to upgrade your stuff here as well.

Worth a Reboot?

The situation with Natsume Inc and Marvelous Inc saw a bit of a licensing situation over the Harvest Moon title resulting in two game franchises. The Legend of the River King series continued into the Nintendo DS era but following Legend of the River King 2, the combat was taken out and it became just a fishing game.

The PlayStation 2 entry was fine but I maintain that LRK2 on the Game Boy Color was the best in the franchise. If anything, I think a reboot going back to the GBC games would be great otherwise let it remain dormant. It’s just not worth it for a light fishing game with no conflict or leveling elements to me. If the combat is gone, perhaps it should be more of a fishing sim.

Have you played any of the Legend of the River King games? If so, did they stand out to you? Is it a game where you could see a reboot happening? Let us know!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

One of my earliest memories of the game was seeing my older brother playing this game heavily in his room and when I saw him playing Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES for the first time, I thought it was absolutely cool and I wanted to play the game as well. My older brother very rarely allowed his younger siblings like me to come inside of his room let alone play any of the video games that he had in his room.

But a few years after that experience of watching him playing Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES, I actually got to play Tecmo Super Bowl for the SNES and I vividly remember playing as The Miami Dolphins and my older brother was playing as The Houston Oilers because he was such a huge fan of legendary pro football Hall Of Fame quarterback Warren Moon at the time and my very first experience of playing Tecmo Super Bowl of any version and in this case The SNES Version was extremely bittersweet. My older brother literally destroyed me 63-0 and I remember being angry and crying so much that I quickly stormed out of his room crying. 

The critically acclaimed 1991 Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES is the sequel to the popular 1988 Tecmo Bowl for the NES where in Tecmo Super Bowl, interceptions and fumbles were very rare to come buy and difficult to get against the opposing A.I. team. Unlike Tecmo Bowl, it had all the players from all the teams that were active in The NFL around the time of the game’s release. 

The legacy of Tecmo Super Bowl is very strong that hardcore fans of the 1991 NES version of the game have updated the game with modern day NFL rosters and teams over the past decade now through the use of hack ROMs.

This game even made certain football players famous like ex-49ers RB Roger Craig, who not only won 3 Super Bowls with the team during its peak in the 1980s, but is also one of the most underrated running backs in NFL history told ESPN in a 2016 interview that he got a surprise phone call from famous rapper Snoop Dogg telling him that “You were my favorite player in Tecmo Bowl. Christian Oyoke who was known way back then as “The Nigerian Nightmare” said that the game brought him so much popularity and notoriety that when he first played the game as himself, he absolutely loved it because he was an absolute beast. And lastly, Tecmo Bowl & Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES made Bo Jackson a sports legend because if you played as him in either one of the games running the ball, he was an absolute beast in those games. If you ask many of the older gamers back then what they remember about Bo Jackson, they will tell you that they dominated Tecmo Bowl & Tecmo Super Bowl by playing as him on the NES. The games truly solidified Bo Jackson as one of the greatest sports video game athletes of all time.

I wrote a piece a few years ago titled “My Favorite Gridiron Football Video Games” in which I listed my top 5 favorite gridiron football video games of all time and I put the critically acclaimed 1991 Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES as #1 on my list.

Excerpt from that article: “This amazing gridiron football game that came out for The NES in 1991 is my personal favorite gridiron football game because it was so fun, enjoyable, and action paced. A lot of people have stated that Bo Jackson was their favorite athlete from this game, but for me personally, my favorite athlete from this game was Barry Sanders because Barry was more agile and shifty than Bo and like Bo, he was also an absolute beast because whenever you give him the ball, he absolutely shreds and zig-zags his way through defenders and goes full speed to the end zone. This game was also among the first to actually allow players to make changes to the starting lineup for example you can replace an aging Joe Montana and replace him with a younger QB in Steve Young on The San Francisco 49ers football team. More than 25 years after this game was released, it still has a massive cult-like following to this day with Tecmo Super Bowl tournaments being held around the country each year.”

The Conclusion – Even though there are many sports video games that haven’t aged well like NBA Hangtime or even EA’s version of NBA Jam, but Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES is one of a special handful of sports games that have aged so well for the past 30 years since its release on the NES during the final few years of the NES era.

Staff Writer; Kwame Shakir (aka Joe D.)

If you know the Dreamcast, you could probably rattle five off the top of your head. Here are five refreshers for those who didn’t experience the DC.

Shenmue (1999)

This is the flagship for Dreamcast nostalgia. If you mention a game that defined the console or just a standout game from it—Shenmue should be the first or second game.

Usually, it’s the first one I mention because it’s that damn good. A mixture of RPG, action, and adventure, the first Shenmue sets up an epic story across years. It starts in 1986 Yokosuka and ends as the main character—teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki–leaves Japan for China to solve his father’s murder and gain revenge.

For 1999, this game was way ahead of others in the graphics department and in the research and gameplay mechanics applied. Developers Sega AM2 went as far as to get weather records for Yokosuka from 1986 to simulate the actual weather in-game.

If it was December 2^nd and it rained that day, it rained in Shenmue on that day. There’s also a life-sim and social aspect to the game in that stores open and close at certain times and certain characters can be found at certain spots at particular times.

This game was simply amazing for 1999. While the sequel—released in 2001—was eventually released in the West, the series as a whole was left hanging for 17 years before the series creator left and had Shenmue III crowdfunded.

It’s a shame because this should’ve been a massive, ongoing series for Sega. The more action-based successor Yakuza has a similar approach of a story told through the times and was the game that Sega got behind.

Sonic Adventure (1998)

Remember when I said “If you mention a game that defined the console or just a standout game from it—Shenmue should be the first or second game”? Sonic Adventure is the other game.

This game was a blast to play and was the Sonic franchise’s showcase on the Dreamcast. It was mandatory that Sonic Adventure be a launch title for the DC’s release in the U.S. America loved Sonic and for Sega fans it was a question of “What’s next?”

The Sega Saturn didn’t pan out well but there were dope games on it but it’s a new console generation and Sonic has to be there, right? Sure enough, Sega came out hard and heavy with Sonic Adventure.

In the same way that Nintendo makes games to showcase the strength and potential of a new console, Sega did the same with this one. It even showcased what else could be done with the memory card while playing the game.

Mind you, studios didn’t really take advantage of the feature. As gamer, I just used the VMU—virtual memory unit—for its primary purpose: to save my game. However, this was a whole Tamagotchi-like deal going on featuring the game’s Chao characters.

Outside of how fun Sonic Adventure was and how it showcased what the DC could do, this was basically a 3D Sonic platformer at the core. Sega did spice it up a bit by introducing characters, including a little bit of RPG, and actually featuring a story in-game.

NBA 2K/NFL 2K (1999)

While sports games eventually got to the point of saving career progress, NBA 2K came onto the court and said “How about we full simulate things such as player stats?”

This was mind-blowing for a sports game in the 1990s. Your players actually had stats! Not just a team average of defense and offense, you could actually see where that team average came from and it featured other features and modes that competitor NBA Live was lacking.

That’s not all! NFL 2K showed up and said “You can play online too.” Online play in 1999 on other consoles didn’t come along until later. It’s not a new concept but this was an application of the concept that worked.

Plus, these games looked better than what the competition was offering at the time. That alone gave Visual Concepts enough time to tidy up what players didn’t like about the 2K sports titles.

Project Justice (2000)

The Dreamcast featured a number of fighting games but Project Justice was pretty much at the top of Capcom’s offerings on the console. It was also one of the top three fighters on the console.

Project Justice is the fighting game series that I wish Capcom had continued. Enough with Street Fighter already. That aside, this game was part of the short-lived Rival Schools series and had several characters that should’ve at least made it into Street Fighter by now.

As far as gameplay, this 3D fight played awesomely. This wasn’t an all sizzle, no steak game and it’s even better when playing against a friend—which I would say is the ultimate test of a fighting game on console.

Ready 2 Rumble (2000)

Seriously, Ready 2 Rumble is the case of a game being so good on one console that you’d think it was an exclusive. R2R rocked on the Dreamcast and while it was fine on the PlayStation 2, it wasn’t as good as the Dreamcast version.

I’d put Ready 2 Rumble is an arcade-style boxing game. Lots of power punches and outlandish characters with Afro Thunder—the series mascot—being featured on the cover. It was a dope game that would remind you of a 3D Super Punch Out.

The last game in the series was released in 2009 on the Wii and did not perform well.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

How Are We Defining “Spinoff”?

A spinoff is any game within a franchise that isn’t part of the main series of games. Spinoffs can continue a story or present a dedicated side-story that features characters from the main series or takes place in the main series world.

The game might take place between the events of Afro Gamers and Afro Gamers II: Midnight Express, take place in the same setting, yet feature none of the main characters.

Hell, the spinoff might even stray from the main series’ genre. Spinoffs are flexible like that.

A good TV and screen example of this are the Star Wars shows The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and Star Wars Rebels or just the Law & Order franchise.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series

All Spike Chunsoft did here was apply the Pokemon license to gameplay from its own franchise: Mystery Dungeon. This is one of the more successful spinoffs in the Pokemon franchise purely because it has been continued since 2005.

Are Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Stadium more popular? No doubt. However, Nintendo wasn’t moved enough by how loved those series were to continuously release games in those series.

On the flip side, we’ve gotten Mystery Dungeon games since the late 1990s and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games regularly for roughly 21 years now.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

We’ve gone into Super Mario RPG from the Super Nintendo in the past but this game is incredible. It’s my hands-down favorite Super Mario game and all Squaresoft did was take the Mario license and apply to a turn-based JRPG system.

Honestly, this is a formula that should’ve been abused by developers in the late 1990s and early 1990s only because it has a high success rate or being an enjoyable game.

I could make the complaint about characters like Marrow and Geno should’ve been used more in Nintendo games but Nintendo has never been huge on concrete canon and story continuity across games.

EA Sports BIG series

Every genre has a stigma to it. For one thing, all games within a genre are pretty much the same at the core but become derivatives of that genre by adding new gameplay mechanics.

Then you get to sports games which have it worse than the first-person shooter genre had it during late 2000s-early 2010s as far as stagnancy goes.

So, how do you freshen up a genre based on sports? The rules don’t change regularly—which is good, you want consistency in sports—and the changes that do occur don’t result in a game that looks refreshed and new for a TV audience.

You freshen sports up by making them extreme, of course! When Midway decided “Eh, let’s do the NBA Playoffs games but make it more like an arcade game” the genre got a ton of breathing room across all sports.

The concept wasn’t even genius: just take sports and exaggerate the action to the point that gamers who aren’t sports fans would enjoy the game.

Into the 2000s, this was always Midway’s lane but the EA Sports BIG studio gave EA that reach into arcade sports games. Basically, a studio that was known for its sports simulation line-up began doing what Midway had been doing since NBA Jam—only better.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

Fighting games tend to have a low success rate when going outside of the genre. Either the game is enjoyed but it doesn’t sell or it sells on the weight of the franchise’s name value and turns out not being half as good as the main series.

Yes, that was Mortal Kombat Mythologies slander.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo is a game that falls into category one. People enjoyed the gameplay however it didn’t have the legs to stick the landing on console.

On that note, Puzzle Fighter II didn’t need to be on console then. It should’ve remained an arcade-only game but that Super Street Fighter II wave was really strong into the late 90s.

The Street Fighter name and the art style—this was around the time that the art style in Capcom games got much better—are the main selling points of Puzzle Fighter.

Without those two elements, you’re just playing another match-3/Tetris-clone. The gameplay isn’t groundbreaking but mixing these two polar opposites made for a fun spinoff.

Mario Party series

I wasn’t keen on adding another Mario game to this list but Nintendo has been around—just as a video game company—longer than its two closest competitors combined.

What that means is that in a run spanning over 45 years, the company has spanned a number of major franchises. Mind you, that doesn’t mean every game in these franchises are blockbusters but you’re likely to get a big seller out of that franchise and each franchise has had multiple blockbusters.

The Super Mario franchise has a number of spinoffs such as Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros, and yes…Dr. Mario.

However, the spinoff that stood out the most for me—besides Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario—was Mario Party. This game was made for couch-play with your family and friends!

Several games on this list might illicit some nostalgia but Mario Party plucked at a particular part of pre-online multiplayer generation gamers’ nostalgia.

Was couch-play convenient? It depended on if everyone brought their controllers. While Mario Party isn’t the ooze of the party game genre, the series was always fun to play with others.

This is especially true when played in the same room with other players. That way you could get that Spades/pre-Among Us sense of disappointment in a team mate.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Street Hoops

What can I say about Street Hoops? It was released at the perfect time in 2002 and developed by Black Ops Entertainment. If you remember, streetball got a lot of shine during the early-mid 2000s and was even given a regular slot on some of the cable sports channels. Street Hoops had some legends to play with such as Hot Sauce and ½ Man ½ Amazing. If they were on the AND1 tapes, you could find them here.

Not only that but it featured some big league legends and celebrities. You could unlock Rodman, Master P, Cypress Hill, and Xzibit. Oh yeah, you could unlock Silk the Shocker too. In addition to unlockable players, there were also music videos to pick up. These were my favorite unlockables.

Now, I’ve talked a lot about everything but the actual gameplay. I got to say, for a game that got little promotion and was generally rated in the middle, the gameplay is tight in Street Hoops. The main mode, World Tournament plays like a blend of story mode in wrestling games and franchise mode in sports games. You’re busy building your own streetball team and along the way you’ll add better players. Its basically about becoming the best team in the sport.

The Lord of the Court mode has you defend your home turf against rival teams. Here you’ll pick up most of your unlockables. Both modes allow for you to play with other players but are mainly single player. Basically, Street Hoops was an arcade-style sports game with a little more to keep things on the rails. While its not the prettiest sports game out there, on first glance it comes off as a traditional basketball game from look and camera angle. You have all the dunks, shots, and handles of streetball and basketball but the look is that of a traditional game.

NBA Street Vol. 2

Now, if you want something that goes a bit off the rails and with an exaggerated look, this is what you’ll play. Of the two, EA Sports BIG’s NBA Street Vol. 2 was the one I enjoyed more. Unlike Street Hoops, NBA Street Vol. 2 had modern players from the 2002-2003 NBA season, streetball legends, and old school NBA legends in a arcade-y streetball setting. That’s all it was. The graphical style also had a cooler look to it.

Gameplay-wise, NBA Street Vol. 2 was smooth. It played so well, much better than Street Hoops actually. Dunks and handles were super rewarding when pulled off, special dunks got everyone off the couch, and it had that sweet, sweet arcade-style speed to it. All of this with the Street art style made for an extremely enjoyable experience.

The players that could be unlocked were mostly all of the legends. You’d think once you got both versions of Jordan then you’d beast through the game but who you want are Wilt and Bird. I mean, you could add Jordan 80s and 1994 Jordan to your team if you want, but for flash and fun, get Wilt.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Despite the vast majority of football fans in this country being white, there are also numerous dangers that come with football: alcohol/drug abuse, womanizing, financial irresponsibility, and severe brain damage from taking so many hits to the head.

Even though I’ve personally never been too big on watching mainstream college and pro football for 3 to 4 hours on ESPN because to me, that’s an unnecessary loss of time for something productive that I could be doing throughout the day.

But however, I’ve always been very big on playing gridiron football video games on TV because they’re much more fun and exciting than to watch a typical boring football game that ends with a blowout.

Here are my favorite gridiron football video games.

1. Tecmo Super Bowl (NES) – This amazing gridiron football game that came out for The NES in 1991 is my personal favorite gridiron football game because it was so fun, enjoyable, and action paced. A lot of people have stated that Bo Jackson was their favorite athlete from this game, but for me personally, my favorite athlete from this game was Barry Sanders because Barry was more agile and shifty than Bo and like Bo, he was also an absolute beast because whenever you give him the ball, he absolutely shreds and zig-zags his way through defenders and goes full speed to the end zone.

This game was also among the first to actually allow players to make changes to the starting lineup for example you can replace an aging Joe Montana and replace him with a younger QB in Steve Young on The San Francisco 49ers football team. More than 25 years after this game was released, it still has a massive cult-like following to this day with Tecmo Super Bowl tournaments being held around the country each year.

2. ESPN NFL 2k5 (PS2) – When I first played this game during my senior year of high school, I was absolutely blown away by this game because this game had features that had never been seen before in any football game: franchise mode, preparation mode that allows players to make decisions on preparation and training, creating their own football team such as the stadium, team helmets, team jerseys, team colors, and the city. It also had a first-person football mode that allows players the experience on the field from a football player’s perspective. ESPN 2k5 actually sold at $19.95 on the day of its release which was much lower than the $49.95 Madden NFL 2005 that was also being sold at that time.

This marketing strategy by 2k had greatly reduced Madden NFL sales so much that an EA developer once commented “that game scared the hell out of us”. But because ESPN NFL 2k5 had destroyed Madden NFL 2005 that year in gaming sales that it lead to EA having a monopolistic stranglehold over the NFL video game franchises starting in 2005. It is considered by many to be the greatest gridiron football video game ever made. The success of ESPN NFL 2k5 still haunts EA to this very day.

3. Mutant League Football (Genesis) – I used to absolutely love playing this game during my elementary school days. This gridiron football video game was designed through the use of the Madden ‘93 engine. This gridiron football game is basically their equivalent to Mortal Kombat because there are several similarities that made this game different from the other football games at the game: the post-apocalyptic football fields where radiation caused the humans to mutate and the dead to rise from the grave. There are also numerous hazards that players will have to avoid running into while on the football field such as land mines and fire pits.

The teams in the game also have vicious nasty audible plays where they can either attack the referee or the opposing quarterback with the intent to kill him. This is definitely the most violent gridiron football video game I’ve ever played. A remake of the game called “Mutant Football League” is out for the PS4, XB1, and PC.

4. NFL Primetime Starring Deion Sanders (Genesis) – I was such a fan of Deion Sanders back in the day, so when I remember seeing him in a commercial for a new gridiron football video game for The Sega Genesis called “NFL Primetime”, I definitely wanted to get that game so bad because I wanted to try it out. When I finally managed to get the game and tried it out for the very first time, I absolutely fell in love with this game because this game was a several miles different and better than the previous gridiron football video game for a The Sega Genesis That I played in NFL ‘95. In NFL Primetime, players can create their own players, set attributes to those created players with 0 being the lowest and 9 being the highest for example whenever I created myself as a RB for the game I would always choose 9 for breaking tackles and 0 for injury prone.

The hard hitting crunch sounds and crowd noise feature made this game feel so real and the fact I loved to trash talk opposing teams especially opposing quarterbacks by saying “I’m gonna make you eat that ball” or “You’re going down fool”. Easily one of my favorite gridiron football video games.

5. NCAA Football 2012 (PS3) – Several years ago on a typical day at the crib inside of my room, I would often enjoy playing NCAA Football 2012 for The Sony PlayStation 3 because you can also create your own customized college football team like the stadium, team helmets, team jerseys, team colors, and the city. The graphics and gameplay for this game were absolutely amazing and I also loved the very beautifully detailed camera shots. For Dynasty Mode, changes include a new coaching carousel where players can start as offensive or defensive coordinators and change jobs or get promoted after each season; at the same time, AI coaches will also switch positions or get fired. Crowds will be louder or quieter based on the player’s team’s success, and how big the stadium is. The ability to create custom conferences has been added; previous versions only allowed one-to-one swaps of teams between conferences; conference membership can also be changed from year to year.

Road to Glory, a game mode in which a player takes control of a prospective college athlete and must practice, study, and play at the level needed to win The Heisman Trophy has been expanded to include an entire high school senior season (past versions of the game only included high school playoffs) and a points and rewards system to increase ratings.You can use teambuilder teams as your high school opponents. Support has been added for two-way players. Once in college, student-athletes can only advance on their team’s depth chart (or call their own plays or audibles if a quarterback) when they have earned enough “trust points” from their coach.

The Conclusion – My main excitement from gridiron football always comes from playing gridiron football video games that are much more enjoyable to play that watching a typical 3 to 4 hour college or pro football game on ESPN.

Staff Writer; Kwame Shakir (aka Joe D.)

It’s true that the game looks the exact same. If you have played the NHL games, especially from the NHL 14, you will notice that the presentation is the same. That’s why many negative reviews are floating around on the internet. It still catches the attention because the gameplay improvements have improved the core. This is what NHL fans have been waiting to see for a long time.

Game developers at EA introduced a new Real Player Motion system. This new animation system makes the gameplay feel a lot smoother than the previous years’ crossovers and iterations.  The RPM system has been the most exciting element in NHL games, and NHL 19 uses it in even better ways. The improvements and gameplay changes made shooting and skating look more realistic.

When you play against AI, everything looks natural, as opposed to the gameplay we saw in NHL 18 and its predecessor. Goals don’t feel forced, so you can expect fair gameplay. The difficulty level is accurate and you don’t see AI unfairly managing to throw you off. Although there are no major changes in the way game presents itself, adjustments in AI behavior make NHL 19 the best hockey game you can play in 2018.

As it is mentioned above that the game does feature “minor changes,” you can expect to see some glitches. There are instances when players unexpectedly glitch into each other and make weird expressions due to performance lag. These problems aren’t big and can be easily fixed as the game is set to receive updates.

If we look at the arenas, both the outdoor and indoor environments are believable. EA has paid attention to small details and it’s visible. Marks on the snow, the reflection of objects, shadow under the sun in outdoor settings and lights in indoor arenas look realistic. These things altogether make the game’s visual presentation more realistic.

EA has also improved the audience settings and reactions. You can still find some over-excited fans in the crowd who repeat the same movements, but almost all the characters have different move sets. Crowd distribution is thoughtful so you won’t see uncoordinated activities.

NHL 19 presents itself in the same NBC inspired layouts. The good thing is, despite having the same announcers, the audio part in the game series is no more annoying. Dialogues are not repetitive. You will hear Eddie Olczyk and Mike Emrick seated in the commentary box. Ray Ferraro supports the duo with his ground reports. Everything looks interesting here.

Controlling has become better. You don’t have to struggle to make players move as everything works smoothly and the speed is spot on. It makes turning quicker and it’s easy for the first time players to get a hold on things. You’ll still be struggling to figure out the best ways to avoid penalties and score better. When you’re playing against the AI in challenges, you will need practice.

Milestones and objectives bring interesting things to spend time on. The daily challenges are fun. They bring you milestones and objectives to hit for almost anything.

NHL 19 may not be the game you expected it to be, but it strengthens the series with the ‘improvement’ formula. Instead of adding fancy stuff, EA improved the core gameplay and that’s what makes NHL 19 a solid hockey game.

Loot boxes and wrongly implemented microtransaction are major controversies in video game industry these days. Thankfully, NHL 19 doesn’t turn away people as there’s enough room to make progress and the system doesn’t force you to pay.

Staff Writer; Jay Baker

Have any Gaming Tips? News? Hit up our Video Games Guru at; JayBaker@AfroGamers.com.

That brings me to two of my favorite games that were heavily influenced by professional wrestling. Both were released during that hot boom period of the late 1990s and early 2000s and will probably be blasts from the past for some of you.

NFL Blitz

Before Blitz the League, there was the original NFL Blitz. The title got a few games on the Playstation since it was released like any other sports game. Blitz was like a mix of Mutant League Football and the company’s (Midway) NBA Jam. It was violent, outrageous, and fun. I would occasionally touch football games and when I do now its mainly to play the Franchise or Be A Pro modes. The main reason is that football titles—and sports games in general—tend to be the same each year for the most part. Most sports usually don’t experience massive rule changes year to year that result in a significant game changer, a sport that is the same sport that endeared it to the masses but something refreshing.

Blitz, like Mutant League Football and Blood Bowl, took one of America’s most popular sports and made it extreme. It was basically what EA eventually did with NFL Street but more in your face. Players would powerbomb others, clothesline them, and even get in a late hit with a Swanton Bomb. It was all awesome! While EA, who dominates the sports simulation game, has added new features to its titles that take you outside of the field, court, and occasionally, the rink, I would love if a Blitz mode or Blitz simulation mode was added. Its one of the big things that would result in me regularly playing Madden.

There was a remake in 2012 that proved to be fun but took out the late hits—which made Blitz what it was. The 2004 remake featured a fictional league and an involved storyline while keeping with the Blitz feeling.

Def Jam Vendetta

This game was the sh**. In the late 1990s, the now defunct THQ and AKI, a Japanese developer known for some of the best wrestling games of that period—mainly on the Nintendo 64—teamed up for WCW vs. nWo World Tour, WCW/nWo Revenge, WWF WrestleMania 2000, and WWF No Mercy among others. After working with THQ and WWE for a long time, the early 2000s saw AKI work with EA’s EA BIG studio and Def Jam Recordings. The result was something you wouldn’t think would work in Def Jam Vendetta.

So what was it? In short, a wrestling game featuring Def Jam’s hip hop artists. It doesn’t look like much on paper but it worked. All they did was fine tune the wrestling engine and give us a sleek, hip hop version of WCW/nWo Revenge. The game didn’t feature a ton of different modes, you had one on one fights, tag team matches, triple threat, fatal four ways, and battle royals.

AKI and EA really kept this simple and slap on a main story which was worth playing through but wasn’t deep or anything. Wrestling games during this period were basically party games. If you had a Nintendo 64 and someone else had controllers then you had a heated after school tournament. It replaced the conventional fighting game and other party games like NBA Jam at the time. Def Jam Vendetta did the exact same thing.

There was a sequel to Vendetta called Fight For NY which was also fun and took the action out of the ring. It featured more customization and was a little more involved than Vendetta. Recently, Def Jam asked where the next Def Jam game should take place. If the game gets developed, hopefully it gets

back to the wrestling/fighting game roots. Def Jam Icon got away from this and while it also proved to be enjoyable and truly mixed in Southern hip hop which had become the popular form of hip hop at the time, it didn’t feel like a Def Jam fighter.

That said, Def Jam Vendetta and NFL Blitz are two titles that delivered on hours of fun and hurt feelings when someone got done wrong during play.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

A new game engine

Building a new game engine from scratch isn’t going to be easy and developers will need time. A lot of time is required for this and maybe they need a year off for the same. We could wait if they plan to do so because the current engine, despite several improvements and polishing, is still buggy and the gameplay feels old.

Many players will complain about system requirements because a new engine will most likely require a higher configuration, so 2K will have to face some sort of criticism, but the wait would be worth it. Now when the game is already out, we strongly feel the absence of a new engine and we hope that they will design a new engine for the sequel.

Showcase Mode

Showcase Mode is not completely missing from the game, but what the game doesn’t feature is variety. The Showcase Mode in WWE 2K19 isn’t something everybody can feel connected with. The game mode feels limited due to lack of legends, as it only gives you players that are not as attractive as the other superstars which could have been added. As a result, this ideas feels half-baked making Showcase Mode an incomplete feature.

Top wrestlers

WWE 2K19 features many superstars and it brings back some fan-favorite characters as well. What it doesn’t do is bring some characters that should be added to the main roster. A large number of players will be added to the game in the future and it will happen when a DLC pack will be released. The Rising Star and Titans Pack will include some superstars which 2K should have added in the main roster. The game also doesn’t feature some wrestlers who were present in the last year’s game.

Commentary improvements

2K made a lot of promises and it really did well in many areas. The core gameplay has been improved, but still, there are too many flaws. The commentary is not what we expected in 2018. Developers are still repeating the same mistakes that make commentary buggy and bad. It’s shocking to see that 2K made so many improvements in NBA 2K19, but the same improvements in the commentary are absent from WWE 2K19. Commentators repeat the same lines over and over again and it simply ruins the fun.

Menu system improvements

Yuke’s and Visual Concepts made many changes to the menu but at the same time, they didn’t select colors properly. The combination of red and white colors looks beautiful but when it comes to menu item selection, the outline appears to be very thin. Due to this, it’s hard to see the small, blurry red line which is way too transparent. Initially, I thought it’s happening due to display settings on my gaming system, but later I realized that it’s not just me but many people are facing the same problem.

Custom music

Blame Sony and Microsoft for this because the companies do not allow custom music uploads. As a result, the feature which was very popular in the previous generation of WWE games is not available in the current generation. Despite many requests from fans, this is one of the features that’s still missing and it’s safe to assume that it won’t happen at least in the current generation of consoles.

Despite omissions, WWE 2K19 is better than the last year’s game. Some of the things which we like the most are MyCareer, graphics, and improvements in the core gameplay mechanics.

Staff Writer; Jay Baker

Have any Gaming Tips? News? Hit up our Video Games Guru at; JayBaker@AfroGamers.com.

1. Madden NFL 19

August brings a new Madden game iteration. This year, Madden NFL 19 is releasing on August 10 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. This is the first time since 2007 that a Madden game will be playable on PC. Game developer EA Tiburon typically adds new features and makes improvements in Madden games every year, Madden NFL fans expect a more polished game in 2018. EA has promised that it has added more realism to the character movement and AI improvements are also in the works.

2. F1 2018

Codemasters’ “most authentic F1 car simulation” drops on August 24 on all the traditional platforms. The new F1 2018 gameplay comes with new features and additional content for the career mode and garage. New racing tracks, classic cars, and R&D improvements make it the most promising racing simulation of 2018. The biggest attraction is the Career Mode Codemasters have been working on for a long time.

3. Pro Evolution Soccer 2019

Pro Evolution Soccer 2019 is the latest installment in the popular football simulation franchise. In the last few years, Konami has made no mistake in improving the quality of gameplay. The franchise is also looking to add more licensed content for domestic leagues. This year, Philippe Coutinho will grace the cover for PES 2019. The game will be released on Xbox One, PS4, and PC on August 28.

4. Overcooked 2

It may not look like a highly-anticipated entry in the list of games coming in August, but Overcooked 2 is fun to play. The game is full of chaotic action but it’s fun to play if you are looking for light entertainment. The sequel to Overcooked, the new game takes players back to the “Onion Kingdom” where they can build their team of chefs and play in co-op or join other players online. Overcooked 2 launches on August 7.

5. We Happy Few

It’s time to meet We Happy Few characters as the game is all set for August 10 release.  The game focuses on the story of a British man Arthur Hastings, a woman called Sally and a former soldier Ollie. The curious citizens of Wellington Wells are mostly on a conformity drug called Joy and players will have to survive among them.

6. Dead Cells

In the Dead Cells game, players take control of cells that control a deceased prisoner’s body. Developer Motion Twin describes the game as “roguevania,” focused on procedurally generated content. Players will collect weapons, fight with different creatures, receive new abilities, armor, power-ups and reward money. The game features challenging 2D platformer action and is coming out on August 7.

7. The Walking Dead: The Final Season

Episode One of The Walking Dead: The Final Season comes to PS4, Xbox One, and PC on August 14. Telltale has also confirmed that a Switch version is due for release later this year. The developer has released a free-to-play demo that you can try before buying the game. Pre-ordering the first episode of The Final Season means players will get a copy of The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series Collection. This collection contains 19 episodes of The Walking Dead.

8. Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker

Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker certainly deserves a place in our list of best games coming in August 2018. Up to four players can form a team and join online battles. Shinobi Striker is built from the ground up making it the most graphically rich game in the Naruto franchise. The third-person gameplay offers arena environment and the game is set to hit current-generation consoles and PC platform on August 31.

9. Strange Brigade

Players will choose one of the four playable characters, each having their own customization options, weapons, and special abilities. The game focuses more on exploration and combines third-person shooting elements and Egyptian mythology together. If you have hundreds of hours to spend on a game, Strange Brigade is releasing on August 28 with a promise for future updates. Even without the side quests, Strange Brigade offers over 30 hours of gameplay.

10. Shenmue I & II (re-release)

Ports of the first two Shenmue games are coming as Shenmue 1 & 2 bundle on August 21. This re-release will feature modern controls, updated UI, high definition resolution rendering and the ability to save the game anywhere. The two games were a part of SEGA’s E3 announcements this year. If you’re on PC, you can also consider playing Yakuza 0 as the game is available since August 1.

Staff Writer; Jay Baker

Have any Gaming Tips? News? Hit up our Video Games Guru at; JayBaker@AfroGamers.com.