Sometime last month I got a random urge to grab a PS5. Why? I don’t actually know, but I’ve now spent too much time on YouTube watching videos and going down the rabbit hole of all the video games I used to play. And now I’m deciding to buy one with the unrealistic expectation that it’ll magically give me that gaming passion that I once had when back when I was a young kid.
Silly me. It turns out that not only are these consoles EXPENSIVE nowadays (they were always expensive but it was mom’s and dad’s money back then) but actually getting your hands on one of these things is like trying to purchase toilet paper at the beginning of quarantine. So as I await the day that I’m able to actually get my hands on a new gaming system, I’m stuck reminiscing on the good ole days.
Here’s a list of the sports games (in chronological order) that have me chasing that child-like feeling.
This will be the first and only time that I group multiple titles together. But bear with me, here. Backyard Soccer, Backyard Baseball, Backyard Football — how am I supposed to choose just one?!
I must have been somewhere between the ages of four and eight when these games were at their peak. I sat in front of that chunky computer monitor and played them ALL until the CDs scratched or the games started freezing the computer. We all agree that Pablo Sanchez was the GOAT and we used Pete Wheeler’s speed for just about every sport that required it. But can we agree that Keisha Phillips and Dante Robinson were low key versatile?
I miss them all and I miss this series.
Top 10 Backyard Sports characters:
10. Ernie Steele
9. Kenny Kawaguchi
8. Stephanie Morgan
7. Jocinda Smith
6. Dante Robinson
5. Angela Delvecchio
4. Kiesha Phillips
3. Achmed Khan
2. Pete Wheeler
1. Pablo Sanchez ("The G.O.A.T.") pic.twitter.com/FQqaBEaZIS
— Kendall Baker (@kendallbaker) January 24, 2022
My sports video game consumption throughout my childhood was mainly limited to basketball and football. You could sprinkle in a “Ready 2 Rumble” or something like that in there every now and again, but they never really stuck for more than a few weeks. But SSX Tricky came along one year and I played at my friend’s house which made me forget all about the other sports for a while.
Run DMC’s “Tricky” was a banger for a first-time listener like my then seven-or-eight-year-old self, and the characters were cool as heck. From smacking the riders to the left and right of you during the race to the crazy number of tricks you could do while floating in the air, few things in life during that time felt more satisfying than filling up that “tricky” meter and unlocking the speed boosts throughout the race.
IT’S TRICKY!
SSX Tricky is such a classic. I remember my parents renting it from Blockbuster, and it helped convince them to buy my siblings and I a PS2 of our very own! ? Also who doesn't love that intro?
It’s Trickaaaaay! #gamesthatinspireus#snowboarding#oldschoolgaming#2000snostalgia pic.twitter.com/ThCYJZI5z6
— Mind's Eye Games (@MindsEyeGames) January 21, 2022
Remember when I mentioned how few things in like felt better than filling up that speed boost meter in SSX Tricky? Maybe that was a lie. Because I can positively say that filling up that “Gamebreak” meter and then seeing that slow-motion highlight in NBA Street Vol. 2 was better.
Keep in mind, this was the AND 1 Mixtape era and that’s what I and all the other kids were into at the time. Whoever had the most ridiculous handle with the ball or could break the most ankles was king, which is why this game was such a joy. Oh yeah, and you got to play with NBA legends; almost all of them.
The NBA Street series was like the NBA Jam of its time. And I was a bit young for Jam so I caught Street during it’s come up. The original was a hit but I couldn’t stop playing Vol. 2.
EA Sports BIG knew exactly what they were doing with these titles.
NBA Street Vol. 2 came out 17 YEARS AGO TODAY ? ? pic.twitter.com/FZW6lTQh1j
— Whistle (@WhistleSports) April 29, 2020
EASILY the game I spent the most time with as a kid. This was peak NBA right here. T-Mac, Kobe, Shaq, Vince, Yao, Iverson, etc. I don’t need to educate you on who was in the league in the mid-2000s. But I have to bring you back in time to how great this video game was.
As soon as you boot up the game you’re greeted by MC Lyte’s intro music that plays over a mix of in-game clips of your favorite players getting buckets.
I remember being unnecessarily dominant with Voshon Lenard at the time and it drove my friends crazy (he rarely ever missed a three-pointer). Put his shooting in this game up there with the Madden 2004 Michael Vick scrambles and the NCAA Football 06 Reggie Bush jukes. I don’t remember too many other specifics about this title but I know me and my friends used to play the dunk contest mode ad nauseam and that you could put all the latest shoes (Huarache 2k5 was my favorite) onto players.
It was a vibe. Long live EA Sports NBA Live series.
One of the greatest NBA games came out 17 years ago today: NBA LIVE 2005!
The All-Star Dunk Contest ?pic.twitter.com/YpQqpBBr3m
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) September 28, 2021
There’s a case for this series being better once it hit the Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2007, but I stand on my belief that 06 on the PS2 was the best ever in EA’s NCAA Football series. Because, nostalgia.
First off, the presentation. WOW. The environments and crowd noise in certain stadiums were rockin’ but before you even got to that point Brad Nessler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit blessed your pregame show with a cameo from the booth to make the game feel like real life.
RACE FOR THE HEISMAN! How many times did you restart the mode and go through the different drills before choosing your school? I must’ve done a new one or two every few weeks. We got to live the dorm life of a student-athlete (kinda) and it made us all so excited about the future. Dynasty mode was amazing as well. Seeing your school crack the cover of the Athlon Sports magazine and then doing the in-season recruiting was a fun challenge, too.
These modes developed and got better in the coming years but there’s nothing like the original.
Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard graced the cover of NCAA Football '06. #TBT #ThrowbackThursday pic.twitter.com/A1jUJsIlmG
— EA NCAA Football (@EANCAAFootball) March 7, 2013
Riding around in the backseat of the car going from city to city en route to AAU basketball tournaments was the perfect time to whip out the PSP and get going on MLB 06 The Show. Airplanes and bus rides did the trick too.
I wasn’t even a baseball person but I sure knew how to play that career mode. Only on the PSP, though, because it just didn’t hit the same (for me) on the PS2. Anyways, it was fun, addicting, relatively easy and I probably have it somewhere stored away if I looked hard enough.
Also, a moment of silence for the PSP. It was just way before its time.
Picture this. It’s Christmas break and you just got MLB 06: The Show. You’re about to play it for the first time pic.twitter.com/D1GJRRT85e
— Baseball Bros (@BaseballBros) December 26, 2021
Alright so I’m in high school at this point in time and the video games are becoming more realistic and less “fun.”
But whewww I can’t lie the greatness of NBA 2K11 was FUN. Talk about an intro that set the tone for an entire game; Michael Jordan’s intro was a vibe. Matter of fact, the whole Jordan theme throughout the game was just nothing but vibes. It was the first time MJ had appeared in a 2K video game in quite some time, so it was a big deal. All of the Jordan challenges were fun and it’s almost like the game took me back to an era of basketball that I was hardly around for.
It was dope.
Oh and the rise of MyPlayer was legit.
The 2K series was already on the rise but I think this is the title that officially left EA’s NBA Live series in the dust.
We remember "The Arrival" – April 20, 1986 @ Celtics. Do you? #NBA2K11 #JordanChallenge pic.twitter.com/NtpIM185Iw
— NBA 2K (@NBA2K) February 17, 2015
Yeah, I’m bypassing all of the other Fight Night’s to get this one. So what? My best friends and I used to have some wars in Fight Night Champion. Usually, they were Ali and I was Tyson and they’d beat the heck out of me, but I still had so much fun with this game.
The visuals of the slow-motion knockdown replays were graphical beauties at the time and the flash knockdowns were pretty hype, too. And it was also super satisfying to master the art of counter punching.
And if that weren’t enough, the story mode might be the best part of the game. Remember Andre Bishop? From bare-knuckle scraps inside of prison to fighting at the amateur world championships, the story mode gives you a little bit of everything without many cringe-worthy elements to it.
There’s rumors of a new boxing game or two being in the works and I hope it can compete with this all-time great video game.
10 years ago today, Fight Night Champion let us enter the ring in a new direction for the franchise that included a mature, cinematic story mode. What are your memories of the last Fight Night game we received? pic.twitter.com/np4Z4Hcn0e
— Game Informer (@gameinformer) March 1, 2021
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You don’t want to look directly into these Suns, you could hurt your eyes.
Despite the abundance of trees in Hisui, wood is a pretty rare resource in Pokémon Legends: Arceus. You don’t need it for much — it’s mostly just something that’s necessary for a couple of requests and one part of the main story — but if you manage to make your way through the game without knowing where to find it… Well, let’s just say you probably won’t know where to start looking.
Fortunately, we’ve been more attentive to the Hisuian forestry than a bunch of professional tree surgeons, meaning we’ve got the optimal wood-collecting routes for every situation you might find…
The Kansas Jayhawks will meet the Iowa State Cyclones in college basketball action on Tuesday night from the James H. Hilton Coliseum.
Kansas will look to bounce back after a blowout loss to Kentucky on Saturday, they will also be without their star and leading scorer, Ochai Agbaji. As for Iowa State, they are coming off a 67-50 win over Missouri in their last game as they look for their 18th win of the season tonight.
This will be a great night of college basketball, here is everything you need to know to stream the game.
#10 Kansas at #20 Iowa State
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