Stockton never really pulled his weight in this game. In fact I

blame him for the result.

I played a truely heartbreaking but epic game of NBA Jam (Megadrive) in my shed this week. It played out like this, the first quarter was the standard see-saw of points as I got used to playing the game again and what the buttons are, it seemed a bit odd that the turbo button is mapped to the B button, but once I got round this I managed to end the first quarter level with my opponents.  My computer AI teammate was offering no support, and as I started to build up a lead in the second half all he seemed to be doing was holding me back with his misplaced passes and ambitious shots. I was on fire and he was blasting water at me. Half time came around and the reason for our slender lead was my partners input, we led 18-17 and he'd supplied a paltry 2points to our score. The half time show was underwhelming and the third quarter saw me build up a more healthy lead. I gave up on passing the ball and by the end of the third I was 12 points ahead 33-21. I don't know if fatigue is factored into the game, but the weight of carrying our duo for three quarters of a match strained and came tumbling down as the game reached its conclusion. I could only watch as my opponents caught my lead and then ran of into the distance with the game, basketball on fire. They won the match 47-35 and I was cursing AI.

I finally got round to playing something more contemporary this week, a game set in the 1980s and part of a 12 year old series, Yakuza 0 (PS4). New to the series though I was immediately into the aesthetic and tone, which balances overly serious gangster stuff with stupidity really well. One moment theres a serious story about real estate going on the next I'm bashing skulls with bins. The initial appeal of the game to me was the idea of playing old Sega titles in the arcades and messing about in the world, now I'm (albeit not far) getting into the game the combat is the most fun element. Its a slight button mashing affair, being able to switch between a strong or speedy style on the fly but all the combat feels weighty and fun. Whenever a goon is taken down theres a satisfying chuck of money thrown at the screen emphasised by an even more satisfying sound effect. The few actual missions I've done have been nice little detours into buildings where I fight through waves of enemies, not allowing progress until the floor or room is cleared. To me it feels like the natural progression of Streets of Rage and thats not a bad thing. Side quests and activities open to me are almost overwhelming. Introduced with a bit of Karaoke in a dive bar, after selecting one of a few songs its then onto short rhythm game which defines how well the song is sung. I returned to this mini game later and instead found myself singing along and clapping to a young lady as she sang a song, I'm struggling to decide on which version of the mini game I preferred, they both had there merits and ultimately were as silly as each other. Other things to do, such as darts and pool are cool options. I'm not sure about leering over women in the gentlemen's clubs, in something i've not partaken in yet and don't imagine I will unless the story forces me to. I've tried a couple of claw games to win toys to now avail and found Space Harrier and Outrun in arcades, which are pretty decent ports of the arcade games and a cool addition. Beyond all of these activities side quests pop up regularly, normally involving beating up some people extorting money. Theres one dude I've bumped into though who's f**king massive and strong to boot. He beat me up with ease, which was refreshing because at this early point most people are pretty easy to take down. Once he did beat me up though he offered the challenge of fighting up again if I see him about to retake the money he's stolen from me, this is a cool little task which I'll take up when I feel more prepared.  

The game suffers a bit from feeling dated with some of its UI, saving is restricted to phone boxes for starters and autosaving is restricted to the conclusion of story chapters (I think). This was a bit frustrating after the lengthy opening of the game which doesn't have a save prompt, I was cautious to check that it had saved after about an hour of playing it and was surprised to find it hadn't. The game itself takes no time at all to load and feels smooth moving between areas, so maybe theres some benefit there. I'm really liking what I've played to far, the sheer amount of things to do is a bit overwhelming but I'll keep dropping in when I can. 

I also indulged in the happy chime of a Gamecube being booted up to play a bit of Donkey Konga (Gamecube). The clumsy controls of a lot of the Wii games Nintendo published (such as Wii Music) made me forget how good it feels to play a really well constructed Nintendo rhythm game with a solid piece of hardware in the controller. Even navigating the menus feels good. The song selecting is really strong, from Nintendo classics such as the Mario Theme to my personal favourite 99 Red Balloons, tapping and clapping away at the bongos is just a lot of fun. Not much more to say about this game, except i'm now trawling through auctions to find its sequel at a good price.