The Name Game Finishes Round 1

The bracket that I made for this tournament is weird, I know.

The first round ends with this post, and it includes two matchups featuring teams that played in the play-in round.

THE MILLERS have already defeated the Jacksons by ten points, making use of the play by Andre Miller (Still playing in 2014) and running and gunning with DUAL REGGIES. 

The Reggies are not the only team with two guys both with the same name who are also the same guy. Meet THE ROBINSONS, who also seem to lean towards the inside with a tag team of David and 90's David. NBA Live 2003 came out the year before David Robinson retired.

Surprisingly, this turned out to be a very good game. It went right down to the wire when Larry Robinson got hot and started making threes. When they ended up with the final possession via an intercepted pass, they ended up having to settle for an almost half-court shot. The AI is weird, I tell you. The Millers will move on to the second round to face the Thomases.

THE JOHNSONS have already won a game, defeating the Anderson/sens in their opening game. There isn't that much to say that hasn't already been said about the Johnsons, though they are very, very proficient at blocking shots. Their opponent was THE JONESES.

The Joneses have one hall-of-famer on their roster, '60s Celtic legend Sam Jones. I know next to nothing about him other than the fact that he has the second most NBA championships of any singular player. He also wears notably short shorts.

So could the Johnsons... keep up with the Joneses??? Yes, actually. They really never had any difficulties with the Joneses after halftime. Even though the Joneses had a pretty solid team together, their lack of great inside talent is probably what hurt them the most. None of their players were terribly skilled at making shots either, only one ended up being over .500 in shooting percentage. I had an issue with this game because the game started to sub in the Hawks' backups (whose names are not Johnson) once they were up by about 20. Garbage time was destroying the sanctity of the name game, but I didn't care too much about Jason Terry getting a few minutes. Terry himself probably could have beaten the Joneses that day.

Join me next time for the second round, where the Johnsons play the Davises, and the Millers meet the Thomases. We bid the first round (and play-in games) farewell. Farewell, both Admirals, Jason Williams, Young Birdman, and I'm sure there was someone notable from the Browns as well.

The Name Game in NBA Live 2003 Round 1 (Part 2)

The next entry in round 1 is as follows:

THE MILLERS were sort of fudged here, but who cares. Like stated in the last post, many of the best players of the 1990s are playable in NBA Live 2003. One of those is Reggie Miller. However, unlike Isiah Thomas, Reggie was still a part of the NBA in 2002. So I put both Reggies on the team in order to make it work. The rest of the team is rounded out by Andre, Mike, and Brad.

THE JACKSONS had a bunch of guards. Their starting five Jimmy, Bobby, Mark, Jermaine, and Marc. Phil probably could have been their coach, but I didn't think about that and I don't think I could do anything to make it so.

The Millers were at an unfair advantage all game. Only a few of the Jacksons were of above average NBA height, while the Millers were anchored by the twin Reggies, relatively tall when talking about shooting guards. With that added to two of the better big men in the NBA at that time in Mike and Brad, the Millers got quite a few blocks in.

Turns out basketball is best played by tall guys

Credit to the Jacksons for not backing down, but a win is a win, and two Reggies are hard to beat.



Game two features teams from Houston and Oakland
THE WILLIAMSES feature the most popular name in the NBA, with eight players! Eight Williams are present in the NBA, enough to legally fill an entire team up with no others. Unfortunately, there's nothing to write home about with the vast majority of Williamses. Outside of Jason at point guard, there are no Williams on the team with a rating above 80. Also, they're almost all small forwards, no big men.

THE THOMASES had almost the exact opposite problem, with three centers, one small forward, and one point guard. However, that point guard happens to be Isiah, so it sort of works out.

Surprisingly, the difference in blocks for this game was much smaller than in the prior contest. That didn't change the fact that the Williamses were unable to do almost anything on either side. Eventually, J-Will started heaving up desperate threes

and then promptly got dunked on by Isiah

low quality .gifs - "we're working on it"

The Williamses just couldn't get anything going, masking a pretty subpar performance by the Thomases.

Here's how the bracket looks after four games:

It will make more sense in the next installment, probably not written until Friday because this week is finals week.

The Name Game in NBA Live 2003: Round 1 (part 1)

Alrighty folks, check THIS OUT:


This is the opening round of "The Name Game" in which I take entire teams of players with the same name and play them against each other in Electronic Arts' NBA Live 2003. Most of these teams are a mishmash of random players from random teams, so the continuity of the name and the positions may not make sense sometimes. If a name happens to breed a number of players, but only Shooting Guards, they might run into a couple of issues. This tournament is made out of ten teams, each of different last name potential.
THE JOHNSONS are led by their Hall of Fame point guard Magic (and I included any HOFers with these last names on these teams, as NBA Live 2003 has a "legends pool" of the best players from each decade). This team finally makes use of the dream combo of Earvin and Ervin Johnsons (Magic and "No Magic") (Weird how I don't even put quotes around Magic's name, it doesn't feel right). They're fairly guard-heavy, but they have size on the inside, almost like a real NBA team! Whoa!

THE ANDERSONS(feat. Andersen) feature stars Derek and Kenny, both of whom were sort of short, but still solid shooters in their prime. I had to fudge this one a little, but what we sacrificed for complete and total continuity, we made up with Young Birdman at center.

ESPN

The Anderson/sens don't have much in the way out height (outside of Young Birdman), so they had to focus on cutting inside, setting pick & roll plays, and shooting from the outside. This worked well early, and the seemingly less talented Celtics had a double-digit lead on the Hawks. The tide really started to turn on the Anderson/sens in the mid second quarter, once the Johnsons started blocking all of their shots.

fuckin watermarks

Many a shot got blocked. In the end, the Johnsons proved that they were a better team, taking the lead on a thunderous layup by Avery in the third quarter, and they didn't look back. In the end, the Anderson/sens were a solid team with a solid two names, but not strong enough to beat the Johnsons.



Game 2 was uploaded on Monday, I think.
THE DAVISES are led by a bunch of talent, including their point guard Baron (who was an up-and-coming player at that point), and the inside presence of Antonio. In terms of pure talent, the Davises are more talented by far than their opponent in the second round (the bracket is weird and I wasn't thinking in the order in which I recorded, you'll see by the end of the post)
THE BROWNS are on the Cleveland Cavaliers. They're the Cleveland Browns! The Cleveland Browns! It's like the football team is named! Isn't that something? It's crazy how life works sometimes. Anyway, they're not good. Apparently the last name Brown doesn't create great athletes.

Wikipedia

But anyway, the Davises came out and destroyed the Browns. They destroyed the Browns by so many points that Steve Nash and Nick Van Exel actually got into the game in garbage time. The Davises are so good that they got to stop being the Davises.

Monday Update: 5/5/14

So this has been a weird week

Wario Land 4 (GBA): First Appearance
I used to say that I'd never ever play Wario Land 4. This wasn't because I didn't like the previous games, it was actually because I liked the original three games so much. (Especially the third one.) Wario Land 4 was originally one of the reasons why I wanted to get the Game Boy Advance when it first came out. That desire waned after seeing screenshots in Nintendo Power (I think it was Nintendo Power, or possibly at one of the old Toys R' Us displays).

GameFaqs

You see that up in the upper right? Who did they think they are? Running around leaving scars?
 Collecting their bar of hearts? Health bar. That's the point, there's a health bar. That was an issue for me, because I was always bad at platformers, I couldn't survive most of them, like Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong Country. I wasn't skilled enough to keep playing if they gave me a limited number of lives, and generally, I didn't have the patience to go and play through a bunch of levels I had already completed. Wario Land 3 didn't have a life bar or anything of the sort, so I could get hit by enemies as much as I wanted and not have to face any consequences. Having that life bar in Wario Land 4 was exactly what made me turn away twelve years ago.

But anyway I was wrong the whole time, the whole thing is good.

Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 (GCN): First Appearance
Foreshadowing for a possible new video??????????????????? Yes, actually. I have owned Dave Mirra's Freestyle BMX 2 since 2002 or so, but I haven't ever actually finished it. I'm in the process of that right now, actually, and I have just realized how clumsy the whole thing feels. The levels are a little cluttered, the physics feel weird, and - actually I'm going to make a video about the whole thing soon so hold on.

NBA Live 2003 (GCN): Second Appearance, Second Straight Appearance
A new venture has been started:

I have picked ten teams based purely upon last name and I have pitted them against each other. This will be fun.

Kirby & The Amazing Mirror (GBA): First Appearance
I can not for the life of me figure out where to go, that's probably an issue.

Monday Update: 4/28/14

I turned 19 this week, for what that's worth.

MechAssault (XBOX): First Appearance

Remember this game? I do. I only had a chance to play it on one of the old "EXHIBITION" demo discs for the XBOX back in 2003. I had only been able to play about two missions from the game, but I never could beat either of them and never knew exactly what was going on. I enjoyed the hell out of it, more than anything else on any of those discs. (For the record, I had two of them, the March 2003 and July 2003 discs.) (Actually, I'm having a bit of a nostalgia trip looking at the list of what was on those. MX Superfly had this short 2:00 minute run mode, and I'd just try to do a double backflip for the whole time. All-Star Baseball 2004 had a home-run derby between modern players and legends. I would just accelerate on MotoGP 2 and crash into things.)

Anyway, MechAssault was one of the first games on XBOX Live (which I desperately desired despite the fact that I was only eight years old and my dad wouldn't let me have an account), and I never owned it until 2011. I played through about half of it then, until I had to stop myself from playing video games due to slipping grades. That XBOX died, then the next XBOX died, then we got to April 2014 and I've started playing MechAssault again. MechAssault is strange, being a part of the MechWarrior franchise, but being developed for the XBOX controller on a series that was already well known for mouse-keyboard controls. I imagine that this was an issue for some of the series' fans, but I didn't go online and look that sort of thing up at that time. But hey, it works on the controller, and it's actually genuinely enjoyable. I'd love to play the multiplayer sometime, though.

Pro Wrestling (NES): First Appearance

I don't really know why, just felt like it.

Ten-Yard Fight (NES): First Appearance

Dear god, this is the SLOWEST FOOTBALL GAME EVER. Why is it enjoyable, though? I can't put my finger on it, but I actually had a very good time with it.

Maniac Mansion (NES): Second Appearance, Last Appearance on 4/14/2014

I need a guide or something. Typically I'm not this dumb, but I'm so used to games that only use one protagonist, and the way that you switch characters throughout the game is really refreshing but still difficult to get used to.

NBA Live 2003 (GCN): First Appearance (I think)

TWO FUN GAMES OF NBA LIVE 2003

FIRST: Michael Jordan versus the Memphis Grizzlies. "Michael Jordan" is a game I invented at camp 2013, originally in NBA Courtside 2002 for the Gamecube. You pick Michael Jordan, and score every point with him. Nobody else puts up a shot. Nobody. Even if he fouls out. If he fouls out, you freeze after half court and wait for the game to end. Here's how it went:

SECOND: Shorts versus Talls 2003. The shortest players (Celtics) versus the tallest players (Hawks). It worked as you may expect. The shorts only had one really good player in Damon Stoudamire. The talls had two in Dikembe Mutombo and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. I might do a deeper look at this particular game in a little bit, actually.

Others That Don't Warrant Mention®

NBA 2K14 (X360): Sixth Appearance, Sixth Straight Appearance: Played nearly one game, but got bored. 2K's reign may end this week

RollerCoaster Tycoon (PC): Second Appearance, Last Appearance on 4/14/2014: It takes some time to get going sometimes, especially on Dynamite Dunes, so I didn't play too much.