What I’m Playing Right Now #03
October 21, 2024 16 Comments
Hey everyone! Contra did pretty good, and THANK YOU for that! The first review after the shut-down was always going to be the toughest, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. I suspect more Contra is coming today. Wait, I can’t tease this. It’s literally called “What I’m Playing Right Now.”
So, yea, I’m playing the arcade version of Contra. I think I’m probably going to marathon a few of the early Contras. At the very least, I’ll be doing Super C (NES), Super Contra (arcade), and Contra Force (NES). The one thing I didn’t bring up about Contra on the NES is the arcade situation. That it was one of the first home games that outshines the coin-op. Which it did. Easily, handily, and embarrassingly. The review of the arcade game will talk about all the ways how, and why. The Contra arcade review should hit later today.
New York Liberty, huh? About f*cking time. The 2024 WNBA Finals will go down as the best five game series in sports history, male or female. All but game two was absolutely riveting. TWO overtime games, including the deciding game that looked like the Liberty started the game remembering they’re the New York Liberty and incapable of winning anything of substance. The Lynx were making them look foolish. And then suddenly, the Lynx were the ones that threw away both the game and the championship. In fact, they did it multiple times in a single game. So awkward watching because you know the Minnesota players will be staring at their ceilings thinking of ALL those opportunities they gave up, and hopefully they know that it wasn’t the refs. Do I think the officiating was straight down the line? Nah. 25 to 8 on free throw attempts? Jesus, that’s horrendous. Even if Minnesota was making dumb mistakes.. and they WERE.. this was one of those “one team gets all the ticky-tack foul call” games that feels like it gives the losing team an out to avoid reflecting on anything. But, refs can’t make a difference unless you do your part, and Lynx were bricking wide-open shots all night, including a wide-open trey that would have been the greatest shot in WNBA history to end regulation. In overtime, Minnesota got 2 points. And the.. I can’t believe I’m typing this.. WNBA Champion New York Liberty, got 7. And the coach blamed the ref and not the fact that her team of shooters forgot how to shoot.
Next year, they’re bumping the WNBA Finals to seven games. I really wish they wouldn’t. Maybe the popularity is going up because the amount of games isn’t overwhelming to fans. Do you know what the best part of watching the WNBA is? Nobody has to say “clear my schedule for the next two weeks. The finals are on!” Sigh. Go Valkyries.
Dodgers/Yankees, huh? Hasn’t happened since 1981, but as the 12th Yankees-Dodgers World Series, it’s still the most played World Series even after a 43 year gap. That really tells you how dominant the two teams used to be, huh? I don’t think this will be as good as the WNBA Finals. I’ll take the Dodgers in a gentleman’s sweep. 4 to 1.
See ya later today for more Contra action.
Indie Gamer Chick 
Hopefully the Knicks will win a title too, but I’m not sure (I mean, have you seen them since 1999?). Besides a few years (like last year), they have been a clown show for most of my life. Also, I didn’t know you liked basketball (do you like baseball too?)! I’m not sure about Yanks-Dodgers, I think it’ll be an unexpectedly weird series (I didn’t expect the Yanks to get this far).
You didn’t know I like basketball? To paraphrase the movie The Aviator, “I care very much about the sport of basketball. It has been the great joy of my life.” And actually yea, if I had to choose to keep only one thing of basketball, pinball, or video games, I wouldn’t hesitate. I need my basketball. I honestly don’t know why it hit me harder than football, baseball, hockey, or anything else, but it just captured my imagination and I’ve been obsessed ever since.
My family has season tickets to the Golden State Warriors. Lifelong fan. I loved them long LONG before they were winning. My first season 1995-96, when I was 6 years old. I was obsessed with Latrell Sprewell. I had multiple posters of him. Our first season with season tickets was 1997-98, and soon into the season, my parents walked into my bedroom like they were about to tell me my puppy had gone to a farm upstate. “Sweetie, Latrell Sprewell won’t be playing anymore.” How do you explain to an 8 year old that her favorite player strangled the team’s coach? When I still wanted to go to the next Warriors game, my family knew it wasn’t a fad. And it wasn’t. And we STUNK. We were a perennial loser. I had to stop going to games after I developed epilepsy because of the flashbulbs and that kind of thing, so go figure when they finally made the playoffs, I didn’t get to go. Didn’t matter. When the #8 We Believe Warriors beat the #1 Dallas Mavericks, before the time even expired, I was on the floor crying. I really thought that was as good as it would ever get as a Dubs fan. And then came Steph Curry, who I didn’t want lol. I was so pissed we drafted him. I wanted Golden State to take Brandon Jennings. Curry seemed like a typical Dubs move: the tiny little upside shooter who would no doubt be injured all to hell in the NBA. I genuinely thought Curry was going to be what Brandon Roy was for Portland: a guy with all the potential in the world to be an elite player who couldn’t stay healthy. All I wanted from the time I was 6 years old was to see the Warriors win just one title. JUST ONE. And I got to see four, and the 2016-17 Warriors are the greatest NBA team of all time. It’s over now. I mean it’s OVER over. The moment Draymond punched Jordan Poole, it was done. But, four rings and six total NBA finals? Yea, my dream came true. But I don’t just watch the Warriors. I get league pass. I watch hundreds of games a year. I watch college. I watch women’s. I watch division II games. I love basketball.
I love sports in general. Football? Go Stanford. Yes, really. I don’t really have an NFL team even though I’m from the Bay. I never felt like the Niners were my team, or the Raiders. Besides the Dubs and Stanford, with all other sports I don’t have a team. I’m a sports atheist, and it’s liberating. I think the best possible thing to happen to me was that the Warriors sucked when I started watching. My allegiance is to the sport itself, not the Warriors. I can feel good about other teams winning. In fact, my favorite thing about any sport is watching a long-suffering team finally win a title. Blowing the 2016 finals and the 73 in 9 record messed me up badly, but in retrospect, I can deal with it. When we lost to the Raptors, it wasn’t losing that hurt. It was the sense that it was over. When we won again in 2022, I think that was the sweetest of all because it was the one where Curry crossed over into being a no-doubt-about-it top 10 player ever. I don’t think he’s in the top 5, which I would say is Jordan, then after a big gap, Jabbar, Russell, Duncan, and Magic. After that, it’s Bird, Curry, Shaq, LeBron, and Olajuwon. 11 – 15 I’d have Kobe, West, Havlicek, Walton, and Jokić.
Yes, I watch baseball. Dad got to have HIS dream come true before me. He’s a Giants fan. He was at the Earthquake game and everything (I was a newborn when that happened). He was there when Bonds broke the Home Run record. He only wanted one title. He got to see three before I saw my first. I don’t LOVE baseball like I love basketball but I care about it. I care about ALL sports. We watch boxing regularly (I went to my first live match this last year!) and MMA. I watch rugby. I watch Formula 1. I even watch fringe sports like competitive ballroom dancing. On my Twitter I think I was annoying my followers because competitive dancing features some of the best athletes in the world and I was constantly saying how underrated it was and showing off the best routines. I watch diving. I watch cornhole. Sports are awesome.
Oh and I should note that I can go to Warriors games again and in 2022 the little girl with a bad team got to attend the NBA Finals 😀
I was also live in person at the 2000 All-Star Weekend. The Vince Carter slam dunk contest? I was there. That was the highlight of my sports-attending life until 2022. When Vince Carter did his first dunk, the place almost rioted. I’ve never seen anything like it. The fans almost rushed the court.
No way! That is awesome! Other than having one my old teammates playing for the Steelers and Bills, I would say my sports highlight was going to Yankee Stadium when I was 9 years old (2003). Hilariously though, my breath mints triggered the metal detectors at Yankee Stadium (I think that was in 2018 or 2019) 😭
No, I didn’t know you loved basketball, I apologize. And nice, it must be a blast to get to go to Golden State Warriors games as often as you do!
“When the #8 We Believe Warriors beat the #1 Dallas Mavericks, before the time even expired, I was on the floor crying. I really thought that was as good as it would ever get as a Dubs fan.”
I had a similar experience with David Tyree’s Helmet Catch, and I got so excited, I actually lost my voice for a week. That was a huge redemption for the Giants after getting their asses kicked in the Super Bowl by a team with TRENT DILFER at Quarterback (ironically, I became a Giants fan in 2000, when I was only 6 years old).
“JUST ONE. And I got to see four, and the 2016-17 Warriors are the greatest NBA team of all time. It’s over now. I mean it’s OVER over. The moment Draymond punched Jordan Poole, it was done.”
I saw the Yankees’ threepeat (1998-2000) and the WS in 2009 and the two Giants’ Super Bowls with Eli. If the Giants don’t win the Super Bowl in a given year, I would like to see the Lions win one for my dad or the Vikings win one for my mom. And of course, Notre Dame, who I started watching with my dad when I was seven, got annihilated in the BCS National Championship Game by Eddie Lacy and Alabama.
If Draymond didn’t punch LeBron in the nuts, Golden State would have won that NBA Finals too. So, they should have 5, which would have put Steph pretty high on most all-time lists.
We wouldn’t have gotten KD if the nut punch didn’t happen. I love the Dubs, but I don’t love Draymond Green. He sours so many great moments.
Looks like I was right about it being a weird series (Dodgers only outscored the Yanks by 1 run) and you were right about it being a gentlemen’s sweep. Do you think they’ll win another title within the next few years and become a dynasty?
I really thought they would have been a dynasty already. I thought they were going to be around after 2020, and they just couldn’t get back over the hump. NLCS 2021 after a rough season. Lost to Braves, who go on to win the World Series. No shame in losing to the champions. West Division Champs 2022. Best record in MLB, 4th best winning percentage ever, lost in NLCS. Last year, if it had been ANYONE but Arizona, I think they win the World Series. They were specifically a nightmare situation, and even worse: they were battle tested. Maybe the rest helps LATER, like world series when the opponents’ pitchers run out of gas (that’s what happened to Arizona), but they just never stood a chance against Arizona. Momentum matters so much in sports. But, had they finished first instead of second, I think they beat Philly, I think Arizona falls to Atlanta, and I think the Dodgers beat the Braves and then destroy the Rangers and we’d be talking Dynasty NOW and not later. Baseball is weird. But, I was happy with this World Series. A California team won, which always puts a smile on my face. Probably the best five game best-of-seven series in sports history. A walk-off grand slam in game one. A historic comeback to close out. Yea, best 5-game series ever.
“Momentum matters so much in sports”
Oh, trust me, I know that, lol
One makes me wonder what if the Braves kept Freddie Freeman. But when Judge dropped that little league fly out, I knew the Yanks would lose (their fundamentals were atrocious, and the roster does not have a lot of experience, unlike the Dodgers). And as much as people like to crap on Dave Roberts, I would take him in a heartbeat over Aaron Boone. I wonder if Soto will end up going to the Mets…
“Probably the best five game best-of-seven series in sports history”
The Subway Series in 2000 was also an epic 5-game series. I hope Ohtani’s injury isn’t severe since he was running as if he was splinting his shoulder for the rest of the series after the injury in Game 2.
I think Freeman is the most underrated guy of the decade, which is a weird thing to say about an MVP, but it was the Covid year MVP, which was so quiet. He literally won a world series for Atlanta as the guy who carried himself like a champion even when they were down and set the tone for the whole team, and they balked over ONE LOUSY extra year when they were getting him at a discount anyway. I’d rather have a guy who proved he could produce in the clutch than someone like Judge or Trout who make three times as much money and who I find very unimpressive when it actually matters. Judge seems like a nice guy, but Bill Simmons has a saying I love: gentle giants don’t win you championships. They only get you close enough to break your heart.
“I’d rather have a guy who proved he could produce in the clutch than someone like Judge or Trout who make three times as much money and who I find very unimpressive when it actually matters.”
That’s why I loved Derek Jeter so much growing up (I know he made a lot of money, lol). Aaron Judge is basically like Tony Romo/Philip Rivers. And it’s funny you mention this because I actually said to my dad (a Tigers fan) the other night “I wish the Yankees had a player similar to Freddie Freeman, and I would take a roster of Freddie Freemans.” Mookie Betts is also a very “underrated” player. Even as an ultimate Red Sox hater, I always enjoyed watching Mookie Betts.
“I think Freeman is the most underrated guy of the decade”
YES! I have been saying this for years! And his base running was fantastic this series.
What got me about Judge was the Fox announcers NEVER SHUT UP about the “New Mr. October” and (1) it was totally unearned. They were calling him that when his team was down 3 to 0 and he had NOTHING OF SUBSTANCE to show for the previous three games. (2) a “New Mr. October” already sort of happened, and his name was Derek Jeter, who won five titles, three of them in a row. It felt fitting that Judge had 0 errors in 2024, until last night, and the Fox Announcers didn’t call him the “New Mr. October” or any variation of it after that dropped ball.
How could a guy whose playoff batting average (0.205) that is lower than the career batting average of MARIO MENDOZA (0.215) be the “New Mr. October?” LOL
And, trust me, I know all about my all-time favorite athlete being Mr. November (I watched basically his entire career outside of 1995 and 1996 with his epic 0.308 playoff batting average! All you need to know about Derek Jeter is that he hit 0.333 in the 2012 Playoffs at 38.
How deep of a dive do you plan on taking in regards to Contra? It doesn’t come close to touching what’s considered the Big Three of this series (Contra, Contra 3, and Contra Hard Corps), but I wouldn’t mind hearing your thoughts on something like Contra Rebirth (even if there’s STILL no legal way of obtaining it this far after the death of Wiiware, thanks Konami!).
I really REALLY thought of going full fledged “Definitive Review.” There’s a lot of games I play that aren’t listed, and that’s not an issue. I will be covering WiiWare soon. Not extensively but when it’s topical like this. I’m just going to keep going on Contra until I’m burned out on it.
No problem, while I know you’ve played and reviewed plenty of unlisted games to the best of my memory none of them have been anything that (for lack of a better word) recent, so I wasn’t sure if it was off limits or not. Regardless, looking forward to seeing what you post next, Contra or otherwise!