In what I hope is a regular feature, I will dissect the week's major sporting events using Nintendo games and products as a point of comparison. Games color and shape the way we see the world. So do sports. By viewing sporting events through a specific gaming lense, my intention is to combine these interests in a way that hopefully sheds light on each.
Secondary goal: To make strange, often ill-fitting connections that may or may not cause you to chuckle or ponder deep existential queries or think, for the first time in a long time, about a fighting game that rhymes with Crack Boo. Follow along if you wish. And I welcome your responses or alternate takes on the weeks' topic.
Special thanks to community member T. McReynolds for the inadvertant suggestion.
NBA Free Agency Goes Mega-ton
On July 1st, one of the greatest fields in free agency history became available for NBA teams to slave over. The biggest cookie in the jar is one King James himself. Cleveland hopes to keep their mega-superstar, but the likes of New York, Miami, and Chicago continue to woo Lebron with money, fame, and the chance to play in a more celebrity-friendly town than Drew Carey's home. Lebron is known to be fiercely loyal, however; odds are good that he stays with what he knows best in hopes of bringing a ring to Ohio. Other notable names on the market include Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Dirk Novitzki, and Ray Allen.
...
With great sadness, this story reminds me of a turning point in Nintendo's fortunes during the mid-90s: their ill-advised choice to go with cartridges for their mystery system Project Reality, which would become the Nintendo 64. CD-ROM technology was quickly becoming the darling of gaming and tech companies the world over; after a well-publicized attempt to jump on board with Sony making a CD attachment for the SNES, a last-second decision to go forward with Philips drew the ire of the other Japanese tech giant and Sony brought the machine to market themselves, beginning the era of PlayStation. A titan of industry followed suit -- Square, with an eye to create the next installment in their Final Fantasy series, was aligned with Nintendo all through the early years of 8- and 16-bit. A demo came out of the SIGGRAPH convention in 1995, showcasing the graphics Nintendo's new SGI monster was capable of featuring action from an early prototype of what might have become Final Fantasy 7.
The Game That Never Was.
Then Nintendo announced their storage medium of choice: the old faithful cartridge. Square had epic plans for their next Fantasy. The space constraints were too much, loading times be damned. So they jumped ship and landed on Sony's CD-based Playstation, beginning a collaboration that remains in place today. Many signal Square's departure from Nintendo's good graces as a sea change in the gaming world, and accelerated the crumbling of relationships between the Big N and other 3rd party companies that remains the Achille's heel of an otherwise world-conquering business strategy.
Is Lebron the next Final Fantasy game, and Cleveland the old companion Nintendo? Who will be the Sony of the basketball world and snatch up a legacy for years to come?
Or are these high-priced free agents the many key franchises that have left their former team, only to go on and ignore Nintendo's platforms in the present generation: titles like Metal Gear, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter?
And just why did Shaq-Fu get made in the first place?
Not to mention: What swords is he talking about, exactly, hmm??
And does anyone remember that 16-bit Michael Jordan game? Dude does this but stays away from NBA Jam? It's up there with playing minor league ball as far as less-than-succesful decisions... but hey, if I could have a game where I throw balls of fire and ice at Chicago residents*, I would, so I can't blame the guy.
*No disregard meant to any residents in and around the greater Chicago area. Except you, Mr. Zazeckis. Except you.
