Greetings and welcome to sixth entry chronicling the TNA/Impact Wrestling Lockdown PPVs, with this one covering the 2010 edition emanating from St. Charles, MO. For past Lockdown recaps, click or press here to peruse away! As I alluded to in last year’s entry, the 2010 Lockdown is first of four that are operated under the Hulk Hogan/Eric Bischoff regime. This is a few months into Hulk and Eric’s run in the company, and already big changes are amidst. The first noticeable change is them going back to a traditional, four-sided ring. TNA fans infamously jeered Bischoff and Hogan when they opened up the previous month’s PPV, Genesis defending the ring switch. I was indifferent on the switch. I thought the six-sided ring helped define TNA after nearly six years with it, but after hearing numerous wrestlers not being too happy with it in interviews I can understand why they changed it up.
Another change from last year is replacing Don West at the announce desk with Taz (WWE kept the extra Z in his name). I liked Don West at the desk, but I also am a fan of Taz (and continue to be with his current AEW work, especially on Dark), and I was all for freshening up the announce desk by this point. The final major change in TNA is that at this point when Lockdown transpired, Impact was halfway into their brief, 10-week run on Monday nights against RAW in what ended up as a footnote of version 2.0 of the ‘Monday Night Wars.’ Hogan and Bischoff threw a lot on the first head-to-head Impact against RAW on March 8, 2010 with Hogan wrestling in the main event, and a plethora of returns and debuts of former WWE stars in TNA like Ric Flair, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, Sting, Jeff Jarrett, Nasty Boys, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman and Sean Morley. Despite this, TNA could not get that bump up in ratings from commercial break channel flippers they were hoping for, and after 10 weeks and rapidly declining ratings, Spike TV moved them back to Thursday nights.
Even though Sean Walman debuted a month earlier on that March 8th Impact, he no showed Lockdown as Tenay and Taz opened the show stating that his partner Scott Hall had to find a last minute replacement for his match against Team 3D or go it alone. Tenay & Taz also said that X Division champion, Doug Williams, was stuck in Europe due to a recent volcanic eruption in Iceland causing un-navigable air and TNA officials stripped Williams of the title and will declare a new champion in a triple threat match on this show. The PPV then kicked off proper with two wrestlers who would be competing in opposing teams in the Lethal Lockdown match in the main event with Rob Van Dam squaring off against James Storm to see which team would have an entrance advantage. It was a solid back and forth opener with RVD getting the win after his vintage Five Star Frog Splash.
Next up was the annual X-Scape match with Homicide, Brian Kendrick, Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin competing. They removed the rule where there had to be pin/submission eliminations until the final two wrestlers had to escape to win, and it was now whoever escaped the cage first would win. After several minutes of typical X-Division agility, Homicide snuck out and over the cage, with Brian Kendrick right on his tail to be declared winner. A nice video recapped Eric Young’s rivalry with Kevin Nash to set up their match aired, and despite an early flurry of offense from Young, Nash was able to shift momentum with a low blow and shortly thereafter land his Jack Knife powerbomb for the win. Nash declared after the match he would be teaming with Hall later on in the evening. It was a kind gesture of Nash to be pulling double duty considering in hindsight this would be his final Lockdown and he would be returning to WWE at the beginning of 2011.
All of the Knockout titles were on the line next, with Knockout champ Angelina Love defending her Knockouts Title by teaming with Tara and facing off against the Beautiful People’s Madison Rayne & Velvet Skye for their Knockout Tag Titles. It was sadly a mess of a match with the uneasy alliance of Tara and Love causing a lot of clunky teamwork, before an assist from Lacey Von Erich caused Tara to get pinned by Rayne to become the new Knockout champ. Jeremy Borash interviewed Team Flair for their upcoming Lockdown match, and this was when AJ Styles was endorsed by Ric Flair to be the next Nature Boy and we got to see AJ come out in Ric Flair-esque robes and attempt to style and profile like the Nature Boy. It……kind of worked, but never really got AJ Styles seriously over as a villain in TNA like they hoped it would.
A triple threat match for the vacant X-Division title was next which saw Homicide earn in a spot in the match for winning the X-Scape match earlier. Homicide went up against Kazarian and Shannon Moore. I cracked a huge grin when Moore entered to the ring carrying his book of DILLIGAF prop which I completely removed from my mind this past decade. This was another solid X-Division spotfest, with Kazarian locking in the win and the title after connecting with a sick looking inverted piledriver. Christy Hemme interviewed a wound up “Pope” D’Angelo Dinero next, who preached so hard during his promo that he needed a water break. Pope was a fun reinvented Elijah Burke from WWE, and he had an entertaining brief run in TNA that saw him reach new heights here as he would be vying for the World Title later on this night.
Up next was the match with Nash subbing himself in for the no-show Sean Waltman, and it was not until all four guys were out there that I had a mild taken aback moment and realized I was witnessing a degree of a dream match between The Dudleyz/Team 3D against The Outsiders. Granted, Kevin Nash was in his final year of wrestling on a semi-regular basis, and Scott Hall was barely hanging on here a few years prior to entering rehab with DDP, and this would be the final Lockdown we would see Brother Ray as we knew him since he would drastically transform and evolve his persona by next year’s Lockdown. This match was better than any right it had to be. The teams busted out the bag of tricks with some crowd brawling to start off that the audience ate up. Brother Ray gets locked out of the cage while D-Von gets a 2-on-1 beat down until Ray barrels through the cage door for a crowd-pleasing comeback and The Outsiders surprisingly sell their asses off for Team 3D’s vintage Wassup Headbutt and Hall on the receiving end of a 3D through a table for the feel good Team 3D victory in the surprisingly solid match of the night.
The next match will feature the first of several Lockdown appearances from one Ken Anderson, AKA, WWE’s Ken Kennedy. Anderson’s gimmick in TNA is that he self-proclaims himself an ‘Asshole’ and acts like a dick to everyone as a convincing video package for his upcoming match with Kurt Angle demonstrated. Their bout was spectacular, with Angle sacrificing his well-being for ridiculous spots like a moonsault from the top of the cage that was dangerous-yet-undeniably-awesome. Anderson goaded Angle back into the ring before his escape with some more convincing near-escape spots before Angle ultimately choked out Anderson and departed the cage for victory. Angle announced to the crowd he needs to take care of himself and would be taking a hiatus after the match.
The TNA World Title was on the line next with AJ Styles defending against The Pope. I got a kick out of Hebner being his trademark over-animated self by ejecting Flair before the match even started. Pope was crazy over for this brief time and the crowd was absolutely into him and his near falls. The fan support was not enough though before Dinero succumbed to AJ stabbing him with a pen to set up the Styles Clash for a successful title defense. The main event was the Lethal Lockdown with Team Hogan’s Abyss, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy and Jeff Jarrett versus Team Flair’s James Storm, Robert Roode, Sting and Desmond Wolfe. Abyss and Roode started off the initial five minute period before the remaining team members entered every two minutes. The roof of the cage with weapons hanging from it and on top of its roof lowered down after Sting entered last. Jeff Hardy did an eye-popping ladder spot onto Beer Money on the roof of the cage, but what was more memorable was Abyss finally landing a move onto thumbtacks he brought to the ring when he chokeslammed Sting on the tacks….it felt like Patrick Ewing finally hitting his jump shot in the animated Clerks series. Eventually Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair get involved, with the Hulkster getting the best of Flair that of course saw him do a Flair Flop….onto the tacks! The chaos concluded with Abyss pinning Wolfe after a Black Hole Slam.
The 2010 Lockdown DVD has a standard array of bonuses seen in previous releases, which is a half hour of interviews from fans and wrestlers from the floor of the previous day’s Fan Fest. This interview montage is highlighted by a fan showing Sting his custom made fan car to his disbelief, and RVD playing to the crowd’s delight. There are also a deluge of pre- and post-match interviews, with noteworthy ones being Angle elaborating on why he needs a little R&R and Jeremy Borash getting a little too mischievous and getting called out for it during his interview with the Beautiful People. Wrapping up the extras is a music video and photo gallery, from which I included a couple screenshots from in this recap!
Keeping up with tradition, I believe we set a new record for the amount of wrestlers busting open into a bloody mess with this Lockdown having seven bloodbaths occurring….from six wrestlers because RVD bled in two separate matches. Other stars doing the bloody honors this night were Brian Kendrick, Eric Young, Ken Anderson, Ric Flair and Kurt Angle. Overall, this is one of the better Lockdown shows with almost all of the matches delivering during an era of uncertainty for TNA. I recall becoming extremely frustrated with TNA throughout 2010, and by the end of the year after six years I went from becoming a weekly Impact viewer to watching it maybe once a month. It will only get worse as cover the remaining Lockdown PPVs.
This Lockdown entry, hell all TNA/Impact Wrestling associated entries here are dedicated to the man who I have consistently attributed as one of THE voices of TNA, one Mr. Barry Scott who sadly passed away in September of this year. As almost always mentioned in all previous Lockdown posts, I have always been a huge fan of the TNA video packages he narrated and usually introduced most of their PPVs and always gave me goosebumps narrating like only he can. He narrating packages for TNA all the way until a few months before his death - click or press here to see his final voiced video package he did for Moose in May of 2020.
Impact Wrestling did a nice series of tweets highlighting his most prominent video packages I highly recommend checking out by click or pressing here so you can see his gift at getting you amped up for big shows like only he can!
Last month I covered a special unrated cut of 1989’s The Punisher my friend Matt gifted me. That cut was the only available version of the film on BluRay. Coincidentally, today’s entry is another film whose BluRay edition is also a special cut that Matt gifted me for another old-school, gritty action flick. That film is 1999’s Payback (trailer). This director’s cut has a new subtitle: Payback: Straight-Up. I am a huge fan of the film, and fondly remember catching it in theaters right after work against my superior’s wishes who kept pleading with me to stick around to cover for someone else who called in, but I already had plans to catch this movie at our then second-run $1 theater, The Plaza Twin, and I could not back out of them! I caught it a couple times off cable over the years, but it has been well over a decade since my last viewing, and I heard polarizing views on this director’s cut going into it which held me off from checking it out until Matt recently gifted it to me.
For those unfamiliar with Payback, it stars Mel Gibson as Porter, a gritty con-man who is catching up to his past after escaping near death when he was betrayed by his partners, Val (Gregg Henry) & Lynn (Deborah Kara Unger). Catching up to his partners leads him down a rabbit trail of going through local drug racket goons, corrupt cops and other top brass in hopes of claiming the $70,000 he was screwed out of. Gibson is flatout awesome as the gruff, take-no-crap-alpha that is Porter. Watching him step-by-step get back on his feet on his return to town and work his way through the ranks of the crime syndicate known as “The Outfit” to get his money back was a breezy, raw, experience that wastes not a single minute in its 90 minute runtime.
I liked Gibson’s on-screen chemistry with an old flame he catches up with by the name of Rosie (Maria Bello). The two play off each other naturally and make a great team in the final act. Speaking of the final act, this is where I was taken for a loop as the third act in Straight-Up is entirely different from the original theatrical cut. In order to elucidate on this I will have to spoil some of the broad-strokes of the last act in both versions, so be forewarned!
The theatrical version is not on the BluRay, and has a completely different final act where Porter tracks down the head boss of The Outfit, Bronson (Kris Kristofferson), and gets to him by kidnapping his son from a basketball game, and subsequently gets caught in the act and winds up in a brutal torture scene before escaping and ultimately getting his vengeance. That whole act is not in the director’s cut here, and Kris Kristofferson is completely absent in this version of the film! In the director’s cut Bronson is a woman voiced by Sally Kellerman who is only heard from via speakerphone when negotiating with Porter. She sets up a payment drop for Porter at the subway, and Porter and Rosie methodically pick away at The Outfit’s goons as they work their way to the drop.
I was initially taken aback by how different the final act is, but came around on it and ultimately really dug it after mulling it over for a few days. Hearing director Brian Helgeland’s commentary track and his interviews in the bonus feature, Same Story, Different Movie, helped connect the dots on how Helgeland was removed from the film during post-production after standing his ground against Paramount executives for not wanting to change the final act. I enjoyed both cuts of the film, and Straight-Up has a few other additional little scenes that portray Porter with more of a cold-blooded edge, and I can see how it came across differently to higher-ups at Paramount. Definitely check out that half hour bonus that sheds a lot of background on why Paramount switched things up for the theatrical cut, and what prompted Paramount to rectify the situation several years later by bringing back Helgeland to release his cut.
Paybacks are a Bitch is the headlining bonus feature at a 49 minute duration. Paramount tracked down a wide array of the original cast and crew, including Helgeland, Gibson, Unger, Bello, Henry and many more for their memories from working on Payback. A lot of insight from filming in Los Angeles and Chicago I got a lot out of, and ditto with the running theme in this bonus with Helgeland referencing his mentor Richard Donner helping him out tremendously throughout and trying to win his approval. If you got the time, do not skip over this bonus either! Rounding off the bonuses is an 11 minute interview with author Donald Westlake, who wrote the book that was the inspiration for Helgeland’s screenplay for Payback.
The ultimate bonus to include would be also having the original theatrical cut of the film available, because as of this writing the director’s cut of Payback is the only version of the film available on BluRay. As much as Payback: Straight-Up won me over with its all-new final act, a part of me still wants that original version I have fond memories of in the theater. Regardless, if you have not seen either version and are especially a fan of no-nonsense revenge films, then I cannot recommend either version of Payback enough!
October 26th this year marked the 20th anniversary of the North American launch of the PlayStation 2 (PS2) and I am ready to commemorate it with another flashback special recounting my highlighted highs and lows with the system since its launch. Like with my previous console retrospectives I have un-vaulted a few of my older podcast episodes focused on the PS2 and uploaded them to YouTube that you can check out embedded at the bottom of this piece for your listening pleasure. One of those episodes was recorded around the then-10th anniversary of the PS2 in 2010 where we brought on two hosts from the PSnation podcast and we waxed nostalgic for three hours about our favorite PS2 games and memories. The episode proved to be our most downloaded ever to the point we had to purchase more web server space to handle the downloads. Now I think the best way to start off this special on the PS2 would be to remember that leading up to its October 26th, 2000 launch, that it was impossible to ignore…..
….The Hype
The PS2 was the first Sony console I purchased. I never owned a PSone because our family opted with the N64 (of which I have no regrets and many great memories of), and by the time I got my first job a decent way into 1999 where I could afford a system with my own income, it was either heavily speculated at that point or confirmed the PS2 would be backwards compatible with PSone games. This was a big deal learning of this in 1999. Up until that point in America, backwards compatibility only hit consoles (excluding handhelds) in small waves with the limited Master System library working on the Genesis with an adaptor, and the under-performing Atari 7800 having back-compat built inside the hardware so it could play 2600 games. So for having the mega-successful PSone library being guaranteed to work on the PS2 on launch day sold me on saving my money on a PSone system and waiting for the PS2.
The other big selling point for the PS2 was that it would be the first game console in America to support DVD movies. DVD players first started hitting in America in 1997, but it was a very slow growth process for them because they remained at a high price point their first few years on the market, and VHS tapes were exponentially cheaper. For you younger kids growing up with streaming tech, I feel obligated to say how big a deal was that PS2 was able to play DVDs. When I first saw what DVDs could do in 1999 at a friend’s place I was blown away with no longer having to rewind tapes, being able to pick certain scenes to jump to, interactive menus, extra bonus features and the big jump in picture quality. This is also why Dominic Toretto and his motley crew were hijacking semis in the first Fast & Furious film in 2001 for their precious DVD player cargo. With the PS2 being able to play PSone games, having guaranteed third party support from most of the PSone game publishers, being able to play audio CDs (which were still a major seller in 2000) and DVDs all for the launch price of $299 made the system garner mammoth hype leading up to the October 26, 2000 launch.
The Launch
After instantly getting sold on DVDs at my friend’s place in 1999, I started to collect some of my favorite movies on DVD leading up to the PS2’s launch and by launch day I believe I had roughly a dozen movies already with some of my then-recent favorite films at the time like Fight Club, Go and Detroit Rock City being early DVD favorites. The console was the first game product I remember our local Software Etc. offering to pre-order, and I was able to pre-order early enough to confirm a system for me at launch, which was a relief after hearing how Sony announced shortly before the launch they would be reducing the amount of systems available at launch by half from one million to 500,000. I pestered a co-worker at the time, Troy, a couple months before launch if he would be able give me a ride to the store that day to pick it up since the store was opening early before school started and he gave me his word. I thought it was not going to happen when he quit where I worked a few weeks before the launch, but somehow I was able to figure out where his next job was at and called him up at his other job a couple days before the PS2 launch to see if he would still honor his word and he assured me so. I showed Troy many thanks by covering breakfast for him that morning!
22 games launched with the PS2, and despite the variety, there was never a ‘killer app’ on the PS2’s launch. Despite Sony being a powerhouse of a first party publisher on the PSone, they only had one game available for the PS2 at launch with the puzzle game, Fantavision. I have always felt the PS2 launch got an unfair look over the years, as indicated in this AV Club piece. While there was never one end-all-be-all game, there were still plenty of solid ‘fans of the genre’ titles in my opinion. Racing game fans were covered with Ridge Racer V, the original Midnight Club and MotoGP. Over the years I became a fan of the three launch PS2 tag-focused fighting games Street Fighter EX3, Dead or Alive 2: Hardcore and especially putting a ton of time into the first Tekken Tag Tournament. FPS fans had a solid port of Unreal Tournament, and the heavily anticipated TimeSplitters with the gaming press at the time hyping it up to be the GoldenEye-killer since a fair amount of the development team worked on that hit FPS title. EA Sports had their latest NHL and Madden entries at launch, and the first game under their “EA Sports BIG” label with the original SSX. I think it is forgotten at that time the gaming mags and early online gaming press outlets heralding SSX as the surprise best original game out of the PS2 launch.
For myself all I wanted was TimeSplitters and Madden NFL 2001. I knew my friend and former podcast co-host, Chris would be picking up TimeSplitters, so I stuck with Madden and a memory card for my pre-orders. Troy and I got there an hour before the store opened, and only one other person was ahead of us in line, so we were in and out of there in a breeze….only after the store manager jipped me out of a memory card I pre-ordered because there was a shortage on those too, but apparently the manager got first priority on the several she pre-ordered and offered to sell me one outside the store. I asked if it would be for MSRP, and she just gave me a knowing grin, and I was not having any of that and said no thanks and was fine waiting for their call when their next shipment of memory cards arrived (which was only about a week later, and for Madden it was not that much to get worked up over).
Those first few months of the PS2 launch from late 2000 into early 2001 were a memorable time during my senior year of high school. I played a plethora of Madden NFL 2001 against my neighbor friend Rich, and my brother-in-law, Shawn. I watched the hell out of those first dozen DVDs and threw in a few random PSone games I picked up too. Chris picked up several PS2 games at launch and for about two weekends a month I met up with him and the two primary games we played were TimeSplitters and Tekken Tag. The original TimeSplitters blew us away with its customization options for FPS multiplayer with being able to play against a huge variety of bots and in-depth level creation editors. We would create a map where we started in a room with all the ammo and weapon pickups, and a sea of mindless bots would march down a lengthy hallway to enter a room where we would be anticipating their entrance so they could rush into a hasty demise. I totally devoured Tekken Tag with Chris and got into its roster of characters and tag-style fighting, and especially its five star bowling mini-game, Tekken Bowl. Chris’s family had access to purchase bulk boxes of those rectangular bricks of school cafeteria pizza, and I have nostalgic memories putting away that delicious pizza while consuming the PS2 launch window games.
Early-through-Summer 2001: My First Apartment Three Blocks Away From a Blockbuster Video
As the months wore on after the launch window, the only early 2001 game I really enjoyed was the PS2 port of Quake III, even with its ridiculous loading times! For not having a powerhouse PC at that time, it was a fun alternative to experience the deathmatch chaos that was dominating the PC scene at the time. In the spring I got Onimusha: Warlords, and while I was digging the samurai/zombie action, the Capcom tank controls eventually got the best of me and I had to step away from it after a few hours. It was not until well into the summer of 2001 that I started experimenting more with the PS2 library when I got my first apartment with my friend Matt. We lived a few blocks away from a Blockbuster Video and so we made frequent trips there on weekends chancing random games that popped out to us. We did not have a computer at our place, and the high-speed Internet era was about another year or two from catching on, so that was one of the last years you could really just chance a game by going by the box and from whatever was available in print at the time.
Capcom debuted two classic single player franchises in the first year of the PS2 in the forms of Devil May Cry (left) and Onimusha: Warlords (right)
We rented plenty of stuff throughout the remainder of 2001. Some titles like the quirky action/adventure game, Okage, was decent, but nothing remarkable. Others we ate up like Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, where it perfectly encapsulated the addicting hack ‘n slash, action-RPG loot-fest gameplay of the acclaimed PC Diablo series on console. We took turns passing the controller progressing away at the stylistic action title Devil May Cry, which blew us away back then. Speaking of stylistic Capcom titles, we re-busted out Onimusha and I witnessed Matt get past my hang-ups and go on to blitz through it. It recently got remastered on PS4/Xbox One and worth checking out if you have yet not.
Summoner was a so-so fantasy themed action game, but we were looking at the options screen for that game and for whatever reason we decided to check out the credits from the options. After a minute of that we realized this was a waste of time and pressed the X button to proceed on out of there, and instead were bamboozled at the following bonus cinematic it unlocked. We must have watched it at least four or five times throughout the day, because we got more out of that sketch than Summoner itself. It was a radio skit that was CG animated for this game and kind of went on to have some notoriety in gaming circles, but if you are unaware than I will encourage you to click or press here to experience it for yourself.
Holiday 2001: A Flurry of All-Time Classics Arrive
The fall of 2001 was a big quarter for PS2. Several classic exclusives hit that holiday season for it. Metal Gear Solid 2 was the first entry in the series I played. Matt and I rented it, but its stealth-focused gameplay was too much for us at the time and both us kept messing up sneaking through the speech scene near the end of the opening boat mission. It would be over a decade before I revisited it and finally played through it in its entirety off the PS3 HD collection of the PS2 and PSP games. I loved both Sons of Liberty and Snake Eater, but I would have to give the nudge in favor to Snake Eater with its superb origin story, nonstop 007-homages, an extraordinary ladder climb like no other, one of the best theme songs in videogame history and one of the best final boss battles in videogame history too.
The first of many yearly WWF/WWE games hit in fall of 2001 with WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It. We had the multi-tap, and for that game it greatly benefitted because it became a hit with our neighbor friends where we would play a seemingly infinite amount of Royal Rumbles and Survival elimination matches. I threw it in again a few days ago to prep up for this and to relive the dozen zany created wrestlers that still lived on in my save file. The graphics have come a long way I can say for sure!
Twisted Metal: Black was a big deal for Matt and I at the time. The gritty, M-rated cutscenes for each character’s opening, middle and ending cinemas that were unlocked from their story mode completions inspired Matt and I to play through the story mode in co-op with every single character. Thankfully the game saved the cinemas unlocked, because Matt and I were so impressed by how they stood out at the time that we forced them upon several friends that stopped by over the coming weeks. Gameplay-wise, it was a well-refined, straightforward Twisted Metal car combat game, but its M-rated makeover from the T-rated PSone entries struck a chord with us.
Speaking of M-rated games that were huge for us that year, that was when Grand Theft Auto III released and changed the gaming landscape as we know it. I was vaguely familiar with the first two games, but with the third one having 3D gameplay and a more expansive open world, it seemed like it would be a surefire hit, and boy was it ever. I loved SimCopter on PC (an early 3D open world game), and the gaming mag previews gave me the impression that it would be SimCopter, but with guns and violence, and it delivered on that front in spades. I dug its primary narrative for it too, but I think it is safe to say that I was like nearly everyone else and eventually wound up having more fun getting lost and immersed in Liberty City’s world and eventually causing so much mayhem just to see how long I could hold up against a five star wanted rating.
2002: Highs and Lows
The early months of 2002 I recall was when I kept going back to those same fall 2001 games I just broke down, but later came around on going all in on those aforementioned PS2 fighting games. I picked up a copy of Tekken Tag for myself around this time and invested a lot of time into it. I took a chance on Street Fighter EX3 and after getting over the initial awkwardness of a 3D-based Street Fighter game I got crazy into EX3 with its devastating meteor attacks, optional tag team fighting and its colorful cast of characters such as the affable Skull-o-Mania! This was right when Guilty Gear X released too and I absolutely ate up that title with it upping the WTF quotient like no other fighter before it. Its unique roster performed all kinds of bizarre attacks, and learning its intricate control systems with complex mechanics like instant kill maneuvers and ‘roman cancels’ had me studying its manual for days!
In late spring of 2002 I moved out of my first apartment so my renting marathons with Matt were over, but shortly-thereafter I landed my first sort-of major gaming press gig. I was independently submitting reviews to GameFAQs for a few years at this point, and the management at the website Game 2 Extreme (G2X) contacted me to coming on board and said while they would not pay me, they would offer me free review copies of games. As a freshly turned 19 year-old, I looked at this as an opportunity to bigger and better things and jumped on it. I will never forget the very first review copy I received for the so-so monster truck driving game, Monster Jam: Maximum Destruction. I spent the rest of the decade jumping to different websites to write for every couple years and lost track of all the titles I got to review. I can attest for the PS2 there was a wide range in quality of titles I received to review. For some of the higher performing games like SOCOM III, Hitman 2 and Star Wars: Battlefront I was able to review, there were bottom of the barrel licensed titles like Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly and Hard Rock Casino to balance things out.
Also around this time of mid-2002 my PS2 became my first console to brick on me. Worst of all, it was a gradual, painful death. First, it stopped reading blue-disc games on CD-ROMs, and then it started getting sketchy performance out of certain silver-disc games on DVD-ROMs. My brother at this time had his own PS2 that he won in a local grocery store contest a few months earlier. The PS2 network adaptor coincidentally came out in mid-2002 as well and he was freaking addicted to playing the original SOCOM online all the time. I did not want to shell out $300 for another system so I believe after testing that SOCOM still worked fine on my degrading PS2 I offered to trade my breaking-down PS2, for his newer model for $100 and the condition that if my system I was trading to him would stop playing SOCOM that I would go back on the trade. Thank goodness that never came to be, and as an impressionable 19-year-old at the time I became kind of bitter to the PS2 for a few years with it being the first system I purchased to break down on me. A few years later though after having a couple 360s and my PS3 also all brick on me, I later came to accept that sometimes these systems go bad, especially when getting the first wave of systems rushed through manufacturing in time for launch. For the last two game console generations I have since waited a couple years after each system launch to purchase it in hopes of the console’s manufacturing process being less prone to producing faulty hardware.
Sports-ball Love
There was a ton of sports games on PS2 and I was lucky to review a lot of them. The football titles in particular I had to plead with editors not to trim down on 3000+ word counts because I exclaimed how the readers wanted to know each and every little detail of what was improved and added in the latest game. I had fun reviewing some of Midway’s arcade sports offerings that generation with NFL Blitz 20-02 and MLB Slugfest: Loaded. Another quirky arcade baseball game was 2K endorsing Konami to release MLB Power Pros in North America. It was a cartoony, cel-shaded baseball game that saw adorable pint-sized versions of MLB players duking it out, but fleshed out with in-depth single player modes. On the PSone I was happy to see Arena Football finally receive its own videogame, and on the PS2, EA acquired the license and released two AFL games that were faithful renditions of the sport, especially the second game that added both AFL divisions. They were sadly the last games released to get the AFL branding as the long running indoor football league finally folded operations last year after a 30-year run.
Two under-the-radar sports series I recommend tracking down on the PS2 are the Power Pros and Arena Football games.
I played almost all of the 2K games on Xbox, but as I mentioned above I played a lot of Madden and NCAA Football on PS2 because the PS2 versions had exclusive online support for a couple years, and additionally because of my rivalry with my brother-in-law, Shawn. This generation saw both of EA’s football games explode in popularity and it was no longer apparent the NCAA game was the NFL title slapped with college teams and rules over it. Shawn and I played a lot of Madden at first, but eventually shifted over to the NCAA games more, with the 2003 and 2004 editions we especially played to death. I liked the variety of teams and unique playbooks, and found myself picking Navy a lot because of their unorthodox playbook that focused on fullback running plays. Shawn only played the football games to the point where I could hardly compete with him. One priceless memory of mine was having an awful game full of turnovers and pick-6s, and I swear to god I am not embellishing this: we were playing five minute quarters and it got to the point I wanted a moral victory to avoid a shutout and make one score, and somehow luck struck on one play where I connected on a deep throw in the final minutes of the game and proceeded infuriate my brother-in-law as I celebrated as if I won the game. I understood his frustrations because I will forever remember the final score of that game: 100-6.
A Terrific Twilight
The PS2 sold so well into the 360/PS3/Wii generation that its cross-gen viability lead to a regular slate of games releasing through 2009-ish, and a handful of sports titles sneaking out after that with the final PS2 game, Pro Evolution Soccer 2013, being released in North America in 2012. If you were keeping up with release schedules, you will notice that two types of games dominated the PS2 in its cross-gen years. One were ports of PSP games from Sony, with titles like Motorstorm: Arctic Edge and the pair of Syphon Filter games getting ported up to the PS2. The Wii was technologically not that far advanced from the PS2, so a lot of cash-cow licensed games on Wii also got ported to PS2 with titles like X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Ghostbusters being completely different playing games by other developers when compared to the bigger budget versions on the 360 and PS3. Some PS2 exclusives also snuck out in this timeframe like the first two Katamari titles and the first two Guitar Hero games. I was a big fan of both games and invested serious time into both series. There are many fond holiday 2005 moments of passing the guitar around to family members trying to best each other’s high scores.
I recall being stoked that the PS2 became the first home console in North America to get an official FirePro Wrestling game with 2007’s FirePro Wrestling Returns. I remember speaking to some of the people working for its publisher, Agetec, at E3 and how excited they were that they finally got Sony to loosen up on its restrictions of releasing 2D games on the system now that the PS2 was in its waning years. Another hit stealth PS2 release from this time was Silent Hill: Shattered Memories that hit America in early 2010. I had a friend visiting from out of town that was huge into the series, but was unaware of this PS2 entry and so we stayed up all night deep diving into that unique take on the series. The first two Yakuza games hit late in the PS2’s lifecycle and I was especially eager to play them because they were being hyped as spiritual successor’s to the Shenmue games that I ranked so high. I played a good ways into the first Yakuza, but recall getting stuck at a funeral escape stage in that game, and unfortunately never got back to it. Yakuza 3 on PS3 is the only title in the series I finished, and now with the Kiwami remakes of the first two games I need to one day just dedicate a year to only playing the many Yakuza games that have since released.
MISC Memories
-I never got too invested into the online PS2 scene. Usually that was because my brother was always using the PS2 to play SOCOM online a lot. I would use it from time to time to test out online play for games I was reviewing, with Star Wars: Battlefront and SOCOM 3’s online play standing out the most of what I reviewed. I do recall taking up Sony on its mail-in offer for a free copy of Twisted Metal: Black – Online with purchase of the PS2 network adaptor and having fun online in that for a couple weeks. My brother got the PS2 version of Final Fantasy XI, and I briefly dabbled in that for a couple hours, and it was interesting at that time playing an MMO on a console with a controller. The original Xbox had a significantly better online interface with Xbox Live, so that became my preferred console online play option. Only exception to this was for the 2003/2004 installments of Madden and NCAA Football because EA Sports held off on implementing online play for their Xbox games for a couple years, and that was key for me opting in on their PS2 versions when both of those football titles were surging in popularity and lead to the most consistent online play I did with PS2.
-There were so many PS2 games being released in its heyday from 2001-2006 that I would take random payday visits to Best Buy when they had gargantuan videogame aisles in hopes of discovering games I never heard of from smaller label publishers. This worked out both ways in learning of little known ‘hidden gems’ of that era, and eventually finding utter trash.
-One odd peripheral I received for review was the PS2 ‘Clash Pads.’ It was a pair of controllers that were connected together with a little accessory box that had switches to give your gaming partner/opponent advantages and disadvantages for gameplay. The controller was a mess to operate, and the added perks and penalties it implemented were mind-boggling. I will instead recommend Namco’s light gun for the Time Crisis games….but only if you still have a standard-def TV.
-Popular in the retro gaming scene lately is HDMI cables for retro game consoles to up-convert a system’s signal to HD and provide a much improved looking display than the muddy, watered down graphics that would result when plugging in composite cables into an HDTV. I picked up the HDMI PS2 cables from Pound last year, and they worked nicely on my slim PS2. I understand there are more expensive alternatives out there that yield noticeably better results, but for $30, the Pound cables provided enough of a bump up in quality for me.
-I busted out several games over the past week to prep up for this flashback special. I was finally able to play my copy of the BMX title, Downhill Domination and regretted not trying it out sooner. I had a blast revisiting a couple old favorites in Rumble Racing and Motorstrom: Arctic Edge. Wish I could have tried out more games, but the PS2 was giving me ‘read disc errors’ with half of my attempts and I could not determine if it was the HD cables causing this or if it was the PS2 itself simply aging out.
-I touched on a couple wrestling games on the PS2 already, but as a whole I would give the slate of wrestling games for the PS2 in America a hearty thumbs up. I believe I played the entirety and unlocked everything from all the first-run SmackDown games on PS2. When firing up Just Bring It again, I cracked a smile because I completely forgot Fred Durst was a playable character, complete with “Rollin’” for his entrance theme. FirePro Wrestling Returns was a long anticipated console debut for the franchise in America. Multi-platform games I played on other systems like the car-combat spinoff, WWE Crush Hour and the pair of Backyard Wrestling games were fun alternative wrestling games to take a break from the annual core WWE game. Yes, there was a car combat WWE game, and it is surprisingly halfway-decent. I picked up the PS2 version of TNA Impact, but it was a victim of the ‘disc read error’ from the past week. Ditto with the Ultimate MUSCLE-licensed Galactic Wrestling. I picked that one up long ago, but never played it all these years and was stoked to sit down with it on a couple occasions this past week to play it, but alas it was not meant to be.
-A game that was able to load on the PS2 this past week was Namco Bandai’s The Fast and the Furious. It turned out to be an ok-open world street racing game, much like Need for Speed: Underground on the PS2, but with more of a focus on drag races. Odd memory of the day I picked up this game I will never forget: I was out of town for a hockey game killing time at a pawn shop a couple hours beforehand with a buddy where I randomly bought this with a handful of other games. In a gut-punch of irony, it was later after the game while re-fueling on gas, I was catching up on my timelines when I found out earlier that day was when Paul Walker perished.
-Another game I was hoping to throw in this past week was 24: The Game. I am a huge fan of the show, and I remember playing a demo of it at E3 2005 and thinking it was surprisingly alright for a licensed-based game. Sadly, that disc was also a victim of the ‘disc read error’ message, so instead I will point everyone to this highly entertaining spoof video review you can see by click or pressing here from then-GameSpot staff member, Alex Navarro.
-Speaking of PS2 games based off licensed TV properties, I want to shout out The Shield: The Game. It was a very by-the-numbers third person action game, and featured unremarkable gameplay, but having the show’s cast well represented visually and aurally in the form of voiceovers was enough to quench my fandom for that show. Despite the five out of ten I gave it in my review at the time, if you were a ardent fan of The Shield, then it was just something you had to play.
-I am a big fan of the PS2 slim, but it is worth mentioning a major caveat of the slim: it does not support the PS2 multi-tap for reasons perplexing me to this very day!
-It is almost a prerequisite that I purchase faithful videogame conversions of my favorite board games and TV game shows every console generation and the PS2 was no exception. It had an adequate version of Risk with multi-tap support which was a semi-worthy substitute when we were not up for setting up the board game. Its versions of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune had a bountiful amount of hosting video clips from Trebek and Vanna, respectively, to perfectly capture the look and feel of the show. The PS2’s version of Family Feud however is easily the worst version I have ever played. Insanely short entry response times, unresponsive button inputs and overall clunky design forever marred the Family Feud brand! Looking back at my review I am guffawed that I scored this a six out of ten.
-The last fighting game I was really into on PS2 than the others previously mentioned was Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. I first played it at Chris’s place like how he introduced me to most other fighting games, and Chris would school me at it nonstop. A short while later, I was staying over at my sister and brother-in-law’s place where they also had that game. I stayed up late after they went to bed and spent hours mastering Wolf since he was the sole pro-wrestler of the roster. Next time I met up with Chris I finally won ONE match against him, but after that he refused to play me again!
-Now while I gushed earlier of my adoration for TimeSplitters during the launch window of PS2, I would be remiss if I did not give some well-earned props to the third game in the series, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. In the past several years, that game has remained in the rotation of go-to couch multiplayer game with my friends Derek, Brooke and Ryan. It retains the same style of FPS gameplay and creation options as the first game, but now with a ton of extra characters, weapons and levels available. My preferred playlist would be rocking the disco level with its appropriate theme music, and playing as a big bear (complete with bear claw strike!) and whamming everyone with gigantic bananas on the dance floor. Classic times!
One of the Best Systems Ever?
That is what hardware sales and overall critical reception trend to be when looking back at the PS2. While I now look back fondly at the PS2 as a whole, especially my first two years owning the system, I cannot deny for a few years in the system’s heyday I was not too keen on the system due to it bricking on me and preferred playing games on Xbox and GameCube instead. Like I stated above, I came around on this a few years later and had a blast with the PS2 in its cross-gen sunset years, and revisited its vast library numerous times over the years. While I cannot say it is my personal, all-time favorite console, I can safely rank it among my top tier of favorite systems.
If you want even more PS2 nostalgia coverage from me, then check out the three PS2-centric episodes of my podcast I have un-vaulted from my personal archives and embedded below. Right now I have my general all-encompassing PS2 retrospective I recorded on its 10th anniversary and the PS2/Xbox/Wii installment of the history of comic book videogames episode uploaded. Finishing off podcasts is the PS2 installment in our history of RPG videogames series. Enjoy!
This episode has special guest hosts from the PSnation podcast where we deep dive for three hours of nostalgic memories of the PS2.
Matt and I spare no expense at elucidating on every major and minor comic book game on the PS2.
Just over three hours we spend breaking down nearly every RPG to hit the PS2!
Somehow you still made it to the end of another tome of a flashback special from me, so that means I must reward you with an oddball PS2 anecdote of my past! I referenced in past specials how I attended several retro videogame conventions that took place every year in Milwaukee - The Midwest Gaming Classic. At the time the podcast known as Team Fremont Live would always host Jeopardy-style game show each year. My brother and I were picked to be contestants that year! To spice things up for the crowd and get them involved, after every few questions of trivia there would be a quick videogame challenge for extra points and prizes for the crowd and/or contestant. I got picked to play a single stage of the space shooter/shmup, Castle Shikigami 2. Two incredibly loud kids got picked from the crowd got selected to only verbally trash talk and distract me, and if I lost one life then the kids would get a game, but if I somehow overcame the odds and finished a level on a single life then I would win.
Now I enjoy playing an occasional shmup, especially in March (it is intergalactic Shmuppreaction month, ya’know!), but I nowhere consider myself legitimately good at the genre and usually lose at least a couple lives a level for almost any shooter I play. Somehow the shmup gods were on my side that day, because even with one of those kids unleashing maximum effort with trash talk directly against my ear, I somehow zoned them out and unbelievably managed to finish the stage and beat the boss with one life. I was at zenith-level of goosebumps during that boss battle and had a cool-down moment of emotions as soon as let go of the arcade stick. My prize? Metal Gear Solid 2, which I would eventually give a serious effort to and finish several years later! That moment, along with the 100-6 loss in NCAA Football 2004, are my two most cherished PS2 moments I will forever remember….and now you can too, because the MGC staff record my attempt and posted it on YouTube. I have embedded it below, or you can click or press here to see it yourself.
This has been one I have been meaning to be covering for a few years now. Longtime readers here may remember my friend Matt I reference semi-occasionally when I reviewone of hisgag giftmovies here. Every now and then though he will legit surprise with me with an awesome movie gift as with today’s example. Matt knows I am a huge fan of the comic book character, The Punisher, and that all three of the live action Punisher movies are guilty pleasures of mine. Up until a few years ago I already owned both the Thomas Jane and Ray Stevenson Punisher films on BluRay, but the original 1989 Punisher movie I only owned a bare bones DVD release that I thought was the only home video version of that film. Matt surprised me a few years back by tracking down an international release of an unrated director’s cut of The Punisher on BluRay.
Turns out in North America, right on the precipice of the film’s released it got traded studios as its original studio was in the process of being acquired. Turns out the new studio was not confident in the drawing power of Dolph Lungdren anymore so the 1989 Punisher film was among the first wave of movies to hit the straight-to-video market. Internationally, The Punisher received theatrical releases, and performed well, which is why it landed an international BluRay release. Thank goodness my BluRay player recognizes international regions, but my only nitpick with it is the lack of subtitles. So this version of the film on BluRay is the ‘Unrated Cut’ which is how the director, Mark Goldblatt, originally envisioned the film. The 80s were the era of the gratuitously violent action blockbusters with the likes of Rambo, Robocop, Commando, Terminator and countless others dominating the box office. The Punisher was shot for that demographic, and Goldblatt stated in the commentary how he had to take the film to the MPAA nine times before toning down the movie enough to earn an ‘R’ rating.
The film wastes no time with a lengthy origin story as it kicks off with a gang leader being acquitted of all charges for murdering Frank Castle (Dolph Lungdren) and his family five years prior. A news reporter recommends the gang to be on the lookout for ‘The Punisher’ vigilante, which the gang laughs off the journalist’s warnings, only for the gang to instantly meet their demise mere minutes after arriving home from court. The Yakuza arrive in town to capitalize on The Punisher’s fallout, with Yakuza leader Lady Tanaka (Kim Miyori) forcing replacement gang leader Dino Moretti (Bryan Marshall) to partner up with her after kidnapping the children of Moretti and his allies. Trying to keep tabs on this whole mess of a situation is the ‘Punisher Task Force’ consisting of Frank Castle’s former partner, Jake Berkowitz (Louis Gossett Jr.), and fellow detective Sam Leary (Nancy Everhard).
Following all this setup, The Punisher is essentially 1980s action film 101, with Castle tearing it up against the Yakuza in a couple of entertaining shootouts in a casino and later on in a funhouse, complete with Yakuza members firing away at Frank while breezing down a curvy slide. Completing the over-the-top 80s action formula is the cheesy one-liners, with my favorite featuring Berkowitz grilling Frank on his vigilante warfare, “What do you call 125 murders in five years?” to which Castle dryly retorts, “Work-in-Progress.” Eventually everything comes to a head when Punisher and Moretti team up to rescue Moretti’s kid in the Yakuza stronghold, where the most intense fighting sequences emanate from in the entire film. The unrated cut pulls no punches, with the most gruesome fatalities transpiring as Castle and Moretti work their way to the final confrontation with Lada Tanaka.
When I re-watched the film with audio commentary from Mark Goldblatt he made sure to pinpoint which parts he added back in as he originally envisioned for this unrated version, and how he stands behind this version being the definitive cut of the film. Other interesting tidbits from the commentary was how the film wound up being shot in Australia, regrets of not having the Punisher’s trademark skull icon on his shirt in the film and informing in-depth on the film trading studios and going direct-to-video in America. Goldblatt also mentions in the commentary how there is a workprint cut of the film, which he stated he does not stand behind since it was cut before the core movie finished filming.
Said workprint cut is included as a bonus feature, and is actually eight minutes longer than the unrated cut. The main takeaway I had with the workprint cut is it has a whole new 17 minute opening on the origin of The Punisher that happens five years earlier where it shows Castle and Berkowitz making a bust on a routine stakeout that clues the gangsters in to Frank’s family location where they ultimately make a hit on Frank’s family. That whole 17 minutes is briefly alluded to in the unrated cut in the form of a five second flashback of the family’s demise. This prologue adds a whole new dynamic to the film, but I can see why Goldblatt wanted it cut since it brings a snappier pace to the overall film. Also worth mentioning is that the workprint is presented in its original adapted 35mm form, and how the editors did a commendable job cleaning it up for the HD version on the BluRay.
Other extra features is a 21 minute interview with Mark Goldblatt. If you do not have time to invest into the commentary track, then this interview is a recommended alternative as it hits most of the same beats and goes into Mark’s other Hollywood successes. Also included is a quick five minute interview with Dolph Lungdren where he has fond memories working with the stuntmen in the fight sequences and wishes the movie would have had a theatrical run in America. For those who are fans of reverse box art, I recommend taking advantage of that here, as this BluRay’s alternative artwork is pretty remarkable. Rounding off the BluRay is a gag reel…..which would not load on my BluRay player, so that will have to be my loss.
The Punisher: Unrated Cut BluRay was a surprise hit gift from Matt! I will stand behind Goldblatt by safely assuring his unrated cut here is the must-see version of the film. A solid slate of extra features only helps makes this BluRay the definitive home video edition of this movie. If you dig the over-the-top action films of the 80s, then odds are this 1989 take on The Punisher will be right up your alley.
