DECEMBER ‘24
Luke's Phinds
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Luke's Phinds -
NBA Live 03 (PS2)
NBA Live 2003 is one of the greatest NBA Live games out there. It’s fast paced, challenging, and super easy to pick up and play. If you haven’t had the chance of playing this gem before, the first thing you’ll notice is the twitchy, and extremely responsive player movement. While it’s far from a simulation style of basketball, it’s a refreshing change from 2K where it often feels like you’re playing in quicksand.
It’s not just the gameplay that is great here. Both the graphics and soundtracks are major highlights. I feel that the visuals hold up well and are incredibly nostalgic-looking. Occasionally, hilarious cut scenes will take place in dead-ball situations, which are always fun to watch.
Check out Kwame Brown getting chewed out by MJ.
Another neat thing about this version of the game is that is comes with a CD of the soundtrack. Nowadays, the only way to get a physical soundtrack to a video game would be to buy a $150 collectors addition.
We just need Gelo’s new song, Tweaker and it would be a 10/10 soundtrack.
Bitmap books: The Unofficial GBA Pixel Book & N64: a visual compendium
If you enjoy retro video games like I do, I highly encourage you to check out Bitmap Books. They create awesome books that celebrate retro video games and video game culture. Santa hooked me up this Christmas with two of their books, The Unofficial GBA Pixel Book and N64: A Visual Compendium.
One of the first things I noticed when I got these books was their high quality. The weight, image resolution, and design exceeded my expectations. When flipping through the pages, I got hit with waves of nostalgia while reminiscing over classic GBA and N64 games I grew up playing like Wario Land 4, Star Fox 64, and Mario Kart 64. I also appreciate how well they highlighted the incredible pixel art from the GBA. It’s not just screenshots from the games, there are full pages filled with characters, maps, and phun phacts about the great library of games these systems had. This is the perfect coffee table book for any retro video game fan.
The Unofficial GBA Pixel Book - Wario Land 4
N64: a visual compendium - NBA Jam 99
NBA OYO figure - Evan Turner
Back in 2003, LEGO released a set of 24 NBA figures which included players like Kobe, Shaq, and Tim Duncan. Without a doubt, these were some of the coolest sets LEGO has ever released. Unfortunately for hoops fans, this would be the one and only set of NBA figures. We here at Phibin’s Phinds are still hoping that LEGO will one day have access to the NBA license again. (Check out our latest article on who we think would make the cut in 2025).
If you still want that fix for LEGO NBA figures, there are a lot of knock-offs like these NBA OYO figures on the market. In December, I got my hands on an OYO Evan Turner figure. I know, kind of strange of them to make a random role player. Surprisingly, ET was not the only role player that OYO produced. For example, some other role players they created were Solomon Hill, Patty Mills, and Robin Lopez. No way in a million years would LEGO ever make a Solomon Hill LEGO, so I appreciate OYO showing love to the role players out there.
One day I will collect and assemble the greatest OYO role-player team of all time. Here is what the starting five would include:
PG - Denzel Valentine
SG - Jodie Meeks
SF - Terrance Ferguson
PF - D.J Wilson
C - Kosta Koufos
Yes, they actually made all these players, and I think I’m the only person out there who has them in their Mecari shopping cart.
Galoob’s All-Star MVPs: 1997 San Francisco 49ers Mini Figures
If you’ve been keeping up with our latest phinds, you’re aware of the NBA Galoobs I recently picked up (‘97 Houston Rockets & ‘97 Chicago Bulls). Thanks to Santa, this Christmas I’ve added a new team to the Galoob collection, the ‘97 San Francisco 49ers!
Players included in this set:
Jerry Rice, Steve Young, Merton Hanks, Brent Jones, and Ken Norton jr.
These Galoobs are some of the best ones they created. Of course, anything Jerry Rice and Steve Young is cool, but we’ve also got some of the best 9ers jerseys out there. On top of I think some of these poses are cooler than some of the NBA ones, which I guess isn’t too hard to do when you have Hakeem Olajuwon’s doing a Superman pose…
