Top 11 Best Black Video Game Characters: Revised 2013

It's Black History month and its time to honor and remember all the Black people that have made and impact in history. In Honor of Black History month I have made a top 11 list of the best black video game characters that have made an impact in video games. I made a list in 2011 but since then I have played a couple of new games with characters that have claimed their spots on this list. Why top 11? Like the Nostalgia Critic I like to go one step beyond.

11. Adam/Skate – Streets of Rage Trilogy – These guys are rock. Adam was in the 1st Street of Rage and he gets kidnapped in Streets of Rage 2. That is when his 11 year old brother Skate joins the team to save his brother. Skate is also in Streets of Rage 3 on his roller blades taking out bad guys. These brothers tie for the eleventh spot on our list because they are hardcore fighters.

10. Mike Tyson – Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!: If you have ever reached Iron Mike Tyson in this game you know how bad ass he is. He can knock you down with just two punches and that’s only if you have full health. Tyson is beatable but its takes and lot of trial and error and I have yet to beat him. I will defeat him one day though. He was a great boxer in real life and he is a great boxer in the video game world.

9. Eddy Gordo – Tekken 3 – He is an excellent fighter in Tekken 3. He is a master of the Brazilian fighting style Capoeira. He is also a break dancer which really helps his fighting. He can beat you up while walking on his hands.

*8. Clementine – The Walking Dead – Clementine is a tough little girl. She survived a zombie apocalypse on her on until she was rescued. She had to grow up quickly and she is also a very good shot. Her self-reliance and toughness for a little girl get her a spot on this list.

7. Michael Jackson – Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker – Michael Jackson wasn’t only a great singer and dancer. He was an awesome Video Game character as well. He could use magic to make his enemies dance and after then dance they would die. He didn’t just defeat his enemies with Magic and Dancing he also was able to transform into Robo-Michael. When He became Robo-Michael he could fly around and shoot laser and missiles and annihilate his enemies. For this reason he claims the number 6 spot on the list.

*6. Lee Everett – The Walking Dead – Lee is a character that came out of left field for me. Lee has tons of responsibility thrown on him he come across a little girl named Clementine and he ends up being her guardian and he does a good job taking care of her. He has to make a lot of tough decisions good and bad. He knows when to make the tough decision which earns him a spot on this list.

5. Captain David Anderson – Mass Effect Trilogy – Captain Anderson isn't a playable character in Mass Effect, but he plays a very important role in the success of Commander Shepard’s Mission. He also help Shepard in his pursuit of becoming a Specter. Captain Anderson is an awesome role model and mentor to Shepard. Captain Anderson is also voiced by Keith David making him even more awesome because Keith David is awesome too.

4. Barret Wallace – Final Fantasy VII – He has a gun arm do I really need to say anything else? I will say something else thought he is an awesome party member for Cloud and he is very powerful as well. His limit brakes are awesome his level 4 limit brake is called Catastrophe and he pulls hot magma out of the ground into his gun arm and he destroys his enemies with it.

3. Roland the Solder – Borderlands – Roland is a true solder. He can regenerate his ammo and if a team member is low on health he has an ability where he can shoot his teammate and it heals them. He is a natural leader and he is an essential person you want to have on your team.

2. Sergeant Major Avery J. Johnson – The Halo Series – Sergeant Johnson is a take no crap kind of guy. He always has a cigar in his mouth and will fight whatever is in his way. He once hijacked a Scarab and then teamed up with the Arbiter to take out the brute Tartarus. His one liner are awesome as well.

1. Augusts Cole a.k.a. Cole Train - Gears of War Trilogy – Cole is the best character in all of Gears of War. He is there so that you don’t shoot Baird because Baird is a jackass. Cole is by far the best character on this list. The first time you encounter him you know he is a true bad ass. He always has something cool to say and he it freaking awesome. He gets the number one spot because you can’t stop the train baby.

Other Notable Characters: Sergeant Foley – Modern Warfare 2, Zack – Dead or Alive Series, Coach – Left 4 Dead 2, Louis – Left 4 Dead, Romeo – Halo 3: ODST, Shaq – Shaq Fu, Doc Louis – Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! & Punch-Out!!, Fortune - Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Jacob – Mass Effect 2, Jax – Mortal Kombat Series, Alyx Vance - Half-Life 2, Balrog –  Street Fighter Series, Dee Jay –  Street Fighter Series, Mr. Sandman – The Punch-Out!! Series

There are so many other characters that haven’t been named and there will continue to be more in the future so you may see a new list next year. We will just have to wait and see.

*New Addition to the list

Games of 2012

Well another year has come to an end. So lets talk about the games of 2012. I didn't really get a chance to play many new games this year due to the fact that my budget was tight and not too much came out that tripped my trigger this year. I am not going to do a top games countdown this year because I didn't play to many new games this year. Instead I'm just going to talk about the games that come out this year that I played and liked.

The first new game I bought this year was:

Mass Effect 3: This has to be my favorite release of the year I love this trilogy and this game didn't disappoint me. It has a great story and awesome battle system. The slogan of the game is "Take back Earth" and you must do that. The Reapers are attacking Earth and you must save earth but getting as much support as you can and building a great team like in previous games. If you have transferred a game save from Mass Effect 1 and imported into Mass Effect 2 and then imported that file into Mass Effect 3 you will have an awesome experience. Your choices in previous games will effect how people view you and some of the events. If you are a fan of RPG and/or Shooters this is a must buy. If you have the game on the Xbox 360 and you have a Kinect it truly is better when using the Kinect. You can call out commands to your party and they will do it. You can also switch to a weapon by calling its name. I also head if you say "boomstick" and you have a shotgun you will switch to you shotgun. The Kinect add a new element of game play letting you use your abilities with out worrying about pulling up a menu. For me the game is awesome with out the Kinect but using the Kinect add so much more to the game (It also adds so much more to the Xbox 360 over all). You should get a Kinect for this game its worth it I suggest starting with Mass Effect 1 so you can import your files into the sequels for me doing that give you the full experience of all the games. They recently released Mass Effect 1 for PS3 and the Trilogy in a 3 pack for PS3 and Xbox 360 (I'm not Sure about the Wii U but you can get ME3 on it).

The next game I got was:

Diablo III: I have been waiting for this game for a long time and It is amazing. I was so happy when this game came out. In fact I bought the collector's edition (Blog Post: Diablo III...Yeah its that good!). Fans of Diablo rejoiced when we heard the announcement for Diablo III. I was so pumped for this game unfortunately when i got home my video card in my laptop was unsupported. That bummed me out but lucky for me my wife had recently got a new laptop before launch and I was able to play the game on her laptop so all hope wasn't lost. This game is awesome with new characters and new enemies. I chose the Monk to play first I have also played a Demon Hunter. The game is so much fun and with very diverse characters, harder difficulties with a new one added Inferno difficulty and game updates the replay value is very high. It is another great game from Blizzard. There are some gripes but I can over look them because the game is genuinely fun. If you are a fan of Diablo and other hack and slash RPGs you need to get Diablo III its so much fun.

Other games I played this year were:

Halo 4: Another game in the Halo series and once again is delivers. A new enemy has awaken the Promethean. This game has awesome single player campaign and awesome Multiplayer. Just like any other Halo is awesome. If you are a fan of the series you must by this game. This is the first Halo games that Bungie had nothing to do with. 343 Industries did a great job with the game. They removed all purple from the game so anything that was purple is now blue which isn't a big deal. There isn't much more to say is a Halo game and its lots of fun. If you played the other games you will be able to jump right in

Borderlands 2: If you have played Borderlands and liked it Borderlands 2 is that times 10 its awesome. New character, more guns, a better story line and more twist. The first Borderlands was a great games and tons of fun. Borderlands 2 to me is an even better game. Borderlands 2 takes what is great about the first game and just builds on it and makes it better. The characters you choose from now are The Commando, The Gunzerker, The Siren, The Assassin and the Mechomancer (DLC - Add On). Each character is unique and added to the replay value. I have played with the Commando and he is tuns of fun. He is like Roland the Solder from the first game his special is a turret as well. Its different the Commando doesn't heal like the Solder does but I believe his turret does more damage (from what I've seen I believe this to be true). This game is awesome and with the DLC out and coming out its just adds to the fun.

Skylanders Giants: This game is so much fun. I was able to get this game during a Black Friday sale and I wish I played a Skylanders game sooner. I haven't played the first one but I'm sure is great based on what I've played of Skylanders Giants. Beware this game is a money pit because you will want to buy more and more Skylanders. Lucky me I found sales at JCPenney during Christmas so I save a ton of money. I also won lots of gift certificates during JCPenney's Christmas button contest. So I barely spent any money on most of my Skylanders. If you get this game 1 giant and 2 normal Skylanders. you will need at least 1 of every element and there are 8 Elements. Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Tech, Magic, Life and Undead. All you really need is 1 of every element but you can buy as many as you want. The Skylanders have built-in memory so you can play them on your friends games and they keep their levels, gold, and skills. You also get a code with your Skylanders when you buy them. You take the code and put them online and you can play with other people with the online Skylanders game. So you get two games for the price of one. This game is very fun and addictive.

Street Fighter X Mega Man: A great free game. This was made by independent programmers with contributions from Capcom. It is an 8-bit Mega Man game with the Street Fighters as bosses. Each level also has the music of all the Street Fighter bosses in 8-bit Mega Man form. If you are a fan of Mega Man and Street Fighter you must get this game. Its free you have no excuse (Download Street Fighter X Mega Man).

Pokemon Black 2 and White 2: Another fun Pokemon game. This is the first special edition that is actually different game. Pokemon Yellow was the same as Red and Blue except you starting Pokemon was Pikachu and you fought Jessie and James from Team Rocket. Not to say the special edition games are bad they are very good and add extra goodies and if you collect games like me you usually get all the Pokemon game (I don't have them all yet but hope to have them soon). These games take place 2 years after the events in the previous games. You get a new story line, new hero/heroin, new gym leaders and more. A great Pokemon game for all the Pokemon fans.

The Walking Dead: This game is awesome if you are a fan of The Walking Dead you must get this game. This game follows a different story line and its very good. You get to see the struggles of another diverse group of survivors. You take control of Lee who for some reason is in a the back of a cop car. You end up getting out of the car and encountering Walkers. You come to a house where you find a little girl and you start traveling together. That is all I'm going to say about this story because I don't want any spoilers in this post. The game style is an adventure type game maybe like a point-and-click adventure. I compare it to Myst but its more like the new p&c game Back To The Future. This game is separated into five episode and at $5 each its totally worth it. Sometimes you can find deals I got all five episodes on Xbox 360 for $10. Its also available of PS3 and Steam (and Steam will run deals on the game too).

Happy Wars: Happy Wars is a fun free game on the Xbox Live Arcade. Its a very good online game of fun war and fun destruction.

Kinect Party: Another fun free game on the XBLA. If you have a Kinect download it and you can get some  quick achievements.

All Good Things Must Come To An End: A Farewell Tribute to Nintendo Power

All good things must come to an end. If you already didn't know Nintendo has discontinued Nintendo Power  print the last issue this month.

This is sad because I grew up reading Nintendo Power along with a lot of other gamers from the 80s. Today we have the Internet and anytime we have and issue with a game we can go online to websites like GameFAQs.com. But before the Internet we had Nintendo Power. If you wanted to beat a hard game like: The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, Super Mario Bros. 3 and many more you got Nintendo Power. If you didn't have the Nintendo Power you usually had a friend who had it. If you didn't well you were probably S.O.L. and just had to figure it out on your own and back in the day that was very hard to do. I remember having a special Nintendo Power that was the Super Mario Bros. 3 strategy guide which helped me get so much farther in the game as a kid. I don't have the issue anymore I wish I did (It fell apart and my Mom just threw it away grrr). Nintendo Power was pack with many goodies too like posters. Not everything was perfect about Nintendo Power. There was one thing I didn't like about Nintendo Power they never said anything bad about any game even if it sucked. They would  give a description about a bad game in a very sneaky way and kids like me couldn't read between the lines. I look back now and I see that was a good way to market and sell games. Nintendo Power isn't the only magazine to do that though pretty much any game magazine that it associated with one game hardware company will be bias and not say bad things about that game. That was just a minor gripe Nintendo Power was the thing that got us through had games. We have so many more ways today to get info on games but like it say at one point Nintendo Power was the only way. To get power over the games you had to get the power Nintendo Power. Nintendo Power will always be alive in our hearts and the guides they printed are still going to be used to beat the games that were hard to beat as kids (and still are hard to beat as adults). I had the Power did you?

Here is a video review of Nintendo Power by the Anger Video Game Nerd enjoy!

Xbox Live Turn 10 This Year!

Happy Birthday Xbox Live!

Its hard to believe that is has been 10 years since Xbox Live started. Since its started online console play has   skyrocketed up and more and more people sign up everyday. I remember I couldn't sign up for Xbox live when it was first available because at the time I lived in an area without high speed internet. Once I went away to college I was able to sign up. I remember the first time I logged on I played Halo 2 for hours when I should have been doing my Homework (I did get my homework done but its was much later when I did). I also remember play Dead or Alive 2 also and realizing how bad I was compared to the other players. The Xbox live starter set came with a headset which came with an adapter to hook into your controller to use the headset making it easier to talk to other players. Xbox Live was and in my opinion was and is still the best online console gaming experience. Today Xbox Live has evolved into so much more then just online gaming who knew it could get better. I will continue to game on Xbox Live among many other things. 

Want to win a free year of Xbox Live Gold click here to win one today. This contest is today only so enter ASAP!

The 100th Blog Post - Game of the Day - Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Today's Game of the Day is Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.

Since today is Halloween and its our 100th blog post on the Video Game Pad I thought I would talk about an awesome game that not too many people know about. This is the perfect game for Halloween too. This game is an RPG where you are a newly turned vampire. You must complete various quests for the Elder vampire aka the Prince. You will also meet many other Vampires as well. When you start the game you Get to choose from 7 different vampire clans:  Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, or Ventrue. Each clan has its advantages and disadvantages and they all have different styles of game play which gives the game high replay value (To learn more about the clans check out the wiki.). You have a very elaborate character building system. You can either be a brawler, a gunman or stealthy. You can also choose to be a persuasive vampire, a seductive vampire or an intimidating vampire. You can also build other skills like finance or computers. You also have set abilities which are based on which clan you pick. The game also has awesome voice acting and its like watching a movie at times. You will find yourself absorbed in this game  and find yourself playing for a long time. I also like how they set up the vampires up in this game how they they aren't your typical vampires and it feels more realistic. Also you can't let people see you are a vampire because you will violate the masquerade laws and if you have 5 violations you get a game over. You can also get masquerade redemption's as well. You also must maintain your humanity to control the beast inside of you  .if you have low humanity and your blood is low you are more likely to go into a frenzy and you will attack and feed on people in to open causing you to get a masquerade violation. There is a lot that goes into this game and that's what makes it awesome. Happy Halloween and thank you for reading the 100th blog post. We hope you continue to read on as we continue to write posts.

Happy 15th Anniversary Final Fantasy VII

On January 31, 1997 Final Fantasy VII was released in Japan on the Sony PlayStation. Later that year on September 7, 1997 it was released in North America. This year is the 15th Anniversary of Final Fantasy VII. This was a huge game in the series because this was the first Final Fantasy game released during the 32 bit/64 bit era of video games. It was also the first time a Final Fantasy game was not released on a Nintendo System. Final Fantasy VII was the first game I ever played in the series and it was also the first one I beat. FF7 got me into the Final Fantasy series (Super Mario RPG got me into JRPGs all together). FF7 was a ground breaking game it did so much for JRPGs in North America. This game gave us awesome cinematic, a great story line, awesome music and great battles. FF7 seemed to have it all. It also confused us because the last Final Fantasy released in America was Final Fantasy III. We quickly learned Final Fantasy III was actually Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy II was Final Fantasy IV in Japan. Today all the Final Fantasy have pretty much be released in America and all remakes and re-releases have been named correctly. But back to Final Fantasy VII this was a very long game. If you want to get everything you will be playing for around 100+ hours. To get the ultimate summon in the game Knights of the Round you have to get a Golden Chocobo and to get a Golden Chocobo you have to raise Chocobos and that can be time consuming but the reward is worth it. Knight of the Round is an awesome summon it may take about Five minutes to complete but it’s so awesome, and if you want to stand an chance against Emerald and Ruby Weapon you have to have that summon a long with a few other things. If it wasn’t for FF7 I would haveo had an awesome movie which was a direct sequel to the video game Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. This movie truly captured the atmosphere the game and the CGI and animation is amazing. The movie also give you a quick run through of the game’s stor never gone back and played games like Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest. I would have gone through life never playing other great games and it’s because of FF7 I did that. So not only was FF7 a masterpiece of a video game it also opened my eyes to other great games and I am forever grateful for that. FF7 has also has a two video games spin offs: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII which was a prequel and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII which was a sequel. Both are very good games in my opinion. It alsy line so if you haven’t played the game or don’t want to take the time to play it you can watch that on the DVD and watch the movie. The movie is worth watching even if you haven’t played the game. Final Fantasy VII has recently been re-released on the PC and can be download on the PlayStation Network. We are still waiting for a remake and I hope we get it but who knows if we will but I still hoping and praying that we get a remake. I know I’m late but its better late than never Happy 15th Anniversary Final Fantasy VII.

Knights of the Round Summon

Game of the Day: Phantasy Star Online

Today’s game of the day is Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast. What can I say about this game other then I love this game. This is one of the main games that made my Dreamcast totally awesome. It was one the first console online RPGs and it was tons of fun. Unfortunately you can’t play it online anyone if you are playing it on the Dreamcast but it is still an awesome single player game. There were 3 classes: Hunters, Rangers and Forces. Hunters specialized in close range combat, Rangers specialized in long range combat and Forces where the Technique/Magic users. Each class was unique in its own way and you strategies were mainly based on the class you picked. Another thing that helps increase playthroughs were the races. You had Humans, Newmans (an elf like race) and Androids. Humans where the most well-rounded classes they are pretty much good at everything an. Humans are available as Hunters, Rangers and Forces, Newmans has the highest TP (technique points) there were the best magic users and they were usually better at evading attacks and being quicker but they lack the strength. Newmans can be either a Hunter or a Force. Androids have the highest strength, defense and accuracy being machines they are much stronger they Humans and Newmans but their main drawback is they are unable to use TP. Androids can either be Hunters or Rangers. Regardless of what you pick to play you will have lots of fun and it’s always fun to try multiple classes and races. I usually used humans and my main character was a human hunter and it was so much fun to rush right up to enemies and get engaged in battle. If you haven’t tried this game out you should there is also a version on the GameCube it’s kind of expensive but it’s worth it if you don’t have a Dreamcast. There is also a game that I own that is similar it’s called Phantasy Star 0 For the Nintendo DS. I wrote a post about it a while ago to check it out click here. Phantasy Star Online is awesome and it’s so much fun you need to check it out.