Gold Strike Casino Resort Tunica - World Casino Directory
Gold Strike Casino Resort Venue Hours of Operation | Gold
Gold Strike Casino Resort 1010 Casino Center Dr Tunica
Sweet Tea at Gold Strike Casino Resort - Updated COVID-19
Tunica Hotel & Casino - Gold Strike Casino Resort
Gold Strike Hotel & Gambling Hall (Jean) - 2021 All You
Gold Strike Casino Resort announces reopening date amid
Gold Strike Tunica Casino & Resort - MGM Resorts
gold strike casino hours
gold strike casino hours - win
OBLIGATORY FILLER MATERIAL – Giving thanks edition: Kickin’ around Caracas, Pt. 5
Continuing… (It's Part 6 in the saga, I fucked up. Sorry.) So, after a few re-fueling and impromptu cigar-purchasing stops in South and Central America, we wheel up to the deserted jetway at LAX. “Thought we were going to Elmendorf?” I asked. “This isn’t it?” the pilot replied, feigning worry. “No.”, I replied, “Looks like California. Fruits and nuts. All around. What’s going on? One minute we’re off to Texas, then Cali, then Texas again, now we end up here at the California airport of the iconic tower.” “Yeah, it’s confusing enough haulin’ civilians around. But when we get a call from Virginia, we tend to comply without any questions,” the pilot explains. “Aw, shit!”, I sort of exclaim, “Rack and Ruin called?” “Yeah”, the pilot replies, “Figures you’d know these guys. They said they were closer to LAX rather than Texas and had us divert here. In fact, you look over there, see that dark blue Chevy? That’s them; and evidently, your ride.” I tipped the airman from earlier a couple of cigars as he helped me with my gear off the plane and into the trunk of Rack and Ruin’s plain-Jane blue late modeled Chevy. Had to move the Sidewinder Missiles off to one side, though. “Most honorable Agents Lack and Luin!” I quipped in my faux-racist greeting. “What the hell, guys? I’ve got to get to Japan and get some newly rigidified digits.” “Let’s see your hand”, Agent Rack asks. “Nasty.” “Yeah”, I sigh “And with the medicos in South America and their penchant for plaster, I don’t so much have a left hand as more of an ankylosaur tail.” “Or Thagomizer”, Agent Ruin tittered. “Anyone gives you grief, and one upside the head should set them right. Or dead.” “You’re a riot, Ruin.” I replied, “But not entirely incorrect.” We all agreed that I really didn’t need any extra accouterments to make myself look more dangerous. I mean with my severe haircut, stern beard clip, and perpetual ‘Go fuck yourself’ scowl. “Yeah”, I replied, stroking the aforementioned beard, “I just can’t get that. I’m such a people person.” After Agents Rack and Ruin finished drying their eyes from laughing what I thought was en extremis, we finally got down to business. “So, what’s the skinny, guys”, I asked. “New marching orders?” “No. Not as such”, Agent Ruin said, still sniggering over my ‘people person’ comment. I see we’re moving. Agent Rack is just driving casually, like Chewbacca when they were waiting to see if the Empire went for that expensive Bothan code. “Then, what?” I asked, getting a slight bit piqued. “Well”, Agent Ruin noted, “When you went to South America, you took some of your artillery collection with, correct?” “You know I did. You even made some snide comments about my personal choice of sidearms and their ‘excessive’ calibers, if memory serves”, I reiterated. “And if you are proceeding normally, as you always do, they’re all nestled in the trunk of this very car. All cleaned, quiet, unloaded, and smelling sweetly of Hoppe’s Number 9 and WD 40, correct?” Rack inquired. “Yes?” I cautiously venture. “Well, ya’ big dummy, do you think they’re going to let you saunter into Tokyo armed like the Third Fleet?” Agent Ruin chuckled. “Um…well…I do have a Diplomatic Passport.” I ventured. “That’s not going to work this time.”, Agent Ruin said, shaking his head. “They’re tighter than Dick’s Hatband about sidearms. Want to bring in your Rigby SXS .500 Nitro Express double rifle? Not a problem. Sidearms, especially in your alien hunting calibers, nope.” Well, that’s just….*dandy!”, I reply, semi-put out. “Now what the hell am I going to do?” “Ever think that’s why Ruin and I are here, now?”, Rack asks. “And here I thought it was just so you could bask in the warm glow of my fucking wonderful personality. Or that you actually cared about me as a real goddamn human”, I joshed. “Ummm…yeah”, Rack replies, “There’s no way we can answer that without going on some Deadpool list. “ I agreed. “OK, here’s the deal: you get your sidearms, ammunition, speed loaders, brass knuckles, Asp, laser range finders, Sap, Zeiss scopes, Kukri, Wisconsin Cheese Whittler, Buck folding skinner, Marine K-Bar, those two ultra-illegal Cheburkov Cobra titanium switchblades...” “Three. Olga the KGB lady sent me one for Geologist’s Day.” “Ahem. Those threeultra-illegal Cheburkov switchblades, that Wyoming Speedholer, your MASER Time-Distance Computer, garrote, pocket rail gun and whatever else lethal you carry and deposit it in the iron box in the trunk. We’ll ensure that it’s delivered to Esme post-haste. And by post-haste I mean one of our guys will deliver it personally.” “Well…I suppose”, I conceded, “But best send someone who’s been to the house recently. I don’t know how much bigger Khan has grown since I left on this little fantasy trip. Wouldn’t want a star on the wall in Langley for someone eaten by a mastiff. Want to see a picture….Oh, bother. That’s right. My phone’s at the bottom of fucking Lake Maracaibo.” “Good point”, Ruin interjects, “Guess we’ll do a little road trip and deliver it ourselves. Best call Esme and let her know what’s going on.” “I have no objections to your proposals. Please give Esme this when you see her. I had some luck in the Calaveras Casino and if I don’t send her some mad money. Ouch. She’ll never forgive me for not taking her along to Japan.” I asked. “But I thought Esme hated Japan? Too crowded and too ‘fussy’, I believe was her estimation.” Ruin asked. “Yes, but once she saw the Ginza, all bets were off. Shopping the likes of which even Allah himself hasn’t seen.” I replied, slowly shaking my head. “I see”, Ruin said, “Well, since you’re off to Sapporo, perhaps you can do a recon for Esme on the shopping there.” “Not bad. Not bad at all.”, I smiled, “Now I know why I let you guys hang around with me.” So, as advertised, I am now standing on the tarmac at LAX, basically feeling naked. “Can’t I keep just one switchblade?” I moaned to Agent Rack. “Go ahead, if you’re really keen on donating it to Japanese customs”, he replied. “Fuckbuckets.” I groused. “There, there now. That’s the usual Dr. Rocknocker of which we’re all so fond.” Agent Ruin chuckled. “Remember, you do have that wallet-sized credit card gizmo from the Company. So you’re not entirely ‘naked’. Think of it as an emergency breechcloth.” He smiled. “I’d like a larger model if you don’t mind. It’s chilly out here.” I joshed. After Agents Rack and Ruin stripped me metaphorically naked as they de-weaponized me, they handed me a Business Class ticket to Tokyo, and a pass to the Japan Airlines Hospitality Suite and Lounge. “So sorry you guys can’t hang around and have a few farewell snorts”, I chided, “But you’ve got a bit of a drive, so best be off before the weather turns to shit.” “Who says we’re driving?” Agent Rack asked as he hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the ready and waiting C-130 cargo plane currently taxiing slowly in our direction. “Well, in that case”, I smiled even more broadly, “Let’s invite the flight crew to join us. That’ll make the flight home all that much more interesting.” After near tear-jerking farewell sentimentalities, i.e., “Piss on you”, “Get stuffed” and “Take a fuckin’ hike”; Agents Rack and Ruin, my weapons and the Agency’s plain-Jane Blue Chevy were all nestled snugger than buggers in ruggers in the belly of the thundering C-130. Now truly on my own, I trudge the hundred thousand or so centisteps to my departure terminal, make a quick recon that my flight’s still slated to go in a generally westward direction, and hightail it to the nearest courtesy desk to ask for a motorized cart to take me and my remaining luggage to the JAL Hospitality Suite. Hey. I’m old, infirm, and currently among the walking wounded. Anyone that disagrees risks an Ankylosaur tail club swat or Thagomizer to the skull. Finally ensconced in the JAL Hospitality Suite, Polo Lounge of course; I was drinking Tokyo Teas (3 oz. vodka, 2 oz. gin, 2 oz. rum, 1 oz. triple sec, 1 oz. Midori, good splash of lime juice, a slight splash of 7-Up (diet, of course), over ice with a lime wheel) with Pabst Blue Ribbon Extra 1844 chasers and Hangar One’s “Fog Point” vodka on the side, hiding from the brutish realities of this foul year of two thousand and twenty-something, Common Era… I’ve already called Esme and we’ve had a good, long chat. She still managed to give me her shopping list for whenever I find myself bored on the Ginza. She’ll be shocked when she learns that I’m not going to be in Tokyo long, but have 1st class tickets on the Bullet Train to Sapporo. Still, I’ll probably find myself in Pole Town or the Stellar Place there, trading piles of US greenbacks for locally produced Japanese curios and clothing. I can hardly wait. I order another round of drinks, as the wonderful attendants in the Hospitality Suite were bored out of their skulls because of the COVID-induced drop-in customers flying anywhere that requires a hospitality room stay, and I was virtually the only one around. They tried their level best to outdo each other when it comes to Japanese efficiency and friendliness. After a couple of hours, they ask if I would like something from the grill, as the day chef had “the COVID” and the night chef just arrived. A quick perusal of the menu and I chose a 28-ounce dry-aged Porterhouse and another round of drinks. I usually don’t like to eat too much before I fly, but JAL tells me the flight is going to be virtually empty, something like <121 pax, all told, so restroom availability shouldn’t be too much of a concern. Plus, who am I to say no to a free, blue 28-ounce dry-aged Porterhouse? There was a bit of difficulty conveying to the chef through the intermediaries of the hospitality just how I wanted my steak. “Blue,” I said. “Brue?” was the reply. “Rare. Very, very rare.” I continued. Look of total bewilderment. I drag out my Personal Language Pro, speak “Steak, very, very rate” into the infernal gizmo, and hand the contraption to the attendant. “珍しい、非常に珍しいステーキ?”[ Mezurashī, hijō ni mezurashī sutēki?] “Raw! Nama!” I say, louder than need be. They toddle off to find the chef. “How is it sir, that you would like your steak cooked?” he asks. “Very rare. Just a minute or two per side. Inside still cold.” I instructed. All I got for the trouble was a puzzled smile. “Give me the language gizmo…” I type in a few words… “お尻を洗い、角をノックオフして、ここから出してください” [O shiri o arai,-kaku o nokkuofu shite, koko kara dashite kudasai.] “Wash its ass, knock its horns off, and walk it out here.” “OH!” as the lightbulb pops. “Rare. Got it! Excellent!” the chef laughs and zips back to the kitchen. Like I always say, I’m nothing if not the international ambassador of amity and goodwill. “Crack tubes!” Dinner was fantastic. I do wish I could have somehow mailed the Porterhouse bone back home for Khan. After that hambone incident, he might even taste it. Finally on the plane, in an almost empty Business Class, the flight captain informs us that we’re headed to Haneda Airport Tokyo and anyone not headed in that direction better ‘haul ass off’ the flight or forever hold their peace. Late-night international flights tend to be a bit more wooly than your average Chicago to Omaha gig. Especially when the flight’s damn near empty and we have the next 12 hours or so to be best friends. We taxi, turn and head into the wind. I’m doctoring up a couple of dossiers and keeping my personal cabin attendant, Luna since there were two of us in Business and two business flight attendants, busy with her trying to play ‘Stump the Geologist’. “I’ll bet you never had this before.” She beamed and handed me a tumbler of very dangerous-looking brown liquor. I cautiously sniff, take a modest gulp, swirl and glug the rest down. “Ohishi Single Sherry Cask”, I say with a muffled belch. “Light. Fruity. An Englishman’s drink.” “Oh. You knew. Let me try again.” She smiles beatifically. “I have no objections to your proposal.” I smile as nicely as this crotchety old Komodo Dragon could. She returns with another flagon of spirits; it smells of obsidian, leather, and earth. I just had some of this back in LAX. I take a snort, smile, and shotgun the rest. “Hibiki Japanese Harmony…lovely stuff.” I smile. “A little light for my jaded palate, but I’d never turn it down if it were free.” “Oh, you win again. Wait. One more.” She smiles and skitters off to the galley. She returns with another soupçon of some more dangerous brown liquor. “Here, try this. It will make you very popular at social gatherings”. She smiles. Sniff. “Splendid.” Snort. Swirl. Smile. Shotgun. “Kanosuke New Born, if I’m not mistaken.” I smile back. “Very nice. I really do like this one.” “You too good at this. One more!” she stands and stomps off defiantly. She returns in a trice and hands me the glass. “Hmm…brown. Light notes of earth, leather, dating your daughter, and Kentucky… “Beam Suntory, right?” “You know them all!” she says, feigning irritation. “And I thank you. Those were all excellent. Now, anything in the dangerous clear liquor category? I asked. Luna smiled as I palmed off a 20k yen tip. “Oh, no sir. Wait until we land.” She demurred, referring to the gratuity; which is know is not de rigueur in the Orient, but she didn’t seem to mind. “Just in case we never make it to Tokyo”, I laughed, unknowingly presciently. We both chuckled about that last line as she tried out various sakes and shōchūs and an actual Japanese ‘White Liquor’ (ホワイトリカー), which were all excellent as was the company. I tell her that I need to get some work done and could she bring me a tall Rocknocker. After explain the origins and construction of the eponymous drink, she brings me one that must tip the scales at 1 or so liters. She settles down to an empty seat and I get after the work that I need to finish before we land. I’m about ½ way through my drink when it felt as if the plane hit a brick wall. She quivered and quaked and clutched at herself while I made some comments about the pilot’s mental health. We dropped like a paralyzed falcon, then just as suddenly, felt like it was an express elevator to Angel’s 11. The plane bucked and shimmied, wickedly. Then we slam-danced right and fell a few more stories. It was like we were in a Mixmaster and the owner was trying out every speed. The emergency lights in the 777-300ER popped on, and the fasten seat belt sign barked loudly so even sleeping travelers could enjoy the show. Rinse. Spin. Shudder. Repeat. Finally, the ride smooths out and we hear the captain on the blower. “This is your captain speaking…ah, we seem to have hit some uncharted turbulence back there.” “Thanks, Captain Obvious”, I muttered. “Everything’s A-OK. “ he reports. “That’s good”, I note. “But…” “There’s always the but…” I groan. “…we have a couple of warning lights for which we can’t quite account. So to just be safe and certain, we’re going to divert to Hawaii, get a clean bill of health and resume this flight once we make sure everything here is hunky-dory.” There were scattered groans and applause. Add them together and divide by two and the average response on the flight was “Meh. Whatever.” Except for the other guy in Business, with whom I hadn’t shared two words. He began to absolutely lose his shit. “Oh, man! We’re so screwed! Mechanical malfunction? What does that mean?” he positively fizzed with fear. The flight attendants tried to calm him down, to no avail. They basically gave up and said they’d report his misgivings to the Captain. I motioned over to my personal flight attendant, Luna, and asked if I could be of service. “Oh, Doctor Rock”, she smiled at me, “If you could speak with him. You are so calm, and he is…” “Losing his bloody mind”, I chuckled as I finished her sentence for her. “Of course, I’ll take a stab at it.” So, I grab my drink and ease over to my Business Class partner and introduce myself. “Hey, pal. How’s it going? I’m Dr. Rock, gentleman, scholar, and connoisseur of cigars and things alcoholic. You doing OK?” He looks at me with an ashen face and his eyes the size of bloodshot dinner plates. “Yeah. I’m Todd Schotts. I’m flying to Japan for business.” He mumbles “No surprise there,” I reply calmly and take a slug of my drink. “But now we’re all going to die. The plane is busted and we’ll crash…” he started off again. “So, Todd is it? Good. You drink?” I asked. “Yeah?”, he stammered back. I asked Luna to make us a fresh batch of my eponymous cocktails. “OK, Todd, listen up”, I began after the drinks were served, “I have flown literally millions of miles over the last 4 decades. On Aeroflot when it was still the USSR. On TACA (Take A Chance Airways), on Chalk’s in the Caribbean, on Bob’s Verrifast Plane Company in Rhodesia, on regional carriers that don’t even exist anymore. All over the world. Had some bad experiences flying, and me ol’ mugger, this ain’t one of them. This is nothing more than the glitch for this mission.” I chuckled lightly and complimented Luna on a fantastic drink. “Yeah…yeah…yeah…but we have to land and check out some lights…” Todd squealed. “Well now, Todd. It would be rather difficult to do any external assessment while in flight, don’t you agree?” I asked. “But we’re diverting. We have to land and that adds more risk. We’re going to crash and die!” he was coming more and more unglued. “I will bet you every cent you have on your person and home bank accounts that that will not happen”, I chuckled. That took him by surprise. At least it shut him up for a while. “Look, Todd. This is Boeing’s latest model. They have the most incredible safety record. And if a little clear air turbulence were to be knocking planes out of the sky, don’t you think we’d hear about it as the press went berserk?” I asked. “But they don’t know what the lights mean! What if one of the engines’s out? How far can we fly on one engine?” Todd stuttered. Having my fill of a supposedly grown man with inane childlike fears, I calmly replied, “All the way to the crash site.” He went white. “...hope we hit something hard. I don’t want to limp away from this.” He went limp. Then I went to my seat and motioned for Luna to prepare a reload. Of course, 45 minutes later, we land without incident at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Honolulu Hawaii. We were told to just wait around until they figure out what the problem if any, was. They had officials waiting at the end of the jetway to check our COVID status and passports before they let us loose in the terminal. I asked Luna if she knew this airport. She noted that she did. “Is there a JAL hospitality room here at this airport? I asked. “Yes, Doctor. It’s the Sakura Lounge. It is located on the third level above The Local, Terminal 2.” She replied. “Please notify whoever needs to know that that’s where I’ll be for the duration”, I smiled and handed her my business card. “See you soon, I hope.” “Oh, Dr. Rock”, she replied, “I am sure it is nothing much. We’ll be back in the air within mere hours.” “Well then”, I smiled, “Guess I’d better get ready to hoof it to the lounge.” “Oh, Doctor Rock”, she smiled, “No rush. I will call for you a courtesy cart. You are injured, you are Business, you are priority.” “I love that Asian efficiency.” I smiled back and toddled down the jetway. At the terminus of the jetway, I show my COVID-clear papers, dates and times of my Anti-Virus vaccine administrations, the letter from Virginia clearing me of all detention, and my red Russian diplomatic passport. While in the cart, whizzing our way to the JAL lounge, the driver said “Man! You must be some kind of VIP. You were through that welcoming committee in less than two minutes!” “Me? Nah!”, I chuckled, “Just an old phart of a geologist that they didn’t want to mess with. Not on such a bright, sunny day as this.” “I see you’re not wearing a mask.” The driver quipped. “Very observant. There are reasons for that.” I replied. He careens around a corner and if this were a normal pre-Covid day, I’m certain we’d have killed hundreds. However, the airport, as I’ve come to grow accustomed to, was virtually deserted. “Yeah? Like what?” he asks. “Well, Scooter, 1. I have an active and hardworking immune system that I let off the chain every once in a while for exercise. Got to let it know what it’s up against, right? 2. I’ve had all my shots and some that were experimental. They seem to have worked. And 3. I find it difficult to drink and smoke cigars while wearing a mask. However, if you’d prefer, I will mask up. No problem, though it still is optional.” “Nah, man”, he said, “I was just wondering if you were one of those religious idiots or conspiracy nuts.” Nope”, I smiled back, “Just another geologist out in the world plying his trade for cash. Y’know, whorin’ around for money.” He laughs aloud as we skid to a stop right in front of Lounge. I slip the guy a $20 and ask if he’d listen for the JAL flight I was just on. If we’re going on ahead today, I’d need him to scoot by and putt-putt me back to the plane. He laughs and pockets the $20 as quick as a mink ruts. “No worries. I’ll just hang around this area. I hear anything about the flight, I’ll come and let you know.” He grins. “Good man”, I say, as I hand him my card. “I’m Dr. Rocknocker. Call me Rock”. “And I’m Kapula Mano, call me Kap” he replies. “Good man”, I say again, “Hope to see you in a while.” He grins, floors his electric cart, and peels out at speeds approaching 4.5 MPH. I wander into the lounge, show my credentials, and am escorted to a post up on Mahogany Ridge. The bar is very quiet. Besides the bartender, I can’t see anyone else in the darkened and Smooth Jazz-infused drinking emporium. I order a local drink, a Mai Tai, just for the experience and something a bit different. It’s served in a goldfish bowl on a stem, bedecked with a slice of lime, a sprig of mint, a stick of sugar cane, a polychromatic orchid, and the obligate paper umbrella. “Ah. Mai Tai. I will enjoy it.” I said to no one in particular. One was enough, and I decided to go back to the old standard. Once I explained to the bartender what that was, he made them heroic and enthusiastically. I’m reading up on a random dossier, making notes in a new file, and puffing away on a Fuentes Onyx double Maduro Churchill cigar. I hear a slight cough coming from my right, and this here lovely lady, she sat to my immediate starboard and looked at me semi-quizzically. Not in the mood for shenanigans of any stripe, I give her the obligate Baja Canada nod and tilt of the drink. I return to my dossiers and continue to read and take notes. “Excuse me!” I hear. Fearing the worst, either the woman is Karen-oid anti-smoking or a religious fruit-and-nutburger, I slowly turn to face her and reply, somewhat glacially, I have to admit. “What?” “That cigar…” “Here we go…” I mutter, eyes rolling northward. “Smells exquisite. Could you tell me the brand? My husband would enjoy some like that.” She notes. Instantly my demeanor switches 1800. “Yes, ma’am. It’s an Arturo Fuentes Onyx. Churchill size, or 60 ring x 7” length, double Maduro. Here, take one for your husband. I have an ample supply.” I smile. “Oh, no. I couldn’t. Could I?” she asks. “Please. I insist.” I smile the best I could given the circumstances. “Thank you. You’re too kind…umm…Mr….?” “Doctor. Doctor Rocknocker. World traveler, oilman, and international ambassador of amity, good drinks, and fine cigars. Call me Rock” I said. “Oh! A Doctor?” she brightens. “Yes, of Petroleum Geology and Engineering. Not medicine.” I chuckle. She chuckles back. “And I am Hella Aaberg”, as she offers her hand for a quick shake. “Interesting name, Hella. Scandinavian or Old German heritage?” I ask. “On my father’s side. He’s Finnish.” She replies. “But I’ll wager your mother is not Scandinavian, correct?” I ask. “She was from Truk, an island…” “In the South Pacific, Micronesia. Was she from Weno city?” I asked. “Why yes. How could you possibly know that?” she asked. “Oh, I’ve been there. Great diving amongst the WWII wrecks. I think it’s actually called ‘Chuuk Lagoon’ or something like that now.” I said. “That’s right! Amazing. Where else have you been?” she asked. “Anywhere there’s oil, strife, booze, cigars, heavy explosives and typically long distances from whatever most normal people call civilization,” I replied with a chuckle. Suddenly, I hear a voice booming out behind me. “Why don’t you save that rapier-like wit for those musky-fuckers back home, Rocko?” My expression changes. My eyes pop fully wide open. “Hella?” I asked. “Yes?” “May I ask you a favor?” “You can ask…” “Thank you. Now, looking over my shoulder, is there a hulking goon of a person, thin up top, paunchy halfway down with the most ridiculously tiny sized shoes you’ve ever seen for a so-called grown man?” I ask. “Yes. Yes, there is.” She replies. “I thought so. Many thanks.” I spin and launch off my barstool and grab Toivo by the hand. He hadn’t seen my left-hand Thagomizer yet. “Toivo! You old sumbitch. What the flying fennec fox fuck are you, of all people, doing in Hawaii?” I laughed. “Just keeping an eye on you, Rock!” he laughed equally as loud. “No, fucking-A, seriously. What the actual fuck? What are you doing in this actual nice place?” I asked. “Just headed to Tokyo to conduct a bit of service company business. I walked into the lounge and smelled a foul cigar. I figured it can’t be the venerable Dr. Rocknocker. He’s back at some school up north terrorizing geology and engineering grads and undergrads.” Toivo laughed. “But there I was. Surprise!”, I laughed and pumped his hand. “What the fuck, Rock. Now what did you do?” he asks, referring to my Ankylosaur tail club left hand. “Ah, fuck. Long story. Oh, pardon me. Toivo, this is Hella. We were just talking about the South Seas Islands.” I said. “Planning on running off together?” Toivo laughs, to the amusement of neither party. “Oh, and this idiot is Toivo, a man with a congenital foot-in-mouth disorder. He’s mostly harmless.” I noted to Hella. Greetings were shared all around. Hella made some small excuses and said she needed to depart. I gave her another cigar for her husband, shook her hand, and wished her well. “Here’s my business card. If your husband has any questions, have him drop me a line.” I noted. Hella smiled beautifully. She said she would. Then she thanked me shook our hands, and like that, there she was, gone. “Well Toivo, you old bastard. Don't just stand there in the doorway like some lonesome goddamn mouse shit sheepherder, get your ass over here and have a drink.” I motioned over to my perch on Mahogany Ridge. “Don’t mind if I do”, he says as he deftly winds his way to a seat to my left, snagging a cigar out of my pocket on the way over. “You might want these”, I say in an exasperated tone, and hand him my gold Dunhill Hobnail lighter and V-cutter gizmo. He cuts and fires up his heater. “What you drinkin’, Rock”, he asks. “Anything with alcohol, as usual. You know that Toiv.” I reply. “No. I mean right now.” He clarifies. “Well, I had a Mai Tai. Very nice if you like fruity, flowery drinks. It’s the locals’ favorite.” I reply. “Sounds good. I’ll have several. And you?” Toivo asks. “My usual. The bartender is already apprised of the situation.” I reply. Toivo smiles the smile of one knowing his sobriety is going to be taken out for a swim. Hell, taken out and tossed into the deep end. Toivo and I sit there, swapping lies, smoking cigars and sipping at our toddies. Hell, Toivo was slurping them like a sump-pump during an extra-wet summer. We chattered about family, work, whether or not Tokyo was going to host the Olympics or if the COVID-boogie man scared everyone off. Toivo, always one afflicted with TB (“Tiny Bladder”) got up to go to the loo for the third time that hour. He left his pocket organizer on the bar and I swear on a stack of Origins of Species, I didn’t touch it. I reached over to his vacated seat to retrieve my cigar lighter when I looked down and saw in his organizer a tab that reads “Rack & Ruin”. “Oh. No. Fucking. Way.” I recoiled as I’d just reached out and petted a 6-foot hungover scorpion. “One of my best friends? Secretly allied with the Agency? No. Not possible.” I drained my drink and called for another. “No. No. No. It can’t be. No. No fucking way…” as doubt began to dissolve when I thought back to all those times I had just ‘run into’ Toivo. “But he’s oil patch as well. That could be chalked up to coincidence.” I ruminated quizzically in my brain. I quickly reflected back on J.M. Darhower: “Yes, you see, there’s no such thing as coincidence. There are no accidents in life. Everything that happens is the result of a calculated move that leads us to where we are.” She may be the author of the execrable New Adult Sempre series, which Esme likes and I loathe, but she might just be right on this occasion. Toivo return, lighter in the bladder and good sense. He never even noticed he’d left his organizer out in broad bar light for all to see. “So, Toivo, when’s your flight?” I ask. “Oh, man. Was I lucky. The JAL flight to Tokyo from Los Angeles had mechanical trouble and had to divert here. I got a ticket on the plane for that flight, when it continues. “You mean ‘if it continues’,” I replied. “Yeah. Yeah. That’s what I meant. Hey! Was that your flight?” he asks innocently. He’s really innocent of fieldcraft. I decide to have some fun at my old friend’s expense. “Yep. Hit some CAT (Clear Air Turbulence) and the JAL pilots reported some lighting problem. No apparent ruin to any of the systems. They relay racked their brains to figure it out, but they couldn’t that’s why I here.” I said, waiting for the words to swim upstream in Toivo’s coconut and make some sort of connection. “Yeah. Double lucky. No problem with the plane and I get to go to Japan early.” Toivo crookedly grins. “So, no trouble with the plane? Then why haven’t I heard that the flight’s going to resume?” I asked as I pushed a fresh, seriously strong drink to Toivo. “Oh, must have heard it in the john.” Toivo countered and tried to cover his tracks by taking a huge gulp of his drink and damn near dying coughing. I pound on Toivo’s back. “Heimlich time?” I ask. Toivo signals ‘no’. “Jesus Christ, Rock. What was that?” he asks. “Just my usual”, I innocently replied. “Holy fuck. No wonder you have the reputation of…” Toivo realizes too late that he’s said too much. “Yeah. They can rack you out. Really ruin a person if they’re not careful.” I reply icily. “Why, Rock. Whatever do you mean?” Toivo slurred as he realized he’s been caught out. “The jig is up, you turncoat. You know Agents Rack and Ruin from the agency. Right? You keeping tabs on me for them? You Quisling! You Benedict Arnold!” I almost was on the verge of losing my cool. “It was nothing. They approached me years ago as I kept being mentioned in your reports. They asked me for some information. One thing leads to another…” Toivo was ready for an Ankylosaur tail club swat to the bean. “Oh, put your fucking hands down, you asshole.” I smiled and chuckled. “You’re not mad?” Toivo slurred badly. I had the bartender make him another special drink. “No, Toivo. Not mad. Just disappointed.” I said, smiling like a Komodo Dragon just finishing up a fortnight-old wildebeest. Toivo sat there and puzzled and puzzled until his puzzler was sore. “You’re not going to kill me or anything rude like that?” Toivo asked, half-assedly trying to inject humor into the proceedings. “Nah. The paperwork’s too ridiculous for me to do another liberation. But, Jesus Fucking Christwagons, Toivo; you could have mentioned it to me. Fuck, I thought we were friends to the end?” I said, dejectedly. I was really getting through to Toivo. I could tell he was loaded; feeling like shit and massively deplorable. Great fieldcraft, indeed. I told him things “are what they are” and that I won’t blow his cover nor his honorarium. He began to feel better. I often wonder if he was serious about the sanctioning thing. Then I delivered the strategic missile strike. “Just remember, Toivo. I wrote your dossier for the Company…” He swivels to look at me. “And one for the KGB. Olga says ‘howdy’.” I grin evilly. Toivo short-circuited at that. Russia is his company’s bread and butter. Now he has the KGB as well as his best buddy looking over his shoulder at every move. I bought him a few more drinks and continued to needle him about his ’leading a double life’. He was well and truly fuckered when the electric tap-tap driver from before came looking for me to whisk me back to the plane. Seems it was simply some knocked-out wires on the plane, or slammed bulbs that were generating a false positive, indicating something other than the system that alerts one to something haywire went haywire. Toivo was pretty much down for the count. I got him sober enough to hand them his ticket and ensure that he was really supposed to be on this flight. Thing was; h e was in Economy, and I was, as always, in Business. I spoke to Luna, and the plane was going to be even less crowded than previously because some folks could or wouldn’t wait, or didn’t want to go on with the rest of the trip on a ‘damaged’ aircraft, or were just stupid and superstitious. “Luna, could I pay for the difference between Business and Economy for my less than 100% conscious friend here? He’s had a rough day.” I asked. “Dr. Rock. Just put him into Business. No one will be the wiser. Luna says so.” As she gave us a grand smile. “Luna, I owe you. Thanks so much.” I said. “Now get on board. Your friend looks like he needs all the downtime he can get.” “Yes, ma’am!” I said and saluted here be best I could which dragging a schnozzled Toivo down the jetway. I dumped Toivo in a window seat well away from my seat. I know Toivo. He snores like a semi-load of live hogs rocketing downhill locking up the brakes at 88 MPH. Surprise! There was no one else in Business. Luna looked at me, at Toivo, and gave me a thumbs up. Whatever I can write to further her career at JAL, she’ll have it before I deplane. We finally get everyone settled, and with Captain Kangaroo at the helm, we bounced gracelessly off the tarmac, into the warm, tropical Hawaiian air, finally headed for the Land of the Rising Sun. Toivo was snoring like a chainsaw hitting rusty nails as I worked on the various letters, communiques, and dossiers which needed updating before we reached touchdown. I gave Luna a thick letter with instructions not to open it until we were on the ground and Toivo and I were well off and away into the terminal. We left Hawaii at 1300 hours, so we should arrive at Tokyo Nareda around 4:00 pm, the previous day. I was so bereft of time and time zones, I couldn’t figure out what time it really was, as judged by my biometric rhythms, so I asked Luna for a stiff drink as I was kicking off my boots and going to attempt to get some kip. She brought me another liter or so eponymous drink. I was sawing logs by the time I slurped the last swig of that nifty drink. Suddenly, or later, I have no idea really, some loudmouth drunk asshole from way-the-fuck-back in economy-land toward the ass end of the plane staggered into Business demanding free drinks. Luna was nothing but civil, and asked him to both shut up and return to his seat. His air cabin hostess, or whatever the fuck they’re calling them these days, will attend to his needs. “Naw they won’t! They want me to pay for more drinks! I’m broke but I demand more booze! You fucking owe me.” railed the asshole. “I sat at the bar in Hawaii for four hours. Them fuckers charged me an arm and a leg!” “No, they don’t owe you shit”, I said in a voice that unmistakably loud and clear. “Fuck you, old man! You stay the fuck out of this!” he bellowed. “Shut up or I’ll do ya’!” “’Old man’? ‘Do me’? Excuse me. Luna, may I have a word alone with this individual?” I asked sweetly. Luna shook her head in the affirmative, and I stood up to confront this flagrant asshole. “Now look, Scooter. You have gone way, way over the fucking line. You are loud. You are abusive. You are obnoxious. And you stink. Plus you insulted a person who is just barely containing his righteous wrath right now. So, I’m giving you one and one only chance to shut up, sit back down before your body spontaneously develops all sort of bruises, contusions, broken bones, and unconsciousness.” I said calmly, evenly, and threateningly. “What da’ fuck you think you’re going to do…old man?” he screeched, trying to inflate himself into full mammalian threat posture, all 5’ 9” of it. He didn’t notice Toivo walking up quietly behind him, as Toivo was returning from the head, quiet as a moose. “Well, Scooter, I am an Air Marshall. Duly appointed, fully trained, and properly pissed off. Right now, I can arrest you, physically detain you, turn this flight around and take you to the Hawaiian police, at your cost for the inconvenience of the entire flight. Or I could arrest you, physically detain you, and turn you over to the Japanese authorities when we land. It’s really your choice. Choose wisely.” To be continued…⇝
Stokes's Bristol Nightclub incident in detail (From: The Comeback Summer by Geoff Lemon)
IF YOU’RE LOOKING for a place where misadventure could begin, you can’t go past Mbargo. The nightclub’s streetfront is painted a purple so bright you’ll see it in your dreams. Strings of giant sequins shimmer in the breeze. Its phonically inventive name is spelt in silver letters that climb its three-storey terrace facade. Inside are strips of burning neon, a few booths, floorboards so marinated in drink that they have an ingredients list. Bristol is a student city on England’s south coast crowded with music and nightlife and street art. This is Banksy’s home town, and the tourism board suggests in rather strong terms that ‘you would be a fool not to see his amazing work firsthand’. The same organisation describes Mbargo as ‘intimate’, which is fair for a place where you can catch an STI standing up. Students cram into its modest dimensions while people with names like DJ Klaud battle for billing with £1.50 drink deals over seven sloppy nights a week. To get a sense of the story about to come, consider that it’s the kind of place open until two o’clock on a Monday morning, and that at two o’clock on a Monday morning, Ben Stokes still thought it had closed too early. The Ashes of 2017–18 had disciplinary bookends. It was after that series that Australia’s two leaders went off the rails in South Africa. It was a few weeks before that Ashes tour that England’s biggest star windmilled his way into his own disaster. In the early hours of 25 September 2017, Stokes and teammate Alex Hales were barred from re-entering Mbargo after a night out on the piss. A Sunday thrashing of an abject West Indies in an ignored series at the fag-end of the season apparently required ample celebration. After arguing with the bouncer and hanging about at the door for a while, they wandered off to find a casino in the hope of more drinking. They’d barely made it around the corner before getting in the middle of a conflict between four locals. As is said on the internet, it escalated quickly. The 26 September reporting was bloodless. Withholding names, police stated that a man ‘was arrested on suspicion of causing actual bodily harm’ while another went to hospital with facial injuries. England’s director of cricket Andrew Strauss separately confirmed that Stokes was the arrestee, adding that he had been released without charge and that Hales had gamely offered to ‘help police with their enquiries’. Administrators had a good chance of hiding behind that investigation, and the next day Stokes was named in the upcoming Ashes squad as expected. But that night the video emerged. Bristol student Max Wilson had shot it on his phone, then offered it to The Sun. What he thought was playing hardball was actually lowball: his opening price of £3000 was snapped up by a tabloid that would have paid ten times that. The Sun went on to make a mint by syndicating the rights worldwide. From a window above the fray, the vision showed six men on the street below performing the muddled choreography of a melee. One was right at the centre of it. One was waving a bottle, one dipped in and out, one tried to calm it. Two others floated around the edges. The central figure was unmistakable: red hair burning even in the streetlight as he launched into a series of blows against two of the men, falling to grapple with them on the ground, then following both across the street, swinging punches the whole way. Hales trailed behind, repeatedly and impotently shouting ‘Stokes! Stop! Stokes! Enough!’ The ECB could fudge issues that existed only in thickets of legalese, but not those captured in moving colour. Stokes was stood down from the next West Indies match, then suspended indefinitely. It emerged that he had broken his hand during the fight, something he’d done twice before while punching objects in dressing rooms. The response in Australia was fierce: Stokes was a thug, a lowlife, a selection that would disgrace England. It was not entirely coincidental that a ban for England’s best player would be handy for the Aussie team, but there was also a cultural split. In England, plenty of people still minimise pub fights as lads letting off steam. In Australia, heavy media coverage as a succession of young men were killed had inverted that tolerance. The discourse now saw any punch as potentially deadly and accordingly reckless. This was more poignant in a cricket context given that David Hookes, the dashing Test batsman and state coach, was killed in 2004 by a pub bouncer’s fist. The PR situation was bad for Stokes as details emerged of the injuries to the men he’d hit, and that one was a young war veteran and father. Stokes wasn’t officially removed from the Ashes squad through October but stayed behind when his teammates left, hoping for police to dismiss the matter in time for a late dash to Australia. His annual contract was renewed on the due date in case that came to pass. Then 29 October brought a twist in the tale. ‘Ben Stokes praised by gay couple after defending them from homophobic thugs,’ ran the headline. Kai Barry and Billy O’Connell had emerged. Not entirely out of nowhere: while Stokes had made no public comment, this story in his defence had initially been leaked to TV host Piers Morgan after the fight, as soon as the video appeared. Police body-camera footage played in court would later show that Stokes had given the same story to the arresting officer on the night. But no-one knew the identities of the fifth and sixth men in the video, and police appeals had turned up nothing. It was The Sun again with the breakthrough. Kai and Billy were perfect for a readership not keen on nuance. ‘We couldn’t believe it when we found out they were famous cricketers. I just thought Ben and Alex were quite hot, fit guys,’ said Kai, who was memorably described as a ‘former House of Fraser sales assistant’. The paper had the pair do a full photo shoot: layering the fake tan, showing off chest waxes, mixing Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton into a range of outfits. Their best shot had them standing back to back, heads turned to the camera, in a mirror-image Zoolander moment. Suddenly The Sun was the England team’s best friend. ‘Their claims could lead to the all-rounder being cleared over the punch-up and freed to play in the First Test in Australia next month,’ it gushed, then gave a tasting platter of quotes: ‘We were so grateful to Ben for stepping in to help. He was a real hero.’ ‘If Ben hadn’t intervened it could have been a lot worse for us.’ ‘We could’ve been in real trouble. Ben was a real gentleman.’ Would it be known forever as Kai and Billy’s Ashes? No. While the Bristol boys provided spin for Stokes’ reputation they didn’t influence the police. With charges still pending there was little choice – not given Strauss had previously sacked Kevin Pietersen for being annoying. Stokes remained suspended through the Ashes and a one-day series in Australia, and lost the vice-captaincy. It was January 2018 before the Crown Prosecution Service laid a charge. That charge surprisingly came in as affray, a crime that can carry prison time but is classified as ‘a breach of the peace as a result of disorderly conduct’. The men he had punched, Ryan Ali and Ryan Hale, faced the same count, charged as equal participants in a fight rather than Stokes being charged with assaulting them. Alex Hales was not charged, despite being seen in the video to aim several kicks when Ryan Ali was lying on the ground. Given the underwhelming standing of the offence, Stokes was cleared by the ECB to tour New Zealand, and kept playing until his trial in August 2018, which he missed a Test to attend. None of the three defendants would be convicted. The reasoning behind the charges was never released and was attributed vaguely to ‘CPS lawyers’. The service gave the case to Alison Morgan, a prosecutor of a class known as Treasury Counsel who usually handle serious criminal matters. Morgan had a scheduling clash and never ended up court for the case, but in 2018 and 2019 she would go on to win damages and admissions of libel from The Daily Mail, The Times and The Daily Telegraph variously for incorrectly reporting that she had been responsible for the inadequate and inconsistent charging decisions. Morgan’s successor on the case was Nicholas Corsellis QC, who on the first day of trial was permitted by the CPS to request two assault charges be added against Stokes. ‘Upon further review,’ claimed a CPS statement, ‘we considered that additional assault charges would also be appropriate.’ This was patent nonsense from the service that eight months earlier had chosen the lesser charge. Any lawyer knows that no judge will allow new charges once a trial has begun, because the defence hasn’t had time to prepare. But such a request could deflect criticism of the prosecution service by technically making the judge the one who disallows the charge. Working through the story from the trial and the tape is complicated. You had a Ryan and a Ryan, a Hale and a Hales, a Billy and a Barry and a Ben. You had several versions of events as to who knew whom, who was drinking with whom, who had insulted whom and who had merely engaged in ‘banter’, a word that in modern Britain has to do an unconscionable amount of lifting. The reporting had constantly mixed up the Ryans as to who had which injury, who was in hospital, who had played which part in the fight, and whose mum had which stern words to say about it. Let’s agree that from now Ryan Ali is Ryan One, the firefighter who ended up with a fractured eye socket and a cracked tooth. Ryan Two can be Ryan Hale, the soldier who scored concussion and facial lacerations. Mr Barry and Mr O’Connell are best known per The Sun as Kai and Billy. In scorecard parlance we’ll leave the cricketers as Stokes and Hales. Amid the confusion, Stokes and his lawyers built his case in a straightforward way. The UK legal definition of affray is ‘if a person threatens or uses unlawful violence or force towards another person, which causes another person of reasonable firmness present at the scene to fear for their safety’. That means it doesn’t account for violence that harms a target, but violence that might frighten a theoretical bystander. The wiggle room for Stokes was with ‘unlawful’, because the charge excuses violence in defending oneself or others. This interpretation hinged on the beginning of the video, where Ryan One waves a beer bottle about and takes a swing at Kai. The version from Stokes was that he was minding his own business walking down the street when he heard homophobic abuse. He intervened verbally and was threatened verbally by Ryan One – something that Ryan One denied but that couldn’t be proved or disproved. In fear for his safety Stokes had to nullify that threat by bashing Ryan One before it went the other way. He registered Ryan Two in his peripheral vision as another possible threat, and again had only one recourse. Stokes also had to convince the jury to disregard testimony from Mbargo’s bouncer that he had been looking for a fight. A solid lump of a man, Andrew Cunningham had not enjoyed his patron’s attempts to get back into the club after the bouncer declined an offer of a bribe. ‘He got a bit verbally abusive towards myself. He mentioned my gold teeth and he said I looked like a cunt and I replied, “Thank you very much.” He just looked at me and told me my tattoos were shit and to look at my job.’ Cunningham described these words as coming in ‘a spiteful tone, quite an angry tone’, and said that Stokes still seemed angry as he walked away. These were details the doorman had nothing to gain by inventing, but each of them Stokes denied. By his own accounting he had drunk a beer at the game and three pints at his hotel, then ‘potentially had some Jägerbombs’ along with half a dozen vodkas at the club. He insisted that after all of this he was not drunk. If I may take a moment here to call upon the wisdom of experience – a person who cannot definitively say whether they have had any Jägerbombs has definitely had some Jägerbombs. A Jägerbomb is an experience that does not pass one by. Further to that, a person who says they have ‘potentially’ done something has definitely done that thing and doesn’t want to admit it. A person who has had between 15 and 24 standard drinks in one evening is shitfaced. A person who tries to bribe a bouncer £300 – three hundred quid! – to get into Mbargo – Mbargo! – is beyond shitfaced. If Stokes admitted that he was drunk then the prosecution could say he was out of control. He claimed clear recall of assessing a threat, feeling fear and deciding to protect himself with force. He confidently denied details from the bouncer’s testimony, like using the word ‘cunt’ or mentioning gold teeth. Yet on other details he claimed a ‘significant memory blackout’. He didn’t remember the punch that saw Ryan One taken away by ambulance. He didn’t remember what the Ryans had said to Kai and Billy, only that those words were homophobic. With no head injury, as one of the few people who hadn’t been hit, he had supposedly suffered this memory loss despite being sober. The version from Kai and Billy was compatible but vague: they had been walking along, they ‘heard … shouts’ of abuse from an unspecified source, then Stokes ‘stepped in’ and thus they avoided possible harm. They claimed to have been bought a drink by Stokes at Mbargo, although CCTV showed them meeting outside. The overall implication from both accounts was that the cricketers had been pals with Kai and Billy, while the Ryans as per The Sun’s headline were a roving band of thugs. The reality though is that the Ryans were the ones hanging out with Kai and Billy at Mbargo. Police discussed CCTV from inside the club in questioning and at trial. On that footage the four Bristolians bought drinks for one another, danced together, and Kai was noted to have variously touched Ryan Two’s crotch and Ryan One’s buttock. Ryan One told police that all of this was taken lightheartedly and wasn’t a problem. Indeed, when the Ryans called it a night the other two left with them. This much is clear from footage out the front of Mbargo, which shows Kai and Billy exit the club and start talking with a subdued Hales and a demonstrative Stokes, who are stuck outside. The vision was played in court to determine whether Stokes was antagonistic towards Kai and Billy, as he appears to impersonate them and to throw a lit cigarette their way. More interesting is that after a few minutes the Ryans emerge, and all six actors in the fight video briefly form a prequel in the one frame. Ryan Two pats Billy on the chest in friendly fashion with his right hand before clapping him on the back with his left. He moves past and does the same to Kai before leaving the shot. Ryan One stops to speak to Kai. They lean in for a moment, talking, then Kai turns and they walk out of frame together. Billy hangs around for a few seconds at the door and then looks after them and races to catch up. Stokes and Hales remain outside the club to remonstrate further with the bouncers. Whatever discord develops around the corner is between four men who left amicably together minutes earlier. There’s no way to know what caused that friction. If Ryan One did use homophobic slurs, he might have been drunkenly obnoxious for no reason. He might have had an insecure macho response to some extra flirtation. He might have thought unkindness was funny – ‘banter’ once again. Or he might have said something that was misunderstood, as both Ryans insisted in court that they had not used nor had the impulse to use any abusive language. What clearly didn’t happen was an attack by bigots on random passers-by. This kind of crime is regular enough that an audience understands the horror of it, and this is what was evoked by the public accounts of Stokes, Billy and Kai. All we know is that there was some verbal dispute among the Bristol locals, and that Stokes came along behind them and put himself in the middle of it. Ryan One responded to the interference aggressively and away they went. There are plenty of reasons to look sideways at the idea that Stokes was a saviour. Foremost, neither Kai nor Billy was called upon as witnesses in court. You’d think it would be ideal to have Stokes’ story backed up by those who benefited from his selflessness. But his defence team had developed the impression that the pair had shown a changeable recall of events amid a hard-partying lifestyle, and would be dismantled by the prosecution on the stand. That raises the question of whether The Sun coached their quotes for the 2017 interview. Despite missing court, Kai and Billy clearly enjoyed the attention. In 2018 after the trial they did a follow-up spread in the same paper about how poor Ben had been mistreated. They got a television spot on Good Morning Britain and glowed about his heroism. In 2019 The Sun wheeled them out once more to say that Stokes should get a knighthood. In 2017 they had ‘never watched cricket’ but by 2019 were supposedly volunteering sentences like, ‘He saved us, now he’s saved the Ashes.’ Whether they were paid for these appearances is not known, but the chance to be famous for a day can be lure enough. If you find this cynical, consider that on the night in question, the Bristol boys were so deeply moved and thankful for Ben’s intervention that they left him to be arrested and never attempted to find out who he was. Seconds after the video ended, an off-duty policeman reached the scene. You might think that someone grateful to a saviour would speak on his behalf. Instead, said Kai, ‘it all got a bit scary so we walked off. It was too much for me and we went to Quigley’s takeaway for chicken burgers and cheesy chips.’ They didn’t give their hero a thought for over a month while police issued multiple appeals for witnesses. As for Stokes, he told his arresting officer that ‘his friends’ had been attacked. After three minutes of chat outside a nightclub, these friends were so dear to him that he has never contacted them again: not after the newspaper piece, not after the verdict. He didn’t want to see how they were or thank them for their support. He didn’t mention them by name in his solicitor’s statement after the trial. The Stokes defence rested on Ryan One’s bottle, which he had carried out of Mbargo to finish a beer, not to use in a Sharks versus Jets amateur production. But once he turned it over to hold it by the neck it became a weapon. Intent and interpretation can change the material nature of things. Part of Stokes’ justification in court was that the bottle implied that the two Ryans might have ‘other weapons’ hidden away. You can understand how a jury could decide that created doubt. Not being convicted, though, doesn’t give the contents of the video a big green tick. It does not, as his lawyer claimed, vindicate Stokes. Looking in detail, Ryan One is belligerent but his movements telegraph a bluff. Hales is the person he’s gesturing at, but they’re several metres apart when Ryan One cocks his arm ostentatiously, showing off the bottle rather than bracing to swing. He skips forward but Hales skips back and Ryan One doesn’t follow. Kai stretches out an arm to impede Ryan One, who has a drunken stumble, nearly eats pavement, then staggers towards Kai and hits him in the back. That hand is still holding the bottle, but his strike is a side-arm cuff on a soft part of the body. It’s all pretty tame. This is where Stokes gets involved. Having moved across to protect Hales, he now takes three large steps to run around Kai and booms his first punch at Ryan One. They fall to the ground and the bottle clinks away. Stokes gets to his feet to punch down at the fallen man, while Hales arrives to kick him ineffectively then runs off across the street for some unknown reason. Ice-cream van? Stokes is soon back in the grapple having his shirt pulled up to show off his Durham tan. Ryan Two steps in for the first time to pull Stokes away, prompting a couple more random punches at this new target, then Stokes trips backwards over Ryan One and sprawls in the street. Hales chooses this moment to return and aim some solid kicks at the head of the man on the ground. Nothing so far is a triumph of moral philosophy or the pugilistic arts. But if it all stopped here, perhaps you could say it was somewhere approaching fair. Ryan One has behaved like a turnip and it’s not an entirely unjust world that would give him a whack across the chops. The antagonists have disentangled, Stokes has some distance, it’s time to dust off and go home. Ryan Two steps forward for this purpose with his palm raised in conciliatory style and says, ‘Settle down, stop.’ So Stokes punches him. It’s roughly his fifth punch overall, and he really winds up into this one. He misses so hard that he stumbles away into the shadows of the shop awnings along the road. Hales starts shouting for him to stop. Ryan Two backs into the street, still holding his palm up. Stokes closes on him from about five metres away, six large steps, to where Ryan Two is standing on his own. Stokes pushes him a couple of times, as Ryan Two keeps trying to placate him and saying ‘Stop.’ Stokes throws his sixth punch, largely missing as his target ducks. Ryan Two keeps pulling away and reversing, into the middle of the street now. Stokes follows him, grabbing his sleeve to drag him back. By this point Ryan One has found his feet and walked around behind his friend. Both of them are in the same line of sight for Stokes, and both are backing away. Stokes aims his seventh and his eighth punches, which Ryan Two tries to deflect, as Hales walks up behind Stokes to grab him. Stokes yanks away from his friend and switches to Ryan One instead, taking seven paces to grab him before throwing his ninth punch of the night. He grabs again; Ryan One blocks that arm and pushes himself back away from Stokes. Ryan Two again intercedes, putting himself between the two with his palms up and his arm extended. Stokes throws his tenth punch, a right-hander at the face of Ryan Two, then shoves him backwards. Ryan Two backs away once more, four paces. Stokes follows, steadies, lines up, then launches his strongest punch yet, his eleventh, a proper right hook from a solid base, one that cracks across the man’s head and gives him concussion. Ryan Two ends up flat on his back in the middle of the street, his hands still outstretched for a moment in useless protest until they twitch and drop to the blacktop. Stokes isn’t done. He once more shoves away the restraining Hales and follows Ryan One, who keeps backing away saying, ‘Alright, alright, alright.’ Five more paces from Stokes before another blow at the man’s head. Kai and Billy are now standing over the poleaxed Ryan Two. The video ends, but seconds later Stokes will punch Ryan One hard enough to knock him out too, before off-duty cop Andrew Spure arrives on the scene to bring down the curtain. When the body-camera footage kicks in some minutes later, Stokes is in handcuffs but Ryan One is still laid out in the street. Ryan Two has regained consciousness, folded his shirt under his friend’s head and is asking police for an ambulance. ‘At this point, I felt vulnerable and frightened. I was concerned for myself and others.’ This was how Stokes described that sequence to the court. An elite athlete with years of gym work and training to snap a bat through the line of a ball with astounding power and precision, swinging fists as hard as he can at men with none of those advantages. Punching so hard that he breaks his hand, and repeatedly shoving away a friend so he can punch some more. Frightened and threatened by two targets shouting ‘Get back!’ and ‘Stop!’ The off-duty officer testified that Stokes ‘seemed to be the main aggressor or was progressing forward trying to get to’ Ryan One, who was ‘trying to back away or get away from the situation’. The student who filmed the video can be heard on the tape at one stage exclaiming ‘Fuck!’ and testified that it was because ‘I felt a little bit sorry about the lad that had been punched and it looked like he had his hands up’. That tallied with the prosecutor’s depiction of ‘a sustained episode of significant violence that left onlookers shocked at what was taking place’. The defendant stuck to his strategy. ‘No, my sole focus was to protect myself.’ All up, in the 33 seconds of footage after he falls over, Stokes takes 35 steps forward to keep hitting two men who keep trying to get away. Not once is he hit back. After the verdict, Stokes’ solicitor positioned him as the victim. It had been ‘an eleven-month ordeal for Ben … The jury’s decision fairly reflects the truth of what happened that night … He was minding his own business … It was only when others came under threat that Ben became physically engaged. The steps that he took were solely aimed at ensuring the safety of himself and the others present …’ The statement was impossibly self-righteous and self-absorbed. If there was anyone to feel sorry for it was Ryan Hale, the second of our two Ryans. He’s the one who emerged from the club with a friendly arm around the shoulder for Kai and Billy. He’s the one who interposed himself to end the fight, then kept putting himself back in the firing line, trying to calm an intimidating stranger while dodging blows. For his show of restraint he got laid out regardless, concussed in the street, then was issued a criminal charge equal to that of the man who hit him, and described in national media as a violent bigot in an untested story to support that man’s defence. Lawyers for Ryan Two made a more convincing post-trial statement, noting that Kai and Billy, ‘neither of whom were relied upon by the prosecution or the defence team for Mr Stokes, have taken the opportunity to speak with various media outlets about the alleged homophobic abuse that they received in the early hours of September 25. Mr Hale has passionately denied this allegation throughout the course of this case,’ it continued. ‘It is upsetting to Mr Hale that although he was acquitted, the accusation that he was the author of such abuse remains. Both Mr Hale and Mr Ali were knocked unconscious by Mr Stokes, and although Mr Stokes has been acquitted of an affray, Mr Hale struggles with the reasons why the Crown Prosecution Service did not treat him as a victim of an unlawful assault.’Good question. Avon and Somerset police were the investigating force, and they were frustrated by the decision. Ryan Two was filmed clearly not hurting anyone, but police were instructed by the CPS to proceed with a charge. Hales (the cricketer) was filmed fighting but ‘a decision was made at a senior level of the CPS’ not to proceed. Police expected Stokes to be charged with assault but the CPS declined. It doesn’t take a wild cynic to think that placing the same lukewarm charge on three men for vastly divergent behaviour might ensure that none would be convicted, even as the trial would maintain the pretence that a defendant of influential standing had not been given a free pass. A couple of years down the line, the original interview with Kai and Billy has disappeared. All traces have been scrubbed from The Sun website, its social media history, and even from the Wayback Machine internet archive. Given its headline of ‘homophobic thugs’ and text that names Ryan Two but not Ryan One, the libel liability isn’t hard to spot. Later interviews with Kai and Billy take the passive voice – they ‘suffered homophobic slurs outside a Bristol nightclub’. The article that was once claimed to exonerate brave Ben Stokes now links only to a missing content page, with a picture of a dropped ice-cream cone and the phrase ‘legal removal’ inserted into the web URL. In terms of consequences, Stokes missed one tour. When he resumed his career in January 2018, the Australians hadn’t yet ruined theirs. Their year-long bans looked much more stringent. But the Stokes case dragged on in other ways. With no criminal liability, the Australians confessed promptly enough for the sporting world to give them the full length of the lash. Their situation was ugly but there was closure. Stokes got stuck in legal stasis, unable to be fully backed or condemned. Instead his issue was always present, a browser full of open tabs that the ECB swore they would read any day now. Through 2018 Stokes was back but he wasn’t back, in the sunglasses and finger-guns sense. In his return one-day series he nearly cost England a match with 39 from 73 balls in Wellington. His first Test hit was a duck as England got rolled in Auckland for 58. At Trent Bridge while Stokes was injured, England posted a world record 481 against Australia. With Stokes three weeks later at the same ground they made 268. He crawled to 50 from 103, the second-slowest any Englishman had reached that milestone in 20 years. That span covered Alastair Cook’s whole career. It was apologetic batting, acting out responsibility via the scorecard. Stokes was creeping back into the team like he’d been kicked out in a blazing row and was hoping to tip-toe to the sofa. It was December 2018 before the ECB disciplinary committee ruled on him and Hales. In a ‘remarkable coincidence’, wrote Simon Heffer in The Telegraph, ‘the punishment both players faced in terms of bans from playing at international level was covered by the amount of games they had already missed when dropped by England’s selectors, in the furore that followed the incident’. The verdict compounded the omissions around the case by not addressing the violence at its heart. Nor did Stokes, apologising only ‘to my team-mates, coaches and support staff’, and then ‘to England supporters and to the public for bringing the game into disrepute’. The implicit next step was to rebuild that reputation. It might have been easier had his court defence not meant that he wasn’t game to admit any fault at all. It might have been easier if he or his advisers had been willing to change tack once the trial was done. Imagine a world where Stokes had stood outside court and apologised for overreacting, for the injuries he’d caused, and for the time and energy he had sucked out of other people’s lives. That would have been a show of responsibility beyond a scorecard. When the time came around to assess forgiveness, it might have meant forgiveness was deserved.
This match bears the dubious honor of being the first in T5 not to strike the eight-vote threshold set in T3, meaning that the total value of each vote is reduced so to prevent extreme disproportionate leads. Luckily, it was a tie anyway, at 3.5-3.5.
In the aftermath of the fight, there wasn’t much left of the stage - crystal, fungus, and scrap alike had all built up, scattered around the arena, and in the center of it all stood Funk Odyssey, skidding her bike to a halt after having eked out a victory at the last moment. Klein and Funk both stood near each other, both breathing heavily and trying to recover after the tiring ordeal, amid a roar of applause from whoever was there to watch the exciting fight. “AAAAND, WE HAVE A WINNER! A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR FUNK ODYSSEY! Wait, why’s the mic-” Cairo stopped in confusion, the microphone that was amplifying their voice cutting out all of a sudden. Shifting a glance towards the producers on set, it seemed like they weren’t aware of what caused the problem either. Confused murmurs could be heard from the stand users on-set. Okay, this was a technical error, but this was obviously salvageable - Cairo’s dealt with worse in the past, so- The already bad situation turned worse when the lights cut out entirely, the speakers in the warehouse humming to life again, though not by the hands of any of the crew members. A second later, a synthesized text-to-speech voice could be heard over the speakers. “HELLO, CITIZENS OF LOS FORTUNA. THIS BROADCAST IS BEING HIJACKED. ” What the fuck. Looking at one of the screens by the edge of the warehouse previewing the stream, Cairo could see that the stream’s been taken over entirely by whoever it was that did this, with them currently displaying some kind of placeholder image of a shrouded figure. Wasting no time, Cairo left the two combatants and made their way over to the filming crew, trying to figure out what the hell was happening and how it could be stopped. “WHETHER DUE TO MALICE OR WILLFUL IGNORANCE, BEING SO NORMAL AND ITS CREW HAVE BEEN COMPLICIT IN VARIOUS CRIMES, BOTH DURING AND PRIOR TO ITS RUNTIME.” Funk could hear the murmurings of stand users around her, and of Cairo and the rest of the crew trying to figure out what exactly was going on and how to stop them. Was this Peter’s doing? Was that why he needed her to be here? Funk remembered hearing him mention the source for this investigation of his a few times - apparently he’d been working with a “Jesse Jefferson'' from the Agricultural District who’d gotten his hands on a flashdrive made by Nova Nascens containing this information, and thanks to Peter’s skills (combined with some stand magic from that magic house Jesse lived in that repaired the hard drive every time it literally exploded in their faces). Meanwhile, it seemed like the show’s producers were still struggling to regain control of the stream. “CAIRO HAS BEEN COMPLICIT IN PROMOTING UNREST WITHIN THE INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT, WORKING ALONGSIDE ODIN TO SEND STAND USERS TO FIGHT WITH LOCAL UNIONS, LEADING TO RECENT RISING TENSIONS IN THE AREA.“ “FURTHERMORE, OTHER MEMBERS OF STAFF HAVE COMMITTED VARIOUS OTHER CRIMES, BUT NONE AS MUCH AS THIS SHOW’S LEAD CAMERAWOMAN - CAROLINE JEFFORDS.” The screen shifted to an image of a brown haired woman, who Funk could only assume was caroline. Then, it began shifting to a series of other, well-laid graphs, documents, and images, all presenting evidence for the accusations shown up until now. “OVER THE YEARS, THIS WOMAN HAS COMMITTED COUNTLESS CRIMES ALL FOR THE SAKE OF PROFIT USING HER STAND - SPYING ON FIGURES OF NOTE FROM WITHIN THE CITY AND SELLING THE INFORMATION TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER, REGARDLESS OF INTENT, AND COVERING UP CRIMES AND TAMPERING WITH SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE FOR A PRICE. OF NOTE, EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE RECENT AND TRAGIC DEATH OF THE LATE ANDRÉ TIFÀNI HAS BEEN TAMPERED WITH IN ORDER TO FURTHER SHIFT THE BLAME ONTO-” The feed cut off entirely, power having simply been cut to the building entirely. If Peter had found a way to make the stream continue even after this, Funk wouldn’t be able to see it. For a moment, the warehouse was dead silent. Then, murmurings began between the various stand users in the audience, no one knowing what to make of this information. Regardless of whether the feed was cut or not, one thing was clear - The damage had already been done, and the truth had come to light. Surprises are everywhere, and there’s still yet more mysteries to be uncovered. Two boys have found doubles of themselves, who’ve lived their same lives yet all within the bounds of the city, and the four are now fighting. You only have a few hours left to vote in that when this goes up. Scenario: Sound’s Garden - Alexander Dickinson Amphitheater - Early Evening The entrance to the theater which had, months ago now, put on one of the greatest shows in the city’s history had again been filled with eager people, wanting little more than to enjoy yet concert by Metra Doria, or “TD/MD”; it had been the first in a little while, her last appearances onstage being a string of benefit shows she’d performed for immediately after the destruction of Capital Island. They weren’t bad, critics had said, but far from her best work, as though spending several weeks kidnapped by the head of a citywide crime ring had affected her ability to perform or something. Regardless, though, there were good feelings about this one, as since that fateful day, there hadn’t been a single bad show at the Alexander, and the local interview cycle had Metra come across as so much more genuinely excited than she had been, even if she also did publicly express her frustrations with the fact that, thanks to some act of sabotage, a leaking of information, the arrest of one Toby Fox had been subverted, and he and several of his buddies were still free to wreak their havoc. Guy Manuel-Mota wasn’t much one to complain about a gig, whatever that job happened to be, and though he’d known the unscrupulous nature of his client, the garish Tigran “Golden” Sins, he also knew exactly how much money the guy had, so when he said that he and Fox had wanted a man on the ground at the stage out of fear that somebody might attack Metra, that even if he was trying to move past his affections for the girl, he’d still wished to keep watch over her, quietly. If it was true, creepy. If it was a bold-faced lie, at least Guy knew damn well that they were good for their money if they had Seido fucking Shuto on retainer. Either way, he knew he’d get paid as long as he didn’t fuck up. As Guy walked up to the ticket-takers, corralling eager audience members forward, he noticed them offering strange shiny wristbands to every single person who walked by, telling them “wear it if you want!” and finding, every time, that they just sort of mindlessly nodded and did just that. When it came to be Guy’s turn, then, of course, he was much the same, accepting it and holding it in one hand, his stub in the other, as he looked the fake-gold, glittering accessory over, tilting his head as he noted the words, very subtly engraved, on it:
IWILLPLAY
“So… That’s your game, huh?” Guy asked, shrugging and slipping it on just like all the rest. He saw where this would go from here, and figured that what the guy paying him wanted was for him to play along. “Uh, sir-” The ticket taker murmured and stammered at somebody, “sir, please, you can only take one! W-we need enough commemorative wristbands for a full house, so please-” “Fuck off,” the pink-headed, ornery showgoer declared, yoinking the entire box away and fishing out several, putting a few all over his hands, “I want ‘em all!” Huh… Guess that’s ‘trouble,’ right on cue. Should I lead him somewhere alone, or just wait for something, or..? Before he could formulate a plan of action, Guy blacked out for what felt like a moment. Sound’s Garden Eastern Strip - Metra Doria’s Apartment - Earlier that Day “Well, well, well,” Ananas ‘Agnes’ Bayley said, before cracking open a can of soda, downing it in several drawn out seconds, cracking open a second, downing that in seconds, and then, a third time, before stacking all three, “how the turntables.” “…” Metra gave him a look, one which Agnes smugly knew was her asking herself, in that moment, ‘am I seriously going to work with this guy?’ It was a feeling he reveled in, being unwanted and dreaded, yet at once needed and tolerated. “So… Will you come? I’ll hook you up with VIP merch, owe you one in general, just… I dunno. I’ve been feeling extremely good about this show, excited, but now that Fox is out there again, I feel like I need… Backup, I guess? Like, I could take any one of those guys in a fight on my own, sure, but with a huge crowd, and trying to focus on my stuff, and…” “And Arpeggi and that fuckin’… catgirl were busy, I take it.” Agnes snickered, moving around the cans’ placement, never on one of Metra’s coasters, watching as little rings formed on the table. “Heh, fuck ‘em anyway. Dealing with a situation like this… You don’t need some ‘good guy’ worried about not making a mess or whatever. You need a bona fide villain to flex on these posers. Call it fate that I was available short-notice and they weren’t.” “Just…” Metra sounded resigned. “Please don’t cause too much trouble. Damages will come out of your reward.” “Snrk… Of course. It’ll come out of my pay. A sentence I hear every day from Gabanna, you know.” With Metra’s reluctance and Agnes’ amusement, a deal had been struck. Metra Doria, too, had been handed one of those strange wristbands, and she, too, seemed to black out suddenly, only realizing a moment too late exactly what, once again, this had all meant. She hadn’t approved ‘commemorative wristbands’ on the dossier, and the text on it… Goddammit! But… Her green room looked almost identical. What the hell was going on? Maybe her backup dancers would know something, or Agnes had noticed… He’d at least report to her if he had figured something out, right? …right? She stepped outside, then, only to find herself, and what she’d thought was her green room, atop a shelf in a very high-up, VIP area, a sort of outdoor box seating-type arrangement which the Alexander saved for its most prized guests. Almost always, somebody from Fox’s little club. She had been shrunk down to the size of a game piece, and sitting at a table nearby, watched with interest by about half a dozen suits she had come to recognize, was a perfect recreation of the entire stage and seating areas of the amphitheater. As she tried to process this, then, her view was taken up entirely by the giant, punchable face of Tigran Sins. “Evening, Metra! Looks like you underestimated me again… Heh, for some reason, people keep doing that.” The very garish man laughed, but his eyes were glaring down at her. Always, he’d hated her, resented the attention she’d taken from Fox. “Been awhile, hasn’t it?” “Tigran… What the fuck did you do?” Metra curled her tiny hands into fists, allowing her Stand, the headphones often seen at her neck, to manifest, “you… How many people are down there? I hear so many voices murmuring, even from here!” “Thousands upon thousands,” Tigran remarked, “all waiting none the wiser for the show you promised them… Including a side appearance from two Stand Users. You really put all your faith in a loose cannon like that Agnes kid who set a fire in my casino? You’ve been acting cool, but you’re desperate, aren’t ya? You know we’re here to stay… And what game we’re playing.” “You… You’d better run the hell away fast as soon as we’ve won, because we will ruin you.” She tried to sound defiant, there, but Metra was trembling. “Some things, a Stand User just can’t beat with all their strength, Metra… Now, c’mon.” He held up a cute little tiny limousine, cracking the door open. “You’ve got a show to do.” The crowd came to at once, already amassed within the amphitheater, seats filled, standing room similarly heavily occupied. There was hardly room to move one’s arms around in there. Which, of course, Agnes was doing anyway, swatting people away and getting called rude words, cackling as he made for himself some space. Something was fucking up here, and he did not want to be caught off-guard by- “Hey.” “Shit!” Agnes jumped, then, and turned around, seeing Guy Manuel-Mota face-to-face, staring him down with a somewhat even expression. “Hey, c’mon, I’m not that scary, am I?” Guy joked, rubbing his arms and making a point of showing off his bracelet, then gesturing at it, and at the stage, and saying, “anyway, my name’s Guy Manuel-Mota. You probably already realize this, Agnes, but… You’re already in a trap here. Both of us are stuck, even.” “Heheh, what, are you trying to warn me or something? Well, I don’t need an alliance with you… So fuck off.” “I wasn’t asking for one.” Guy corrected, then, adding, “you know how Tigran Sins works… The only way we’re getting out of this is through each other.” “My fucking thoughts exactly,” Agnes answered, “and exactly what I came here for… A chance to pound that gold-wearing fuck’s face in. I hear he really hates that shit, so I’ll make it permanent. Guy’s casual demeanor, then, turned into a stiff, serious face, hands at the blades on his person. “You won’t last that long.” “Oh, you’re fucking on, you-” “Alright, Los Fortuna! Give it up for exactly what you came here for!” An announcer’s voice cheered on, then, ringing through the arena almost deafeningly loud, followed by a cascade of rising cheers. The noise distracted Agnes, and Guy made his getaway. “Back again at the Alexander Dickinson…” Shit… So many people here, not even paying attention. Where did he go? “Unbreakable, unshakeable, here to give the show of her life again as she always does… TD/MD!” Metra strutted out onto the stage, then, to the cheers of the crowd, but Agnes noticed that she seemed to be frequently looking up towards the sky, or towards the various short-circuit cameras wired to display her on the jumbotrons. The crowd seemed too vapid, too fandom-consumed to notice, but there was apprehension in her every step in that casual yet elegant performing costume of hers. “It means so much to me to see you all out here… Really, I appreciate every single one of you, even if I don’t know you! Just the fact that you came here…” She was trying not to sound guilty as hell there, for what she and all of them had fallen into. Agnes wasn’t sure whether to feel bad, to get mad at Tigran Sins for pulling one over on them again, or to laugh. “So! I’m just going to start with a classic, alright? Keep the emergency exits in mind, but more than that, get ready, because what’s coming is something hard to describe! Let’s make it a night worth remembering!” Guy continued to grasp his swords, keeping close to the crowd, close to the stage. Cruel what you’re doing, Mr. Sins… And you didn’t tell me I’d be fighting the guy who ripped the Ocean Soul’s arm off. I’d better get a hell of a bonus for this. OPEN THE GAME! Location: The Alexander Dickinson Amphitheater, in the Entertainment District (specifically, a perfect replica of its crowd area). The area for the match here is 50 by 60 meters, with each tile being 5 by 5 meters. Agnes starts at the middle left and Guy starts in the middle right as represented by their respectively colored team tokens. The stage is at the top as represented by the grey semi-circle. The audience members are represented by the red circles and the venue is sectioned off as a concert generally would be. Each seating section is represented by the blue, green, and yellow transparencies. These areas are roped off to keep them separate. The dotted semi-circular line is a row of metal security fences to keep people from getting too close to the stage. Goal: RETIRE your opponent! Additional Information: The audience members all have flat two physicals, and are mostly paying attention to the ongoing concert, eager and excited fans that they are. Metra Doria is performing onstage with a backing band, and it’s quite loud, yet somehow (the noise-altering effect of her Stand, maybe?) you aren’t debilitated by it. The audience members won’t deliberately cooperate with you in any meaningful way, and don’t particularly care about one another either, but will try to avoid getting hurt if they can see it coming. Due to brazen threats on the guests by Tigran and the rest, none of Metra’s crew will interfere in the match, and are basically as good as non-entities mechanically, but it goes without saying that harming them or outright ruining the performance will lead to Fox canonically and successfully killing you with a giant rock. So don’t go on the stage itself.
“Faceless gazes passing by with me / The void in my heart changed with the path I chose” You find these ED guys absolutely loathsome, but the idea of completely stealing Metra’s thunder is nonetheless appealing to your villainous heart. Act as cool as possible in your own way!
“There's no limit to each new encounter - everything so ordinarily bizarre” These people want their shows to be impressive, right? Well, may as well get that check… Act as cool as possible in your own way!
Link to the Official Player Spreadsheet Link to Match Schedule As always, if you would like to interact with the tournament community and be among the first to get updates for the tournament, please feel free to PM a member of our Judge staff for an invite to our Official Discord Server!
!Que Pasa Neng! !Shin Chan: Flipa en colores! &: Sora no Mukou de Saki Masuyou ni '70s Robot Anime: Geppy-X '89 Dennou Kyuusei Uranai '96 Zenkoku Koukou Soccer Senshuken '98 Koushien '99 Koushien *NSYNC: Get to the Show -8 ...Iru! .hack//Fragment .hack//G.U. vol. 1//Rebirth .hack//G.U. vol. 2//Reminisce .hack//G.U. vol. 3//Redemption .hack//Infection Part 1 .hack//Link .hack//Mutation Part 2 .hack//Outbreak Part 3 .hack//Quarantine Part 4 .hack//Vol. 1 x Vol. 2 .hack: Sekai no Mukou ni+ Versus - Hybrid Pack 0 Story 0-Kara no Shogi: Shogi Youchien - Ayumi Gumi 0-ji no Kane to Cinderella: Halloween Wedding 007 Legends 007 Racing 007: Agent Under Fire 007: Everything or Nothing 007: NightFire 007: Quantum of Solace 007: Racing / Medal of Honor / 007: Tomorrow Never Dies - Collector's Edition 007: The World Is Not Enough 007: The World is Not Enough 007: Tomorrow Never Dies 1 vs. 100 1, 2, Switch 1-Jikan de Wakaru Kabushiki Toushi 1/2 summer+ 10 Minute Solution 10 Pin Bowling 10 Pin: Champions Alley 10,000 Bullets 10-Yard Fight 100 All-Time Favorites 100 Classic Books 100 Classic Games 100 Kiri Golf DS 100 Manyen Quiz Hunter 100% Pascal Sensei: Kanpeki Paint Bombers 1000 Cooking Recipes from Elle a Table 1001 Crosswords 1001 Touch Games 101-in-1 Explosive Megamix 101-in-1 Party Megamix 101-in-1 Sports Megamix 101-in-1 Sports Party Megamix 10101: "Will" the Starship 1080 Snowboarding 1080: Avalanche 11 Eyes: CrossOver 12-Ji no Kane to Cinderella: Cinderella Series Triple Zenkan Pack 12-Ji no Kane to Cinderella: Halloween Wedding 12-Sai. Honto no Kimochi 12-Sai. Koisuru Diary 12-Sai. Torokeru Puzzle Futari no Harmony 12-Toki no Kane to Cinderella Series Triple Zenkan Pack 120-en no Haru: 120 Yen Stories 12Riven: The Psi-Climinal of Integral 13-Sai no Hello Work DS 1500DS Spirits Vol. 10: Igo 1500DS Spirits Vol. 1: Mahjong 1500DS Spirits Vol. 2: Shogi 1500DS Spirits Vol. 3: Block Kuzushi 1500DS Spirits Vol. 4: Reversi 1500DS Spirits Vol. 5: Hanafuda 1500DS Spirits Vol. 6: Trump 1500DS Spirits Vol. 7: Chess 1500DS Spirits Vol. 8: Darts 1500DS Spirits Vol. 9: Futari-uchi Mahjong 1500DS Spirits: Mahjong V 1500DS Spirits: Shogi V 1552 Tenka Tairan 16 Tales: Vol. 1 16 Tales: Vol. 2 16 Tales: Vol. 3 16 Tales: Vol. 4 18 Card Games 18 Classic Card Games 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker 187 Ride or Die 1941: Counter Attack 1942 1943 Kai 1943: The Battle of Midway 1945 I&II The Arcade Games 1999 Hore, Mitakotoka! Seikimatsu 19: Neunzehn 19:03 Ueno Hatsu Yakou Ressha 2 Games For 1 Great Price!: Big Beach Sports / Big Beach Sports 2 2 Games In 1 Double Pack - Hot Wheels: World Race / Velocity X 2 Games In 1 Double Pack - SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom / Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy 2 Games In 1 Double Pack - SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge / Revenge of the Flying Dutchman 2 Games In 1 Double Pack: Finding Nemo / Monsters, Inc. 2 Games In 1 Double Pack: Power Rangers: Time Force / Power Rangers: Ninja Storm 2 Games In 1 Double Value!: Monster Trucks / Quad Desert Fury 2 Games In 1: Disney Princess + Disney's The Lion King 2 Games In 1: Disney's Baren Bruder + Disney's Konig der Lowen 2 Games In 1: Disney's Brother Bear / Disney Princess 2 Games In 1: Finding Nemo / The Incredibles 2 Games In 1: LEGO Knights' Kingdom + LEGO Bionicle 2 Games In 1: Shrek 2 / Shark Tale 2 Games In 1: Sonic Pinball Party + Sonic Battle 2 Games In 1: Sonic Pinball Party / Columns Crown 2 Games In 1: SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge / Rugrats Go Wild 2 Games In 1: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie / SpongeBob SquarePants and Friends in Freeze Frame Frenzy 2 Games for 1 Great Price!: Wheel of Fortune / Jeopardy! 2 Games in 1 Double Pack: Scooby-Doo / Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed 2 Games in 1 Double Pack: Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase / Scooby-Doo! Mystery Mayhem 2 Games in 1 Double Pack: SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom / The Fairly OddParents! Breakin' Da Rules 2 Games in 1 Double Pack: The Incredibles / Finding Nemo: The Continuing Adventures 2 Games in 1! Archer Maclean's Mercury / Mercury Meltdown 2 Games in 1: GT Advance 3: Pro Concept Racing + MotoGP 2 Games in 1: Sonic Advance + Sonic Battle 2 Games in 1: The Incredibles / Finding Nemo 2 Games in 1: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie / Battle for Bikini Bottom 2 Games in 1: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie / Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams 2 Hits Pack: Sonic Forces / Puyo Puyo Tetris - Sega Collection 2 In 1 Game Pack: Shrek 2 / Shark Tale 2 In 1 Game Pack: Spider-Man / Spider-Man 2 2 In 1 Game Pack: Spider-Man Mysterio's Menace / X2 Wolverine's Revenge 2 In 1 Game Pack: Tony Hawk's Underground / Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer 2 In 1: Asterix & Obelix Jetzt Geht's Rund! + Asterix & Obelix XXL 2 Jeux En 1: Titeuf: Ze Gag Machine / Titeuf: Mega Compet 2 Pak Special: Dungeon Master / Creature Strike 2 Xtreme 2 for 1 Power Pack: Indianapolis 500 Legends/WWII Aces 2 for 1 Power Pack: Kawasaki Jet Ski/Summer Sports 2 2 for 1 Power Pack: Winter Blast/Summer Sports 2 2 in 1 Combo Pack: Sonic Heroes / Super Monkey Ball Deluxe 2 in 1 Combo Pack: Sonic Mega Collection Plus / Super Monkey Ball Deluxe 2-In-1 Fun Pack: Madagascar: Operation Penguin / Shrek 2 2-in-1 Party Pack: Shrek's Carnival Craze / Madagascar Kartz 200-Mannin no KanKen: Tokoton Kanji Nou 2002 FIFA World Cup 2003-Toshi Kaimaku: Ganbare Kyuukaiou 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil 2020 Super Baseball 20th Century Video Almanac 21 Card Games 21 Emon: Mezase! Hotel Ou 21: TwoOne 24-ji no Kane to Cinderella: Halloween Wedding 24: The Game 25 to Life 250 Mannin no Kanken Premium - Zenkyuu Zen-Kanji Kanzen Seiha 250 Mannin no Kanken: Wii de Tokoton Kanji Nou 2999 Game Kids 2Dark 2K Essentials Collection: Bioshock / Borderlands / XCOM: Enemy Unknown 2K Essentials Collection: Bioshock / Borderlands/ XCOM: Enemy Unknown 2K Power Pack 2Tax Gold 3 Choume no Tama: Tama and Friends - 3 Choume Obake Panic!! 3 Count Bout 3 Games in 1: Tak / SuperSponge / Rugrats: I Gotta Go Party 3 Ninjas Kick Back 3 Ninjas Kick Back / Hook 3 in 1: Solitaire, Mahjong & Tangram 3-D Tetris 3-D Tic-Tac-Toe 3-D Ultra Pinball: Thrillride 3-D WorldRunner 3-Fun Yosou Umaban Club 3-Nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei: Densetsu no Kyoudan ni Tate! 300: March to Glory 360: Three Sixty 3D Atlas 3D Baseball 3D Crazy Coaster 3D Dot Game Heroes 3D Game Collection: 55-in-1 3D Lemmings 3D MahJongg 3D Mine Storm 3D MiniGolf 3D Narrow Escape 3D Pocket Pool 3D Shooting Tsukuru 3DO Buffet 3LDK: Shiawase ni Narouyo 3X3 Eyes: Kyuusei Koushu S 3Xtreme 3on3 Freestyle 3x3 Eyes: Juuma Houkan 3x3 Eyes: Kyuusei Koushu 3x3 Eyes: Sanjiyan Henjyo 3x3 Eyes: Seima Kourinden 3x3 Eyes: Tenrinou Genmu 4 Elements 4 Elements II 4 Games on One Game Pak: GT Advance / GT Advance 2 / GT Advance 3 / MotoGP 4 Nin Shogi 4 Nin uchi Mahjong 4 Wheel Thunder 4 in 1 Action Pack 4 in 1 Row 4 in 1 Super CD 4-4-2 Soccer 4-in-1 Fun Pak 4-in-1 Funpak: Volume II 40 Winks 428: Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de 4X4 EVO 2 4X4 Evolution 4x4 EVO 2 4x4 Evolution 5 In One Fun Pak 5 Star Racing 5-Kyuu kara 1-Kyuu Kanzen Taiou: Saishin Kako Mondai - 2-Ji Shiken Taisaku - Eiken Kanzenban 5-nin no Koi Prince: Himitsu no Keiyaku Kekkon 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand 50 Cent: Bulletproof 50 Cent: Bulletproof G Unit Edition 50 Classic Games 50 Classic Games 3D 50 More Classic Games 6 Inch My Darling 6 in 1 6-Pak 64 Hanafuda: Tenshi no Yakusoku 64 Oozumou 64 Oozumou 2 64 Trump Collection: Alice no Waku Waku Trump World 64 de Hakken! Tamagotchi Minna de Tamagotchi World 688 Attack Sub 7 Blades 7 Days to Die 7 Sins 7 Wonders II 7 Wonders of the Ancient World 7 Wonders: Treasures of Seven 7'scarlet 700-Banjin no Atama o Yokusuru: Chou Keisan DS - 13000-Mon + Image Keisan 720 Degrees 77: Beyond the Milky Way 7th Dragon 7th Dragon 2020 7th Dragon 2020-II 7th Dragon III Code: VFD 8 Eyes 8-Bit Armies 88 Heroes 88 Heroes: 98 Heroes Edition 8BallAllstars 90 Minutes: European Prime Goal 90 Minutes: Sega Championship Football 989 Sports Demo Disc 99 Nendohan: Eitango Center 1500 99 no Namida u/field A Boy and His Blob A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia A Bug's Life A Bug's Life / Tigger's Honey Hunt / Tarzan - Collector's Edition A Bug's Life Activity Centre A King's Tale: Final Fantasy XV A Labyrinth Game / Supermind A Mars Moose Adventure - Cosmic Quest 1: City Sights A Mars Moose Adventure - Cosmic Quest 2: Fairy Tale Island A Mars Moose Adventure - Cosmic Quest 3: Race Through France A Mars Moose Adventure - Stay & Play 1: In the Clubhouse A Mars Moose Adventure - Stay & Play 2: In Mars' Bedroom A Mars Moose Adventure - Stay & Play 3: In Lonnie's Classroom A Mars Moose Adventure - Walkabout 1: The Natural History Museum A Mars Moose Adventure - Walkabout 2: The Shakespeare Festival A Mars Moose Adventure - Walkabout 3: World Sports Day A Nanjarin A Rose in the Twilight A Witch's Tale A Year at Pooh Corner A-Rank Thunder Tanjouhen A-Ressha de Ikou A-Ressha de Ikou 2001 A-Ressha de Ikou 2001 Perfect Set A-Ressha de Ikou 3D NEO A-Ressha de Ikou DS A-Ressha de Ikou DS: Navigation Pack A-Ressha de Ikou MD A-Ressha de Ikou Z: Mezase! Tairiku Oudan A-Train 3D: City Simulator A-Train 6 A-Train HX A-Train: City Simulator A-Train: Trains - Power - Money A. IV Evolution: A-Ressha de Ikou 4 A.C.E.: Another Century's Episode A.C.E.: Another Century's Episode 2 A.C.E.: Another Century's Episode 3: The Final A.C.E.: Another Century's Episode R A.III: A-Ressha de Ikou III A.P.B. A.S.P. Air Strike Patrol A.W. Phoenix Festa A/X-101 A2 Racer II A2 Racer III: Europa Tour A5: A-Ressha de Ikou 5 AAAHH!!! Real Monsters ABBA: You Can Dance ABC Monday Night Football ABPA Backgammon ABZU AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band Track Pack AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack ACB Total 2010/2011 ACME Animation Factory ADK Tamashii AFL 99 AFL Live 2004 AH-3 Thunderstrike AI Igo AI Igo 2003 AI Igo: Saturn Version AI Mahjong AI Mahjong 2003 AI Mahjong Selection AI Shogi AI Shogi 2 AI Shogi 2 Deluxe AI Shogi 2000 AI Shogi 2003 AI Shogi 3 AI Shogi Selection AIII S.V.: A-Ressha de Ikou 3 Super Version AKB1/149: Renai Sousenkyo AKB1/48: Idol to Guam de Koishitara... AKB1/48: Idol to Koishitara... AKB48+Me ALC no 10-Punkan Eigo Master: Chuukyuu ALC no 10-Punkan Eigo Master: Joukyuu ALC no 10-Punkan Eigo Master: Shokyuu ALF AMF Bowling 2004 AMF Bowling Pinbusters! AMF Bowling World Lanes AMF Xtreme Bowling AR Games ARK: Survival Evolved ASCII Entertainment Demo Disc ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat ATP Tour Championship Tennis ATV Mania ATV Offroad Fury ATV Offroad Fury 2 ATV Offroad Fury 3 ATV Offroad Fury 4 ATV Offroad Fury Pro ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin' Trails ATV Quad Frenzy ATV Quad Kings ATV Quad Power Racing 2 ATV Racers ATV Racing ATV Renegades ATV Thunder Ridge Riders / Monster Trucks Mayhem ATV Wild Ride ATV: Quad Power Racing ATV: Thunder Ridge Riders AV Poker World Gambler Aa Harimanada Aa Megami-sama Aa Yakyuu Jinsei Icchokusen Abadox: The Deadly Inner War AbalaBurn Abarenbou Princess Absolute Supercars Absolute: Blazing Infinity Abunai Koi no Sousashitsu: Eternal Happiness Abunai: Koi no Sousa Shitsu Academy of Champions: Soccer Accel World vs. Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight Accel World: Ginyoku no Kakusei Accel World: Kasoku no Chouten Accele Brid Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies Ace Combat 2 Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation Ace Combat 6: Kaihou e no Senka / Beautiful Katamari Damacy Ace Combat 6: Kaihou e no Senka / Lost Planet: Colonies Ace Combat Advance Ace Combat Assault Horizon Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy+ Ace Combat: Joint Assault Ace Lightning Ace o Nerae! Ace of Aces Aces of War Aces of the Air Acid Acid Drop Aconcagua Acrobat Mission Acrylic Palette: Irodori Cafe - Cheers ActRaiser ActRaiser 2 Action 52 Action Bass Action Fighter Action Girlz Racing Action Man A.T.O.M.: Alpha Teens on Machines Action Man: Destruction X Action Man: Operation Extreme Action Man: Robot Atak Action Man: Search for Base X Action Pachio Action Pack: Prince of Persia Revelations, Driver 76, Rainbow Six Vegas Active Health with Carol Vorderman Active Life Explorer Active Life Value Pack Active Life: Extreme Challenge Active Life: Magical Carnival Active Life: Outdoor Challenge Activision Anthology Activision Classic Games Activision Demo Action Pack Activision Hits Remixed Actua Golf 3 Actua Ice Hockey Actua Ice Hockey 2 Actua Pool Actua Soccer 2 Actua Soccer 3 Actua Soccer: Club Edition Actua Tennis Ad Lib Ouji ...to Fuyukai na Nakama-tachi!? Adam & Eve Adam's Venture Chronicles Adam's Venture: Origins Addams Family Values Addie no Okurimono: To Moze from Addie Adian no Tsue Adiboo & Paziral's Secret Adiboo and the Energy Thieves Adibou Et L'Ombre Verte Adidas Power Soccer Adidas Power Soccer 2 Adidas Power Soccer 98 Adidas Power Soccer International '97 Adidas miCoach Adrenalin Misfits Adult Swim Collection Advan Racing Advance Guardian Heroes Advance Wars Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising Advance Wars: Days of Ruin Advance Wars: Dual Strike Advanced Daisenryaku 2001 Advanced Daisenryaku: Deutsch Dengeki Sakusen Advanced Daisenryaku: Europe no Arashi - Doitsu Dengeki Sakusen Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: DragonStrike Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Dragons of Flame Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Eye of the Beholder Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes of the Lance Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Hillsfar Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin Advanced V.G. Advanced V.G. 2 Advanced World War: Sennen Teikoku no Koubou Advent Rising Adventure Adventure II Adventure Island Adventure Island 3 Adventure Island II Adventure Island II: Aliens in Paradise Adventure Mega Pack Adventure Player Adventure Quiz Capcom World: Hatena no Daibouken Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW! Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! Adventure Time: The Secret of the Nameless Kingdom Adventure of Little Ralph Adventure of Tokyo Disney Sea Adventures in Letterland With Jack and Jill Adventures of Dino Riki Adventures of Lolo Adventures of Lolo 2 Adventures of Lolo 3 Adventures of Tom Sawyer Adventures of Tron Adventures of Yogi Bear Adventures to Go! Aedis Eclipse: Generation of Chaos Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault Aeon Flux AereA Aerial Assault Aero Blasters Aero Dancing F: Todoroki Tsubasa no Hatsu Hikou Aero Dancing i Aero Dancing i: Jikai Sakuma de Machite Masen Aero Dancing: Torodoki Taichou no Himitsu Disc Aero Elite: Combat Academy Aero Fighters Aero Fighters 2 Aero Fighters 3 Aero Fighters Assault Aero The Acro-Bat Aero the Acro-Bat Aero the Acro-Bat 2 Aero the Acro-bat AeroGauge AeroWings AeroWings 2: Air Strike Aerobics Revolution Aerobiz Aerobiz Supersonic Aerostar AeternoBlade Afraid Gear Afraid Gear Another Afrika Afro Inu: The Puzzle Afro Samurai After Armageddon Gaiden: Majuu Toushouden Eclipse After Burner After Burner II After Burner III After Burner: Black Falcon After Burst After Hours Athletes After... Wasureenu Kizuna Again: Interactive Crime Novel Agarest Senki Mariage Agassi Tennis Generation Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun Agatha Christie: The ABC Murders Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings Age of Empires: Mythologies Age of Empires: The Age of Kings Agent Armstrong: Himitsu Shirei Daisakusen Agent Collection Agent Hugo Agent Hugo: Hula Holiday Agent Hugo: Lemoon Twist Agent Hugo: Roborumble Agents of Mayhem Aggressive Inline Aggressors of Dark Kombat Agile Warrior F-111X Ai Cho Aniki Ai Sensei no Oshiete: Watashi no Hoshi Ai Senshi Nicol Ai Yori Aoshi Aibou DS Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage Aigiina no Yogen: Balubalouk no Densetsu Yori Aigina no Yogen: Balubalouk no Densetsu Yori Aikagi Aikatsu Stars! My Special Appeal Aikatsu! 2-nin no My Princess Aikatsu! 365-Hi no Idol Days Aikatsu! Cinderella Lesson Aikatsu! My No.1 Stage! Ailu de Puzzle Air Air Battle! Air Buster Air Cavalry Air Combat Air Conflicts Double Pack Air Conflicts: Aces of World War II Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers Air Conflicts: Secret Wars Air Conflicts: Secret Wars - Ultimate Edition Air Conflicts: Vietnam Air Conflicts: Vietnam Ultimate Edition Air Diver Air Fortress Air Hockey Air Management '96 Air Race Championship Air Raid Air Raid 3 Air Raiders Air Ranger 2 Plus: Rescue Helicopter Air Ranger 2: Rescue Helicopter Air Ranger: Rescue Helicopter Air Rescue Air Strike Air Traffic Chaos Air Zonk Air-Sea Battle AirBlade AirBoarder 64 AirForce Delta AirForce Delta Storm AirForce Delta Strike AirGrave Airaki Airborne Troops: Countdown to D-Day Aircars Airlock Aironauts Airs Adventure Airship Q Airwolf Airwolf (Japan) Aishiau Kotoshika Dekinai Aisle Lord Aitakute...Your Smiles in My Heart Aiyoku no Eustia: Angel's Blessing Aka-Chan Doubutsu Sono Akagawa Jirou Mystery: Tsuki no Hikari Akagawa Jirou Mystery: Yasoukyoku - Hon ni Manekareta Satsujin Akagawa Jirou no Yuurei Ressha Akagawa Jirou: Majotachi no Nemuri: Fukkatsusai Akagawa Jirou: Yasoukyoku Akagawa Jirou: Yasoukyoku 2 Akagi: Touhaiden Akagi: Yami ni Furitatta Tensai Akai Ito Akai Ito DS Akai Ito Destiny DS Akai Katana Akai Suna Ochiru Tsuki Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka Portable Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka: Parallel Akatsuki no Amaneka to Aoi Kyojin Akatsuki no Goei Trinity Akaya Akashiya Ayakashino Akazu no Ma Akazukin ChaCha Akiba's Beat Akiba's Trip Akiba's Trip 2+A Akiba's Trip Plus Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed Akihabara Dennou Kumi Peta Pies! Akira Akira Psycho Ball Akiyama Jin No Suugaku Mystery Akko de Pon! Ikasama Hourouki Akko ni Omakase! Brain Shock Akogare Girls Collection: Lovely Youchien Akogare Girls Collection: Mister Donut DS Akogare Girls Collection: Ohanaya-San Monogatari Akogare Girls Collection: Pika Pika Nurse Monogatari Akogare Girls Collection: Suteki ni Nurse Days Akudaikan Akudaikan 2: Mousouden Akudaikan 3 Akudaikan Manyuuki Akudaikan Manyuuki: Seigi no Yaiba Akuji the Heartless Akuma Zensho Dainishuu Akuma-kun: Makai no Wana Akumajou Dracula Akumajou Dracula X: Gekka no Yasoukyoku Akumajou Special: Boku Dracula-kun Akuu Senki Raijin Al Unser Jr.'s Road to the Top Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing Alabama Meets Will Vi Aladdin Magic Racer Alan Hansen's Sports Challenge Alan Wake Alarm for Cobra 11: Crash Time Alarm fuer Cobra 11 Vol II Albert Odyssey Albert Odyssey 2: Jashin no Taidou Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean Album Club: Mune Kyun * Saint Poria Jogakuin Alcahest Aldynes Aleck Bordon Adventure: Tower & Shaft Advance Alekhine's Gun Alex Ferguson's Player Manager 2001 Alex Ferguson's Player Manager 2002 Alex Kidd in Miracle World Alex Kidd in Shinobi World Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle Alex Kidd: High-Tech World Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars Alex Rider: Stormbreaker Alexandra Ledermann: Summer Camp Adventures Alexi Lalas International Soccer Alfa Romeo Racing Italiano Alfred Chicken Alfred's Adventure Alia's Carnival! Sacrament Alias Alice in Cyberland Alice in Wonderland Alice no Paint Adventure Alice on Borderlines Alice's Mom's Rescue Alice: Madness Returns Alien Alien 3 Alien Breed Trilogy Alien Brigade Alien Chaos 3D Alien Crush Alien Front Online Alien Hominid Alien Invaders Plus! Alien Monster Bowling League Alien Olympics Alien Raiders Alien Resurrection Alien Soldier Alien Storm Alien Syndrome Alien Trilogy Alien vs. Predator Alien vs. Predator: The Last of His Clan Alien: Isolation Alienators: Evolution Continues Aliens Versus Predator: Extinction Aliens in the Attic Aliens vs. Predator Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem Aliens: Colonial Marines Aliens: Infestation Aliens: Thanatos Encounter Alisia Dragoon Alive All 1 All Grown Up! Express Yourself All Japan Pro Wrestling Featuring Virtua All Japan Woman Pro Wrestling All Kamen Rider: Rider Generation All Kamen Rider: Rider Generation 2 All Kamen Rider: Rider Revolution All Night Nippon Super Mario Bros. All Round Hunter All Star 5-A-Side Football All Star Action All Star Cheer Squad All Star Cheer Squad 2 All Star Karate All Star Pro-Wrestling All Star Racing All Star Racing 2 All Star Soccer All Star Tennis '99 All Star Tennis 2000 All Star Tennis 99 All Star Watersports All-Pro Basketball All-Pro Football 2K8 All-Star 1997 Featuring Frank Thomas All-Star Baseball All-Star Baseball 2000 All-Star Baseball 2001 All-Star Baseball 2002 All-Star Baseball 2003 All-Star Baseball 2004 All-Star Baseball 2005 All-Star Baseball 99 All-Star Fighters All-Star Mahjong: Kareinaru Shoubushi Kara no Chousen All-Star Major League Baseball All-Star Professional Wrestling II All-Star Professional Wrestling III All-Star Slammin' D-Ball All-Star Tennis 2 Alleyway Allied Ace Pilots Allied General Alnam no Kiba: Juuzoku Juuni Shinto Densetsu Alnam no Tsubasa: Shoujin no Sora no Kanata e Alone in the Dark Alone in the Dark 2 Alone in the Dark: Inferno Alone in the Dark: One-Eyed Jack's Revenge Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare Alpha Beam With Ernie Alpha Mission Alpha Mission II Alpha Protocol Alpha and Omega Alpine Racer 3 Alpine Ski Racing 2007 Alpine Skiing 2005 Alpine Skiing! Alshark Alter Echo Altered Beast Altered Beast: Guardian of the Realms Altered Space: A 3-D Alien Adventure Alundra Alundra 2: A New Legend Begins Alvin and the Chipmunks Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel Alzadick: Summer Carnival `92 Amaekata wa Kanojo Nari ni. Amagami Amagi Shien Amagon Amagoushi no Yakata Amagoushi no Yakata Portable: Ichiyagi Wa, Saisho no Junan Amatsumi Sora ni! Kumo no Hatate ni Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Ruins Amazing Island Amazing Penguin Amazing Tater America Daitouryou Senkyo: United State Presidental Race America Daitouryou Senkyo: United State Presidential Race America Oudan Ultra Quiz America Oudan Ultra Quiz: Shijou Saidai no Tatakai America Oudan Ultra-Quiz America Oudan Ultra-Quiz Part 2 America Oudan Ultra-Quiz Part 3 America Oudan Ultra-Quiz Part 4 America's Army: Rise of a Soldier America's Army: True Soldiers America's Greatest Game Shows: Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy! America's Next Top Model America's Next Top Model (2008) America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking American Bass Challenge American Battle Dome American Chopper American Chopper 2: Full Throttle American Dream American Girl: Julie Finds a Way American Girl: Kit Mystery Challenge! American Gladiators American Idol American Mensa Academy American Ninja Warrior American Pool American Pool II Amerzone: The Explorer's Legacy Amida Amidar Amnesia Amnesia Twin Pack Amnesia World Amnesia: Crowd Amnesia: Later Amnesia: Later x Crowd V. Edition Amnesia: Memories Amok Among the Sleep Amped 2 Amped 3 Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding Amplitude An American Tail An American Tail: Fievel Goes West An American Tail: Fievel's Gold Rush AnEarth Fantasy Stories: First Volume Anan Kanshuu: Onna Dikara Kinkyuu Up! DS Anarchy Reigns Anastasia Anata Dake no Private Lesson - DS de Hajimeru - Tipness no Yoga Anata o Yurusanai Ancient Magic: Bazoe! Mahou Sekai Ancient Roman: Power of Dark Side And 1 Streetball And-Kensaku Andre Agassi Tennis Andre Panza Kick Boxing Andretti Racing Andrew Lloyd Webber Musicals: Sing and Dance Andro Dunos Android Assault: The Revenge of Bari-Arm Anesan Angel Blade: Neo Tokyo Guardians Angel Cat Sugar Angel Collection Angel Graffiti S: Anata e no Profile Angel Graffiti: Anata e no Profile Angel Love Online Angel Paradise Vol. 1 Angel Paradise Vol. 2: Eshinu Kimika Angel Present Angel Profile Angel Senki Angel Wish Angel Wish: Kimi no Egao ni Chu! Angel's Feather Angel's Feather: Kuro no Zanei Angelic Concert Angelique Angelique Duet Angelique Etoile Angelique History Angelique Retour Angelique Special Angelique Special 2 Angelique Trois Angelique Trois: Aizouhen Angelique Voice Fantasy Angelique: Maren no Rokukishi Angelique: Tenkuu no Requiem Angler's Club: Ultimate Bass Fishing 3D Angolmois 99 Angry Birds Star Wars Angry Birds Trilogy AniMates AnimAction Anima: Gate of Memories Animal Boxing Animal Breeder Animal Breeder 2 Animal Breeder 3 Animal Breeder 4 Animal Crossing Animal Crossing: City Folk Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer Animal Crossing: New Leaf Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome Amiibo Animal Crossing: Wild World Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival Animal Football Animal Genius Animal Hospital Animal Kingdom: Wildlife Expedition Animal Mania Animal Paradise Animal Paradise Wild Animal Planet: Emergency Vets Animal Planet: Vet Collection Animal Planet: Vet Life Animal Snap: Rescue Them 2 By 2 Animal Soccer World Animal Yokochou: Doki Doki Kyuushutsu Daisakusen! no Maki Animal Yokochou: Doki*Doki Shinkyuu Shiken! no Kan Animaniacs Animaniacs Ten Pin Alley Animaniacs: Lights, Camera, Action! Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt Animastar Animastar GB Anime Eikaiwa: 15 Shounen Hyouryuuhen Anime Eikaiwa: Tondemo Nezumi Daikatsuyaku Anime Eikaiwa: Totoi Anime Slot Revolution: Pachi-Slot Kidou Senshi Gundam II - Ai Senshi Hen Animetic Story Game 1: Card Captor Sakura Animorphs Animorphs: Shattered Reality Ankh: Curse of the Scarab King Ankh: Tutankhamen no Nazo Ankoku Shinwa: Yamato Takeru Densetsu Annet Futatabi Anno 1701: Dawn of Discovery Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai Anoko Doko Noko Anoko wa Ore Kara Hanarenai Anone DS Another Bible Another Century's Episode Portable Another Code: R - A Journey into Lost Memories Another Memories Another Mind Another Time Another Leaf: Kagami no Naka no Tantei Another World Anpanman Niko Niko Party Anpanman to Asobo: ABC Kyoushitsu Anpanman to Asobo: Aiueo Kyoushitsu Anpanman to Asobo: New Aiueo Kyoushitsu Anpanman to Asobu: Aiueo Kyoushitsu DX Anpanman to Touch de Waku Waku Training Anpanman to Touch de Wakuwaku Training Anpfiff: Der RTL Fussball-Manager Ansatsu Kyoushitsu: Assassin Ikusei Keikaku!! Ansatsu Kyoushitsu: Korosensei Daihouimou!! Ant Nation Antarctic Adventure Anticipation Antiphona no Seikahime: Tenshi no Score Op.A Antz Antz Extreme Racing Antz Racing Antz World Sportz Anubis II Ao Zora to Nakama Tachi: Yume no Bouken Ao Zora to Nakama Tachi: Yume no Bouken Plus Ao no 6-gou: Antarctica Ao no Exorcist: Genkoku no Labyrinth Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm HD Edition Ao-Don DS: Hanabi no Goku & Hanabi no Takumi Aoi Hagane no Kihei: Space Griffon Aoi Namida Aoi Sora no Neosphere: Nanoca Flanka Hatsumei Koubouki 2 Aoi Umi no Tristia Portable: Nanoca Flanka Hatsumei Koubouki Aoi Umi no Tristia: 10th Anniversary Memorial Pack Aoi Umi no Tristia: Nanoca Flanka Hatsumei Koubouki Aoi no Mamade... Aoishiro Aoki Densetsu Shoot! Aoki Kakumeki no Valkyria Aoki Ookami to Shiroki Mejika: Genchou Hishi Apache: Air Assault Apathy: Narugami Gakuen Toshi Densetsu Tantei Kyoku Ape Escape Ape Escape 2 Ape Escape 3 Ape Escape Academy Ape Escape Academy 2 Ape Escape: Million Monkeys Ape Escape: On the Loose Ape Escape: Pumped & Primed Ape Quest Apex Apocalypse Apocalypse: Desire Next Apocripha/0 Apollo 11 VR Experience Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Appare! Gateball Appare! Shogi Jiisan Apple Town Monogatari Appleseed Appleseed EX Aqua Aqua Aqua GT Aqua Kids Aqua Kitty: Milk Mine Defender DX Aqua Panic! Aqua Paradise: Boku no Suizokukan Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am Aqua World: Umibi Monogatari AquaLife AquaNox: The Angel's Tears AquaPazza: AquaPlus Dream Match AquaZone AquaZone Option Disk Series 1: Angel Fish AquaZone Option Disk Series 2: Black Molly AquaZone Option Disk Series 3: Blue Emperor AquaZone Option Disk Series 4: Clown Loach AquaZone Option Disk Series 5: False Rummy-Nose AquaZone: Desktop Life AquaZone: Life Simulator Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis Aquanaut no Kyuujitsu 2 Aquanaut no Kyuujitsu: Memories of Summer 1996 Aquanaut's Holiday Aquanaut's Holiday: Kakusareta Kiroku Aquarian Age: Tokyo Wars Aquarium by DS Ar nosurge Plus: Ode to an Unborn Star Ar nosurge: Ode to an Unborn Star Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia Arabian Nights Arabians Doubt Arabians Lost Arabians Lost & Doubt Twin Pack Aragami Araiguma Rascal: Raccoon Rascal Arashi no Yoruni Arasuji de Kitaeru Sokumimi no Susume DS Arasuji de Oboeru Sokudoku no Susume DS Arc Arena Arc Rise Fantasia Arc the Lad Arc the Lad Collection Arc the Lad II Arc the Lad III Arc the Lad: End of Darkness Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits Arcade 3D Arcade Archives: Darius Arcade Classic No. 1: Asteroids / Missile Command Arcade Classic No. 2: Centipede / Millipede Arcade Classic No. 3: Galaga / Galaxian Arcade Classic No. 4: Defender / Joust Arcade Classic Shuu Arcade Classics Arcade Classics: Super Breakout / Battlezone Arcade Classics: Volume One Arcade Hits: Moon Cresta Arcade Hits: Raiden Arcade Hits: Soukyuugurentai Arcade Party Pak Arcade Shooter: Ilvelo Arcade Shooting Gallery Arcade Smash Hits Arcade USA Arcade Zone Arcana Arcana Famiglia 2 Arcana Famiglia: Festa Regalo Arcana Famiglia: La storia della Aracana Famiglia Arcana Famiglia: La storia della Aracana Famiglia - Ancora Arcana Famiglia: Vascello Phantasma no Majutsushi Arcana Heart Arcana Heart 3 Arcana Heart 3: LOVEMAX!!!!! Arcana Strikes Arcania: Gothic 4 Arcania: The Complete Tale Arch Rivals Arch Rivals: A Basket Brawl! Archer MacLean's Super Dropzone Archer Maclean's 3D Pool Archer Maclean's Mercury Archon Arcobaleno! Arcobaleno! Portable Arctic Arctic Tale Arctic Thunder Arcus 1-2-3 Arcus Odyssey Ardy Lightfoot Are You Alice? Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader: Make the Grade Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Back to School Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Make the Grade Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? Game Time Are! Mo Kore? Mo Momotarou Area 51 Arena Football Arena Football: Road to Glory Arena: Maze of Death Aretha Aretha II Aretha II: Ariel no Fushigi na Tabi Aretha III Aretha the Super Famicom Argos no Juujiken Argos no Senshi Argus Aria: The Natural ~Tooi Yume no Mirage~ Aria: The Origination ~Aoi Hoshi no El Cielo~ Ark of Time Arkana Senki Ludo Arkanoid Arkanoid DS Arkanoid II Arkanoid Returns Arkanoid: Doh It Again Arkista's Ring Arle no Bouken: Mahou no Jewel ArmaGallant: Decks of Destiny Armada Armada F/X Racers Armadillo Armana no Kiseki Armed Fighter Armed and Dangerous Armen Noir Armen Noir Portable Armin Van Buuren: In The Mix Armor Ambush Armor Battle Armor..Attack Armored Core Armored Core 2 Armored Core 2: Another Age Armored Core 3 Armored Core 3 Portable Armored Core 4 Armored Core V Armored Core: For Answer Armored Core: Formula Front Armored Core: Formula Front - Extreme Battle Armored Core: Last Raven Armored Core: Last Raven Portable Armored Core: Master of Arena Armored Core: Nexus Armored Core: Nine Breaker Armored Core: Project Phantasma Armored Core: Silent Line Portable Armored Core: Verdict Day Armored Encounter! / Sub Chase! Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M. Arms Arms' Heart Army Corps of Hell Army Men Army Men 2 Army Men 3D Army Men Advance Army Men Gold: Collector's Edition Army Men World War: Final Front Army Men World War: Team Assault Army Men: Air Attack Army Men: Air Attack 2 Army Men: Air Combat Army Men: Air Combat - The Elite Missions Army Men: Green Rogue Army Men: Major Malfunction Army Men: Operation Green Army Men: RTS Army Men: Sarge's Heroes Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 Army Men: Sarge's War Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune Army Men: Turf Wars Army Men: World War Army Men: World War - Land, Sea, Air Army Rescue Army of Two Army of Two: The 40th Day Army of Two: The Devil's Cartel Arnold Palmer Tournament Golf Around The World in 50 Games Around the World in 80 Days Arrow Flash Arslan Senki Arslan: The Warriors of Legend Art Academy Art Academy: Home Studio Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone Art Alive Art Camion Geijutsuden Art Camion Sugorokuden Art Master Art of Fighting Art of Fighting 2 Art of Fighting 3: The Path of the Warrior Art of Fighting Anthology Artelius Arthur and the Invisibles Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard Arthur to Astaroth no Nazo-Makai-Mura: Incredible Toons Arthur! Ready to Race Arthur's Absolutely Fun Day! Artillery Duel Artist Tool Arubarea no Otome ~Uruwashi no Seishikitachi~ Arx Fatalis Asahi Shinbun Rensai Katou Hifumi Kudan Shogi Shingiryuu Asaki, Yumemishi Asameshimae Nyanko Ashen Ashes Cricket 2009 Ashita no Joe Ashita no Joe 2: The Anime Super Remix Ashita no Joe Touchi: Typing Namida Hashi Ashita no Joe: Masseki ni Moe Agare! Ashita no Joe: Masshiro ni Moe Tsukiro! Asmik-Kun Land Asmik-kun World 2 Asoberu Eigo: Word Magic DS Asobi ni Iku yo! Chikyuu Pinchi no Konyaku Sengen Ason de Chinou Up Ason de Wakaru - The Party Casino Asonde Aiueo Asonde Igo ga Sara ni Tsuyokunaru: Ginsei Igo DS Chuukyuuhen Asonde Igo ga Tsuyoku naru!! Ginsei Igo DS Asonde Kazu Suuji Asonde Shogi ga Kyoukunaru! Kane Hoshi Shogi DX Asonde Shogi ga Tsuyoku naru!! Ginsei Shogi DS Asphalt 3D Asphalt: Injection Asphalt: Urban GT Asphalt: Urban GT 2 Aspic: Mahebiou no Noroi Assassin's Creed Assassin's Creed Anthology Assassin's Creed Chronicles Assassin's Creed Double Pack Assassin's Creed II Assassin's Creed II: Complete Edition Assassin's Creed II: Discovery Assassin's Creed III Assassin's Creed III: Liberation Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Assassin's Creed IV: Jackdaw Edition Assassin's Creed Origins Assassin's Creed Rogue Assassin's Creed Syndicate Assassin's Creed Unity Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood - The Da Vinci Edition Assassin's Creed: Connor Saga Assassin's Creed: Ezio Saga Assassin's Creed: Ezio Trilogy Assassin's Creed: Heritage Collection Assassin's Creed: Revelations Assassin's Creed: Revelations - Ottoman Edition Assassin's Creed: The Americas Collection Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection Assault Assault City Assault Rigs Assault Suit Leynos Assault Suit Leynos 2 Assault Suits Valken Assault Suits Valken 2 Assault: Retribution Assetto Corsa Astal Astebreed Asterix Asterix & Obelix Asterix & Obelix Contre Cesar Asterix & Obelix Take on Caesar Asterix & Obelix XXL Asterix & Obelix XXL 2: Mission: Wifix Asterix & Obelix XXL2: Mission: Las Vegum Asterix & Obelix: Kick Buttix Asterix & Obelix: Paf! Par Toutatis! Asterix Brain Trainer Asterix and the Great Rescue Asterix and the Power of the Gods Asterix and the Secret Mission Asterix at the Olympic Games Asterix: Auf Der Suche Nach Idefix Asterix: Mega Madness Asterix: The Mansions of the Gods Asterix: These Romans Are Crazy! Asteroid Fire Asteroids Asteroids Hyper 64 Astonishia Story Astra Superstars Astral Bout AstralAir no Shiroki Eien: White Eternity Astro Boy Astro Boy: Omega Factor Astro Boy: The Video Game Astro Chase Astro Fang: Super Machine Astro Invaders Astro Kyuudan: Kessen!! Victory Kyuudanhen Astro Rabby Astro Robo Sasa Astro Warrior Astro Warrior & Pit Pot Astroblast Astrology Astrology DS: The Stars In Your Hands Astronoka Astrosmash Astyanax Asuka 120% Excellent: Burning Fest. Excellent Asuka 120% Final: Burning Fest. Final Asuka 120% Limited: Burning Fest. Limited Asuka 120% Maxima: Burning Fest. Maxima Asuka 120% Special: Burning Fest Special Asuncia: Matsue no Jubaku Asura's Wrath Atama de Do! Kotenko Kotenko Atama ga Yoku Naru - The Me no Training Atama no Kaiten no Training: Rubik's Cube & Chou Yuumei Puzzle Tachi Atama o Kitaete Asobu Taisen Yajirushi Puzzle: Puppyinu Vector One Atari Anniversary Advance Atari Anniversary Edition Atari Anniversary Edition Redux Atari Anthology Atari Classics Evolved Atari Flashback Classics: Volume 1 Atari Flashback Classics: Volume 2 Atari Greatest Hits Volume 1 Atari Greatest Hits Volume 2 Atari Karts Atari Masterpieces Vol. I Atari Masterpieces Vol. II Atari Video Cube Atelier Annie: Alchemists of Sera Island Atelier Ayesha Plus: The Alchemist of Dusk Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk Atelier Escha & Logy Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky Atelier Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky Atelier Firis: The Alchemist and the Mysterious Journey Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny Atelier Iris 3: Grand Phantasm Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings Atelier Marie + Elie Atelier Meruru Plus: The Apprentice of Arland Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book Atelier Totori Plus: The Adventurer of Arland Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland Athena Athena no Kateiban: Family Game Athena ~Awakening from the ordinary life~ Athens 2004 Athletic World Atlantic Quest Atlantis Atlantis III: The New World Atlantis no Nazo Atlantis: The Lost Continent Atlantis: The Lost Tales Atom Smasher Atomic Betty Atomic Punk Atomic Robo-Kid Atomic Robo-Kid Special Atomic Runner Atrevete a Sonar Atsumare! GuruGuru Onsen Atsumare! GuruGuru Onsen BB Atsumare! Power Pro Kun no DS Koushien Attack Animal Gakuen Attack of the Killer Demos Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Attack of the Movies 3D Attack of the Mutant Penguins Attack of the Saucerman! Attack of the Timelord! Attack on Titan Attack on Titan: Humanity in Chains AubirdForce AubirdForce After Audio Hero Aura Battler Dunbine Aurora Quest: Otaku no Seiza in Another World Austin Mini Racing Austin Powers Pinball Austin Powers: Oh, Behave! Austin Powers: Welcome to my Underground Lair! Australian Rugby League Auto Crusher Palladium Auto Destruct Auto Modellista Auto Racing AutoBahn Tokio Autobahn Polizei Autobahn Raser IV Autobahn Raser: Das Spiel zum Film Automobili Lamborghini Avalon Code Avatar - The Last Airbender: Into the Inferno Avatar: The Last Airbender Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth Aven Colony Avenger Avenging Spirit Away: Shuffle Dungeon Awesome Golf Awesome Possum Awesomenauts Assemble! Ax Battler: A Legend of Golden Axe Axelay Axiom Verge Ayaka Shibito Ayaka Shibito Portable Ayakashi Gohan: Oomori! Ayakashi Ninden Kunoichiban Ayakashi Ninden Kunoichiban Plus Ayakashi no Shiro Ayakashibito Ayakashibito Portable Ayrton Senna Kart Duel Ayrton Senna Kart Duel 2 Ayrton Senna Kart Duel Special Ayrton Senna Personal Talk: Message for the Future
Introduction We're all familiar with the Hotline Miami's, Hollow Knight's, and Celeste's of the world. These are some of the indie games that hit the big time. Of course, for every one of these games, there's 100 other indie games that have been glossed over, relegated to a spot in a digital store few people will ever find themselves in. I wanted to bring attention to some of these lesser known indie games. I'm going to order them according to Metacritic Critic Ratings. Some of the games towards the bottom have a pretty low rating that I personally disagree with, but it's only fair that you hear from more than just me. While the reviews are low for some games, this is partly due to how few reviews there are for some games. #19 on the list has a 49% for the Xbox One version of the game due to it only having two reviews, while the PlayStation 4 version has a 90% rating due to it only having one review, despite both versions being functionally the same. This high level of variance usually occurs when a game only has a few reviews. Price will include a link to the U.S. store page of the game. Price is in U.S. dollars. 1. Inertial Drift
Includes a Separate 2 Player Local Competitive/Versus Multiplayer Mode
Description: Inertial Drift's distinguishing characteristic is its employment of the right analog stick for drifting. This takes a little getting used to, but it feels great once you get the hang of it, creating some exhilarating moments when perfecting corner turns. The game has 10 unique tracks + 10 reversed tracks, 16 vehicles, and four separate story arcs. Each story arc is only a couple of hours long and features a different protagonist with a different vehicle. Since you’ll be racing on the same track a few times, there are a few gameplay variations that differ from just reaching the finish line at the end, such as racking up a certain number of points that are acquired through longer drift times and other means. There's quite a bit of dialogue between races, and in the races themselves characters will frequently dish out positive commentary on your performance in the form of text in the top left hand corner of the screen. The game's aesthetics are a fusion of anime and synthwave. I've heard many fans liken the game to the manga Initial D, though I'm unfamiliar with that series myself.
Completion Time: ~3 Hours (for 1/4 Story Arcs)
Extra Content: There are a number of different modes including a Story Mode, Challenge Mode, Grand Prix Mode, Arcade Mode, two player Split-Screen, and Online, as well as a Tutorial. Completion of challenges in Challenge Mode allows you to unlock new vehicles for the other non-Story Modes. Grand Prix Mode allows you to race using different characters/vehicles through a connected set of challenges, while Arcade Mode is for one-off races. I wouldn't recommend this game for online play as the user-base is pretty small (hence it being overlooked) and you're unlikely to find a match. Getting all the achievements is fairly difficult.
Description: This is an action platformer that emulates arcade games from the latter half of the 1980s, but it is probably most reminiscent of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. The creator, Locomalito, states that the soundtrack uses the true arcade sound of the YM2203 chip. The game is hard, but the checkpoints are never more than a minute or two apart, and the lives' system/continue system has no penalties outside of locking you out of achievements. This is a very boss dense game - in the ~4 hour run-time it takes to complete the game, you fight 19 bosses. The handful of weapons and items you pick up helps lend variety to the combat, and no two boss fights feel the same.
Completion Time: ~4 Hours
Extra Content: The game has two endings. Most players will get the bad ending the first time around and be locked out of the final stage (which is the longest stage in the game). You do have to play through the game again to get the good ending, but you'll likely do it in half the time. If you want to see all the major content on your first go around, I recommend looking up how to get the good ending before you play the game. If you do achieve the good ending on your first playthrough, the completion time is probably closer to six hours. As far as achievements are concerned, 100% completion is very difficult to obtain. If you like an extreme challenge, this one's for you.
Description: Valfaris acts as a continuation of Slain - the developer's previous work - but it’s not necessary to play Slain first to understand the story of Valfaris. While Slain was mostly just a slightly above average action platformer, Valfaris is one of the best run & gun games I've ever played. You play as Prince Therion who returns to his home planet of Valfaris on a quest to kill his father. It's themed around a fictional planet and has a gross alien vibe coupled with heavy metal music. The music doesn't override the other audio in the game, and it does a nice job of upping the ante when you're fighting a boss – of which there are many. You're equipped with a primary gun, a more powerful mana-based gun, a sword, and a shield that can block with mana or parry.
Description Continued: There are a number of weapons to acquire throughout the game, and the guns in particular do a great job of feeling different. You’re able to upgrade your weapons with Blood Metals. Some Blood Metals are found in plain sight, others are rewarded for defeating a tough enemy, and some are given for going off the beaten path. These upgrades typically just up the firepower but will sometimes introduce a secondary move to your weapon. There are checkpoints every two minutes or so, and most bosses will have a checkpoint just before them (only the weaker bosses come after a gauntlet of enemies). The game is a little hard at points, but overall it strikes a nice balance of feeling accomplished for overcoming the challenges without getting overly frustrating.
Completion Time: ~8 Hours
Extra Content: There are a few secrets to find throughout the game that are off the beaten path, though I was able to find 2/3 of them on my first playthrough. I found all but one weapon as well. The replayability comes from New Game+, which allows you to take all your upgraded weapons into a harder version of the game. Since the weapons all function a bit differently, this can be lots of fun. There are also some achievements that test your skills further, like finishing the game in two hours or beating the game with 10 or less deaths.
Description: This is a 3D platformer that reportedly takes inspiration from both MediEvil and Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. There’s about equal amounts of platforming and combat in this game. While the combat is relatively simple, you’re given a variety of weapons that all feel unique. The levels have a good amount of variety within them – you’ll jump between ships on a ferry ride, ride an undead horse through the sky, play a few mini games as a headless Jack, and fight a boss at the end of each of the six levels. Both the combat and platforming are relatively easy – platforms are typically large and Jack has an edge grab that helps tremendously, and smashing the many destructible objects around the levels increases your health. This game takes the linear adventure approach, with a number of collectibles sprinkled throughout the levels: crow skulls, presents, and gramophones. Some areas are more open and allow you to choose the order in which you do certain tasks. The game has a decent amount of dialogue in it, which does an effective job of giving some character to Jack, his two animal companions, and the rest of the cast. The visuals and soundtrack are particularly great, especially if you’re into Halloween themed media.
Completion Time: ~4 Hours
Extra Content: There’s collectibles to back for – I got about 2/3 of the collectibles on my first playthrough – skins to unlock – which are purchased with the collectibles you find in the levels – and you get to start a second playthrough with all the weapons already unlocked at the beginning
Description: Pato Box follows an anthropomorphic duck boxer on an adventure through a stylistic noir comic book world. “Pato” is a Spanish word that translates to “Duck” in English (the game was developed by a Mexican studio). The boss fights are heavily inspired by Punch-Out’s gameplay, but there are levels outside of these fights to help differentiate it. Most of the levels can be selected in any order you choose and typically serve as a leadup to the boss fight. Bosses are usually introduced by a cutscene followed by some dialogue taunting Pato Box. The levels play entirely differently from the fights, but the themes of the level match those of the bosses. The levels will employ various elements of evasion, stealth, exploration, and a few time-based mini-games. The casino level, for example, will have you walk around the casino looking for chips and punching the slot machines to earn enough to pay entrance to the fight, while the food factory has you evading stompers, sawblades, and butcher knives as you work your way through the level.
Description Continued: There are variety of things to find throughout the levels: tokens for decorations in Pato Box’s room, backstory on the boss of the level and the world, and tips on how to win the upcoming fight. The fights themselves lock Pato Box in the middle of the screen, allowing you to block, juke left or right, and perform a low or high jab to the left or right. Bosses are dynamic and have a number of different phases to fight through. The game foregoes a HUD in favor of a visual representation of your health via scars on your body, which I thought was a nice touch. While the levels and bosses play pretty differently from each other, they’re weaved together by a dark and intriguing story that follows Pato Box’s quest for retribution against an evil corporation.
Completion Time: ~7 Hours
Extra Content: There’s an Arcade Mode that lets you replay boss fights and some collectibles to find in the main campaign. The achievements are very difficult, and many ask you to beat a boss without taking a single hit.
Description: Ultra Hat Dimension follows Bea through a series of rooms in a palace on a quest to undo the magical spell that has made the mythical Spluff creatures want to attack one another. There is a little bit of backstory via one sentence thoughts from Bea in between levels, but nothing major here. The gameplay revolves equipping four different types of hats and using them to evade or push Spluffs around to retrieve the key and reach the door. Each Spluff dons one of four different hats which effects their behavior towards other Spluffs and you. You will be punched one tile back by every Spluff unless you’re wearing the same hat as the Spluff. Spluffs interact with one another differently depending on what hat they’re wearing in a rock, paper, scissors kind of way – they may punch a Spluff back one space, get into a scuffle that allows you to get close to them without wearing a hat, or they may temporarily disable them in a way that allows you to access the space the Spluff consumes within eight moves. There are undo and reset buttons included that allow you to quickly rewind mistakes. There are some clever puzzles accompanied by catchy tunes and a charming pixel art aesthetic. The difficulty is about average.
Completion Time: ~3 Hours
Extra Content: Since this is published by Ratalaika Games, getting all the achievements can be obtained after only clearing 2/3 of the levels. There are a few custom maps on the PC version of the game but no additional content on consoles.
Description: Usually with Metroidvanias, I expect a long, difficult game that's difficult to navigate. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is a counter to those ideas while still maintaining the exploratory nature of the sub-genre. The plot is pretty simple and doesn't feature a ton of story, but there are a few NPCs you talk to throughout your quest. The combat is also fairly simple, but the boss fights you engage in are all great. Without much weapon customization, it's stripped to the basics of dodging enemy attacks while trying to get a hit in. It makes for a game that's easy to get into and instantly start enjoying. All of the areas are visually appealing, some more than others, and each of them lasts shorter than you'd expect. The game is only around 3-5 hours, but it feels like you've played so much more in that time. Some games only really start to take off by the time this game finishes.
Completion Time: ~4 Hours
Extra Content: Getting 100% map completion should only take an hour or two of cleanup. I did miss an optional boss on my first playthrough. There are also items to discover, and the achievements give fun challenges to extend the life of the game. One cool thing I liked was that beating a boss without getting hit at all gives you a useful item. It also features New Game+, allowing you to carry over most of your items, making the game more difficult, and changing up enemy placement.
Description: The Count Lucanor’s story is very fairy tale-esque – more like a classic fairy tale as it can be pretty dark and grotesque at times. On his 10th birthday, Hans chooses to leave his mother in a quest for wealth. After some walking and conversation with NPCs you find along the way, you stumble upon a large mansion and find that the count of this mansion is looking to pass his wealth onto an heir who can prove himself worthy – “worthy” in this case being the one who can figure out the count’s name. From here, you are tasked with adventuring through the mansion and solving environmental puzzles in a nonlinear way to acquire the letters that spell the count’s name. There is a survival horror element to the game, as you are unable to attack the enemies in the mansion and instead must crawl under tables and find other ways around them. You can place candles around the mansion to light it up to help you better evade enemies, but your usage is limited (though you can find more).
Completion Time: ~4 Hours
Extra Content: There are five different endings and some puzzles/rooms you don’t even have to do. This could double your playtime – maybe even more if you don’t use a guide. You have to get all five endings and do some other miscellaneous stuff to get all achievements, but it has a relatively high completion rate.
Description: If you liked Detroit: Become Human or Until Dawn, Late Shift will be right up your alley. This game is a bit different from both those titles in that it's an FMV, with the gameplay solely consisting of the choices you make. You receive prompts at key moments in the story on what you want your character to do next, and this effects the outcome of the game. It plays more like Black Mirror's Bandersnatch, though this game came before it. The story follows an everyman who gets tangled up in London's criminal underground just as a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Completion Time: ~1.5 Hour Completion Time*
Extra Content: There are 180 choice points and 7 different endings. I only got 4 out of 21 of the achievements on my first playthrough. There are a number of different routes to take with the game.
10. Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure
Includes a Separate 4 Player Local Competitive/Versus Multiplayer Mode
Description: Unbox takes heavy inspiration from Banjo Kazooie and other collectathons of the fifth generation but has levels far larger than any Nintendo 64 platformer. Fortunately your customizable character can cover huge amounts of ground very quickly via the unbox mechanic, which is basically a super jump you can use up to six times before you need replenishment via item pickups or checkpoints. Both the jump and unbox mechanic are tied to the shoulder buttons, which takes some getting used to but is ultimately one I’m in favor of, as it allows for camera control without removing your thumb from the jump or unbox buttons. The high speeds you can travel make for some great exploration, but the game is still able to disable your ability to unbox by giving you a “fragile” item, allowing for more carefully considered platforming sections.
Description Continued: Each of the three major worlds have four major collectibles: 200 gold tape, 10 caged zippies, 18 stamps, and 1 super stamp rewarded upon defeating the boss of the world. There is also a hub world that has just 200 gold tape to collect. The 18 stamps are the jiggies or stars of the game, and they’re primarily what you’re after to advance the game. 9 of them are hidden across the world, while the other 9 are given by NPCs upon the completion of a task: Digi will ask you to take an item from point A to point B with some platforming in between, Dash will ask you to complete three races around different areas of the map, Superbox will ask you to destroy 20 enemies in X amount of time, etc. The other collectibles simply unlock more cosmetic options for your character.
Completion Time: ~7 Hours
Extra Content: The game only requires you collect 2/3 of the stamps to beat the game. If you want to collect all the stamps, zippies, and gold tape, this could more than double your playtime, as the worlds are massive and finding all the gold tape is a daunting task, though they do make a distinct noise when you are near them once you’ve collected half of them in a level. Your friendly companion Bounce will also give you visual clues on where to find whatever collectible you might be stuck on. I was able to find all the collectibles in the first world but three gold tape with next to no issues, though Bounce helped me with the remaining three. I really have to commend the developers for their inclusion of both audio cues and visual guides built within the game to guide you to collectibles – it makes collecting every last thing a lot less tedious. The high speeds of your character allow you great traversal of the world, which also helps with collecting everything. The achievements require you to collect everything. In addition to the single player campaign, there are quite a few local multiplayer modes for up to four players – these include Boxing, Collect, Thief, Oddbox, and Delivery. The developers go into more detail on each mode here.
Description: This is the sequel to the original 2D PC exclusive from 2017, with another 3D sequel currently in production. If you care at all for the story, it’s recommended you play or at least read about what happened in the first game. Spark 2 actually follows Fark, another jester. Spark 2 emulates many of the high speed moments found in 3D Sonic games, but brings a few ideas of its own. In particular, action is a bigger focus in this game, though platforming is still the priority. Enemies are easy enough to run past with a few exceptions for mini bosses at the end of some levels and the nine main bosses. In addition, enemies can also add to your score.
Description Continued: In addition to Fark’s expanded move-set in combat, he also has the ability to double jump, dash, and wall jump. The jumps give you a lot of air time, lending more leniency to the platforming, and the dash is great for building momentum. There’s quite a bit to explore in each level too – jumping off ramps in the middle of loopdeloops will sometimes result in you finding the game’s main collectible, floppy disks. Fark can also acquire four additional costumes found within the levels that offer some variation in abilities. The game offers five difficulties at the start, with it recommending the second easiest option, Normal, as the default way to play your first time through. Bosses on this difficulty are fairly easy provided you’re competent with timing when to use your shield, though I did lose once or two against a few of them.
Description: Remothered: Tormented Fathers feels very old school in its design philosophy - no weapons outside a few self defense items and distraction items. You go back and forth in the mansion and have to learn the layout and where things are to proceed. You have to manually select the key item from your inventory to use on triggers (but a key icon is still shown to guide you a little). The sounds in this game do a great job of evoking tension, and I appreciate that the stalkers don’t seem to teleport, so if you can get away from them, you’ve earned your freedom for awhile. This is the first game in a loosely connected trilogy. The second one - Remothered: Broken Porcelain just released last month, but I've heard it's pretty buggy at the moment and not recommended in its current state.
Completion Time: ~6 Hours
Extra Content: There are some collectibles you can go back for, but not a whole beyond that. You’ll probably get most of the achievements – if not all, except the collectibles one - on your first playthrough.
Description: The premise of the game is a fusion of side scrollers and oldschool fixed screens that teleport you to the opposite side of the screen when you pass through one side - think Pac-Man, arcade Mario Bros., or Balloon Fight. You will find obstacles in your path that are impenetrable in a typical side scroller, but can be overcome by holding a button to turn the screen into a fixed screen that allows you to pass through one side and out through the other end. This is a totally unique take on a puzzle platformer I haven't seen before, and all five worlds bring something new to the table. For example, World 2 will flip you upside down when you pass through a screen, allowing new types of challenges as a result. There's more emphasis on the puzzle elements than the platforming.
Completion Time: ~2 Hours
Extra Content: There is a New Game+, but from what I could tell from the beginning it wasn't a whole lot different. Still, there's an achievement for completing New Game+ and some other fun achievements.
Description: SINNER is a Soulslike boss rush - there are no levels and only small area before each boss to practice your moves. There are eight bosses, the first seven allowing you to fight in any order, each representing the seven deadly sins. You are equipped with everything the game has to offer from the beginning (except for the New Game+ weapon they give you), and instead of becoming more powerful, you gradually lose things with each boss you defeat, hence the “sacrifice” in the title. It’s like a reverse RPG. Each boss has a different sacrifice associated to it – one may deplete your throwing items’ usage, while another will deplete your health and stamina. Picking the best order to fight them in adds a little strategic thinking to the game, as you may be more dependent on your large health and stamina bar more than your throwing items’ usage, for example. The game is fairly difficult, so your victories over each boss feel very gratifying when they do come.
Completion Time: ~5 Hours
Extra Content: There is New Game+ that offers you an additional weapon. The achievements task you with a few things you have to pull off in battles, and getting all the achievements is pretty easy to obtain.
Description: Reportedly inspired by obscure Japanese games from the late 1980s and 1990s, Tamashii blends puzzle platforming together with an oppressive atmosphere. The introduction starts with the character being willed into existence by a godlike character that tasks him with destroying the macabre forces that have taken control of and corrupted his chambers. Your character is able to spawn three inanimate clones of himself which is the primary source for most of the platforming and some of the boss fights – you’ll use them to trigger switches and open up new paths. There’s about an even mix of puzzle solving and platforming, and there’s a whole eight bosses in this short adventure (though one is a secret) that are probably the most visually interesting moments in the game. The creatures and backgrounds are effective in selling the dark presentation of the game. The difficulty is about average – maybe slightly easier than most indie puzzle platformers. There is a sequel currently in the works.
Completion Time: ~2.5 Hours
Extra Content: There are a few obscure secrets to discover. You can also play through the chambers again with a score meter, and there are certain achievements associated with getting a good score. Getting all the achievements isn’t too difficult, but you’ll probably need a guide for some of the secrets.
Description: Verlet Swing’s aesthetic is as intriguing as its gameplay: you are tasked with grappling and swinging yourself across these vaporwave styled levels without hitting anything. The levels are all very short, but you’re likely to play many levels dozens of times before even finishing it… just to get a 1/4 rank. The ranking system is actually very cool, in that it encourages you to find alternative paths or sometimes just building up more momentum to get to the end faster. Most levels do seem to have a set path, but at the same time, with the proper grappling of the mechanics, you can forge your own, which is a game in itself.
Completion Time: ~7 Hours
Extra Content: There’s an in game challenge menu that mostly recycles a lot of the base game content – though there’s a particularly funny one that switches the perspective to third person to play as a knockoff Spiderman. You can also go back and try to get the best possible time for each level. Getting all achievement is extremely difficult.
Description: Warlock’s Tower’s puzzles are built around the movement of the player. There are numbers on the ground for the player to pick up – either 3 or 5 – and this gives the player a set number of steps before they die. Your goal in every level is to make it to an exit, and you’ll have to acquire the numbers in an order that gets you there. It is a bit easy in the beginning but eventually works up to be a challenge in the later levels as more elements are introduced: enemies, teleporters, conveyors, and even controlling two characters at once that share movement usage. The game has a very believable GameBoy aesthetic and sound effects to accompany it, and it works for this slower paced tile-based game.
Completion Time: ~6 Hours
Extra Content: This is published by Ratalaika Games, but surprisingly enough, you actually have to beat the game and find a few NPCs hidden in certain levels to get all achievements. There are optional levels in each world that don’t have any achievements attached to them, and this should add a few hours to the game.
Description: The Bunker is an FMV point & click adventure, meaning it features real actors and environments just like a live action movie. Many of the actors involved have been in high profile movies/TV shows as well, including The Hobbit, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and Penny Dreadful. The game takes place in a fallout shelter and follows the last survivor as he tries to find a way outside following the death of his mother, after living 30+ years in the bunker. The gameplay has you solving puzzles and finding ways to proceed to the next area. The story is the focal point of the game though, and it frequently switches between the past and the present to tell its story. There’s a good juxtaposition between the lively past and the lonely present that makes you question how the protagonist ended up as the last survivor. There’s only one narrative choice to make in the game, and it comes at the very end. The game also works in handheld mode with touchscreen functionality if you'd prefer to play it that way.
Completion Time: ~2. Hour Completion Time*
Extra Content: You can replay the game and try to find all the collectibles. Most of them give more background on the story. You can trigger the ending you did not choose the first time around by simply reloading the last checkpoint, so there is no need to play through the whole game again to unlock it. Getting all the achievements is fairly easy.
Description: Hayfever is a precision platformer that revolves around a mailman propelling himself using a number of different allergens that act as power-ups. A lot of the platforming is aerial and typically has you catching allergens mid-air to perform maneuvers in quick succession. It's not an easy game by any means, but it has oddly relaxing music to accompany the rather intense platforming. There are also letters to collect in each level to steepen the challenge and some secrets to discover too. It takes an hour or so to get used to the aerial platforming, and this is one of the few 2D platformers played better with the analog stick rather than the D-Pad. But letters that seemed unattainable to me at the beginning of the game became much simpler by the end, as I had mastered the controls and physics of the game. I’ve played a ton of 2D platformers, and this is one of my favorites.
Completion Time: ~8 Hours
Extra Content: It'll take another 8 hours or so to collect all the letters and probably about 6 hours or so to beat the Hard World, which features an additional 28 remixed levels. There are also secrets to uncover, but they don't net any in game progress and only work towards your achievement completion. Finding these secrets will probably vary more in time because they are hidden, but expect them to take a few hours to find. Just to clarify, letters are an expanded test of your platforming skills and are all in clear view of the screen, while secrets are a test of your observational skills and take a little more digging to finish. Attaining all achievements is a fair and rewarding challenge that took me about 25-30 hours to get.
Description: Cybarian has an interesting yet simple combat system that distinguishes itself from most action platformers. Instead of mashing the attack button, you have to press it once, wait two seconds for the animation to complete, press it again, wait two seconds for the animation to complete, and then press it again to complete a full combo. It sounds like something that's easy to get down quickly, but I found myself still occasionally going too quickly in the intensity of a boss fight. The game punishes you by not fulfilling the attack if you button mash. After each boss fight, you unlock a new move that will be required to fell some foes in the next stage. Conversely, you can play Hard Mode which unlocks all moves right from the get-go, but you'll have to beat all four stages without dying. "Hardcore Mode" would've been a more apt description of this difficulty setting, I feel.
Completion Time: ~1.5 Hours
Extra Content: Just like with Ultra Hat Dimension and Warlock’s Tower, this is a Ratalaika Games published game, so getting all the achievements can be achieved in under an hour. It would've been nice if they pushed you to beat Hard Mode, but you'll just have to settle for internal gratification instead.
Conclusion My top 5 on the list in order would be the following: (1.) Hayfever, (2.) Valfaris, (3.) Cursed Castilla: (Maldita Castilla EX), (4.) Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, and (5.) Pumpkin Jack. Have you played any of these games? What are some other overlooked single player indie games? See my post below for some upcoming indie games to look out for.
Located in Robinsonville Gold Strike Casino Resort is a perfect starting point from which to explore Robinsonville (MS). The property has everything you need for a comfortable stay. Service-minded staff will welcome and guide you at Gold Strike Casino Resort. Gold Strike Casino Resort in Tunica will reopen in a limited capacity to the public on Monday, May 25, followed by Biloxi’s Beau Rivage Resort & Casino’s reopening Monday, June 1, also in a limited capacity. Each property will host an invitation-only weekend ahead of its public reopening. 105 reviews of Gold Strike - Casino "Anytime I feel the urge to play a little blackjack, this is my casino of choice. The dealers, for the most part, are fun and friendly, with plenty of smiles as they take your money. Another reason I like playing here is their restaurant, "The Atrium". It's much better than the buffet, which I don't care for at all. Gold Strike will be opening in limited capacity starting Monday May 25th! We are excited to welcome you back to Gold Strike again. Tunica Hotel & Casino - Gold Strike Casino Resort Gold Strike Hotel & Gambling Hall, Jean: Address, Phone Number, Gold Strike Hotel & Gambling Hall Reviews: 3/5 Gold Strike is now Terrible's Hotel and Casino. We stopped here because we had been driving for 11 hours, towing a jeep, and were exhausted. Should have kept going to Primm or stopped in Vegas on the way. Gold Strike Casino Resort. A laid back casino hotel in the upper corner of Tunica, Mississippi, Gold Strike boasts nothing less than a modern experience. Stay at the 50,000 square foot casino resort for your next vacation escape from the city. Gold Strike Casino, Tunica: Hours, Address, Gold Strike Casino Reviews: 4/5 Gold Strike Casino Resort Tunica Review. The Gold Strike Casino Resort in Tunica, Mississippi has a 50,000 square foot casino gambling floor with 1,400 slot machines, 52 table games, a hotel with pool and spa, 30,000 square feet of meeting space, and several restaurants, bars and lounges. In-room dining is provided 24 hours a day if you'd rather enjoy your vacation time without going out one Gold Strike Casino Resort announces reopening date amid COVID-19 pandemic WMCActionNews5.com Staff 5/19/2020 COVID-19 tore apart 'inseparable' couple, married for 63 years. 2 nurses worked to COVID update: Sweet Tea at Gold Strike Casino Resort has updated their hours, takeout & delivery options. 16 reviews of Sweet Tea at Gold Strike Casino Resort "I will start with a couple of positives: the cashier that took our order was very sweet, and the pizza I ordered was good. The issue was time. My husband ordered a wrap so he got that at the counter, I ordered a pizza that took over 30