| Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Tales of Game's Studios |
| Engine | Game Maker |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | January 22, 2008 |
| Genre(s) | Role-playing game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Media/distribution | Free download |
Tales of Game's Presents Chef Boyardee's Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden, Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley SaGa is a freeware role-playing video game developed by Tales of Game's Studios, presented as an unofficial sequel to Barkley Shut Up and Jam! and Space Jam. It features traditional JRPG-styled battles and dungeons.
Contents |
The player controls ex-NBA player Charles Barkley and a handful of secondary characters.[1] A host of ex- and current NBA players also feature as NPCs.
The game's battle system, dubbed the "B.A.B.B.Y. System," is influenced by many commercial JRPGs.[2] Enemies appear on the game field and may run at the player and attack if the player moves into their line of sight.[3] Once a battle is initiated, each player has a number of attacks and skills they can use. Most attacks require multiple or timed button presses as in the Mario RPG series, and some of the attacks are accuracy-based, dealing more damage for more accurate hits. The characters can also be placed into healing, attack and effect battle roles, depending on their skill set.
The game takes place in 2053, in "post-cyberpocalyptic Neo New York". Twelve years prior, Charles Barkley performed a powerful dunk called a Chaos Dunk at a basketball game, inadvertently killing most of the people in attendance. As a result, basketball was outlawed and many basketball players were hunted down and killed.[2]
In 2053, another Chaos Dunk is performed in Manhattan, killing millions. Barkley is blamed for the Chaos Dunk and is hunted by the B-Ball Removal Department, led by Michael Jordan.[2][4] Barkley is rescued by another outlaw referred to as the Ultimate Hellbane. Hellbane leads Barkley to the tomb of LeBron James, revealing that Hellbane's real name is Balthios, the great grandson of James. The ghost of James tells the two to seek the Cyberdwarf, who is hidden in New York's sewers. While searching for the Cyberdwarf, they are joined by a cybernetic Vince Carter, who has lost his memory. Upon finding Cyberdwarf, the four of them rush to a nearby church, where Barkley's son Hoops is hiding. In the church, Jordan is holding Hoops hostage. Cyberdwarf, looking at Hoops, comments that Hoops may be “The One”; this comment restores Carter's memory. He was killed along with many other basketball stars, but was rebuilt by the terrorist organization BLOODMOSES to kill Hoops. Carter joins with Jordan, but the two are driven off by Barkley and his party.
Cyberdwarf theorizes that BLOODMOSES used a powerful basketball called the Ultimate B-Ball to perform the recent Chaos Dunk, so they travel to the old Spalding building to find a rumored extremely powerful basketball. There, they discover that such a ball had been created, dubbed the Hell B-Ball. This ball was so powerful that a janitor who mishandled it inadvertently performed a Chaos Dunk in the building years ago. With the Hell B-Ball in hand, the party seek out BLOODMOSES.
They find the BLOODMOSES headquarters on the slave ship Necron 5. After freeing Carter from his programming and defeating Jordan in basketball combat, they find the leader of BLOODMOSES, a shadowy version of Barkley created by the Ultimate B-Ball to destroy all life on Earth with a super-powerful Chaos Dunk, then repopulate the earth with Barkley clones. Shadow Barkley is defeated, but machinery on the ship is set to perform the Chaos Dunk without Shadow Barkley. Barkley stays behind as the rest of the party escapes from the Necron 5, then he performs another Chaos Dunk, destroying the ship and saving the earth.
Barkley was developed by Tales of Game's Studios, a group of several members from an amateur game development forum.[2] Key members Chef Boyardee, bort, GZ, and Drule all had a hand in the development of the game, with other, more minor contributions being made by several others. The game was first developed on the RPG Maker 2003 game engine, but was later ported to Game Maker 6.1. Originally the game was planned to be released in both formats, but eventually the latter was chosen due to its increased power and flexibility.[2]