UpDownLeftRight

This is another of that prime collection which introduced me to the world of gaming when I was just a young boy. I had never seen a Kirby game before so I had no expectations. Were I to play it for the first time now, I’d be disappointed, but instead I was thrilled.

Now that I’ve seen other Kirby games I know that there’s one serious absence. The Kirby everyone knows and loves (if you want to love Kirby, never, never ever play Squeak Squad) inhales enemies and takes their powers. In Kirby’s Dream Land, he doesn’t do that. Why? I don’t know. Every other Kirby game, before and since, has included this. This one game is an oddity in this way, and I can’t guess why. The game is reproduced in Kirby Super Star, but with power-changing included. Was this a correction of a mistake? (more…)

Ok ok. Boos, right? Boos wearing blindfolds. Is that not brilliant? That’s brilliant.

I always chose Peach in Doki Doki Pa – I mean – Super Mario Bros. 2 because her flying ability trumped Mario’s blandness, Luigi’s wobbliness and Toad’s… whatever it was Toad had.

Well, in a moment of misguided feminism, Nintendo produced a game with Peach as the lead. In the same swift motion they made what immediately seems like a massive case of foot-in-mouth-forever and made the main feature of the game the princess’s extreme mood swings.

I think this is hilarious. (more…)

Back in my day handheld graphics came in green and green on a green background and we liked it. Actually, I have no idea how I could ever stand that crap. Still, when all else fails I’ll still have my memory, which is filled with games like Beetlejuice.

As is common in the earlier decade of my life, I have no idea how this game came into my possession. Maybe it was procured in The Great Garage Sale. That is more than likely.

So the main character is some lovable character with whom I had no experience. He was tall, his green jacket had green stripes, he had green teeth and crazy green hair. He shot some sort of spiky balls out of his hands, said spiky balls being the main and only method of dealing damage. (more…)

This is the radical brainchild of some russian guy. He made it in his basement for fun, and Nintendo bought it to sell on the Gameboy. Sadly, everyone else in the world ripped off the idea and started selling it left and right for who knows what systems.
Tetris is the most enjoyed game in the world. Everyone has played it. If you haven’t played it, you’re crazy. The different versions and publications of this game are approaching infinity. It’s in arcades. There are flash-based tetris games on the web. Your computer probably came with a free version of it. There’s a version if you want to play competitively. There’s a version if you want to play cooperatively. There are world leaderboards. There are country leaderboards. There are city leaderboards. The game is in every country in the world; even the poorest people play by pushing bricks of mud around. People have danced to Tetris. People have performed the Tetris music a capella. There are hundreds of techno remixes of the Tetris theme. People have dressed up like Tetris pieces and sat around in malls. Tetris has been played on the side of an officebuilding. Tetris has been played underwater. Tetris has been played in space. Tetris has been broadcast into space. It’s just ridiculous. (more…)

There’s a game I revisit regularly. It’s like rereading an old book, or rewatching a favorite movie, or eating a special dinner on occasion.
A long time ago, as a young lad, I walked across the park to my friend’s place almost daily to play Super Nintendo games with her in her basement. Ever since that time I’ve remembered Chrono Trigger with fondness.

This game… it is fantastic. It embodies the genre. It has lasted and has not only impacted all of roleplaying videogames, but lives on as the leader, and has been rereleased twice. It inspired two sequels, the SNES satellite download featurette Radical Dreamers and the full Playstation game Chrono Cross. Chrono Cross is the ultimate fulfillment of the story, but that’s for another week.

The story spreads out as such: A group of heroes travel across time to find and destroy the terrible monster Lavos. That’s hardly it, though. I could (and have, just ask my friends) detail the story for hours and still have more to tell. To those of you who’ve had it (you know who you are), be prepared, there’s more coming. (more…)

I’m really digging deep here. This game sits mounted on a plaque in the inner caverns of my mind.
Final Fantasy Legend II was my first rpg, and it is against this that I compare every such game I have played since and will play in the future.
There’s something you should know about videogames back in the day. They weren’t always easy to play. They weren’t always fun. When you back up and think about it, all you’re really doing is investing many hours to accomplish some task from which there is little reward and after which there is no continuation. No, these games were all about the story.
Well, and rewarding and encouraging obsessive compulsive disorders.
So what was the story? The story went like this:
Some guy in a hat had to hide a piece in a set of extremely powerful magic gems which were being snapped up for use in some fiend’s evil plan to take over the world, so he gives it to his son before vanishing. (more…)

Oh dang, this game holds a place in my heart. At arm’s length it’s a Pokemon clone with some actual characters, plot and setting. Tony Jones, the new kid in town, follows up a dare to grab some crystal from the depths of a cave. The cave caves in, throwing Foney Bones into a world of magic. The crystal summons a fierce creature which protects our hero, who is indeed the hero and chosen one of the titular Magi Nation.

The land is entirely subterraneous and packed full of strange creatures. The method of procurement of said creatures (as yes, you can ‘catch’ them) is to forge a ring out of little bits of ‘animite’ crystal they drop, and sometimes combinations. Each area has its basic critters – woodland animals, fiery fiends, fish, technological irritations and Core abominations – but also two epic monsters of quite some calibur. These things, named Hyrens, are in my opinion the backbone of any true fighting force. I mean… I guess you could level a Weebo up to a competitive level, but even so, those things just suck. Arbolls? Furoks are ok, I guess. Fierce enough to land you a Hyren, at least. (more…)

Ah, Six Golden Coins. It was my first platform game. Ah, the sun was bright, there was a warm breeze, and I was inside playing gameboy.
I was instantly enamored with the little green plumber in his little green world. Everything was interesting. There was an entire kingdom to explore.
The tree, for example, was an entire region full of danger and thrill. The enormous tree was filled with giant ants and beetles and, at the end, a mad bird guarding a coin.
That bird was not quite as crazy as the space alien only accessible by hippo bubble, or the angry and predictable rat in his tunnels, or the witch on her broomstick, or the three piggies in their lego hut at the top of a giant, automated Mario statue, or even the rubbery octopus in the belly of a giant whale.
Looking back, it made a whole lot more sense at the time. (more…)

Red always came first, in my mind. There’s Red, and then blue. Blue was the extra, the spare. Blue was the complement, not a replacement, not even a supplement. It goes both ways though, I guess.
How did I get Pokemon Red? I don’t remember ever buying it. I just vaguely remember spending hours squinting into a tiny monochrome screen. Attached to these faint memories however are a vast amount of emotions.
Ah! A whole world to explore and subjugate. No people, though. No, there was no character depth anywhere in Kanto, just sluggishly moving signs bearing fragments of almost-useful information. Even the main rival (I always named him Gary) was just a series of challenges.
No, the real joy was in defeating and capturing bits of information. (more…)

We so easily forget those games from our childhood, what with these new-fangled graphics and controllers with a hundred buttons. There was a time, though, back in all of our days, when games were more than flash and bang and marketability. (At this point the author removes his hat and holds it over his heart) A time when storylines were solid, when characters truly mattered. Sure, the music was chirps and beeps. Sure, the sprites only had a handful of pixels. Sure, the music wasn’t recorded in studio by an orchestra. But sometimes, sometimes, there’s just nothing more satisfying than blowing the dust out of your Pokemon Blue cartridge, shoving it home in your beige clunker of a gameboy and staying up late into the night with your old friend Charmander.

One such game, fond in my heart, is The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.

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