Video Games
I remember the magical Christmas of 1987. There, under the tree was the Nintendo we three boys had asked for as a present. Ironically, my mom also calls that day as the last one we willing played outside. I was playing N64 the other day and reminiscing about some of my favourite games. Here they are, in no particular order. I’ll miss a few of the great ones, of course, but these are the ones I remember as I write this post.
Nintendo:
Zelda: Link, Ganon and the Triforce. I still remember figuring out you could use the rupees to buy bombs. Should have read the manual.
Super Mario Brothers: Took me ages to beat this game but what a great game. How about that warp zone? We also watched the Super Mario Brothers the TV show. Not as good as the game.
RBI Baseball: This one didn’t have all of the teams but it had some of them, plus an NL and AL all-star teams. We named home runs based on the person who hit them first. An Andre Dawson was one you never saw the ball after you hit it and cleared the lights. A Mike Schmidt hit in the center of the lights and an Eric Davis was a line drive that actually went through the wall down the left field line.
Tecmo Super Bowl: Never owned this one but traded a friend for it. You could play a 16 game season and then go to the playoffs. At some point, if you were say, 10-0 the computer would say, “No, you will not win the next game.” At which point your best player would get hurt and you would fumble sixteen times. Bo Jackson was one of the best runners on the game.
Super Mario 3: Maybe the greatest game of all time. A frog suit, a Tanooki suit, wandering spade cards and so many secrets it made your head spin.
Mike Tyson’s Punchout: Never beat this game but it was infuriating and addicting.
Metroid: Samus is a girl?
Super Nintendo:
Personally, I consider the Super Nintendo to be the pinnacle of video gaming.
Final Fantasy 2: First RPG we ever played. It was also the first game with a deep storyline and I remember how shocked I was when characters died or fell in love.
Final Fantasy 3: Even better than Final Fantasy 2, this one had Cyan and Terra and Shadow the ninja. Also, you could have two players during the battle scenes with the second controller managing two of the fighting party.
Super Mario Kart: I love games that are hard. This one was hard but non-stop fun. I was obsessed with time trials on Rainbow Road, one of the tracks. I would race it over and over to set lap and track records.
Secret of Mana: This one was one of the first of the action RPGs where there were three characters onscreen at a time and two were controlled by players. Also, I loved how you started out with a lance and could then take it to the blacksmith and make it more powerful after getting certain items.
Chronotrigger- One of the later game releases in the SNES’s life but a great RPG nonetheless.
Street Fighter 2: This one started the fighting game craze. The hype for it was unbelievable.
Ogre Battle: This game was great but hard to find, so we just rented it.
Tecmo Super Bowl: We actually owned this one, which was just better graphics and an update of the player rosters from the NES game. Also, it was easier.
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past: Great memories of this game. Loads of secrets.
Super Metroid: Samus is back.
Super Castlevania: Mode 7 and great bosses at the end of the game.
Donkey Kong Country
N64:
Super Mario 64: I actually remember sweating as I controlled Mario walking along narrow walkways with drop-offs to infinity on both sides.
Goldeneye: The ultimate party/dorm game.
WCW Nitro: Wrestling game that was great for parties.
Mario Kart 64: Not as good as the original but a great game.
Killer Instinct: Combo Breaker!
Playstation:
Resident Evil 1 and 2: One was ok but plagued by load times but 2 was one of my favourite games of all time.
Final Fantasy 7: This game made RPGs popular because it had good graphics and chocobos.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater: This was the last game I played that as I was playing I thought, “Wow, this is so cool!”
Crono-Cross: Worthy follow up to Chrono Trigger.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Great game but they made it twice as long just by turning the castle upside down. What a cheap way out!
Suikoden: Little known game that was great fun.
Metal Gear Solid: Great game but too short.
8 comments:
Great blog. I forgot about the names of the homeruns. They didn't have the Cubs but Sandberg was on the all-star team. I threw for over 500 yds one game on Tecmo bowl with Warren Moon. I just remember dad saying he tried to play Zelda but he didn't get the sword so he just ran into everyone and died.
I enjoyed the synopsis (How do you make this word plural?) of the video games even if I didn't really know much about all of them. I know a little more than I did.w
I also was thinking of some of the great Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle games today and wondering how I forgot them.
I was going to comment about the lack of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle games as well. How could you forget the Arcade version for Nintendo. And what about Battle Toads? Now there's a classic tough game. And the one my brother and I lost the most hours to - Contra. No matter how cool the new systems get, I'm still partial to the old school Nintendo.
Battletoads was great but hard. Too hard really. We couldn't even beat it with the Game Genie. Contra was always a trade game because you could beat it with the Konami trick and get tons of free lives. I knew I would miss some games that were classics that I either never played or I didn't consider classics. We also played hours of Super Soccer and Baseball Simulater 1.000 but I doubt they are considered classics by many.
Cili--
I get your name when pronounced the Malay way but for a long time I wondered why someone was using the name "Silly". Note for others-- the letter "c" in Malay is pronounced like "CH" as in church in English making it the word chili. Hot Texas style chili! Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy.
I hate to argue with ya'll, but for my money NCAA Football 2006 is the greatest video game I have ever played. It is the reason that I am obsessed w/ college football. It might because of the sheer dumb luck of finding it. I went to the store to buy a game, I don't remember which one it was and they didn't have it, so for some reason or another, I bought NCAA 2006. I had no idea if it was good bad or anything really. I brought it home and played the mode where you try to win the hiesman with a player you created. I got tired of it after a week or so, and shelved it for 5-6 months. Decided to play it on dynasty mode, and went on about 5 hours of sleep the next 2 weeks. 2008 comes out in a couple of weeks, and I have my alarm set.
Hahaha, I didn’t think you of all people would need an explanation! That’s amusing. Hope you didn’t think too hard!
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