Posted on June 13, 2012
I have a feeling it’ll be a long time…
Well, the last time I updated, it was a snowy and cold Easter Sunday. These past few days, the weather has been sunny and warm here in Fredericton, which is quite the contrast from that last post.
I’m slowly getting back to a point where I can freely update this thing without having it feel forced. I believe Tenacious D had a song (or perhaps an episode of their show) dedicated to their “search for inspirado”.
Well, this just might be it for me…
"I tell you what I'd do, man... two consoles at the same time, man."
There’s no reason for Shaq Fu to be in there… but anyway.
My lovely wife got this for me for our first wedding anniversary (holy crap, already??), and it has re-invigorated my love of retro gaming. It’s called a Retro Duo, which, as you can tell by the photo, can play both NES and Super NES titles. An adapter can be purchased to play Sega Genesis titles, buuuuut I’m not sure I’ll go down that road.
I have this, and don't really think I need anything else.
In any case, there’s something to be said about playing a game from its cartridge. I don’t know if it’s the fuzzy image, the lag, the strange glitches that show up on each side of the screen as you scroll, or what… but it sure feels nice.
Hopefully more updates very soon!
Posted on April 8, 2012
Mega Man X (Super NES)
I’m taking a break from editing my latest video game movie to update this often neglected blog of mine. Even though I’ve had my reasons for not touching it for a while, it’s a shame that I’ve let it gather dust for so long!
My YouTube account recently got a copyright “strike”, due to me uploading a Star Wars\South Park mashup that I had downloaded about ten years ago. There are other videos of this pairing that are currently on YouTube, and because I thought all would be good, I went ahead and uploaded what I had. I guess I was wrong in thinking it wouldn’t come back to bite me! Curse you, Viacom!
Because of this strike, I can’t upload videos any longer than 15 minutes like I used to, which puts a bit of a kink in my plans to post these video game movies. The show goes on, however, because I don’t really make these videos for anyone but myself! My lust for video game nostalgia carries on, as does my hobby of creating these silly movies.
Today, on this snowy Easter Sunday, my wife and I are sitting back and relaxing. We’re not able to travel, so why not?
My wife, making use of my Mario\Zelda blanket.
Though I intend to get back to games based on The Phantom Menace in due time, here’s a game that had me just as excited as any updated Zelda or Mario title, back in the day… how would the Blue Bomber fare in the 16-bit era???
1993 - Super NES (Capcom)
I vividly remember sitting on our house’s front step on a summer day, reading a few issues of Nintendo Power with my friend Jean-Luc. While breezing through a Pak Watch section, I had a “eureka” moment… you know, similar to when Lloyd Christmas sees a picture of Mary “Samsonite” Swanson in an Aspen newspaper. There it was, one of the most anticipated moments in my gaming life – Mega Man was making his debut on the Super NES! This was a huge deal.
Unfortunately, I seem to be missing the issue this preview was in, but it showed two screenshots of levels and bosses that didn’t even make it into the final version of the game.
Patiently, I waited. In early ’94, this issue of NP came in the mail. Right off the bat, I knew it was something special.
Ooooohhhh, shiny!
Not only did this issue hold all the info I needed about a game I had waited so long for, but it also had a guide for Mega Man 6 for the NES! I was fairly excited about that game as well, but I had moved on. I was done with the NES for the most part, just looking to see what the new advances the new console era would bring.
Why did I feel the need to colour the other side of it? Oh well!
About a week or two later, I experienced one of those incredibly exciting moments at Blockbuster Video. If you saw a new title on the shelf, and that plastic box behind it as a signal that it was available to rent, it truly was an awesome feeling. I snatched it up right away, and it was mine all weekend long. I was sick with a cold, so this would go a long way in helping me rest.
For some reason, even though I was incredibly excited to play this brand new game, I only played it for bout 15 minutes when I got home. It was a sunny Winter day, and my friends across the street thought it would be a good idea to play some street hockey, like we often did. “Sure. Why not?” I was sick, but a little bit of physical activity wouldn’t kill me.
Much like the YouTube clip I shouldn’t have posted, I was way wrong about that one, too.
I was physically drained after a few minutes of playing. Because I couldn’t play properly and the teams were now uneven (who would want to play with a useless sick guy on their team??), hockey was no longer an option. Instead, we started wrestling and pushing each other off snow banks on the side of a driveway. This wasn’t helping how I felt, either, and I started hacking and coughing while on top of a mound of snow. I layed back and let other kids wrestle each other on top of me, while I just laid back and just coughed up some nasty stuff.
Here’s where it gets gross.
My friend Mike was off to the side watching this, and noticed I had my head hanging off the side of the snow bank. Still coughing, this huge chunk of phlegm came out and hung off the side of my cheek.
All I remember was Mike screaming “AHHHH!!! AAAHHHH!!! PHLEGM!!!! EEWWWWW!!!” I was so out of it at the time, I didn’t even notice I had learned a new word. That was called “phlegm”? I had always just called it mucous?
In any case, the rest of the weekend was spent relaxing in my room, playing Mega Man X and learning all the new little gameplay quirks.
*Not related to Mega Man X, but…*
In issue 56 of Nintendo Power was the following preview for an add-on device for the original Game Boy that I never even knew existed. Though I can’t say I ever actually saw the Game Boy Advance’s E-Reader on store shelves, the idea of being able to play NES games on the go like this seemed like a decent one. I had no idea that it wasn’t the first such device!
Interesting...
Posted on March 7, 2012
“We will watch your career with great interest!”
I’ve always had a love\hate relationship with pinball. On one hand, what’s not to like about the colourful chaos that comes with getting on a point-scoring rampage? Lights are flashing, the immaculately shiny ball is dancing and darting its way all over the place… it can be mesmerizing.
On the other hand, they’re fairly limited in terms of presentation. With older tables, it was common to have a theme, maybe a scoreboard of some kind, or anything to jump out at you and scream “PLAY ME!!” Even though our local arcades had a section in the back for them, I rarely expended my valuable quarters for them. I couldn’t play violent fighters, fun beat ’em ups or light gun games at home, so I stuck close to them.
Not sure if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but I have family in Bristol, Connecticut. About an hour away sit two rather large casinos; Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.
Foxwoods Resort and Casino - Huge, and in the middle of nowhere.
Not only am I not big into gambling now, but I had been dragged to these two places before actually being of age to play anything. I had to find stuff to do while my parents had fun with slot machines, and luckily, each complex had a pretty cool arcade to kill time in.
1999 - Williams Pinball
When I came around a corner and saw this at Foxwoods, I’m fairly sure there were bells ringing, angels singing and Duel of the Fates blaring from the heavens… well, that might have been from the machine itself. In any case, I’m not sure if I ran or floated to the thing, but I downed a fair amount of tokens into it right then and there.
The first thing that popped out at me was the lightsaber. I just friggin’ wanted to bust the glass open and take it for myself.
Best Christmas present ever, though the one from the machine would have been nice, too.
What the image above doesn’t show are two remarkable things I had never seen on a pinball machine before. The first is a video screen that reacts to your ball reaching different parts of the board, and shows various clips from the movie. That’s not too bad, but what blew my mind was a hologram (!!!) on the inside that would react to the ball going through it. It wasn’t always there, but would pop up whenever you got on a roll. Sometimes it was an animation of Anakin’s pod racer, and others it could be a batch of battle droids.
I was quite obviously fascinated by it, but I never again saw it with my own eyes. In the video below, I can’t quite make out exactly what the hologram is showing, but it does make an appearance or two. I think it’s just the angle at which it’s being recorded.
Sticking with the arcade theme, here’s another game I only got to play a handful of times, since it was in our local movie theatre arcade for only a little while.
What’s strange is that I only really got to play this in 2001 or so. I remember seeing Swordfish in theatres (honestly, there was only one reason for me to see that movie) and playing this while we waited for it to start. Really though, that was 2001! That was two full years after TPM‘s release, and long after any interest I had in the movie had waned.
Having either one of these sitting in a game room would be the ultimate thrill, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.
I don’t see myself dwelling on Episode I games any more than one more post about them… I promise.
Posted on February 23, 2012
“There’s always a bigger fish…”
In high school, there was no bigger event than the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. It was a *brand new* Star Wars film, the first since 1983, and was using state-of-the-art sound and visual effects. It was hyped more than any other film in history at that point, and no matter where you turned, it was in your face.
My favourite NASCAR driver, running a paint scheme promoting my favourite movie at the time??? SCORE.
Sitting in the theatre for my first viewing (of five), waiting for the curtains to go up was one of the most exciting “OH MY GOD I’M GONNA PEE” moments in my entire life.
For the record, I didn’t pee. If so, I managed to do it in the correct spot.
Inevitably, several games based on the movie were released. It seemed like every few months, there was a new one popping up. Not counting educational titles (which there were plenty of), ten console or hand held Episode I games hit the market between 1999 and 2002, as did two fairly hard-to-find arcade games.
Even though I knew it was the worst of the Star Wars movies thus far, I was sucked in. Yes, Jar-Jar was groan-inducing. Yes, some of the dialogue was a bit clunky, a trait carried over from the original trilogy. I was only 15 when it was released, so I didn’t bother looking at anything negative about the movie, even though I knew it was there. I just sat back, turned my brain off, enjoyed the ride and everything that came along with it.
I recently saw the movie’s 3D release in theatres, and it brought me right back to 1999…
1999 - PC\Playstation (LucasArts)
This game fell under the Action\Adventure umbrella with a few RPG elements threw in for good measure, and was released for Windows a few days after the movie was released. The version I wanted – for PlayStation – was delayed until September, for some unknown reason. My PC was undoubtedly able to run the game, but I’ve always believed controls with a keyboard to be a bit awkward. Patiently, I waited.
Using a 56k modem, I was able to download the demo once everything lined up just right, and no incoming phone calls could interrupt it. I had a program called “Download Accelerator”, which helped me manage my downloads a little better, but there was no actual acceleration of any kind. In retrospect, I’m not sure how we weren’t driven crazy by how slow everything was…
In any case, I played that introductory Trade Federation Ship level over and over again. Not only that, but I was mesmerized even by the title screen!
I would literally just watch all of the clips on the menu until I got bored! That’s the kind of thing you do when you’re bored and you live in “the sticks”!
1999 - PC\DreamCast\Nintendo 64 (LucasArts)
This one *did* manage to make it out on time for the movie’s release, and basically expanded on one of the best parts of the movie – the Boonta Eve Pod Race on Tatooine. After being introduced to the game by running a smaller version of the track shown in the movie, you’re brought to several tracks across eight planets, culminating in one final showdown on the desert planet.
You could race as either Anakin Skywalker himself, or 26 other racers! That’s quite a hefty selection of characters for a futuristic racing game, when putting it up against either F-Zero or Wipeout.
My one specific memory about this game is going to the medical clinic here in Fredericton (on Regent Street) the day I purchased it. I absolutely despise going to the clinic, even when I’m quite ill. I’ll put off going until the very last minute, because I always hold out hope that my sickness will just go away on its own. Otherwise, sitting and waiting for my name to be called is way too boring for me. It’s not worth it, and when you have a fresh new video game just begging to be played, it’s even more painful.
Many say Racer is actually the best thing to come out of The Phantom Menace, and though I agree it’s a fantastic game, it’s not the best one.
2000 - DreamCast\PlayStation\Game Boy Advance
Don’t worry, this isn’t the one I thought was best. It did have a lot going for it, however.
For one, you could choose to play as one of five Jedi – Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn were there, as were female Jedi Adi Gallia and Plo Koon, both of whom were easily identifiable in the Jedi Temple scenes in the movie. Undoubtedly, everyone’s favourite choice (if only to yell MF-ing obscenities after every MF-ing enemy killed, or every MF-ing time you died) was Mace Windu.
Jedi Power Battles was an arcade-style beat ’em up that rewarded you for combos and points earned through each level. Doing well earned you more effective combos, different powerups, as well as cheats. It was loosely based on the movie, but I honestly don’t recall seeing any of these guys on the silver screen…
I'm pretty sure a lightsaber could cut a... larva-thing... like butter.
If you use your imagination, I guess it's a Krayt Dragon. I always saw it as a giant armadillo.
It was released at the end of my Grade 11 year (in 2000), so I always associate this game with a stressful period in my life. Back then, stress was a teacher leaning on you hard, or friends causing drama at times when you really didn’t need it. Man, we had it good!
That’s the only thing about growing up, and growing wiser than I’m not that fond of. Yeah, if you go through these experiences, you usually learn and move on. If we had known back then, what we know now, it would have been such a breeze. It would have been to me, at least. You don’t have to worry about any of the day-to-day stuff that goes on in your adult life – you just have to learn. That’s it.
Those were the days, man. I wish I could have learned sooner to appreciate it. Kids now don’t realize how good they have it – though the alarming number of bullying cases making headlines is pretty distressing. That’s a whole other subject, though.
Another post about Episode I games soon!
Posted on February 20, 2012
“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?”
Once again, I’ve fallen a bit behind on the “posting regularly” front. It’s perfectly alright with me, since you can’t really force this kind of thing.
I recently completed The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask and began the process of editing cutscenes together to make a movie out them. My thoughts on the game are quite mixed, since it has some clever puzzles, challenging temples and fun boss battles… just not a whole lot of them. It only technically has four temples, where the rest is “fluff”, and not necessarily all of it fun to go through, should you choose to do so.
Even though I have a few negative things to say about it, I loved the atmosphere, and enjoyed the game overall. I’ll elaborate this in a review some time later on.
I will say this right now, because it needs to be said. The atmosphere, as dark and grim as it is, wouldn’t be complete without the music to carry the mood even further.
In the final moments of the game’s “Third Day”, just before the moon crashes into Clock Town (the game’s primary setting), the music in the video above slowly creeps up on you. A timer appears counting down how long you have left before the moon crashes, and the game ends.
You only truly get to listen to the music during an optional side-quest late in the game, where Link is tasked in reuniting two lost lovers. With less than a minute to spare before their world is destroyed, you’re left waiting with the lovestruck woman until the very end… when the love of her life finally walks through those doors with barely a minute to spare.
That’s about as much as I can describe without getting too cheesy, but the movie I post will make things a bit clearer. As you’re waiting for the clock to wind down and the building is constantly shaking from the impending moon collision, you can’t help but think of how weird and truly messed up a situation our own apocalypse would be like.
Not that I believe we’re headed for an apocalypse any time soon. I just find it fascinating. That’s all!
Star Wars game post soon!
Posted on January 29, 2012
Operation C (Game Boy)
For me, the best Contra game is not the original, nor is it Super C, or even The Alien Wars. Despite my reluctance in the past to acknowledge hand held games as memorable ones (even though, I know full well that some definitely are), Operation C is without a doubt not only my favourite Contra game, but probably my favourite hand held game of all time!
1991 - Game Boy (Ultra)
I didn’t own any games in the series, so when I kept seeing previews and ads for Operation C in gaming magazines, it was only natural for me to get excited about it. Not that my parents wouldn’t let me buy the NES games because they were violent – after all, I don’t know how many times they allowed me to rent both of them. I guess I just had my fill after a few days!
On cross-border shopping trips to Bangor, ME, I was always excited to go to Toys R’ Us. Of course, my sisters and parents had other places to shop, and Toys R’ Us wasn’t really up there on their give-a-hoot list. Canada didn’t have a whole lot of those stores, back in the day, never mind little old Fredericton, New Brunswick! I was willing to sit through a few hours of grocery shopping to get my toy fix.
There was something fascinating about walking into their video game section, and how they had it laid out. A full wall could be dedicated to one console’s games, and instead of having the boxes themselves on a shelf, the wall was lined with laminated flaps that had video game box art in them. If you wanted, you could raise the flap to check out the screenshots on the back of the box. When it came time to buy the game, you grabbed a piece of paper in an envelope behind it, then brought it to the counter where the customer service rep would fish it out of their warehouse area.
There was something so special, so important, so Fort-Knoxey about it. Behind that door the clerk just walked through, I could picture a vast warehouse of games, not unlike what I had seen at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
I'd like to think a warehouse of games like this exists, somewhere.
So with a bit of convincing (I don’t think it really took all that much), my mom obliged, and we walked out with Operation C. The minute I plopped my butt in the car, I started the always satisfying video game unboxing process. I quickly read through the manual and other things, and it was time to play.
In reality, it was time for Shop and Save… or Stop and Shop… or Wal-Mart… I don’t quite remember, but having just bought a brand new game, there was no way I was going in. I didn’t care if they’d take a while, because I had my Game Boy, and I’d take Operation C for a ride while they shopped!
Well, they agreed to lock the doors and leave me in the car (it was early spring, so there was no chance of freezing or dying of heat), and I played… and played… and played… it was amazing. The minute I picked up the Homing Gun, I was hooked. Homing weapons are common in games now, but it was new to Contra then. It blew my mind that I could just hold the B button, focus on avoiding obstacles, and let the shooting do its thing.
It was like any other Contra game, but the awesomeness had been Game Boy-ified!! If you think the music was awesome on the NES, it was even more spectacular coming from those tiny speakers!!
Finally, I ended up having my fill – or, I might have gotten “Game Over”. Either way, I was done playing. I looked out the window, and contemplated walking to the grocery store to find everyone and join up with them. The only problem was, it seemed so far away! Could they have parked any further away from the doors?? I certainly didn’t think so. I was in the USA, dammit, and there was no way I was walking out there, alone, in a “foreign land” with a chance of getting lost.
I had this image of the United States being an unimaginably massive place, where if you got lost, you were done for. To any Canadian who has ever crossed the border, the U.S. definitely doesn’t feel like home. It’s always busy, bustling with people, every building seeming plopped on top of one another… to the 8 year-old me, it was a bit intimidating.
I stayed put, played Tetris, and waited.
Like other 8-bit games, the boss entrances and defeats are probably the most theatrical moments it has to offer. What was fun about this game were the little sequences with Lance (or is that Bill??) running across a tiny portion of the level. It gave you a bit of a taste of what the level was, which I always thought was pretty neat-o.
Posted on January 20, 2012
“Eastmost Penninsula is the secret.”
I’ve had the idea kicking around my brain for a couple days to start making my own Top Five videos.
I’m not sure what it is, but there’s something oddly satisfying about taking my favourite things, grouping them together and ranking them however I want. Sites like IGN and GameTrailers have their own countdowns, and I’m immediately drawn to them whenever they’re posted. Even if I disagree with the order of some, it’s just one of those things that someone is fully entitled to, and you can’t help but be intrigued by this person’s (or website’s) point of view. It might even open my eyes to a whole new game I would have never known about otherwise.
In thinking about my possible Top Fives lists, the Legend of Zelda series pops into my head (along with many other franchises, of course). This isn’t only because I’m currently up to my neck in Skyward Sword awesomeness, but because the series has had a way of re-inventing itself every single time there’s a new entry.
Someone needs to make this into a full game. Srsly.
How the heck am I really going to narrow Zelda anything down to 5’s or 10’s?? Even when taking a broad look at them (like a “Top Five Zelda Games” list would do), there are so many things to take into consideration.
Exhibit A – The Top-Down Games
By now, we know that every game in the series has a hook. While the original introduced a new way of playing adventure games (large map with many secrets, unique weapons, dungeons that can be fought in any order, etc.), A Link to the Past introduced an alternate dimension for Link to travel to, and opened up a bevy of puzzle possibilities by travelling from the Light World to the Dark World.
Everything nice about the Light World wasn't quite so nice in the Dark World.
Link’s Awakening took us far, far away from Hyrule to a place called Koholint Island. Furthermore, Koholint Island wasn’t even a real place, but a figment of Link’s imagination – in the end, his adventure turns out to be a dream. Cliché, perhaps, but the Game Boy’s limited number of buttons made for a gameplay alteration that once again pushed developers to come up with ingenious puzzles. Why slap a function on the A and B buttons and call it a day? Why not swap items and combine them to surpass some kind of obstacle?
It wasn't the biggest inventory, but it got the job done.
Combine arrows and bombs for exploding arrows? Check. Combine the feather and Pegasus Boots for a running jump over a pit of lava? Check. The sword was always a valuable weapon, but the hookshot could do the trick in a pinch, if it needed to. In fact, that was sometimes needed.
Four Swords Adventures was actually great because of what it dared not to do. Why have a land you can explore freely, when it’s laid out in front of you in a linear fashion? Why have a vast inventory of items, when your Links can pick them up and put them down in favour of others along their journey? The puzzles and fun were intact, but the sometimes-too-much-to-handle vastness of Hyrule was gone. I found it to be a refreshing change of pace.
I haven’t had a chance to play much of the two Game Boy Color entries that link (ha!) to each other via password system. Oracle of Ages focused on puzzles, while Oracle of Seasons was action-oriented – or perhaps it was the other way around, I’m not sure yet. I’ve only played through the first half or so of The Minish Cap, but I know that there are plenty of fantastic moments – not to mention fantastic throwbacks, as well – to be had in all three of those games.
Exhibit B – The 3D Adventures
What can I say about Ocarina of Time that hasn’t already been beaten to death? Well, from the simplicity of the Z-targeting system, to complex dungeons capped by curiously satisfying boss battles (even if you were losing spectacularly, you could still come out on top), it pretty much had everything that other games of the time didn’t have. It was massive, but felt small and familiar at the same time, like I’d traveled to all these areas before.
Though I’ve played through it several times, it’s gotten a bit stale. Somehow, I still feel like buying a 3DS for the sole purpose of going through this game one more time. That’s the true power of the Ocarina, I guess.
The Wind Waker ranks right up there among my favourites, quite possibly because of the simple fact that it looks amazing. I was in shock with everyone else when I saw that first trailer in 2001, more than ten years ago. Sure, it looked artsy, but could it really develop into a genuine Zelda game?
It actually helped each character become even more expressive, if you can believe it. On top of that, the area you could explore was simply massive! Even though sea travel seemed a bit tedious at first, delving deeper into the seemingly tiny islands that made up the Great Sea was quite fascinating. The morbid curiosity from the original NES title was back, and you really felt like exploring, just to know what happened if you entered an island a certain way, blew up a boulder, or simply climbed to the peak of a mountain.
Into the motion-control generation Zelda games went, and Twilight Princess didn’t disappoint. The game was bloody huge, and more or less offered a lot of the same things – just better-looking – that were in Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker. You could turn into a wolf, and sniff out different scents to gain access to new areas. I suppose that was a different way of approaching things.
Skyward Sword is somewhat of a spiritual successor to TP, mostly due to the similar visual style. It’s also one of the more complex, and well thought-out games in the series. Critics and fans alike have gone so far as saying it is the best in the entire series – something I can’t quite agree with, but it’s right up there, all the same. Undeniably, it’s incredibly fun to figure out every brain teaser you come across, and the superb 1:1 controls are worked into the game in a way that compliments it nicely, instead of having it feel gimmicky.
Exhibit C – The “Black Sheep”
To some, these games are considered among the greatest the series has to offer. To me, they’re the games that weren’t necessarily bad, just… different. Not that that’s a bad thing!
As mentioned in my post about Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, it took me a while to realize I was actually playing the follow-up to a game I already knew and loved. Gone was the overworld and your ability to attack foes. Instead, it was replaced by a traditional turn-based RPG mechanic of “encounter enemy on the board, prepare for battle”. To fight those enemies, the game played like many platformers did at the time, and became the only Zelda title thus far to have a side-scrolling element.
But… I still loved it.
The southern part of Death Mountain in Zelda II looks familiar, does it not?
Majora’s Mask is grouped with the games down here because… well, because it’s so weird. Even though Link’s Awakening took place outside of Hyrule’s border, MM looks and feels like it should be similar to OoT. Anyone who has ever played it, however, knows just how wrong a statement that is. The three day cycle takes a bit of getting used to, but once you’re acclamated, you find a world full of characters and enemies unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. I’ve only played through about half the game, so far.
But… I still loved it.
The next two – er, the final two – I have lumped together into one… perhaps that’s a bit unfair, considering I haven’t even played one of them. Phantom Hourglass is definitely fun; I had a great time playing through what I’ve played through so far… but it’s just… on a handheld console. I can’t seem to commit myself to games on a “console” that seems to have been built for vacationing.
I know that’s not true, but I sometimes have a rough time getting around that stigma. I usually just cave and go back to playing something on a bigger screen. It’s unfortunate, because I’ve undoubtedly missed out on many great games because of this.
Still… I enjoyed it, and I want to pick up Spirit Tracks whenever I find it at a decent price.
What the heck was this random tangent all about? Well, the 35+ hours I spent playing (and beating) Skyward Sword had me on a constant trip down memory lane. It was recently announced that the new Wii title is chonologically first in the convoluted Zelda storyline, and it really does set the story of Zelda and Link in motion.
I can’t spoil anything, but everything I grew up enjoying as a kid now has a definitive origin… and as a longtime fan of the series, I’m quite satisfied with that.
Posted on January 9, 2012
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy)
Mario-thon 2012 was a great success! Well… somewhat.
My friends Robot Cousin, Zom-Ben and I got together over the weekend to sit down and play the original Super Mario Bros. games for NES. No ROM’s, no cheats, no warps; just a full-on assault on every stage in the three games we grew up playing more than any others.
The idea looked great on paper, but we quickly found out that this wouldn’t be a stroll in the park. We had our keesters handed to us on a silver platter by SMB1, giving up at World 8 before deciding we should probably move on to a new game due to time constraints. SMB2 was kind enough to grant us plenty of slot game cherries (and 5UP’s) to finish the game, and the evening wore on too late for us to give SMB3 an honest shot.
Mario-thon will happen again. We will prevail. I also believe we should look into hooking up a Super Game Boy to play the following series.
1992 - Game Boy (Nintendo)
Where Super Mario Land felt an awful lot like Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Land 2 is a tremendous upgrade that ranks right up there with my favourite Mario games of all time. Gone are the oddities from the original’s Sarasaland setting, replaced by a more familiar re-imagining of the Mushroom Kingdom. Evil Twin Wario, a new character they made a huge deal about at release time, has taken over the Kingdom (re-dubbed Mario Land) while the famous plumber was out and about in Sarasaland. Mario can tackle each world in any order he wants before tackling Wario’s Castle, giving the game a Mega Man-ish vibe. It’s bloody brilliant!
I seem to be going back to Christmas memories a fair amount lately, but that’s more or less just coincidence… for this game, I’m not sure if I recieved it shortly after it came out for the Christmas of ’92, or if it was later. Either way, here’s the most vivid memory I have.
For Christmas of ’93, I had asked for a Sega Game Gear, and I was convinced I was getting one. There were boxes under the Christmas tree that seemed to be the right size, so I sized up boxes under the tree to determine which one it could be. I needed to know, because by the time Christmas Eve rolled around, I wanted my one present opened that night to be the Game Gear.
By December 24th, I evidently couldn’t contain my excitement.
After going to church that night, the plan was to go socializing with some family friends. Once there, I’d be able to open my “preview gift”. Needing to make sure the gift I chose was the Game Gear, I started making a small tear in the side of the gift I thought it would be. I had to be subtle, and I couldn’t make much noise doing it, but I would have to make a very tiny re-sealable flap, just so that it wouldn’t be obvious I was peeking.
Once I was satisfied with what little I saw of the box – it looked like some kind of bulky gaming device – I grabbed it, and headed to church.
I never enjoyed Christmas Eve mass that much. Not only did I always find going to church excruciatingly boring (sitting, standing, sitting, standing… for 45 minutes), but doing it on the eve of the most exciting day of the year was downright painful. I mean, all the other Sundays I was made to go, I knew there were games, sometimes rented (!!!) games at home waiting to be played. But Christmas Eve, it was like saying “OK, well, we know you’re excited, and you’d probably rather go to bed and let tomorrow morning get here sooner… but hold that thought. You need to go do something you hate, first.”
Anyhow, church seemed to take forever that night, but it eventually ended. I sat in the back seat of the car on the way to our friends’ place, and I continued to try and peek behind that ripped flap on the gift wrapping. I couldn’t see anything anyway, and I even leaned over to try and get the moonlight to shine on it. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the moon was ridiculously bright. Not quite bright enough, however. I would have to just grin and bear it until my folks said I could open my present.
The time finally came, and I got to open my brand new… Game Genie for Game Boy. Ah… no wonder my mom told me to bring my Game Boy to kill time.
Complete with a storage space on the back of the unit for the miniscule code book...
I was far from disappointed, so I popped in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and attempted to make my way through Wario’s Castle… I’d made it there a few times before, but never all the way through it. The Game Genie changed that, however.
This game was a bit easier to fudge together to make a movie. With 8-bit games, you kinda have to take what little the game has to offer to make an honest storytelling flick out of it. With Super Mario Land 2, there’s more eye candy. More to look at = more fun. Usually.
Pretty simple!
Posted on January 6, 2012
Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
It was small, and sometimes hard to see Mario when he wasn’t “Super”, but it was still weird and different enough to be considered a classic.
1989 - Game Boy (Nintendo)
As I mentioned in the post before this one, I got this game to go along with the new Game Boy I got for Christmas in 1990. I had also gotten a few of the accessories for the system; a Light Boy, a battery pack, a screen magnifier… by the time it was all attached, I had to rest the Game Boy on my lap while I played it.
Mine wasn't quite like this Franken-Game Boy, but it was close.
I guess the main thing that sticks out about the game is that holiday, and how I really never put it down. It didn’t matter if I should be spending time with relatives, or in the car ride on the way back home, I was playing that game like crazy.
At a New Year’s Eve party just down the road from where we live, I brought it with me to pass the time. It was a party with a bunch of adults, so what else was I to do? Before heading over, I had made it to the final level for the first time, a crazy ride in the sky with Mario in a plane (which was pretty epic, at the time). Battery pack in hand, I paused my game and we headed on over.
Before getting back to my game (but after plugging it into the wall as not to lose my progress), my dad and another man struck up a conversation about baseball. I played organized t-ball myself, at the time, and I was borderline obsessed with the Toronto Blue Jays. I chimed in, and was eventually asked about who my favourite team was. Instead of saying the obvious Blue Jays answer, I said “the Oakland Athletics” with great enthusiasm! Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco were hitting home runs like crazy at the time, and there really is nothing more awesome in baseball than seeing a guy rip a ball over the fence.
In retrospect, seeing as how both those guys were on ‘roids (ste-, not aste-), it’s no wonder they hit so many… still, it was incredibly fun to watch, and it doesn’t stain my memories of the sport in those days, at all. Same goes for the home run record chase in ’98. Very cool stuff!
Anyway, the man I was talking baseball with said something I had never heard before. “The A’s? Ah, you’re jumpin’ on the band wagon, I see!”
What the heck was that supposed to mean? What did a wagon of some kind have to do with baseball? It made no sense to me, so I just shrugged it off and went back to playing Super Mario Land.
I beat it that night, and eventually asked my folks what he had meant by “jumpin’ on the band wagon”. Of course, I know what it means now, but the A’s had come off a successful playoff run before getting swept by the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. Evidently, my appreciation for the team wasn’t quite sincere, according to this guy!
I can’t help but think of that New Year’s Eve and that Game Boy game, whenever I hear someone talking about jumping on band wagons.
When it comes to making movies out of 8-bit games, it doesn’t get much more “bare bones” than this one. Oh well.
Here’s a title screen, some bosses biting the bullet, Daisy not being Daisy after all, and the game’s credits. Enjoy!
Posted on December 28, 2011
You got… VIDEO GAMES!
After one my more memorable Christmases for getting video games, I can’t help but think back to those years as a kid that I’ll certainly never forget.
1990 is one of the earliest Christmas memories I have, and that’s for a few reasons. Sure, I remember getting a few other memorable gifts in years prior to that, but ’90 sticks out because of which games I got, and it was all recorded on home video. That part helps, I suppose.
To begin with, I woke up to a massive Raphael doll (of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) propped up against our living room coffee table. I proceeded to open the gifts in my stocking, which all seemed to have video game themes of their own – Super Mario Bros. 3 chocolate bars, a Super Mario\Legend of Zelda fanny pack, Nintendo brand gum… it was all in there.
So was the New Kids on the Block “Step by Step” audio cassette, but that’s another story.
Though I recieved TMNT action figures in spades that year, it was the complete shock of opening up the first video game I ever receieved as a Christmas present – a Nintendo Game Boy, complete with the Tetris pack-in. My surprise was caught on video… I hadn’t asked for it, and only once had I ever played the thing.
The Game Boy... Gunpei Yokoi's legacy.
On a ferry trip from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port-aux-Basques, Newfoundlandand earlier that year, I was quite ill from a virus of some kind. I can still close my eyes, and see the paper barf bags we had on hand for me – they had a bendy plastic top you could use to roll it up and “seal” it with, not unlike some packaging I’ve seen on packages of chocolate chip cookies…
Anyway, we initially thought it was sea sickness, so I was brought down to the lower part of the ship, where we were told I wouldn’t feel the effects quite as much. It looked and felt a bit like an airplane, what with aisles to walk through and comfortable blue seats in rows. The only difference were the portholes just above our heads, where one could stand and look out at the Atlantic Ocean at eye level. As I tried to get some rest, a kid who was a complete stranger was nice enough to let me try his Game Boy. The game was Golf, and even though I didn’t quite understand how to play it (I was quite out of it, at this point in the trip), it had me intrigued.
1989 - Game Boy (Nintendo)
There was something alluring about that green and blue display, and the tinny 8-bit sound fit nicely. I temporarily forgot about my illness until the ship docked… and then was sick all the way through the car ride to St. John’s. So much for it being sea sickness!
My folks must have seen how happy playing it made me, because even though I never asked for it, it was definitely one of the highlights from that Christmas season. I also recieved the necessary Mario game to go along with it in Super Mario Land, as well as Mega Man 3. The rest of my vacation was spent playing those games pretty much non-stop!
Other memorable video game Christmases;
1992 – Super Mario Kart, and an ASCII Turbo controller… set up the Super NES in the living room, and found out turbo controllers and racing games didn’t mix.
1993 – Sega Game Gear, packed with Sonic the Hedgehog, and Land of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse came separately. I just wanted to own *something* Sega-related, just to say I could. I didn’t know if the Game Gear was any good or not, but I’m glad I asked for it!
1994 – Donkey Kong Country… again, I had never played this game, but surely, all the hype must mean something. Right? Well, it was (and still is) a lovely game.
Nice little collection!
As for this year, there’s no doubt that I’ve never recieved quite as many games in one shot.
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) – I’ve already started playing through this, and though it’s taking a while to get interesting, it’s still Zelda, and I see myself enjoying it more the next time I play through it.
Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (PS3) – I’m particularly excited about this one, due to the fact that I’ll finally be motivated enough to play MGS3: Snake Eater.
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (PS3) – I’ve been meaning to try these games for a while, just to see what all the fuss is about…
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) – …so when I recieved both games in a combo-pack with a new controller, I knew I’d be in for some fun.
Halo: Anniversary Edition (Xbox 360) – Great game when it came out, and them re-skinning it has me all excited to try it out.
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360) – Seeing Arkham City in action on a 60-inch TV had me wanting it pretty badly… I’m the type where I HAVE to play the original game first, however, so this might get played before MGS3… we’ll see.
Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360) – Here’s another one I need to play, just to see what all the fuss is about. I don’t doubt it’s right up my alley!
God of War: Origins Collection (PS3) – I don’t ever see myself owning a Sony PSP, so having them re-release both God of War games in HD for PS3 was quite the treat. I expect to enjoy myself tremendously as I mindlessly string together combos that look impressive, but I’m really just mashing buttons.
Professor Layton and the Last Specter (DS) – Not mine, as it was my gift to my wife. Nevertheless, I’m sure I’ll be getting some enjoyment out of this one!
Almost as awesome as Christmas deals are Boxing Day deals, so I managed to pick up a few more titles… you know, just to supplement my collection just a bit more.
Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (PS3) – I enjoy the CG-animated show enough to warrant buying this one, and seeing as how it tweaks the formula used in the first Lego Star Wars games, I couldn’t go wrong at $20.
Medal of Honor (PS3) – Another $20 buy, and this time, I’m almost as excited about having Medal of Honor: Frontline re-mastered in HD! I’m such a sucker for old games, I tell you!
Guitar Hero: Van Halen (Xbox 360) – I’m not so much a fan of Van Halen as I am of other artists included in the game, but at $5, why not?
Guitar Hero 5 (Xbox 360) – While I prefer Rock Band over the Guitar Hero series (strumming notes to the beat of coloured squares just seems more satisfying than circles), set lists and downloadable content matters quite a bit. First album Queens of the Stone Age tunes? YES PLEASE!
God of War: HD Collection (PS3) – Alright, so I already own the first two titles for PS2… but c’mon. They had me at “HD re-make”.
So, there you have it. I’ll go back to “reviewing” games in a while, but it was such a crazy and memorable holiday that I couldn’t not just sit back and remenisce!