Super NES

Mar 19, 2013

My Top 100: #8 – The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past ⁰

1992 – Nintendo (Super NES, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console)

I believe that Zelda games were meant to be played from a top-down perspective.

Sure, the age of 3D gaming has been pretty kind to the series, and all of them have been incredible in one way or another. Furthermore, it might have taken a while for me to truly appreciate the side-scrolling nature of Adventure of Link, but even that worked really well. Hell, I’d even be willing to try a turn-based Zelda game! Nintendo did a great job with Super Mario RPG and the Paper series, so why not?

Playing with a top-down view just goes back to that first time we set out on a Hyrulean adventure. It was just as simple as going up, down, left or right, and there was no lock-on targeting to worry about – walk around, hit stuff with a sword, and you were good to go.

A Link to the Past brought gamers back to the basics after Zelda II‘s radical departure from the original formula. Not only was the world bigger this time around, but the Light World\Dark World dichotomy added a whole new layer to the gameplay (pretty much literally). There were a bunch of new items that would become series mainstays, such as bottles, the hookshot, coloured tunics, as well as the legendary Master Sword.

This doesn’t seem like a big deal now, but by adding the Piece of Heart thing (finding four pieces grants one Heart Container), you were given yet another reason to explore both the Light and Dark Worlds extensively. Death Mountain in particular had several caves and ledges for you to drop down from, and it was never obvious how to get to them – you often had to travel from one world to the other in order to get to otherwise impossible-to-reach locations.

I could go on and on about why the game mechanics made it fun to play, but the overall mood of the game is great, as well. From the moment you step out of Link’s house and into a torrential downpour, you’re shown just what this 16 bit console was capable of. The lighting and graphics were not only fun to look at, but they set the mood quite well.

NPC’s were also given a much larger role this time around. No longer were they simply hidden in a cave to give you random tips, or walking around a village aimlessly. They could now be found anywhere on the map, and would not only give you a tip or two, but give you some kind of beneficial side-quest for you to complete.

A prime example of this would be talking to the Swordsmith in Kakariko Village, who mentions that his partner got lost along the way; you KNOW this guy can probably give you a better sword, and you’re left scratching your head, wondering where the hell his partner is. You eventually find him later on in the game, but the idea that such a seemingly minor plotline could help you so much made you want to talk to everyone, and finish every side quest there was.

Throw in some of the best music on the Super NES, and you’ve got one heck of a game.

This memory is from a year or two after the release of A Link to the Past, and it just screams of 90′s pop culture.

I wasn’t necessarily a fan of Game Genies because of their ability to let you cheat your way through a game, but I loved their ability to modify certain things and change the overall experience just a bit. I owned one for Game Boy, but I never had much of a chance to tinker with the NES Game Genie until Josh gave me his, quite a few years later. Naturally, I hoped there would be a Game Genie for Super NES, and when it finally hit the shelves, I rented it from Blockbuster as soon as I could.

The first weekend I had it, I messed around with codes for a few games. Cheats for A Link to the Past were slightly different than usual, allowing me to change the appearance of a few of my items, as well as some of the sound effects in the game. Not surprisingly, I spent most of my weekend playing “Super Zelda” more than anything else.

This was in late April, and the days were starting to get warmer and warmer. My sister had a friend over, and they were laying on the back deck in the awesome weather on old fold-out cushions, chillin’ out, listening to the radio.

I thought I’d try to be cool like them, so I turned off my game, got my own fold-out cushion, and joined them on the back deck. They were listening to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 radio show, and I thought some of the tunes were pretty awesome. The only thing that could make chillin’ out on a Sunday like this even better, would be to have a nice cold drink right beside me.

I go back to the fridge, and get myself a nice cold glass of Crystal Pepsi… awwww yeah. It was on the verge of being flat, which to me, was an extra bonus. I don’t mind pop fizz, but I always believed that a pop on the verge of being flat (not *quite* flat yet) was when it achieved its maximum flavour potential!

I went out, and convinced my sister and her friend that what I was drinking was a glass of water. Pft… they’ll never know…

Anyway, I heard some great tunes that day. I heard this song for the first time, and I thought it was amazing…

Ahhhh the 90′s, a time when even the most awful songs were pretty great.

*This song came out in ’93, so I’m not sure why the clip above says 1996… oh well.*

Feb 18, 2013

My Top 100: #17 – Super Mario World ⁰

by Andre • Mario, Super NES, Top 100

1991 – Nintendo (Super NES, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console)

I wouldn’t call the Super Mario Bros. series stale, but the last few games haven’t exactly been the most revolutionary of the bunch. The first New game was incredible, mostly because it went back to the basics of what made Mario games awesome in the first place. There was no flying, just normal jumps and wall jumps. The Mega Mushroom and Blue Shell power-ups were fun because they were quite different from the norm, and that was nice to see.

These days, we have White Raccoon Mario, and Power Squirrel Mario. We’ve gone from struggling to finish the games to finishing them quite easily, all while Nintendo adds all sorts of little things to make the journey just a bit different than it was the last time around.

Don’t get me wrong! New Super Mario Bros. 2 had so many coins in it that it made the concept of the 1-Up pretty much irrelevant, but it was still pretty satisfying to go on coin-collecting rampages. New Super Mario Bros. U takes the infuritating multiplayer from the Wii edition, tones down the “co-opetition” a bit, and makes it much more fun for you to play through with a friend. It looks pretty damn great, as well.

So, it’s not all bad, I guess. It’s safe to say that, when it comes to the majority of games released in the last few years, there’s very little innovation to be seen. Games like Journey or Minecraft come along and blow our minds, simply because we haven’t seen anything like them before. I guess that’s partly why I’m a retro gamer at heart, and like to remember the days when almost everything felt new and awesome.

Having to follow Super Mario Bros. 3 must have been a daunting task, but Nintendo really pulled it off with Super Mario World. Besides bringing back a lot of the elements from SMB3, they also added a bit of SMB2 in the mix. There were lots of enemies for you to pick up, and the old “carry the key across the level to unlock a door on the other end” makes a comeback… minus the threat of Phantos chasing you, though.

The game also had a completely different setting this time around. Instead of the familiar-looking Mushroom Kingdom, players were introduced to the vastly different landscape of Dinosaur Land. This change brought with it tons of new enemies, a colourful new look, as well as the introduction of haunted houses to the land map. Every Mario game since has had a spooky Boo-infested level of some kind, and it was quite a treat to see what kind of secrets could be found. It was also the first Mario game to have alternate exits in certain levels, which made exploration that much more fun.

In the end, although I didn’t play it as thoroughly as I did other Mario games (i.e. the ones yet to appear on my countdown), it was an incredible game to help to ring in the era of the Super NES – my favourite console of all time.

I’m not sure how it went for everyone else, but whenever I played a new game or console, there was always one person I was looking forward to talking about it with. For me, it was my best friend Josh.

He and his family lived across the street from us since we were toddlers, until they started moving around a bit. They never moved out of town, but whenever they relocated, it always seemed to take a few months to re-establish communication with them. I’m not sure if it was because we just didn’t know where they lived, or what! I just have this memory of going months at a time without seeing my best friend. It wasn’t the end of the world to me, or anything, just strange.

I was in the midst of one of these communication blackouts when I had gotten my Super NES. I was psyched beyond belief about my first console upgrade, but for whatever reason, Josh wasn’t really around for me to talk about it with. No big deal, I guess!

The following March at Michael’s birthday party (my other friend across the street), there was a bunch of stuff to do. Organized games, an air hockey table, pizza and cake… there was lots of noise, lots of kids slightly older than I was, but I was still having fun. A while after the party had started, there was a knock on the door. It was Josh! FINALLY, someone at the party who was a bit younger, who I could relate to a bit easier.

I can close my eyes and picture it now – Josh didn’t even have his boots off, and here I was at the top of the stairs, excitedly yelling “JOSH I GOT A SUPER NINTENDO WITH SUPER MARIO WORLD AND IT’S AWESOME THE MUSIC IS COOL AND I’M PLAYING THROUGH IT A SECOND TIME AND I’M AT THE VANILLA DOME AND ITS AWESOME.”

Sorry about the caps, but that’s pretty much how the exchange went. It’s funny, because my niece gets similarly pumped up when describing to us toys or games she’s recently gotten.

Anyway, the rest of the party ended up being pretty awesome. Mike’s mom worked in the clothing department at a store in town, and she managed to get really awesome NHL team hats for everyone at the party. It was chosen at random, but I was pretty thrilled when I ended up getting the San Jose Sharks hat!

A new NHL team with one of my favourite colours in it! Whoo, teal!

The topic of conversation between Josh and I for the rest of the party wasn’t hats or hockey at all. It was mostly about the Super NES, and what games we thought would be awesome on the new console. Contra, Mega Man, Adventure Island… the next few years were sure to be amazing.

This was on my Facebook feed this morning…
It knows me a bit too well.

Feb 15, 2013

My Top 100: #18 – Mortal Kombat II ⁰

by Andre • Arcades, Mortal Kombat, Super NES, Top 100

1993 – Midway (Arcade, Super NES, Genesis, 32X, Game Boy, Game Gear, PlayStation, Saturn, Amiga, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, XBLA, PlayStation Network, PlayStation Portable)

I never had time to “mentally prepare” myself for Mortal Kombat before it came out. There were plenty of other fighting games with realistic digitized graphics, and none of them looked particularly great to me. There was no use getting excited about it coming out, because it would just be like all the others.

Of course, when I ended up playing it, I didn’t think that at all. The characters were fascinating, and even in the censored Super NES version, the finishing moves were enough to spook the hell out of me. Not to the point where I didn’t want to play it, of course! The violence and brutality in the game didn’t change my temperament, either, but I was so curious to see just how far the game would go.

So, when rumors started flying about what would be included in Mortal Kombat II, I couldn’t help but be enthralled. Would you really be able to play as Shang Tsung, or maybe even Goro? Would there be more Fatalities? Would it push the envelope even more?

The answer to all those questions was an emphatic “yes”… except the Goro part.

MKII wasn’t released all that long after the first game, so when I saw it pop up in arcades, I was a bit surprised to see it so soon. I could barely see over the shoulders of the older kids playing it at the arcade that day, but what I saw blew my friggin’ mind.

Shang Tsung was now much younger, and though he looked completely different, you could indeed play as him in this game. The bad guy was some dude in a skull-helmet of some kind, definitely hopped up on steroids, or something. The coolest part, though, was that guy in the razor blade hat… who the hell was he, anyway?? You could barely see his face, but even then, I thought he’d be giving Scorpion a run for his money in the “most played character” department.

I don’t know where we were going that night, but I remember being in the car with Josh and his mom on the way into town. I was telling Josh everything I had seen earlier that day, but I couldn’t quite piece it all together to explain what I thought was going on. When I mentioned the guy in the hat, and that his name started with a “K”, he suggested that it might have been Kano. Maybe, but why did I see Kano and Sonya chained to posts in the background in one of the levels?

It all just seemed so odd.

In any case, I got to play Mortal Kombat II quite a few times not long after that, and also got to learn much more about the characters and moves in various magazines. The wait for a home console release was going to feel like forever, especially after hearing that Nintendo wouldn’t be censoring it this time around. All the Fatalities, Friendships and Babalities would be available from the comfort of your living room!

It was only the second game in the series, but you’d hear rumors about being able to do the whackiest stuff in the game. Because we were all so gullible, and had no idea how far Boon and Tobias would go, it was up to us to figure out if these rumors were true or not. I mean, yeah, the game was great because of how easily the combat flowed, and how you could do any one of four finishing moves at the end of the match.

But really, all I ever wanted to do was find secrets. Noob Saibot, Smoke, and Jade were cool and all, but it was the Fergality from the Genesis version that had me intrigued. There was rumblings that you could actually pull off another, much less kid-friendly finishing move, which most definitely piqued my interest at the time. There was also the “Error Macro” screen from the first game that made everyone think there was an unlockable character named Ermac, or that you could play as another Shaolin Monk named Hornbuckle.

That dude on fire in the background of the Pit II level? Hornbuckle was supposedly the guy standing next to him; a palette-swapped and more-powerful Liu Kang with green pants… now, as bland as that may seem now, the idea was enough for me to rent the game for the twentieth time, just to see if I could somehow figure out how to play as him!

The game itself was great, but it was the word-of-mouth thing that really had me hooked to Mortal Kombat II. Ed Boon is still turning rampant fan rumors into actual gameplay elements, and because of that (and many other reasons), I’ll always have a soft spot for Mortal Kombat games… even the bad ones.

In the Mega Man X post, I talked about an awesome birthday party that I was supposed to go to the night after some bad weather hit. My friend Ryan was turning 11, and he had invited his friends over to his place for some pizza, then to the arcades for a whole bunch of gaming. Here was the crazy part – every kid got 20 bucks, and was given the freedom of playing whatever game they wanted!

To a kid, 20 bucks was a fair amount of money! Not only that, but even the expensive arcade titles (like the driving and shooting ones) only cost you two quarters per credit. From what I can remember, it felt like we were playing arcade games for hours and hours… might not have been quite that long, but you get the point.

There were two games that were taking up most of my attention that day - Super Street Fighter II was still relatively new, and I enjoyed Street Fighter games quite a bit at the time, but it was Mortal Kombat II that I spent more time playing than any other. There were a bunch of other cool games at that arcade; Splatterhouse, After Burner with the huge cockpit, Samurai Shodown, Turtles in Time… but I just couldn’t stay away from MKII. The loud, booming audio that came from the cabinet’s speakers was mezmerizing, and I felt like a hero every time I pulled off a Fatality the other kids had never seen before.

That birthday party was definitely one of the highlights of my childhood… what a day!

The other memory I have about the game is the day it came out on consoles. We got pretty damn lucky at Blockbuster that day, and we were able to rent it. Thankfully, my mom had no qualms about renting it, even while my dad had expressed concern that it was a bit too violent. That wasn’t surprising, since he had been a cop for 25 years. He was allowed to think that, so long as it didn’t interfere with my gaming!

When we were about 5 minutes from home, we came to a dead stop in traffic. We could see that cars were backed up for quite a distance, and that it might take a while before we got home, whatever was happening up front. This was quite strange, since this was 15 minutes out of town, and it was usually an easy drive home unless there was construction.

The traffic was moving agonizingly slow, but when we finally saw the reason for it all, my mom and I were quite shocked to see an 18-wheeler way off the side of the road. The cab was smashed pretty badly and sitting upside-down, while its load of lumber was all over the front yard of one of the houses nearby.

I had never seen that sort of accident up close before, so the adrenaline was pumping by the time we eventually got home. I even completely forgot about having rented MKII! For some reason, the first thing I thought of was to call Josh, and be all like “AW MAN, I SAW AN 18-WHEELER ON ITS ROOF, STUFF WAS EVERYWHERE!” I told him all the details I knew, hung up, and then eventually called him back to tell him “oh, by the way, I rented Mortal Kombat II for Super NES, and it looks and plays perfectly”.

I found out the next morning that the truck driver had lost his life in the crash. They eventually re-did that part of the highway, because the corner was deemed a bit too sharp for the speed limits posted in the area. Every time I drive through that corner on the way to Mom’s place, I think of that 18-wheeler in shambles on the side of the road, and those who lost a family member that day.

I own this, but I’ve never played it before.
Can’t wait to see how terrible it is!

Feb 6, 2013

My Top 100: #23 – Mega Man X ⁰

by Andre • Mega Man, Super NES, Top 100

1993 – Capcom (Super NES, PC, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Virtual Console)

Mega Man X was one of those games that felt completely different from its predecessors. However, it didn’t re-invent the formula to the point where it no longer felt like the games we had known and loved for years. It still felt like you were playing a Mega Man game, but, much like the kids who had known the Blue Bomber so well, the franchise had grown up.

Gone were the silly and repetitive Wily plots, friendly companions like Rush and Fliptop, and the awkward Man-monikers that creators had really started losing ideas for. Instead, we got a villain that was actually taller and more intimidating than the main character, a deeper story about a robot who questioned the very reason for his existence, a robot dude in red with long hair and a laser sword, and… what the hell is a Boomer Kuwanger?

Indeed, it was quite different, but it all felt so familiar and awesome at the same time.

The levels in prior Mega Man games sometimes had branching paths, but X took that to a whole other level. Sub Tanks, Heart Containers and suit upgrades were a must if you wanted a serious chance at beating Sigma, and the game really made you work for it by putting them in hard-to-reach places.

Though it only happened for one level, I really liked how the consequences of defeating one Robot Master – er, I mean, Maverick Hunter – affected another stage. Sure, you can probably defeat Chill Penguin much easier if you have Flame Mammoth’s flamethrower weapon… at the same time, Flame Mammoth’s level is much less stressful (and easier to explore) once Chill Penguin has been dealt with. It’s like day and night, and it’s really quite neat.

In the end, Mega Man X was one of the last Mega Man games to truly get me excited to play it. X2 and X3 were fun, but just didn’t live up to expectations set forth by the first game.

This memory ties in closely with another game that I have yet to talk about, but I will share the second half of it when I talk about that particular game on my countdown.

New Brunswick winters are kinda long, and we always experience a wide variety of weather. Rain, ice pellets, freezing rain, freezing fog, snow, or a mix of all the above makes it difficult to plan social outings. If you’re headed out into town on a night where the roads are sure to be quite slippery, you had better plan ahead!

On one particular Saturday night in February, my mom was invited to our friends’ place for supper. I was tagging along, and I knew the weather was supposed to be bad later that evening. I also knew that, if it stayed cold, I was going to have a rough time getting to my friend’s birthday party the next day. After getting wind of what was being planned for the party, there was no way I was going to miss it!

I brought my Super NES along with a few games, most notably Mega Man X. I had rented it the day before, and we had to return it on Sunday anyway – why not just bring it back to Blockbuster before or after Ryan’s birthday party? It just made sense.

That night, I pretty much just stayed downstairs and played some games. I kept looking outside, hoping to see the weather turn bad. I liked sleepovers, and I really wanted to get to this party the next day, so I was really hoping for some crappy weather.

I eventually came upstairs to try and get a good look at what the weather was like. I saw a downpour of (what I thought was) rain in the streetlight in the distance, but from the pinging sound coming from the windows, I knew it was ice pellets. That was it! That was all the convincing I needed. I hurried upstairs, put on my Toronto Blue Jays pyjamas and got ready for a night in. I didn’t ask my mom if we were staying, I just assumed we were.

When I came back downstairs, though, all the grown-ups did was laugh and call me cute! I was crushed! I mean, c’mon, have you even LOOKED outside? It’s terrible! We’re not going anywhere, and we’re sleeping here tonight. End of story.

My mom was trying to explain that we couldn’t just invite ourselves over for a sleepover, and that we’d have to make every effort we could to get home that night. I pleaded my case, and thankfully, the couple that owned the house said it really was no problem to stay over. We ended up staying the night, and going to the epic birthday party the next day was no trouble at all!

I kinda feel bad when I think about it. I cornered my mother into making a decision she wasn’t comfortable with, even though the weather was probably fine to drive in that night.

You live, you learn!

Maverick Hunter - the Mega Man X remake for the PSP... one of two reasons (the other being Mega Man: Powered Up) I regret not buying a PSP!

Maverick Hunter X - the Mega Man X remake for the PSP… one of two reasons (the other being
Mega Man: Powered Up) I regret not buying a PSP!

Jan 28, 2013

My Top 100: #26 – NHL ’94 ²

by Andre • Hockey, Super NES, Top 100

1993 – EA Sports (Super NES, Genesis, Sega CD)

There were some Christmas mornings where I got more than I expected. On one hand, it was fantastic. On the other, I knew I was getting spoiled more than I probably deserved, which always left me feeling kinda guilty.

Off the top of my head, I don’t quite remember what I got for Christmas in ’93, but I do know that I recieved a game in there, somewhere. Perhaps even more than one… not sure, though. In any case, Michael and Brian across the street got NHL Stanley Cup that year, which I was quite jealous of. I got to play it a few times, and enjoyed the “3D” aspect of it. It really was quite impressive compared to the simple top-down view of NHLPA Hockey ’93, which I had played about a year before.

As we were leaving for Baie-Sainte-Anne to see the family (as we always did the day after Christmas), I convinced my folks that a pit stop at Blockbuster Video was necessary. I wanted to play NHL Stanley Cup, and show it off to my dad and cousins in the Baie!

Screw those other games I got; I wanted to rent something else!

Just thinking about that kinda makes me feel bad. I probably wouldn’t feel that great if I got my niece something, and she deemed it “not good enough”. But, because I was spoiled, I got my wish, and we stopped at Blockbuster.

We got there, and go figure… NHL Stanley Cup was out. My dad suggested NHL ’94 as an alternate choice, even though I wasn’t particularly keen on it. It seemed okay, I guess, but Stanley Cup was REALLY cool to show off. This was just a slight re-tooling of the NHLPA game I had already played, and felt like it wasn’t really worth renting.

Some guy behind the counter started talking about how ‘94 was actually a vastly superior game, and before I knew it, we were walking out with it. Fine, I guess. I’d play it, but I’d mostly just stick to the games I actually got as gifts. That was probably the right thing to do, anyway.

As it turned out, NHL ’94 truly was the better game of the two. Where Stanley Cup felt like a free-for-all, ‘94 really allowed you to adopt whatever strategy you wanted, and it flowed a heck of a lot smoother… Mode 7 graphics were cool and all, but when the puck would change hands repeatedly and the camera would rotate back and forth a few times, it made me somewhat dizzy.

Speaking of smoothness, the graphics and animation actually run much smoother on the Sega Genesis version. I’ve had the opportunity to play it, and it just doesn’t feel the same as the Super NES one. It almost played too good! I liked how the Super NES version made it feel like every player was “heavy”, and harder to control in close-quarters action with opposing players. It felt more real, somehow.

I also really liked how every player had attributes that made them all unique, and could all be used to your advantage somehow. Some were fast, but couldn’t shoot very well. Some were slow, but could land hard-hitting checks. Some might lose the puck quite easily, but made up for it with hard slapshots. It also didn’t matter what team you chose, since even the most seasoned player could take down the super-stacked Pittsburgh Penguins with the lowly Ottawa Senators (sorry Greg, haha).

It didn’t take long before we owned the game, because my dad liked it enough to buy it for himself. I could hear him in the next room, playing it with family friends I didn’t normally associate with playing games. One time, he even excitedly called me out of bed to show me the penalty shot he had just scored on. It actually was kinda cool, since it wasn’t often you could score by pressing the X button (the one that flipped the puck up into the air, ever so gently).

During the Detroit Red Wings 1995 run to the Cup Finals, I would play a game against whatever opponent the Wings were playing that night. It was all superstition, but I truly believed I was the one willing them towards the Stanley Cup, and that I had to keep up my end of the bargain in order for them to win it all!

What happened that year? They got to the Finals!

Did they win the Cup? Well, no. They kinda got swept. The New Jersey Devils beat them 4-0 on the way to their first Cup in franchise history… bastards.

They did win eventually it all though, back-to-back, in 1997 and 1998. Whenever I play the game now, I still have that weird superstition in the back of my mind. If I play as the Wings against the Chicago Blackhawks, chances are pretty good that they’ll win tonight, right??

(Answer: No, they lost to the ‘Hawks in overtime last night.)

The glory days. *sigh*

Jan 24, 2013

My Top 100: #28 – Super Return of the Jedi ⁰

by Andre • Star Wars, Super NES, Top 100

1994 – THQ (Super NES, Game Boy, Game Gear, Virtual Console)

For most of us hardcore Star Wars fanatics, it’s quite easy to remember just what it was that made us fall in love with that galaxy far, far away. For me, it was Super Return of the Jedi.

Whenever people ask the question of “what’s your favourite Star Wars movie”, I’m always quick to answer Episode VI. For some reason, that never goes over very well! I’m not sure why, either. I mean, sure, the Empire’s ground forces were taken out by a bunch of teddy bears… keep in mind, however, that the kind of music played in A New Hope‘s Cantina scene is called “jizz”.

For serious.

Try not to take your Star Wars too seriously, folks. I love it too, but they’re just movies, meant to entertain.

Anyway, Return of the Jedi just wraps all the storylines up into a nice little package, and ends it in a way that always gives me goosebumps whenever I watch it. The Emperor is creepy as hell and played to perfection by Ian McDiarmid. The emotionally charged duel between Luke and Darth Vader is more interesting than the one in Empire, just because Vader’s not just “some bad guy” throughout most of the fight - Luke KNOWS he’s his father this time around, and comes dangerously close to falling to the dark side.

John Williams’ score for Jedi is easily the best of all six movies. From the Battle of Endor music (“Into the Trap” is possibly my favourite music of the entire saga) to the low, haunting Emperor theme, I friggin’ love it. Even the Special Edition’s ending music gives me chills, just listening to it!

In the end, though, the reason I like RotJ the most is simply because Super Return of the Jedi was the game that made me say “I’m over my paranoia about space and Jupiter now, so I should probably watch those movies!”

1996 was a pretty eventful year, when I think about it!

I experienced my first ever NASCAR race, which was obviously a big deal, and stuck with me. At the end of grade 7, I was in a school play as an important character with actual lines, and stuff. That was fun, since we went on a road trip and played at different schools around the province. That September, the Nintendo 64 was released… I was *slightly* pumped about that.

On the flip side, there was talk about having my grandmother move into an apartment\nursing home just down the street from the family house in Baie-Sainte-Anne. Not only that, but they were thinking of selling the house, which had been in our family since the early 1900′s. None of that really sat well with me, but it was just a sign of the times. It seems that everyone has to go through that sort of thing, eventually.

On one summer trip to the Baie, I had brought my Super NES as usual. I had also borrowed my friend Abba’s copy of Super Return of the Jedi, even though I knew next to nothing about Star Wars. I had played a bit of it at his place, however, and knew that it was a solid action platformer with cool “3D’ flying levels.

It was an abnormally quiet day in the house, since my mom and grandmother had walked down the little path over to my great aunt’s mini-home, located on the same piece of land. They would talk about this and that, have lobster, do whatever old people liked to do. They were probably playing crib and joking around, like they did so often!

I was playing Super RotJ for the better part of the afternoon when I decided that I really wanted to see what those Star Wars movies were all about. I thought it was just a bunch of unknown actors in there, but was that Harrison Ford that I could choose to play as? I couldn’t be sure, just because he was all 16-bittey, and stuff.

On the drive home the night after, I remember asking my mom a ton of questions about it. Who else was in it? What years were they released? Was Star Wars the one with the “I am your father” quote? Because that’s all I pretty much knew. She told me what she could, of course, but her knowledge was pretty much limited to who the main actors were, and how Mark Hamill’s face got somewhat mangled in a car accident between movies.

Now THAT I had to see for myself.

We got back into Fredericton, stopped at Blockbuster Video, and rented A New Hope on VHS. After I watched that, I couldn’t wait to see how the rest of them panned out.

“Dude, didn’t Obi-Wan just lie to Luke about his father??? Or… was that famous Vader line just a lie???”

Luckily, I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Our neighbor got wind that I had discovered the awesomeness that was Star Wars, and lent me Episodes V and VI to watch that weekend.

The rest, as they say, is history!

Aw, man. Beautiful. Not my image, by the way.

Jan 11, 2013

My Top 100: #36 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time ⁰

by Andre • Super NES, TMNT, Top 100

1991 – Konami (Arcade, Super NES)

I’ve already shared my more vivid memories about this game (two in one post, actually), so let’s just talk about the game for a change.

I’ve mentioned it before, but the music in Turtles in Time is some of the best I’ve ever heard in a game. No matter what console, no matter what epic orchestral soundtracks and big budget composers came after it, TMNT4‘s music has stood the test of time. I can’t imagine it was too difficult to come up with chip tunes to fall under the “radical” or “tubular” moniker, but composer Mutsuhiko Izumi managed to make them all sound like they had a place in the Ninja Turtles universe.

Classic game remakes have been popping up left and right for the past few years, and naturally, Turtles in Time got the treatment with 2009′s Re-Shelled (released on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network). It added a fresh coat of 3D paint, brought back a few of the trademark attacks, and…….. that’s about it.

I’m not sure what’s more disappointing with Re-Shelled – the fact that the stellar soundtrack from the original was completely ignored, or that the supposedly “improved” graphics were severely lacking in the colour department. I know they might have been aiming for something more realistic or gritty, but in a game about mutated turtles who learn Kung Fu from their similarly mutated rat master? Really?

For serious?

Sewer Surfin’ and Prehistoric Turtlesaurus look pretty… bland and foggy.

The only level that actually does look phenomenal is the Skull and Crossbones level on the pirate ship. That’s the only one that truly evokes that sense of nostalgia when playing the game, and if I’m not mistaken, was one of the main reasons they decided to remake the game in the first place!

A missed opportunity, and a darn shame.

That being said, if there was ever a re-release of the arcade original, I’d be all over that. Like white on rice.

…or like green, orange, pink or yellow on rice. Gross.
This looks like something confiscated by the cops. Black market rice?

Jan 8, 2013

My Top 100: #38 – Contra III: The Alien Wars ⁰

by Andre • Contra, Super NES, Top 100

1992 – Konami (Super NES, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Console)

There was a time that sequels didn’t have to blow your mind to be successful. All they had to do was deliver; just create a game with more of the same, only bigger and better-looking, and call it a day. There were fewer things to screw up, and that was nice – no need to worry about terrible voice acting or potentially awkward motion controls, because they weren’t a thing yet. I miss those days!

Contra III just needed to have the same tight controls, the same hectic action, the same aggravating life-stealing multiplayer as Contra and Super C, and we’d be all set!

Thankfully, Konami didn’t screw around, and gave us exactly what we wanted… and it was amazing.

This game scared the crap out of me, as a kid. From the apocalyptic intro to the creepy cyborg boss at the end of level 3, I actually had nightmares about some of the things I’d see in the game. They weren’t so much nightmares where I’d be chased or threatened by these alien characters, but dreams about the end of the world, and how freaky a place the world would be if this guy ruled what was left of the world.

Hey… Roland Emmerich… where’d you say you got the idea for Independence Day, again?

That, and the whole concept of ”outer space” kinda freaked me out. Weird, but let me explain.

My mom worked at a library when I was in school, and still works there, in fact. After class, I’d always go there to kill time before she got off work and made the drive home. Naturally, I started reading random books about this and that, but the books that truly had me hooked were from Isaac Asimov’s “Library of the Universe” series. In it, there was one book for each planet in our solar system, and each had some pretty vivid drawings of what life would be like in the various environments. Very interesting stuff!

When it came time to read the book about Jupiter, there was something about the look of the planet that got to me. I’m not sure if it was the toxic gases it was comprised of, or if it was the giant storm on the surface, staring at me like a massive mole on someone’s upper lip. There was an image comparing the size of Earth to the “Great Red Spot”, which (according to the book) was itself three times bigger than our home planet! My mind was blown… that was spectacular, and scared the crap out of me. For some reason, I started thinking that Earth would miraculously leave orbit, and we’d get sucked into the massive storm on Jupiter.

Yeah. That makes no sense. But to me, as a kid, it made perfect sense. I swore off science fiction (specifically Star Trek: The Next Generation) because the thought of getting sucked into Jupiter just scared the buh-jeezus out of me.

I eventually came around and realized I was being unreasonable, but Contra III was one of my first forays into sci-fi after my so-called “Jupiter phase”.

My motivation? “Don’t let the Jupiter guys win!!!”

OH MY GOD IT’S HAPPENI—-oh… it’s just an image showing the spot is, in fact, NOT three times the size of earth.
Just the same size. Still crazy.

Nov 14, 2012

My Top 10: Favourite Super NES Tracks! ⁰

by Andre • Game Music, Super NES, Top Ten

My iPod is crammed with retro music, mainly from two consoles; the NES, which I counted down my fav’s for already, and the Super NES. They were the two consoles I spent the most time on, so the rest of the music on my playlist is a smorgasbord of music from PC, Genesis, Xbox, PS1, and other newer consoles.

That being said, here are my ten favourite Super NES tracks… again, only one entry per series. That’s the only rule!

10. F-Zero - Big Blue

This isn’t even a game I even played as a kid. I was actually introduced to it by Super Smash Bros. Melee, and that Adventure Mode Big Blue-inspired stage made me want to download F-Zero on the Virtual Console. I’m glad I did!

9. Donkey Kong Country – King K. Rool Theme

The rest of the music from DKC was either only slightly memorable or simply just light and fluffy mood music. With this epic final boss tune, they seemed to set the stage for considerably better music in DKC2.

8. Super Adventure Island 2 – Hiya-Hiya Island

There are some tunes you hear, and you just know what kind of level it is by the sound of it. This one captures the chill of the icy Hiya-Hiya Island palace quite nicely.

7. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island – Big Boss Theme

The boss fight above is what I picture every time this tune starts. The boss fights in this game were really fun to begin with, and the way the music builds here is just perfect.

6. Mega Man X – Sigma Stage 3

It’s not the most complex tune in the game, but I found this little bass ditty to be the best of the bunch.

5. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars – Fight Against a Slightly Bigger Boss

Same franchise? Yes. Same series? No. Sneaky. This music really had me on edge during the big battles, since it was the first turn-based RPG I ever played… I honestly felt that I was in way too deep when I played this one, even though it’s considered easy by RPG vets.

4. Super Metroid – Brinstar Red Soil Swampy Area

This is a tune that does a lot without doing much at all. Haunting and amazing.

3. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – End Credits

Ending music is supposed to wrap everything up nicely, and put a nice little bow on the gift you’ve just played (barf). In a game where you actually feel for many of the NPC’s you run into, this music (along with the visuals) still almost brings a damn tear to my eye… not gonna lie.

2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time - Boss Music

Perfect boss music, if I’ve ever heard it. I can close my eyes when I listen to this, and hear that weird “hit” sound effect. *huh-whomp!* *huh-whomp!* *huh-whomp!*

1. Contra III: The Alien Wars – Road Runners (Stage 4)

There’s a whole lot of music in this game that I had to choose from. Every single stage has music that sets the tone perfectly, and to this day, I don’t think I’ve ever heard such a great soundtrack in a game.

Nov 6, 2012

My Top 100: #53 – Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse ⁰

by Andre • Mickey Mouse, Super NES, Top 100

Capcom was really on it with their Disney games. Aside from TailSpin, I played and greatly enjoyed all of the NES Disney games released under the Capcom banner. From Adventures in the Magic Kingdom to DuckTales (and even The Little Mermaid), they knew exactly how to take a brand name and run with it. You know, like LJN did, just the opposite in terms of quality.

By the time the Super NES came around, I had outgrown some of the cartoons Disney produced. Aladdin was the only animated movie of theirs that I showed interest in, since it had a cool setting, and Robin Williams was awesome as the Genie. There were two great (and very different) Super NES and Genesis games based on the movie, and I enjoyed them both tremendously. Aside from that, though, the house of Mickey had been dead to me for a while at that point.

Regardless of the subject matter, though, Capcom still knew how to crank out a great game. With Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse, they did just that.

Although the game was an absolute masterpiece, it actually reminds me more of the 44th issue of Nintendo Power, which was their 1993 New Year’s issue. Aside from having the game on the cover, it was jam-packed with content, including a Mario Paint stamp guide, Star Fox paper plane cutouts, and best of all, a 16-page Mega Man spectacular!

I believe the Angry Video Game Nerd touched on that a bit in his Nintendo Power tribute episode… it was amazing. But, I digress. Back to the game!

Mickey, Goofy and Donald Duck are playing catch in the park one day when Pluto goes to fetch an errant ball. When he doesn’t come back right away, the group of friends find that the faithful companion has gone missing. It’s up to the titular hero to brave the elements, and save his best buddy from the evil Emperor Pete.

I guess Pete was just hanging around in the bushes, just waiting for his moment to pounce on poor Pluto. What a bastard!

Magical Quest plays like a basic platformer for the first little bit. Mickey can pick up items and toss them at foes, or jump and stomp on them for a quick kill. In the levels that follow, Mickey gains a few abilities that really change the way you play the game. A magician’s uniform allows him to charge and shoot magic (a nice little nod to Mega Man 4‘s Mega Buster), a fireman’s outfit gives him a hose to shoot water with, and mountain-climbing gear gives him a grappling hook, à la Bionic Commando.

The levels never get tiresome and offer lots of variety, and the game offers a nice, fun challenge. The graphics look great, and take on a style much more vivid and artistically interesting than Sony Imagesoft’s Mickey Mania, a massively hyped game released a few years later to coincide with Mickey’s anniversary.

I never owned this game, so aside from the magazine, my memories of this one are pretty limited. I’m definitely hoping to find a copy of it soon!

Best. Issue. Ever.

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Control Pad Blues

Life, games, and the memories that come with them.