Sega Genesis #2: Pocahontas

I played through this game on special request from my girlfriend. She told me that it was one of her favorite games as a kid. It actually took her a while to track down an affordable copy. I guess it's not that common even though it's a licensed property from the 16 bit glory days. She used to tell me all about this game putting special emphasis on how easy it was. I wonder if this old video game pro will find the game as easy as he expects it to be?

Actually this game drove me crazy! It's an interesting little game that is sort of the kid version of Prince of Persia. There's lots of ledge jumping and puzzle solving, but not nearly as many spikes. You also get to switch between Meeko the raccoon and Pocahontas by pressing the C button. This leads to some interesting puzzles, and for some gamers extremely frustrating situations. You also get abilities from animals such as being able to run and swim faster which is always a plus.

However, this didn't keep me from being completely hopeless in the first level. Of course the best part was that my girlfriend got to watch the whole thing. Dying isn't particularly easy on this game, but you can do things that make the game take much longer. I was expecting this game to take about 15 minutes, but it ended up taking a few hours. You often need Pocahontas to help Meeko get through certain spots, so of course I would run way ahead of him and have to slowly go back and recover him. Meeko can't swim, so of course at every body of water I would either forget to push him a log or I would just miss my jump. I still have nightmares of a poor little raccoon struggling in the water. Don't worry though, Meeko can't die in this one. In addition to all that I missed all the easy puzzles. The ones that just involved pushing a rock were the ones I overlooked in search of something more complex. Sometimes the simplest solution is best.

In fact the only thing I was good at was all that ledge jumping. Of course this is the one thing in the game my girlfriend wasn't good at. Would you expect it to work out any other way?

So there I was making myself look like a fool while my girlfriend laughed at me. I know that sounds bad, but I actually had a great time playing this one. I feel very fortunate to have a girlfriend who plays old games along with me. We had a great time as we laughed at my ineptitude. It was one of those dream relationship moments. My only regret is that I didn't beat the game during that first sitting. Those see-saws were just too damn hard to get past and by then it was pretty late.

I actually beat the game the next day, and it was one of the most enjoyable games that I've played for this blog so far. The game is good but not great, but it it sure had a good story attached to it. My girlfriend grew up loving that game many years ago. It took her forever to find a copy, and when she finally did she shared it with me. I think my favorite part about video games is that they bring couples together. That and explosions. They're pretty cool too.