NES #36 - Bucky O'Hare

I felt like getting back to my roots and writing about NES this time around, so I picked the type of game that NES did best. This is a game about an anthropomorphic rabbit in space and his other space animal buddies. Now I know that this sounds like a Star Fox clone, and you're probably congratulating yourself for solving that puzzle, but in truth Bucky O'Hare is a much older franchise. It started as a comic book in the late 70s and in the early 90s was turned into a Saturday morning cartoon.

Does anyone remember watching the cartoon? I know that I looked forward to it every week, but it came on at something like 7 in the morning. Even at that age I had a little trouble getting up so early. It didn't come on quite as early as Widget or reruns of The Tomfoolery Show, but it wasn't in one of the prime slots like Garfield and Friends or Bugs Bunny and Tweety. Am I getting off track?

So let's run through the checklist to see how good of a game Buck O'Hare is going to be. It is a side scrolling platform game so we can check that box. It's based on a cartoon, that's another one. It was made by Konami so that's a plus. It has a level and character select feature with a world map. You know I love those. Hey, that's all the check marks. This game's going to be great!

Okay so maybe it isn't great, but it's still a hidden gem. It has challenging and well designed levels, but I guess the problems is that some of the levels were designed for other games. Yeah, this game is kind of a thief. Playing through it, I noticed some familiar layouts and enemies. It had a section that looked like the first level of Contra, those moving blocks from the Mega Man series, and elements from the Mario games. Of course all the games it stole from were classics, and they are blended in nicely with some more original ideas. I guess this is sort of like the Oasis of gaming. Sure it stole, but at least it stole from the best.

I suppose the most important feature in this game is the ability to change between characters. In each of the first four levels Bucky is able to save one of his companions who each have their own unique skill. Bucky can do a charge jump, Blinky can blast through blocks, Dead-Eye can climb walls and so on. There will be parts where you will have to use a certain character, and this makes for some more interesting gaming. It also has one of my favorite features of old gaming. To switch between characters you only have to push a button and they appear where your previous character was just standing. There is no explanation for why one character turns into another. Is the ship beaming people up? Maybe that human kid invented a machine that can teleport people? It seems like the group would be able to get through those planets easier if they used teamwork instead of fighting individually. Anyway, the part I love is that it doesn't really matter. The only explanation you needed back then was that it's how the game works. If this game came out now I'm sure there would be some convoluted explanation that only confused things. I'm happier with the old system.

Another thing I enjoy about this game is how it keeps the action moving. When you get a game over you start back in the section that you died in. There's no starting over from the beginning of the levels in this one. This is good for a couple of reasons. First of all it allows the levels to be more difficult. Some points seemed impossible upon my first inspection, and only became possible after I failed a few dozen times. The other thing is that it keeps the player from giving up. If I had to start over at the beginning of those difficult levels every time I got killed by a boss than there's no way I would beat the game or even want to. And I died many times at the bosses. They are thoughtful and challenging. This game is perfectly designed for what it is, and you can't always say that about franchise games.

The NES had a difficult track record with licensed games. Almost every game based on a movie sucked. Almost every game based on a game show or board game was too simple. The few that are based on live action tv shows did not fare well. The one area where they found success was cartoon adaptations. Maybe it's because they fit the look of the NES so well, or because with a cartoon series you could take more dramatic license, but whatever the reason the batting average for cartoon games is very high. Now Bucky O'Hare isn't as good as Duck tales or as fondly remembered as Rescue Rangers, but it certainly belongs in the same discussion even if it as game you've never heard of based on a cartoon that you never knew existed.

Nintendo DS #4: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Professor Layton

Well here's a game that reminds me of a couple different things from my childhood, and isn't that one of the things video games do best? This is an easygoing game that combines point and click adventures with brain teasers. It reminds me of a book of riddles that I used to have as a kid. Actually, it has a couple of the same puzzles. Getting the tennis ball out of that hole is easier than you think.

So Professor Layton and the Curious Village is an easygoing murder mystery with a nice young adult vibe. Is that an odd description? Well it's not really that odd of a game. You play as the plucky mystery solver as he tries to uncover several mysteries involving a strange little town. The game is done in a first person point and click style like Myst or Shadowgate. The trick is that whenever you approach someone and talk to them you almost always get a request to solve a puzzle.

The puzzles are widely varied. Some of them require you to pick from several different choices. Some of them ask you to write in your answer to a logic puzzle. Some of them are more puzzle game based and require a bit more action. Many of them are intriguing, but they are not flawless. So many of the puzzles can be solved by guessing 0,1, or either the highest or lowest number. I was able to solve several puzzles that I didn't even understand by simply picking 1. Another problem is that it's a little too easy to cheat. Want to save your hint coins and get a very high score? Just save before you talk to a person, reveal the three clues, guess until you find the answer, and then reset. I know that's a cheap strategy, but this is a cheap world. Probably most people out there red all the solutions on an online faq anyway. Now I never did anything like this, but I sure thought about it at times.

Well I know that this is mostly just a description of the game, but I think that's somewhat appropriate. Don't get me wrong though, this game does have a lot of character. The visuals are quite nice, and everybody's got a funny British accent. The mystery really goes in an unexpected direction so it kept me interested. Yep, this is a high quality gaming experience.

SNES #5- Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest

Yes, I'm following up Final Fantasy 13 with that fake Final Fantasy game that was only released because people thought Americans were too dumb to play real RPGs. Actually, the two games are much more similar than they initially appear, and I'm glad I played them back to back. They are both action oriented games that are considered black sheep in the series. At least 13 is considered a real Final Fantasy game. Mystic Quest is another story altogether.

When I was a kid I didn't think there was anything strange about this game. It was just the next Final Fantasy game. The gameplay was different, but this did not seem unusual. Developers took much more radical chances with sequels back then. This wasn't too long after we had the side scrolling Zelda game and RPG styled Castlevania game. So I remember renting this one a couple of times and actually being a little excited about how easy it was. I could never beat games that I rented, especially RPGs. With this one I felt like I actually had a chance.

Of course it wasn't too long until we all figured out that this game was different. It was probably around the time Final Fantasy 3 came out. That game was a life altering experience. It was one of the most in depth and exciting games to ever come out, and we all knew that Mystic Quest wasn't in the same league. I'm not sure how you figured stuff out back then, but one of my friends stumbled on the secret. Mystic Quest was made as a simple starter RPG for the American audience. The genre had never sold well in this country, so this was a trick to lure people in.

Of course, the game developers made some odd choices in what they thought the mass market would enjoy. It must've been bad market research or something. They thought that people really liked using heal potions and not knowing how many hit points they had left. There are some points in this game where I was using heal potions every other attack, and the life bar only confuses things more. It's shown as a bar, but enemy attacks are shown as a number above your head. It can get confusing. They must've also decided that people hate exploring, because you almost always know where you are going. The game is mostly stripped down to fighting battles and visiting towns. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can be a shock to the system if you've played other FF games and are expecting something like that.

I really hate to dwell on what this game lacks, but it's hard to avoid. This's game's reputation is based on it being a failed experiment. I know this games gets a hard time among fans, but I actually think it's pretty good. I think it's fun that you get items which let you interact with the environment more. I also think it's fun that the monsters will transform as you hit them. That's something that not even FF3 did. All in all this is a fun little game that is good for a couple afternoons and isn't hurting anyone. I certainly don't see a problem with that.


(As a bonus here's the infamous brain ad for the game. I love how they make the game sound like it's both really hard and really easy. It sure confused me in 1993.)

Playstation 3 #1 - Final Fantasy 13

This has got to be one of the strangest games I've ever had to write about. This is a Final Fantasy game like no other. If you think some of the other departures in the series were shocking than FF13 will put you directly in your grave. The two hour long battles on FF8? That's kid stuff. The side scrolling portions of FF10? This game makes that one look as traditional Dragon Warrior 1. How about those non random battles on FF12? Well actually you're getting warm on that one. Still, no other Final Fantasy game even comes close on the crazy factor.

So how crazy is this game? Well how about this: You don't make it to the overworld for 30 hours. That's right, 30 hours! And I thought slogging through Midgar was tedious. Until that point it is basically an on the rails combat game with a few RPG elements thrown in. There's not even MP in this one. Sure, you gain levels in a way, but even these are restricted by your progress. So much for every gamer's favorite time waster. Once you get to the overworld there's not even that much to do. You do get to go on hunting missions though. I was so relieved to be able to walk around freely that I worked on those for a dozen hours before I let any more story line sneak in. That was actually my favorite part of that game. I got to ride around on chocobos fighting larger and larger monsters in a beautifully rendered world. I would play a game that was just that. Is there a game like that? If not there should be.

Oh and how about those characters? No knights or wizards in this one. Instead you have mercenaries and unlucky civilians with names like Lightning, Hope, and Snow. It's like your normal RPG characters got replaced by the American Gladiators. They also have some of the goofiest dialogue heard in a game in some time. The whole time we were playing it, my girlfriend and I kept shouting things like "Moms are tough!" and "Here comes your hero!". This is much different than your typical cast of brooding heroes, dark and mysterious magicians, and rough but lovable engineers from games past.

And how about the story? There's this mysterious force out that the turns people into superhumans. Since there are two competing worlds that means that pretty much everyone wants you dead. Oh, and each one of these superhumans has a special task that they don't know which turns them into crystal if they complete it. if they take too long they get turned into grotesque beasts. It's a weird story. It's weirder than Final Fantasy 10, and in that game people could only truly be dead if someone waved a special stick in front of them.

So it sounds like I'm blasting this game, but it all works in a strange sort of way. Sure it's mostly waking in a straight line fighting things, but the combat system is one of the most unique and challenging I have seen in an RPG. The shifting job classes really requires you to think. I also know that there are no towns to visit, and you are stopped by dialogue every fifteen minutes, but I like the directness of the game. There are hardly any side quests, and even though the story makes no sense it's fairly easy to keep up with. Your group gets turned into supernatural beings while trying to save your sister, and then you have to run from the evil government while trying to save the world. What could be simpler? The characters also have a directness about them which is refreshing. There's a couple of dark secrets among them, but not too many. They seemed more like real people than most video game characters, and I enjoyed the way they interacted with each other. Plus Sazh is cool. If you thought that Barrett was a little racist with his gun arm, Sazh makes up for it by having a chocobo in his fro.

So this game is kind of a contradiction, but for the most part a fun one. I really enjoyed playing it, but I have no idea why. It was certainly easy on the eyes, and unlike most FF games it even had a good ending. This one was a major departure in the series, so I wouldn't be too surprised to see the next game in the regular series take a more traditional approach. Of course after this game it wouldn't surprise me if the next game was a racing sim. You gotta love those guys over at Square. They certainly know how to make their fans angry.

Nintendo DS #3: Picross 3D

Fresh for Halloween it's, well, Picross 3D. This game is based on the semi popular picross puzzles which I love but you've probably never heard of. I don't want to explain them too much in this post because I'm also playing the regular picross game for DS, and I want to have some words left when I write about it. Needless to say this one adds and extra D.

It's hard to think of a game that I had more fun with and played longer which has less I can write about. It reminds me of the sculptor explaining that his statue was always in the stone. He just had to get it out. If you understand this than you will understand Picross 3D. You've got a block and a set of numbers. Your job is to chisel away at the blocks until a picture emerges. You're like a sculptor who creates blocky 8-bit statues. Actually, I'd be really surprised if there wasn't someone doing that already. Artists love stupid stuff like that.

So what is there to say? It's certainly a portable game. It's simple, addictive, and seemingly endless. I think the main game has about 300 puzzles, and there are plenty more to unlock. It's all stylus, so get ready to have people look at you funny while you're getting your oil changed. When I first got this game I only had one other DS game, so I took it everywhere with me. I half watched countless tv shows while tapping away at little squares. I'm sure ten years from now it will make me feel sentimental.

Just a couple of minor complaints about this one. It's a little too easy to guess your way through some puzzles. This is especially true in the earlier levels. Also, some of the clues don't appear to make sense. I know this could be me, but at the same time I know that I'm really smart. It's probably the game.

So I'm looking back on this post and I'm surprised that I was able to write so many words about this one. What is there to say about a game played on a rotating grid where you make one big block turn into several tiny blocks? It's a good game, but it's not a very inspiring one.

Nintendo DS #2: Dragon Quest 9

I can't believe that it's taken me this long to write about Dragon Quest 9. I think I beat this game about a month ago. I also can't believe that I've been playing so many rpgs lately. What happen to all those 8 bit action games? Playing lengthy RPGs is a good way to have one blog post a month. I need to step up and play some games that don't take 70 hours to complete.

Okay so I guess I do remember why I never got around to writing about this one. When I beat this game I was dizzy with fever, and I hardly even remember finishing it. I do remember that he ending was kind of a letdown. It was so subtle that I didn't even realize the game was finished. I wandered around for a few more hours before I noticed that there was nothing left to do.

I shouldn't complain about it too much though. Dragon Quest knows how to do a lengthy quest better than anyone. I mean, who really knows what's going on in Final Fantasy games most of the time? I know I don't. This isn't because the people behind the FF games don't know what they're doing. It's just really hard to tell a story that lasts 40 or 50 hours. It's not unusual for a Dragon Quest game to be twice this long, and yet they still mostly make sense. It really is impressive when you think about it.

Dragon Quest 9, like several other games in the franchise, works because it is episodic. There is an underlying story that is fairly easy to follow split up by separate quests. In this case you are an angel looking for magical fruit. Don't worry, it's just as silly as it sounds. Anyway, every new fruit that you look for has its own little quest complete with separate towns and characters. This works especially well on a handheld system where a person is likely to play for short amounts of time and then leave the thing behind for a while.

So how was the gameplay? Well it was Dragon Questy. It was fairly simple to play, had plenty of side quests, and looked an awful lot like Dragon Ball Z. At this point what else would you expect? Where Final Fantasy is always trying new radical things that anger the fan base, Dragon Quest keeps things traditional. There is a way to play with people online, but I never tried it. I play most of my games alone because I'm still not quite ready for online gaming. It seems that everyone playing it is either a million times better than me or a million times worse. Maybe I'm just too old for that sort of thing.

As far as the quality I guess I'd put this game right in the middle of the series. It's not as good as 7 or 8, but few games are. I played the thing for 70+ hours, but it felt far shorter. That's usually a good sign. I just wish that it didn't take so long to gain levels, and that you got attribute points after every level you gained instead of every other level. That really prolongs the game. It's also a little too clever sometimes. Does every enemy have to be a pun? I'm sorry if I don't sound overly enthusiastic about this one. It is a very good game, but not one to go crazy about. However, when I got my DS it was the first game I wanted to buy. There's always something comforting about the dependability, quality, and sameness of the Dragon Quest series. It's the hot chocolate of the gaming world.

SNES #4: Final Fantasy 3

I am having so much trouble writing about this game. I've deleted and started over several times. I even had a high quality post, but somehow accidentally deleted it. Now that I'm writing this for the 50th time I'll try to do it right. One thing I've learned about gaming is that it's much easier to write about a bad game than it is a good one. Bad games are funny and insightful. If you ever want to learn about what makes a game great than go play some awful ones. With great games all you want to do is sit back and say "aw yeah, this is the good stuff." In fact, I think that's what I'm going to do.

I think this would be a good time to make some ridiculous comparisons. Of course everybody knows that FF3 is the greatest game ever made. It kicks Ocarina of Time's ass. It makes Super Metroid look like regular Metroid. It's as good as Duck Tales and Bionic Commando put together. FF7 has to bow down to it when they walk past each other in the hallway. It even makes Mario a bit nervous. Of course, the crazy thing about all these comparisons is that they are all true but one. Also, you either agree with me or you are wrong. Like a politician I have no middle ground on this issue.

So I played through this game again after about 10 years and I discovered that it is still the Citizen Kane of gaming. Playing it for even five minutes make me happy that I was born in the 80s. Screw you 1960s. All you had was The Beatles. Today I am much more acclimated to modern RPGs, so the slower story parts are much easier to sit through. When I was 9 and playing through this game I wanted to fight monsters and walk around town more. I found the first half to be a little too slow. I always hated going through the opera house back then, but now it only takes like five minutes. Why did that bother me so much? I must've been a jerk back then. That's the only explanation.

Of course the first half is great, but the game's true bread and butter is the remarkable second half. Every RPG before this one would've ended on the floating island in the World of Balance. However, once the world is torn asunder the bleak and dying World of Ruin opens up many new possibilities and freedoms. It's the most open ended RPG I've ever played that doesn't lose track of itself. There is truly only one thing on the agenda in the World of Ruin, and that is fighting Kefka in his fortress. Before that all you need to do is gather your companions, collect magicite, build up your character's abilities, gain levels, and do side quests. The best part about this is that it's mostly up to the player to decide what to do next. I remember finding it very liberating to do something in a different order than what the strategy guide told me. I didn't have much to rebel against back then. It seems like today's games have two templates. They either tell you exactly what to do and you move in a straight path to complete them, or they are completely open ended and have no ultimate goal. FF3 allowed you to explore and solve mysteries while making you feel like you were playing towards something. They sure don't make them like that anymore.

Heck, this is such an great game that even the flaws are engaging. I'm not sure that the game would be as good if we ever found out what was up with Siegfried or what happened to Bannon. Or how about the bugs and glitches? I fought the dragons legit this time, but as a kid I x-zoned like crazy. How about the one in the Veldt that when you sketch Gau you get like a million dirks? Love that one. These are all things that add color to the game and I'm truly glad they are there. I mean, if games didn't have bugs than what would people make all their youtube videos about? I just wish it didn't take me 15 years to find out the evade stat is meaningless.

So this is a game that has left an inedible impression on me. I know that I have been gushing in this review, and greatest game of all time is always a debatable topic. However, sometimes all a writer has is his hyperbole. What else is there to do when a game has been talked about so much? Of course, with this game hyperbole is quite easy. The sky's the limit.

Sega Genesis #5: Quackshot Starring Donald Duck

Well I said that this time I was going to play something a little more derivative, and I've done just that with Quackshot. It's a classic side scroller just like 1000 other games. I'm back working again now, so I don't have as much time for blogging. I'll probably just phone this one in and get my 20 views already. I don't see the harm in that.

Quackshot is a pretty good licensed Genesis game. I don't know why the 16 bit era was so good for popular character based games, but there sure were many good ones. Quackshot reminds me a little bit of the original Duck Tales, but not enough to relive those past glories. What we have here instead is a classic map exploration platform game. All the levels appear on the map, and you have to go between them solving various puzzles until you can get to the end of them. It's sort of like Strider for the NES but actually a little bit better. It doesn't have the awkward story line or difficult wall jump to worry about. I don't care if that one is an anime styled sci-fi adventure and this one is a Donald Duck starring Indiana Jones rip off. A good game is a good game.

I also enjoyed how Donald only uses non-lethal plungers to attack, but it does actually require some precision shooting. I had to pull off a surprisingly large number of jump shots aimed at just the right spot to subdue my opponent. When you shoot them, the enemies are only stunned for a few seconds and them come back to life, so they will have to be shot multiple times if you want to get past them. I actually thought this was fun even though it sounds miserable. Actually everything works fairly well in this game. Nothing to get too excited about, but it certainly gets the job done. I suppose it could've used a password feature, but there is some charm in an old fashioned game that takes two hours to beat. It's certainly one for the weekend though. You'd hate to get started and not have enough time to finish.

Well that's my article on that game. Did you enjoy it?

Super Nintendo #3: Super Mario World

Well here's another one of those world altering games that I love writing about so much. Actually, I'm starting to get a little sick of writing about groundbreaking games. There's only so much I can say about them. I think I'll play some completely derivative games after this. At least those don't require so many positive adverbs.

But anyway here's Super Mario World, the game that defined the early 90s and ruined my childhood. Now don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful game in almost every regard, but it did help kill off the NES. I couldn't really see the big picture back then. This was before all the used game stores and tribute websites. These days it's hard to think of the NES as being gone. I can go to just about any town in the country and find some store that at least has a couple of dusty old games for it. In 1992 though it almost felt like the SNES was going to eat the old systems leaving nothing behind. At least it had some great new games to play.

Super Mario World took the overworld map system from SMB3 and greatly expanded it. This time, instead of eight distinct worlds you have one long world with plenty of branching paths. There are eight Koopas to fight, but the world isn't split up into eight distinct areas like the other games. It's closer to six with some mini areas between them. Considering how sacred the number eight has become in Mario lore I doubt Nintendo would ever do something like this again. I think it works very well though. It gives the game a more natural feel, and keeps you from knowing what the next level is going to be like.

This game is kind enough to have a save system this time around, but the developers still didn't get it quite right. To save your game you have to go through a special level such as a ghost house. This means you'll have to beat certain levels over and over again just so you can save your game. This is certainly better than starting the game over every time, but it still could've been refined a little.

I guess my biggest complaint with this game has to do with flying. Mario has a system of gliding which allows for continuous flight. This makes it entirely possible to fly through entire levels. Actually it's pretty easy to do. I think it ruins a game somewhat when you can practically skip levels without even having to cheat. If you're good you can skip just about everything. It's a shame too because the levels are brilliantly designed. They're good enough to use an adverb for anyway.

I did enjoy playing through it again, although I did mostly stay on the ground. I was surprised by how quick the game was. I didn't get to all 96 levels before writing this, but I got to over 70 of them. I'd say only took a couple of hours. I can't believe that this game took up so much of my time and energy when I was a kid. I must've been bad at games back then.

It's likely that you've already played Super Mario World before. In that case I'm probably telling you things you already know. Writing about popular games can be tricky because they will be read by more people but there is less to say about them. I imagine there are 100s of articles about this game on the internet alone. Even if you've never played it I bet you know a few things about it. Even with all this saturation though it is still a great experience. It seems to be in a constant state of rediscovery. In fact you should probably go out and play it today. Just make sure you don't fly through all the levels. This isn't cheating, but it sure is cheap.

Game Boy Color #1: Pokemon Gold Version

If you're in your mid 20s than you can probably guess how hard it is for me to write about Pokemon. When I became a teenager was almost the same time the Pokemon cartoon started playing in America, and Pokemania was born. To so many people, Pokemon was a kid's franchise with annoying characters that gave people seizures. I think it's still hard for people my age to look past this today. Of course, people who have been able to get over the kid factor probably already know that Pokemon is the perfect franchise for handheld gaming.

Pokemon is the type of game that lasts seemingly forever, but can be played in short bursts. This makes it ideal for both traveling and staying at home. In the early days of Game Boy, they figured the way to deal with gamers on the go was to make very short games. This way they could be completed during a short car ride. Of course, the smaller cart size didn't help either. This made for a very shallow gaming experience. Pokemon, however, figured out a way to make a very long quest while still making the game a perfect portable. One of the most important features is the ability to save anywhere. This allows you to quickly end your game if you have to stop abruptly. Also, the gameplay is fairly simple, so if you do have to stop it is easy to pick up again. The games can take 100s of hours if you chose, so it can be played on very long trips, or when you're just sitting around your house. I seriously can't think of a game that fits the Game Boy better.

Pokemon Gold is one of the three games that make up generation 2. There are always multiple versions of each Pokemon game with slight variations, so even though there are three Pokemon games before it Pokemon Gold is the second actual game in the series. If you've played Pokemon before than you already know how it works. You travel from town to town, you battle and catch Pokemon, you raise them up by fighting some more, you fight gym leaders and collect badges, you encounter your rival and other villains, and you collect a bunch of items that will quickly fill up your inventory screen. It is truly glorious.

It is also important to note that this game has a second quest. I didn't know this initially, so I actually thought I had beaten the game before it actually happened. This was actually a little infuriating to me because I had spent so much time with this game and was ready to move on. Luckily, it doesn't take too long. However, it is a bit anticlimactic. At least I finally got to go to Mt. Silver.

Oh yeah, and my one gripe about this game is how it's always making you get off your bicycle. Was this for realism? They do realize this is a game where a giant egg can fight a tree. Would having someone ride their bike indoors make the games too implausible? Why didn't it put you automatically back on your bike after you leave these places? It seems like if you're automatically taken off you can just as easily be put back on. Having to select the bike from the menu screen so many times really slows things down.

All griping aside though I love those Pokemon games. I don't think they're usually thought of as RPGs, but I think they're some of the best RPGs out there. At least the first two are. I'm still far behind and have never played any of the newer ones. Hopefully I can correct this the next time I have 100 extra hours or start taking a passenger plane to work.

Atari 2600 #1: Pitfall 2

For whatever reason I'm having a good amount of trouble writing about Pitfall 2. I don't know if it's because the game itself is so unusual, or that I don't know how to write about Atari games. It's not like most other Atari games though. Most console games back then were simply point grabbers. Your purpose would be to collect as many points as possible before you died. Pitfall 2 radically changed the formula. In this game you couldn't die, and you had a definite goal. The game still has you running around collecting points, but this time around things were much more complicated.

Pitfall 2 is one of the few Atari games I'm going to be able to write about in the standard format, so hopefully you enjoy this one. You won't get getting many like it. This game is the sequel to the wildly popular Pitfall, which is often the game given credit for creating the platform genre. I have no idea how true that is, but knowing games it probably isn't at all. Can anyone think of an older game which has you walking back and forth on a plane, collecting things, and jumping over pits? I guess Donkey Kong is older if that counts.

Actually now that I think about it, that's about all you do in Pitfall. The whole point of that one is to use the upper and lower parts of the screen to find the shortest routes between treasures. You have twenty minutes to find as much as you can without falling in any holes or getting eaten by crocodiles. Pitfall 2 has much more freedom. The clock is gone this time around, and also it lets you move every which way. You can jump in the water and swim, or find a balloon and float. The fact that it goes vertical as well as horizontal must've been amazing back in 1984. It also has specific goals. Pitfall Harry has to find a lost diamond, his niece, and his pet lion. After he does this he does a little jig and the game ends. It's a surprisingly satisfying experience for such and old game.

Probably the most unique thing about this game is that Pitfall Harry cannot die. There are certain checkpoints throughout the game, and when he gets hit by something he is simply spirited away to the last checkpoint. Instead of dying you lose points and have to do that section over again. It can get frustrating, especially in the final section with all the low flying birds and bats. It would make me want to pull my hair out if I had any.

The fact that collecting points is such a priority in this game puts it in a really interesting spot in gaming history. 1984 would be the year that Atari would essentially implode. It was also right around this time that we lost Colecovision, Intellivision, Odyssey 2, and basically all the consoles of that generation. The video game marked seemed almost dead until late 1985 when the NES came along and saved the world. It featured a brand new type of game which emphasized exploration and goal completion over point collecting. Pitfall 2 exists as both an old fashioned point collector and a newer platform style game. It was one of the few times after 1981 that Atari put out a game that was truly innovative and fun. After that point they were usually one or the other, or even more often neither.

So as you can tell, I'm a big fan of Pitfall 2. I think it is much better than the first one, and overall one of the best games on the system. Even though there are no lives it's still a challenge. This game has both the satisfaction of finishing something and the excitement and replay value of a classic arcade game. When I was playing this game, I told my girlfriend that I was really going to gush about this game. Honestly I said even more nice things about it than I expected. It really is a classic.

NES #35: Adventures of Lolo

Adventures of Lolo was the last game I beat before I started this blog. I could've written about it back then, but since I'm a stickler for my own arbitrary and meaningless rules I decided to save it. I'm glad I did it, because I've been on a massive dry spell lately. I keep wandering from game to game without being able to focus on one long enough to finish. I get in moods like this, so it's nice to still have some NES games to fall back on. Hopefully this will help me build up momentum as my blog moves forward.

Lolo is a very good game, and it's one of the genres that I miss most from the 8-bit era. There used to be many of these one screen action/puzzle games. I used to love these for several reasons. First of all, they made me use my brain. Even as a little kid I was sort of a stuck up nerd. Secondly, I loved how many levels they had. This was back during a time when levels were everything, and in my opinion the more there were the better the game would be. I also loved how short the passwords in these games were. The whole concept of passwords made no since to me as a kid. I thought that people picked out any ol' random word they wanted for. I couldn't understand why some of them were so long. Now I understand that they were actually pieces of code, and it makes perfect since why a one screen puzzle game would have a shorter password than an epic rpg. Still, 4 letter passwords are certainly a plus.

Lolo has a fairly simple concept. You collect hearts and then open up a treasure chest before something kills you. You will also occasionally be able to turn some monsters into eggs. It's sort of like Bubble Bobble without all the jumping. Some of the puzzles are quite fiendish while others just require walking very fast or not being an idiot. I'm proud of myself for being able to get through this whole game without looking up any of the puzzles. At least that's what I did the first time through. The second time I was in a big hurry so I looked a couple of things up. I don't figure it's really cheating if I've done it all before.

This is a very good game, but there are a couple of things that really annoy me. The main complaint I have about this game is how exact it requires you to be. Now I understand that action/puzzle games are very much about the planning and need to be exact, but the problems in Lolo appear to be more control issues than design flaws. Imagine that you have just spend several minutes plotting out a level and have executed everything personally. Now it is time to go move the final block. But wait a second, the block was moved an inch closer to the wall, and now it is impossible to move. You can imagine my frustration as this happens over and over. This isn't from the design either. It's from the controls allowing Lolo to push things to quickly. I know that the game would be incredibly slow without the fast block moving action, but there has to be a happy medium somewhere. If you push your block even a hair in the wrong direction it will become impossible to move and that only leads to suicide. Poor Lolo had to commit suicide dozens of times while I was playing, and it's a game that was still fairly fresh on my mind. Would it have killed the gameplay if Lolo was able to pull as well as push? I suppose it would change that way the levels were designed, but I'm sure there would be a lot less broken controllers in the world from angry gamers.

So anyway I did have fun with Lolo. It's not so long and difficult that it becomes impossible. The levels aren't numbered so I don't know exactly how many there are, but I think it's around 60. As I said before, I miss these old one screen action/puzzle games. I can only think of a handful coming out after the NES went under. It's to the point now that if one did come out, it would only be a novelty and not proof that the genre still existed. And while this game isn't the strongest in the genre, it's still a lot of fun. It's also not as expensive as Bubble Bobble or Kickle Cubicle which knocks it up a couple of points on my list.

Nintendo 64 #1: Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64, the first 3D installment of the Mario series, was the game that changed everything. There had been 3D games before this one, but they were mostly on the fringe systems like the Jaguar, 3D0, and at the time Playstation. Sure you could play some 3D polygon games if you felt like spending 500 dollars and ordering all your games out of the back of magazines. Mario 64 was the first one us regular people got to play. When Nintendo got involved we knew that 3D games were for real.

Now before I get into the gameplay too much, I want to spend a little time talking about the early days of N64. I can never remember a console coming out with so much debate and controversy. It was right during the time everyone was switching over to discs. However, before the Playstation finally broke out there had never been a successful CD-Rom based system. Nintendo saw this and decided to go with good ol' cartridges. This caused no end to the gripes in the video game community. I still hear complaints about it to this day. It helps to have a little context though. Nintendo started developing the system in 1993 when cartridges were extremely successful. Even when it was released there were more people out there playing Genesis than Playstation. I'm sure if Nintendo had waited a couple of years than they would've made a cd based system. However, the N64 was still a rousing success even with the small library of games. There were complaints, but everyone I knew was playing it, and that has a lot to do with Mario 64.

After playing through it again I noticed that Mario 64 changed much more than just the perspective. Early Mario installments had been mostly action based. You went from point A to point B while fighting monsters along the way. Mario 64 changed this. Developers now could put in a greater variety of tasks to complete, and the series became much more puzzle based. You now had mysterious stars to find with each one being found in a different way. Half the fun was figuring out the new puzzle. In fact, all the old Mario conventions seem to be put in as afterthoughts. Is there really a reason to go around collecting extra lives? The only difference between a regular death and a game over is where you start on the map. Extra lives only save you a few seconds of your time. Then again, we did want to see what all of that looked like in 3D.

I also think it's interesting how deemphasized the monsters are. I'd say that each level has about a third the enemies that the previous games had. This is probably both because of the new focus on puzzles and the difficulty of getting all the monsters into the new 3D world. It seems like the main purpose for monsters is to help you get 100 coins. This actually makes killing them even more fun than on the older games. The one downside is that in the place of monsters they put in about a thousand of those orbs that shoot fire. Was it really necessary to put those near every ledge and precarious spot? I guess they wanted to make sure we kept moving even without koopa troopas to dodge.

I also noticed this time through how lonely the game is. Other games in the series take place in lively worlds. Even if you can't visit the people you feel like there is a lot going on. In Mario Sunshine you can't go ten feet without splashing a tourist in the face. This game takes place in a lonely castle with only a few Toads who appear out of nowhere to keep you company. I know that Mario goes to other worlds, but this feels more like a temporary trip out. The real world Mario inhabits is lonely and made of stone. This really makes it feel like it is Mario against the world, and I think it is an interesting stylistic choice.

So as usual I had a great time playing this one. It had been a few years since I had really sat down and played it, so it didn't feel that familiar to me. I did go ahead and get all 120 stars as a tribute to my youth. I remember when my brother, my dad, and myself were all competing to see who could get 120 stars first. I can't remember what order we finished in, but it sure was a lot of fun. For the record, the last star I got was 100 coins in Tick Tock Clock. That's a fun level, but it sure is easy to fall down dead.

So 15 years later it's easy to see the flaws in this game. It has all those fat polygons and awkward camera angles. I would actually say that it feels more dated than the older Mario games with maybe the exception of Super Mario Land. However, there is more of a reason to play this game that just nostalgia. In 1996 this game was all about the eye candy. Everybody wanted to get their hands on it just to see those rippling pools and fat goombas. When you play it now, though, you realize how much was put into making this game fun to play. Nintendo could've just put in a bunch of stunning visuals and not worried about the gameplay. I still think the games's biggest accomplishment is that with all the new technical achievements the gameplay still came first.

An error

I was just looking through my blog and I noticed that the picture I have for Super Mario Land 2 is actually the cover of Super Mario Land 1. I'm surprised nobody caught that one. Am I the only one nerdy enough to pick up on something like that? Anyway, that was certainly worth making a post about.

The year in review

Well it's been exactly a year since I started this blog. Since then I've lost forty pounds, got glasses, and grew out a giant mustache. Okay so I only did two of those things, but I'm gonna let you figure out which ones. My original premise for this blog was to play for a year and see how many games I could beat. I'm not going to end the blog, but I am going to stop and look back at my stats. First here's how many games I beat.

NES - 34
Sega Master System - 1
Super Nintendo - 2
Turbo Grafx - 1
DS - 1
Sega Genesis - 4
PS2 - 1
Sega CD - 1
Wii - 1
N64 - 1 (but I haven't written about it yet)

47 games

Of those games I beat 16 for the first time. As you can see, it was a very NES heavy year. That is the system that I have the most games for, and also the one I've had the longest. I beat all the easy ones last year though, so don't expect me to do that well this year. In the coming year I will probably play more 16 bit systems and even some modern games. I might also profile some Atari games that don't actually end. I'm still trying to think of how to do that on here, so bear with me.

Well here's the notable games for the year. I couldn't think of that many categories, so this shouldn't take so long.

Game I had the most fun playing through:

Dragon Warrior 3 - This game was simply an amazing experience, and one of the richest on the whole NES. I had such a sense of accomplishment after it was over that I couldn't hardly play games for a while. I knew nothing would be as satisfying as DW3

Game I had the least fun playing through:

Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Trouble in Wackyland - This game was boring, tedious, and way too easy. It's fun if you like to play the same levels over and over again. I know that I don't unless they are very fun. Well at least I only had to play it twice. Hopefully I'll never have to play it again.

Game that was surprisingly hard :

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out - I figured that since I had done it once I could do it again, but it turned out to still be a big challenge. I still have endless amounts of trouble with Mr. Sandman. It was great to play an old game like this and still get a good challenge.

Game that was surprisingly easy:

Life Force - This game is known for being hard, but this time I just breezed through it. I remember playing this game for hours and hours when I was young, and now it takes me twenty minutes. It's still a good game though. I guess I just have it memorized.

So that's it for my year in review. This blog has been fun to write, and I hope some of you have enjoyed reading it. I guess 47 is the number to beat, but I'll probably be happy if I can get half that. I guess you'll just have to keep reading to find out. How's that for suspense?

Super Nintendo #2: Final Fantasy 2

If nothing else this blog gives me an excuse to play through my favorite games again. It might seem like a waste of time if I wasn't writing about them afterwards. I know, most people would say that video games are a waste of time in the first place but what else am I gonna do?

There are few games I hold in higher regard that Final Fantasy 2. This was the first turn based RPG I ever played. I got it on Christmas of 91 along with my Super Nintendo. F-Zero was the other game we got that day. It was nice that our parents were so concerned that we had a variety of games to play.

This game would eventually become my favorite thing in the world, but at the time it made no sense. It was different than any of my other games. Back when games started up instantly I was shocked that the prologue took so long. It was almost eight minutes before you actually got to play. The fighting made no sense either. The monsters didn't even move. How could the be taking away so much life? Once I found out that you could run I ran from every battle. I think I got to the second or third boss and then gave up on it because my level was too low and I didn't know what that meant.

So I let my cousin borrow it for a year or so, and by the time I got it back I was a much mature eight year old who was ready for complex stories and thoughtful, deliberate gameplay. I was instantly hooked after that, and still to this day RGPs are my favorite type of game. I know that makes me sound like a nerd, but in my universe the nerds are the cool ones. It's all about context.

Of course the things I loved about this game are the same things that kind of bug me about RPGs today. I would say that at the time this game had the most complex story of anything on a console at that time. You had dead people coming back to life, good guys becoming bad guys becoming good guys, an occasional trip to the moon, and a brooding protagonist who sees the errors of his ways. As a kid I was completely engrossed. I wanted every game to be this complicated. It also took me upwards of 50 hours to beat it. I wanted every game to take this long. I would make up games in my head that fit this formula even if they weren't in the same genre. I would think of fighters that had 50 selectable character, or platform games that had a hundred levels. Maybe I was just ahead of my time.

All of this was great about FF2, but now it's 2011 and just about every RPG is overly long and complicated. Most of them don't even get started for a couple of hours. The action gameplay in Kingdom Hearts is fun, but for the first hour you're just walking around a tiny island looking for supplies. By the time I'm finished with that I hardly even want to play anymore. Final Fantasy VII makes you play for close to 10 hours before you even get to the overworld. In Dragon Warrior VII you play for close to four hours before you fight in your first battle. Luckily that game is amazing so I can forgive it. The biggest offender might be Final Fantasy 13. That whole game plays like one big prologue. It seems like after every room you're interrupted by character development. I really just want to run around, gain levels, and find hidden treasures.

So it's a little ironic that I look back at Final Fantasy 2 and long for its simplicity. At the time it was the cornerstone of video game storytelling. It had a slower pace than just about any other game, but it was completely engrossing. I spent my free time drawing overworld maps and thinking about how cool Cid was. I had my group of friends at school who would get together and talk about what level we got our characters to the night before. Today this game still plays great. It has great music, great characters, and it is easy to learn and get hooked on. It laid the groundwork for practically every RPG that came after it. At the time I hoped that this was the future of gaming. For better or for worse I was right. I just hope that someday I can figure out why I enjoy level gaining so much.

Game Boy #2: Donkey Kong

I don't know if you remember this, but back in the mid 90s playing old games was not something that people would easily admit. When the SNES and Genesis were in their prime most people would get made fun of for still playing the old 8 bit Nintendo, and the Atari was just a strange old curiosity that everybody's uncle had hidden away in his closet.

Of course the kids of the mid 90s are now the adults of today, and there's no end to the amount of nostalgia they will take in. Because of this, practically every old game franchise has gotten a modern adaptation. Maybe modern day versions of Rygar or Toejam and Earl weren't really necessary, but we've got 'em. Prince of Persia got so popular during its modern day run that it even got made into a movie with Jake Gyllenhaal doing his best Persian guy. Trust me, you don't want to see his worst. There are even some modern day revivals that keep the classic style graphics. The mere thought of this would've made a 1994 kid throw up. It was in this climate that Nintendo released Donkey Kong on Game Boy.

Even over 15 years later I think that this is a very special and important game. I was one of the last kids in the world to give up on the NES. My parents didn't make us sell off our old systems like so many others did, so I had a hard time saying goodbye to the old games. I still thought they were great. At the same time I could see the world changing around me, and I thought that in the near future people wouldn't even know of games like Berzerk, Q Bert, and Donkey Kong. Thankfully Nintendo showed us that not only were the old games still fun, but they could be expanded into whole new concepts that worked great.

So the Game Boy version of Donkey Kong shares the same name, but it is only the same as the arcade classic for the first four levels. After this Mario has to pursue Donkey Kong over 9 large worlds. There are a total of 101 levels in this game which would've been impressive on the more powerful SNES let alone the puny Game Boy. This game is an action/puzzle game where in each level Mario has to find a key and unlock the door. Sometimes this is more about outrunning monsters and sometimes it is more about puzzle solving.It has many elements of the old DK games. Mario has hammers, dodges barrels, and collects Pauline's accessories for bonus points. He also has moves that make it feel more like a Mario game. It is a great mix of styles and genres.

I had this game for years before I actually beat it. The first time was when my brother got in a car accident and we had to drive to the hospital to be with him. I think he was happy that something productive came out of his accident. This time through I had less trouble overall, but I'm happy to report that it was still quite a challenge. I died plenty of times, but I always wanted to try the particular level one more time. It has a high replay value for an action game because there are so many levels that you're likely to forget a bunch of them.

So a few months after this game Nintendo released the highly successful Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. Suddenly Donkey Kong started appearing in all the Mario spin off games as well. Then, other obsolete characters started returning. Today the classics have a place in just about every gamer's heart, and they will likely never disappear. When this game came out, though, just admitting that you knew who Donkey Kong was could get you beat up on the playground. Everyone always wants to grow up as fast as possible and throw away everything from their pasts. DK's creator Shigeru Miyamoto has done many great things in his life, but I think that the greatest may be never letting us forget how much fun we had as kids.

Game Boy #1: Super Mario Land 2 - 6 Golden Coins

The other day I found myself with no more games to write about. I like to always have about three in my backlog just in case I get in the middle of a lengthy game and have nothing new to write about. Well, I've been playing Dragon Warrior 4 here lately, and it's taking even longer than I anticipated. It's taking me so long that I completely ran out of games. Luckily I've been saving my Game Boy for just this situation. If you ever want to beat a bunch of games quickly, just get out your trusty ol' Game Boy. This is especially true in the early days of the system where games were usually just dumbed down versions of regular console games. It appears that the system was expected to be played by little kids riding home with their parents. As such, they didn't want the games to last more than a half hour. Unfortunately, I don't have that many Game Boy games, so I won't be able to fall back on it for very long. I guess I'll just have to get to work and play through some real games.

The first one I played through was Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins. I don't have the original Mario Land, but I have played through it. I have to say that the sequel is a vast improvement. It's also one of the strangest Mario games out there. At first I thought that it was some less popular Japanese game that they changed into a Mario game, but as it turns out it is a real Mario game, but it wasn't created by Shigeru Miyamoto. I guess this only makes this a sort of real Mario game, but at least the effort is there.

After the straight ahead gameplay of the first Mario Land, I was very happy to see a world map on this one. The game is split up into six worlds each containing a golden coin. Once you get all six coins the door to the castle opens up and you reach the final level. This game is still about one-third the length of Mario 3, but it is still pretty long for an early Game Boy game. Also, unlike Mario 3 it has a save feature. They finally got that one right. Anyway, the basic gameplay will seem quite familiar, but there are some quirks to this game that make it unusual.

First of all, the items are slightly different. Instead of 1-up mushrooms you get hearts for extra lives. I know that this seems like a small thing, but in the world of gaming it's like turing the tri-force into a square. I'm guessing this is because it was hard to distinguish between mushrooms when there weren't any colors. Also, if Mario gets a carrot in this one he sprouts bunny ears out of his head and can fly. Just like a real bunny. Okay, so I don't know why Mario was always using non-flying animals to fly back in those days. I guess this is more plausible than a raccoon, but only slightly. This is the only game with the bunny ears, and although that's not too much of a loss they were kind of cool. It was more of a hover than a flight, so this led to some interesting situations.

Also, you don't get an extra life when you get 100 coins. This is probably the biggest departure in this game. Instead you save up your coins and play bonus games with them. Well, it's actually just a slot machine that sometimes gives you a bunch of lives. You'll need to save up those extra lives too, because if you get a game over you have to go fight the bosses and get back the 6 coins again. This is the one annoying thing about this game. Luckily, it's not too hard to get a bunch of lives.

The most significant thing about this game is that it's the first appearance of Wario. It's sort of a humble debut for a character that would appear alongside Mario in about a hundred games and become an icon in his own right. Wario is a straight up villain in this game who seems to be getting power from his hat. He has really weird eyes and almost looks like a puppet. Wario was much better after he became more of an anti-hero and star of his own games. I know he knocked koopa troopa out of Mario Kart, but if it had to be anybody I'm glad it was Wario.

I'm surprised about how many words I was able to come up with about this game. It's a fun old game, but nothing to get too worked up about. It's pretty easy overall, but the last level is hard so that makes up for it a little. It seems like anytime I get into a Game Boy mood I will play a couple rounds of this one before moving on to Pokemon. It sold very well when it came out, but it's a somewhat forgotten game today. I love that the world's most famous game character still has some dusty old corners to explore.

Nintendo Wii #1: Super Paper Mario

I hope that I have labeled this one properly. Isn't it the first Wii game that I've written about? Please correct me if I'm wrong. I'm actually starting to have a large blog, so it's getting to be a little more difficult to keep up with.

So, Super Paper Mario is up. This is a game that I wanted to play for a long time, but I was waiting for its inevitable price drop. I expected that to happen sometime in 2008. Well here it is 2011 already and the game is still priced like brand new if you can find it in a store at all. In fact I looked it up on Amazon today and it's not even in stock anymore. You have to buy it second hand. Luckily I took the easy way out. I let my girlfriend buy it for me for Christmas.

It you've never played any of the Paper Mario games before, they're the ones where Mario is really flat. They are typically RPGs, but this one changes up the formula a little bit. It's actually a hybrid of classic Mario gameplay with RPG elements. The gimmick in this one is that Mario is able to flip the world from side scrolling to 3D whenever you push the A button. This helps you find countless secrets, but it also leads me to my biggest complaint about this game.

I've probably talked about it on here before, but it drives me crazy when a game requires you to keep switching items every five seconds. This makes me think of games like Crystalis and Final Fantasy Adventure where every monster seems to require a different weapon to kill it. This causes otherwise fast paced action games to feel like they're in that old fashioned slow motion mode where your special controller kept automatically hitting pause over and over again. That sure was a pointless controller feature. Maybe I'll talk about that one later.

Super Paper Mario is one of the biggest offenders of menu screen mania that I've ever seen. Remember that 3D feature? Well it only lasts a few seconds at a time. So if you want to find everything you'll be doing that a lot. Also, you've got four characters to chose from. Each one of them has some special skill that makes them a requirement in certain areas. It's not uncommon to switch between them every couple of minutes. So that's a return to a menu screen for each of these plus the changes for when you want to go back over sections of the level with 3D Mario. In addition to this you have all these little things following you around called Pixls. They have their own special skills. One is a bomb, one throws things, and so on. There are close to a dozen of them. Guess how you switch between them? That's right, a menu screen! The menu screen doesn't take very long to get to, but it's still a hassle going back to it over and over. It would've been much better if they would've made the Pixls controller moves instead of selectable characters, or if they would've let you toggle through characters on the game screen, or even let all of your characters turn the world 3D. At least there aren't transformation screens when you switch between characters. This isn't a Final Fantasy X-2 scenario thank goodness.

Besides that one major flaw, however, it's a very good game. It's certainly one of the best early Wii games. The gameplay is certainly very clever, and the reduction in towns to visit make it more acton based than the other games in the series. It also has a storyline with much higher stakes than your usual Mario game. There's no princess to save this time. Mario is trying to stop an entire world from being sucked into oblivion by a crazy count with a romantic past. As you progress the black hole keeps getting bigger and bigger which gives this game a real sense of urgency. I know that the world's not really going to fall into oblivion, but it's done so effectively that it still makes me a little nervous when the ground starts rumbling.

So what surprised me about this game? Well the length was a bit of a surprise. After a quick start I was expecting it to only take about 15 hours, but it ended up almost twice that. I was surprised by the variety of levels. All the advertisements I saw for this game showed a fairly typical SMB1 style level, so I was expecting all the levels to resemble New Super Mario Brothers. Thankfully there was a great amount of variety in both the designs and tasks. There were still puzzles to solve and characters to meat, so this kept the game interesting.

It seems like there are only two categories of Wii games. There are the above average ones which there are probably about 50 and the awful ones which number about 500. Has anyone out there played a Wii game that was just okay? Those games might exist, but I've never seen them. Super Paper Mario is certainly above average. Actually, it's probably one of the better games on the system. If this was a couple years ago it would be a shining beacon among all the crappy Wii games. Luckily the system really came into its own in the last couple years and there are now many very good Wii games to chose from. However, even with all the recent successes this one is still a standout. I just hope you like menu screens.

Collector Chronicles: Super Rare Games #2

Today's rarity focus is on Sega. They have a very interesting and colorful history, but I'm not going to focus on that. I am going to make vague observations about games that I will most likely never get to play. I hope you enjoy it!

Sega Master System: James "Buster" Douglas Knockout Boxing

Sonic the Hedgehog is close, but none of the US games are harder to find and more expensive than this one. This is almost always the last game collectors get for the system. I hardly ever see them on Ebay, but there might be a couple of logical reasons for that. First of all, it has a very confusing title. You can't just type in "Buster Douglas" or you'll get a bunch of boxing memorabilia. This turns away confused game collectors. Also, the Genesis version is much more common, so it's difficult sorting through all of them to find the two SMS copies on there. I guess the easiest way to do that would be to set your search to show the most expensive first. 100 dollars is a pretty good price for it if you ever see one with a box.

Sega Genesis: M.U.S.H.A.

For years I didn't think Genesis even had any rare games. It doesn't have the large amount of online support that Atari and Nintendo does, so its history is a little more hidden. Well as it turns out there's this game called M.U.S.H.A. for it, which is also an annoying title to type. I really don't know much about this game, but it seems like the Genesis has about 20 popular games and 700 obscure ones, so my ignorance can be forgiven. Due to this game's obscurity it seems a little more likely to show up cheap in the wild. Keep your eyes open.

Sega CD: Keio Flying Squadron

Now Sega CDs got some expensive games. Almost any famous game or RPG is going to cost you a good amount, but not even Shining Force CD or Snatcher cost as much as Keio Flying Squadron. I have no idea where the legend of this game comes from as it's not even that rare. There are plenty to be found online everyday. It's also a side scrolling shooter, which makes it sound more like a rare Turbografx game than a Sega CD game. On top of everything else, it's only a good game and not a great one. Would someone please explain this one to me?

32X: The Amazing Spider-Man: Web of Fire

Sure it was only around for about a year, but that was long enough to have a rare and expensive game. I think this was the last US game, so it had a very limited production run. What drives me crazy about this one is that if you leave it out the 32X has one of the easiest libraries to complete. About 20 of the 31 games can be bought for under 5 dollars. Most of the rest are less than 20. This game by itself costs almost as much as the whole rest of the catalogue. Thanks Spider-Man for crushing my dreams.

Sega Saturn: Panzer Dragoon Saga

This is the best example of a game coming out too late. When this game came out the Saturn was already dead. Sega was getting ready to release the Dreamcast and everybody was playing Playstation or N64. This game came out to universal acclaim, but by then nobody had a Saturn anymore. Nowadays it sells for about 250 dollars if you're lucky, so it's still a secret classic. Incidentally Sega released several other great games in 1998 including Shining Force 3, Magic Knight Rayearth, and Burning Rangers. If they had released some of these games a couple years earlier the Saturn might have had a different fate. That just wouldn't be very Sega though.

Well that's about it for the Sega. I know I didn't do an entry for Dreamcast, but it doesn't have any super expensive games from what I can tell. They have a few that are kind of rare, like Cannon Spike, but they can all be found for a fair price if you look around a little. Perhaps in 10 years there will be some, but until then it's safe. Oh also none on Game Gear. That's all I need to say about that one.

Sega CD #1: Sonic CD

At long last Sonic CD! I've been wanting to play this game for almost twenty years now. I don't think I'm alone in that either. I think this is the game that the most people wanted to play who never got to. The Sega CD was a modest success, but it never really got to smaller places like Arkansas. We all had to read about it in magazines where it was almost always called the best Sonic game ever made. I thought everyone would finally get the chance when all those Sonic collections started getting released, but it was left off most of them. By the time they finally got around releasing it everybody already had one of the earlier collections. I will always remember 2011 as the year I finally got to play this mythical game.

All these years I was expecting a nicer looking version of Sonic 2, but this game is unlike any other ones in the series. At first it seems like any other Sonic game. The fist level is certainly familiar looking. Then you start to notice some strange things. There are some very strange design elements such as rings that are stuck in the middle of walls and areas that just don't look like they can be reached. Of course you will ask yourself the most obvious question. "Does this have anything to do with those whispering signs." That's a silly question. Of course it does.

Sonic CD allows you to travel through time. In fact, you are trying to go back in time to destroy Dr. Robotnik's evil plans before the world is destroyed. This means hunting down an evil machine somewhere in the level and destroying it in the past. What this all means is that this particular game is focused on exploration instead of speed. That seems like a small thing, but in a game like Sonic it makes a huge difference. Some of the levels are quite small and can be finished in only a couple of minutes if they are ran through in the traditional fashion. However, if you take your time and explore this game it becomes a much richer experience.

I was a little bit skeptical about this game at first, but the more I played it the more I enjoyed it. It's similar to Castlevania IV in that it has many graphical tricks and game elements that are revealed slowly throughout the game. The more you get into it the more you will see. I always wanted to go on to the next level just so I could see the sights. It also has interesting boss fights. It's not the usual dodge Robotnik and then hit him eight times routine. Some of those bosses I sill don't understand, but I defeated them all so that's what really counts.

My one main complaint about this game is the very easy difficulty level. Now I know that I'm 27 years old and have been playing games like these for about 23 of those years, but I think I could've gotten through this game when I was in kindergarten. The slower pace makes it easier to walk around safely, and none of the regular enemies are that much trouble. The game autosaves, so even if you get a game over you can start back at the world you were just in. It doesn't even make you start over like all those other Sonic games. I will say, though, that I prefer this to the invisible spike after every just system of Sonic 3, but it does diminish the experience somewhat. Now I will admit that I didn't destroy all the evil machines or beat all the bonus stages, but I only see these as making the game longer. It doesn't add to the challenge that much.

So I guess it's time for the verdict. After all the hype this could've been a complete letdown, but I really enjoyed this one. It almost felt like capturing a lost piece of my childhood. It is much different than the other games, but it still fits in with the rest of the series. I think the graphics are really nice, and it is interesting that instead of animals the robots turn into plants. Just be warned, if you do play it than you are going to get that cheesy song stuck in your head. It's even got the lyrics printed inside so you can sing along during the credits. But hey, just be thankful that this isn't Sonic Adventure. At least this one doesn't rap.

Collector Chronicles: Super Rare Games #1

People are always asking me questions about rare games on here, so I thought it would be fun to talk about some of those games that I'll probably never get to own. For this one I'm sticking to older systems that only had one or two extra expensive games. I'm going to leave Atari 2600 for its own post because it has as many games over 100 dollars as all other systems combined. Or at least if you leave out Neo Geo it does. This one is going to cover the other Atari and pre-NES systems. I'll come back in a day or two and do Sega and other consoles.

Atari 5200: Meteorites, Bounty Bob Strikes Back

It's a toss up on 5200, so I'm including both of the famously rare games. Meteorites is probably a little bit more interesting because it comes from a tiny company that is symbolic of the industry at the time. There were a whole bunch of these little known start up companies making games in the early 80s. Most of them, however, made games for the 2600. This is one of the few that is for 5200. It's also one of the dozen or so games on the system that wasn't just a remake of a 2600 game. No wonder it goes for 100 bucks or more. Also, word on the internet is that it was originally going to be called Disasteroids. I sure hope this is true.

Bounty Bob Strikes Back is the sequel to Miner 2049er. Of course that probably means nothing to you. It was a fairly big success back in the day though. I believe that is is a Donkey Kong clone, but I could be wrong. I've heard that this is the rarest game for the 5200. I was actually going to find a copy on line to check on the price, but I couldn't find it anywhere. There aren't that many 5200 collectors out there, but the ones that exist are very dedicated, so I doubt that this game gets sold that often. It's a shame too because I've heard it's very good.


Atari 7800: Tank Command

I have no idea why Tank Command is so expensive. It's really not that rare. You can find a copy of it on Ebay just about any day, and it seems like it was fairly cheap a few years ago. Somewhere along the line line the prices went through the roof. I guess I should've bought it way back when. I'm thinking that the people who ran out of 2600 games to buy started collecting 7800 and that increased demand. I certainly cant think of a better explanation. This is a game from the company Froggo who are significant for being the last new company to make games for 2600. All their 2600 games were remakes of older games though. It is only the two on 7800 that are original. This might be one of the reasons that it is so expensive. As I said I really don't know. All I know is that someday I'm going to be looking at the gaping hole in my collection and wondering why.

Atari Jaguar: Air Cars

There are quite a few expensive games for the Jag, but this one is probably the most expensive of all the games that got a regular release. There are a few home-brews and other special cases that cost more, but Air Cars wins by the sheer fact that it was a real game in real stores. It was also the last Jaguar game to be released which always seems to help in the rarity department. It is such a late obscure release that it doesn't even have a box. I've always heard that this game is a stinker, but I'll probably never get to play it. That's probably for the best, but it does drive me crazy when there's a really awful game out there that I'm not able to play. I have an old issue of Game Players where the review this game. I think they gave it a 30. They said that it was nice having a new Jaguar game to play, but they sure wished it was actually worth playing.

Intellivision: Spiker! Super Pro Volleyball

Spiker is the very las game released for the Intellivison years after the system had lost its relevance. This game came out in 1989 which was 11 years after Intellivison was first released. It's very strange to think that it came out around the same time we got Blazing Lazers and Super Mario Brothers 3. Intellivision was actually kept alive for a number of years thanks to its mail order service, so I'm not sure if this game was ever in actual stores. After the video game crash somebody at the company decided to keep the thing going, and there were a few games released every year. This helped Intellivison pass the decade mark which is quite an achievement for a game console. I can only think of the 2600, Neo Geo, and Playstation 2 reaching that milestone. Anyeay, this was the last of them, and I doubt that there are too many copies floating around. Seriously, who was still playing Intellivsion in 1990? I once heard that it was the only Intellivison game to sell for over 1000 dollars. I don't know if that's still true or not, but it certainly cemented its legacy. I don't know if I'll ever play this one, but I certainly respect it.

Odyssey 2: Power Lords

This is the game on this list that I know almost nothing about. I've never even played an Odyssey 2 before. I do know, however, that almost every game can be bought for 3 dollars or less. In fact, Power Lords seems to be one of the only games that costs anything at all. There are a couple more, such as Quest for the Rings, but this one tops them all. I've searched for it many times on line, and I've never seen a copy of it. If not for Power Lords than Odyssey 2 would be a super easy collection to complete. At least it makes the system a little more interesting.


So this is part one. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to split this one up, but there will probably be two or three more parts. Next time I'll talk about Sega and maybe Nintendo. The games on this list are frustrating, but they do make for exciting trips for the used game stores. You never know when you're going to stumble upon a holy grail. Its the kind of thing that keeps lonely 40 year olds scouring garage sales across the country. It truly is a worthwhile experience.

System Profile: Sega CD & 32X

There was a time about 15 years ago when Sega seemed completely fearless. While Nintendo was busy making the greatest games of all time, Sega was pushing the limits and trying everything that seemed like even a halfway good idea. They released game systems for kids, made a game that you could attach other games into, attempted early internet experiments, and had a few infamous add-ons. Probably the two most famous, although not the least successful, are the Sega CD and the 32X. It seems like these machines get insulted constantly on line, and so of course I had to pick them up. I'm looking forward to setting the record straight.

In case you've never seen them in action, here's what the set up looks like:


And here's what it looks like when you squish a model 1 Genesis in there:


I think they are both beautiful things, even with q-tips on the floor. When you collect video games you end up with those all over the place.

Actually most people feel that this is an unwieldy monstrosity, and they are partially right. It does drive me crazy how many wires it takes. Still when I first put the pieces together I got very excited. I would've been the king at my school back in 1995, at least until somebody got a Playstation.

Here's what it looks like when you've got it hooked up. Yes, it takes three plugs to have all three at once, and there are a few games that require this. I'm sure that's a fire hazard, but as a collector I've seen worse.


I am going to talk about 32X first because it is the less interesting of the two. It's got plenty of character, but it also had a very short lifespan. Actually of all the things Sega ever did, this is possibly the most confusing. It was released only a few months before the Saturn, and its graphics are only a little bit up from the CD. Nevertheless there it is.

I actually think it's got some pretty good games on it. The version of Virtua Fighter is excellent, and so is the version of Virtua Racing. It must've made people feel like chumps who paid 100 dollars for the original Genesis version. I would love to post about some games I've beat for it, but as it turns out I suck at 32X. I've never won a race or even got through Virtua Fighter on the easiest setting. I'm alright at Metal Head, but it is very boring. That seems to always be my luck.

There's actually not that much to say about it. It's a lump that sits on top of your Genesis and plays a few slightly better looking games. It didn't make any sense then and, it doesn't make sense now. There's only 36 games for it that makes it easy to collect for. Of course there are two that are ridiculously expensive. Isn't that always the way?

Now on to the Sega CD. This probably won't surprise you too much, but I love this machine. The entire game library seems to be made up of underrated gems and extremely funny cult classics. I mean, what's better than watching extremely grainy Soundgarden videos?

That's actually the biggest caveat of the Sega CD. The sound is good but the picture is not. It has real actors and filmed cutscenes, but they are very grainy because of the lack of colors. Most of the gameplay sections of the games look fine , but they are often interrupted by grainy videos that don't even make much sense. In its defense there are some games that look very good. Games like Silpheed wouldn't look too bad on Playstation. However, some of them do give you the sense that you are fighting in front of a back drop, which I guess in a way you are.

Of course the system is best known for its full motion video which features a bunch of games that remind me of Syfy movies. The difference is that every once in a while the characters will look at the screen and say "well what are you going to do now?" and then you will have to shoot something or solve a puzzle. As I said before, they are mostly lousy but definitely entertaining. I actually don't have many of these yet, but I will keep you posted.

So those are the latest editions to my Sega collection. I admire the company's boldness, and I wish that people would go back and see their failed systems in a more sympathetic light. Sure you make fun of Sega CD now, but you know you wanted one. Didn't you think that Sewer Shark looked like the most awesome game ever? Well anyway you should track one down. It's especially good if you like good space shooters, cheesy FMVs, and obscure, expensive RPGs. Luckily, these are all my favorite things.