Thursday 18 July 2013

Most nostalgic Games

This was actually going to be a youtube video in response to the Happy Console Gamer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGh2JGXRVww) , however, at the moment it is hard for me to record video's showing certain games as I don't have access to all of them for the time being. So I decided to write this post instead. This is not a list of my "favourite" games, merely the ones that have had a big impact on me over the years.

8-Bit

My most nostalgic NES game is not one of the Mario games, its not even made by Nintendo. Many people actually believe this to be one of the weaker entries in the series, but for me, Megaman 4 stands out as one of the best games on the system and a game I grew up with and have spent far too many hours playing over and over again. Everything about the game, from the levels, to the music and graphics brings back great memories for me. So much of the game is memorable for me, Skull Man's end of stage with the bright red background and crazy hard boss fight, Dive man's underwater sections with giant robot whales, finding a secret path in Pharaoh man's stage, fighting my way through Dr Cossack's castle and fighting Dr Wily at the end.


Also for the 8-Bit generation I can't forget the Game Boy, every day after school I would take the Game Boy to my Nan's, along with a big case of games to play while I was there. There were so many amazing Game Boy games that I could choose for this, Pokemon, Mario, Mega Man, Zelda, but the game I remember most is not such a well known game as those, it is... Dragon Warrior Monsters! I never used to actually own this game, instead I would play it on a multi-game cart that I had which had something like 100 gameboy and gameboy colour games on. Since then I have of course got my own copy of the game, and the sequel. Apparently there is a remake of the game coming out for the 3DS! I hope it gets released here and doesn't stay a Japan exclusive! I loved the Slimes in that game so much i even came up with my own monsters called Spot Slimes, I created lots of them and one of them was even made into a toy for me! But maybe i'll write about that another time..


16-Bit

For me, The 16-Bit era was all to do with the SNES! There is no doubt that for me, the Snes was, and still is, the best console ever. With so many amazing games from all genres. There is also one game in particular that stands out to me as the most nostalgic, that game is Kirby's Fun Pak. Certainly one of my most played games ever, I would play it all the time, I loved everything about it, the way the game was broken down into smaller games meant that it always felt fresh to play though, as you can play them in almost any order you like. My favourites were Revenge of Metaknight and Milky Way Wishes. I also loved the challenge of collecting all the treasure in the Great Cave Offensive and racing against Dedede in the Gourmet Race! This is a game I can go back to play and play many many times and never get bored of. It's easily the best Kirby game and one of my all time favourites.


I didn't really know anyone who had a Mega-Drive or play much of my own so I don't have any particularly strong memories of playing one, apart from getting very annoyed at Sonic 1, trying to get through Marble Zone!

32-Bit / 64-Bit

As I was a "Nintendo Kid" I skipped out on PS1 and Saturn in favour of the N64, i was not disappointed, the N64 has a great library of games to play! Probably the most memorable game for me is Banjo Kazooie, I loved the game, I remember getting every Jiggy and music note, the levels are so memorable, from the scary shark that chases you in Treasure Trove Cove, to the giant underwater metal fish in Clankers Cavern and the epic final showdown with Gruntilda which begins with a board game and a quiz show!


As i never really had either a Saturn or PS1 until more recently i will only say one game for both, this game is, Pandemonium! I never actually owned the game, just played it at an adventure play area but playing the game on one of those PS1 demo machines stayed in my mind ever since, so I was very excited to get my own copy on the Saturn a few years ago!

I will also count the GBA as part of the 32-Bit section, as with the original Gameboy, I spent many hours playing the GBA at my nans house after school, there are many memorable games for the system, such as Pokemon Emerald, which is my favourite pokemon game of the whole franchise, and Golden sun, a fantastic RPG that I would play every day. But the game that sticks out in my mind is a bomberman game, Bomberman Tournament, i'm not sure why I enjoyed this game so much, it was a standard action RPG mixed with a bomberman game for the dungeons, it also had creatures you could raise and battle a bit like pokemon, its by no means a perfect game but I did enjoy it and watching the intro and hearing that music brings back good memories for me. Another choice would be Megaman Battle Network 3, I spent many hours collecting the cards to use in battles and playing it alongside a friend at school, we would discuss the game and it was just a great fun RPG!


128-Bit

Getting more recent now, I will only mention the gamecube, as, like the 32-Bit era, I skipped out on the PS2 and Xbox in favour of the Gamecube, another great console, even though it overlooked by many, it had lots of great exclusive games. One game that will always stand out for me is one that I was excited about for a very long time before its release, Star Fox Adventures, it used to be known as Dinosaur Planet and was scheduled for release on the N64 before being delayed to become a Gamecube title, and ultimately, Rare's last console Nintendo game. It was worth the wait! Several years of reading about the game in magazines had me so hyped to play it and I was not disappointed, I personally loved the game from start to finish, I know people complain that it's too similar to Zelda and not enough like a Star Fox game but I don't care, Zelda is amazing and if you want a proper starfox game on the gamecube then play Star Fox Assault! I used to obsess over the changes the game went through during development, collecting images from different stages of the games creation. there is a great page here that explains all the changes it went though and some early screenshots if anyone is interested. http://www.unseen64.net/2009/07/17/starfox-adventures-gamecube-beta/

I don't know if the ds is too new to be nostalgic about i'll only consider some older, first gen ds games, the game i most fondly remember from the original ds, before the ds lite was released, is probably another code: two memories, this was a fantastic atmospheric adventure game with elements of old classic point and click adventures such as myst, mixing detailed puzzles and some very clever use of the ds's features it was a very strong early title for the system and one I still play and enjoy today! If you are in america, the game is called "Trace Memory" instead, so search for that! There was also a sequel on the Wii but that only got a release in the UK, it is just as good as the DS one, but a lot longer!


Thanks for reading,

I hope you enjoyed a look at some of my most nostalgic games, if you want to share any of yours please do so in the comments! I'd love to find out what games other people are nostalgic about as well!

Nicktendowii.