Nintendo Okie

It’s Friday and that normally means it’s time to do the Retro Redux.  This Friday is a little bit different than most as it’s my birthday.  I figured instead of a normal Retro Redux this week that I would take a look back and examine some of my favorite games of all time and why I like them.  It’s not going to be any in depth analysis or reviews, just chatter about some games and what has made them so special to me. 

I can remember playing games in the 80’s, but I don’t remember them.  We had an Atari 2600, an Intellivision and a Commodore 64.  I can also remember spending time plugging actual programming into my Tandy computer before being able to do anything and if you missed one character the entire thing was screwed up and you had to find the mistake.  It wasn’t until this date in 1990 that I really remember video games being something I was really into.  I don’t remember asking for one, but on my 10^th birthday I received an NES with Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt together.  That was the point that I realized that video games were going to be something I was really into.  Like so many others it was Super Mario Bros. that sparked my interest in video games.  Part of this love for the Mario franchise comes from it being the first game I was ever truly “in to”.  Another part of it is that the game is just pure and simple fun.  There’s something about this game, and I still play it on a weekly basis, running to the right and jumping.  It’s simple mechanics and the “story” it told of rescuing a princess sticks with me and you’ll find throughout my gaming “career” that I am drawn to the simple games. 

One of my favorite TV shows growing up was Duck Tales.  The theme song is still rattling around in my brain and I can sing it from memory without the song being played.  I loved that show and I never missed it.  Then one day in a store I saw a game based on that TV show that I loved.  I got the game home and I saw Scrooge, Huey, Duey, Louie and Launchpad and I was immediately hooked.  The game’s not that long, but it was hard the first time you played it.  I didn’t know why Scrooge was traveling from the Amazon to the Moon looking for diamonds and other treasure, but I didn’t care.  I was playing Duck Tales.  My ten year old brain thought I was playing an episode of the cartoon.  It was also the first game that was like Mario where you could finish the levels in almost whatever order you wanted to.  You had some choice in how the game played out and I think that was part of the appeal.  I hadn’t ever seen that before.  This game also holds the top slot in my most wanted VC games of all time.  It won’t ever happen, but I would immediately buy it if it did. 

My days with the Super Nintendo were not very exploratory.  Super Mario World, was and is my favorite side scrolling Mario adventure.  It took everything that Nintendo introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3 and bettered it.  It looked better, the world was more expansive and had stuff hidden everywhere.  I still don’t think I’ve found everything that game has to offer.  I remember being blown away in World 2 when my friend showed me the secret exit to the Boo House that lead to infinite power ups and lives.  The addition of Yoshi to the game is what I think made that game so special for me.  There is so much that you can do with that dinosaur.  While Super Mario 3 may have some of the best power ups in the game, Super Mario World is just a better game all around, in my opinion. 

That led to the game’s sequel Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island.  The game sort of flipped the roles of the heroes on their heads.  Mario was now a baby, what?  Yoshi was now the star and had all the abilities.  The hand drawn crayon look has immediate appeal and was different from everything the Mario games had seen before.  It’s one of those games that stands the test of time very well and still is a great game today.  This, along with Duck Tales, leads my list of most wanted VC games.  It’s a crime that Nintendo hasn’t put this game out on the service yet.

It’s a shame to admit that I missed the N64 years.  During that period of my life I was more interested in sports and music than I was video games.  Baseball, marching band, and orchestra were taking up all of my free time in high school and because of it I didn’t have an N64 until many years later when I lived with my brother after high school.  The game I remember most on the system was not that good looking back.  I was obsessed, though, with Episode I Pod Racer.  This was a racing game set in the long, long ago past of the Star Wars Universe.  I’m not ashamed to admit that I liked Episode 1, any time young Anakin wasn’t on the screen.  The pod racing scene was without a doubt one of the best parts of the movie and I ate up a game that was based on that.  The action was fast and it took the place of Mario Kart for me, for a short period of time.  Until I had friends I could race with and then Mario Kart reclaimed its rightful spot.  I’m not a fan of the N64.  I can’t go back now and play many of the games on the system without my eyes wanting to throw up.  I don’t have a lot of fond memories of that era of gaming, but this one bad racing game holds a bit of a soft spot in my heart, despite the fact that it’s not that good.

Round about the time of the GameCube’s release I was getting married.  Gaming at the same time started to come back into my life as well.  The game I remember most fondly from the last generation of systems was a launch title for the Cube that I’ve written about on the site.  Luigi’s Mansion was being played, by me, the day my middle child was born.  I remember my wife and me spending many nights sitting in the bedroom in front of our TV while I played this game.  She was fascinated with watching me play as much as I was fascinated by playing the game.  Luigi had a starring role.  It didn’t happen often, but he took advantage of this opportunity.  Luigi’s Mansion was and is my favorite game of all time.  It was a Ghostbusters game in every aspect but the characters.  The enemies were unique, creative and fun to fight.  They used the characters from the Mario universe in roles that were perfectly suited for them.  Luigi, the slightly dim bulb he is, won a mansion in a contest he didn’t enter and had to rescue his brother who had gone to check things out.  If ever there was a game screaming to be remade and revisited on Wii it would be Luigi’s Mansion.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo revealed this game was the entire reason behind the controls being the way they are for Wii, and you can bet I would pre-order today if the game was announced. 

Now we enter the era of Wii.  There have been a huge score of games I liked on this system.  From the very beginning with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, to Super Paper Mario to Super Mario Galaxy.  There are two games that really stand out for me as being my favorites on the system.  Both are, as expected, from Nintendo and both are revivals of classic franchises.  The first, New Super Mario Bros. Wii.  This game is a revival in a sense that it was the first time Mario was really in 2-D on consoles since the Super Nintendo.  Super Paper Mario was mostly 2-D, but not completely.  NSMBW really took everything that was good about Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World, threw them in a bag mixed it all up and spit out a great experience.  They brought back some old favorite power-ups like the Fire Flower, which was missing from Mario for a while and added one of the best new power-ups ever with the Penguin Suit.  The only thing that would have made this game better was if they had found a way to add the Bee Suit from Mario Galaxy.  It was everything I was looking for in a Mario game, with new elements to make it feel like a new game and it was as close to perfect for the plumber as you could get.

The last game I want to talk about, and I want to thank you all for listening to my ramblings, is Punch-Out!!  I played the heck out of the original on the NES and downloaded it on VC as soon as it was available.  Next Level Games outdid themselves with this revival of the series.  It immediately felt like Punch-Out!! with the first run through the fights.  Everyone fought, with few exceptions like you would expect.  It gave new fans to the series a chance to see why we love the game so much.  Then when veterans of the series blew through the opening fights they mixed it up completely with the Title Defense Mode and made it so that even Glass Joe, everyone’s punching bag, would give you a run for your money.  The cameo at the end is classic Nintendo at its best and doesn’t feel out of place with the rest of the cast of characters in the game.  In this world of retro revivals and classic remakes Punch-Out!! is one of the games that I feel sets the stage for how to redo an old franchise and do it right. 

So there you go.  I want to thank you all again for listening to the ramblings of an old man.  [=^)  It’s been a fun look back at some of my favorite games.  I could spend hours and hours and pages and pages talking about the dozens of games I’ve enjoyed over the years.  It’s been an up and down ride through the world of gaming for me.  There have been some bumps, but overall since that first day with an NES Nintendo has been on the ride with me and I don’t see that changing any time in the future.  Every console out there has its strengths and weaknesses.  Nintendo is no exception.  I just love video games, no matter where they come from and want to see the medium continue to improve and expand.  More people playing games is a good thing and not bad.  I’m hoping that through this article and everything else we do on the site people will find something they may not have tried before and give it a chance.  You never know what you’ll find out there that you like.  It’s been 30 good years so far and here’s to a whole lot more.