Nostalgia

So a week ago a couple of my buddies came over to play Nintendo games, and rummaging through all my games, I realized that games nowadays aren't what they used to be (I say this a lot). Maybe it's because I have never bothered to buy a next gen console, but even without my own, I still play a fair bit of them. Anyways the point is to highlight some of what I call, the Golden age of gaming for me.

It all started in 1998, the Nintendo 64, the first (or second apparently) 64 bit console to go on the market.

First off I got Mario Kart 64, this game was amazing, it was so good even my dad played it occasionally. Yeah my dad played it, that's how good it was. Anyways it was my first real 3D game, and I was in awe of how much fun it was. Really well designed, good game play, good graphics, good music. The one criticism I have of it is it's terrible voice acting. It wasn't that bad back then but nowadays when i hear them go "MAMMA MIA" I cringe a little.

The next game I got as a gift, Super Mario 64, and boy was that a tough one. For fuck sakes it is a pretty simple game as it is, there's no real challenge in figuring out what to do. But give me a break I was 10 years old when I got this. Anyways the whole premise is you go to the castle, you jump into portals hidden in the portraits, and you have to collect a huge load of stars to fight Bowser and rescue the Princess. It was a good adventure, as frustrating as it was for me back then, and it was fun. There were some scary moments too especially involving that fucking eel in Jolly Roger Bay, but of course I managed to beat it.

Next came Starfox 64 and boy was this one hard. I had no clue what the fuck I was doing half the time, all I knew how to do was shoot everything that appears, I didn't know how to unlock different levels. Like on level 1, Corneria, you are suppose to save Falco, and fly under all the arches in the lake to unlock an alternate level 2.... Who the fuck would ever figure that shit out? Anyways it was a good game overall, it was fun, it had a good story (for N64) and it came with lots of memorable scenes "do a barrel roll" etc etc.

The christmas of 1999 I got Yoshi's story. This game was real good, it's style of artwork was really unique, the characters are all rendered in 3D but all the background was made of paper, cardboard, or sewn fabrics. The story is about Yoshi traveling all the way to Bowser's castle to save a tree that spawns an infinite amount of fruit. The levels are like a picture book, and you can choose a different scenario in each world which I thought was clever also.

Water Temple, fucking over gamers since 1998

Later that year came the game that would be heralded as the number 1 game ever made for a time, and still is up there today, 13 years after its release. Ocarina of Time, I was introduced to this as a kid, by some older kids, I was instantly amazed at it. It was about adventure, fantasy, sword fighting, magic, a story of the underdog becoming a hero, everything I wanted in a game. I picked this up, and I struggled with it for a long time, I swear this game should have been rated T because IMO it is a real hard game for me back then. It took me a good 3 months to beat the first level and kill Gohma. It has some of the more cryptic puzzles in video games too. Like the spider webs in the first level, where you are suppose to light one of your tree branches with a torch and carry it over, took me forever to figure out, and the spider webs on the ground, I didn't know you had to jump off a high ledge to break it, then again I wasn't very intelligent back then. Anyways even after I started to get the hang of it and made rapid progress, it wasn't til 3 years later til I actually beat the game. The Water Temple took me a whole year, no jokes.

The next game I got was Super Smash Bros, and this was fun, I played this like no tomorrow. I would literally beat the game with every character on the hardest difficulty every day, within 2 hours I unlocked everything. Then I get 4 people and we have mindless fun just fighting otherwise theres not that much to this game. It was one of Nintendo's genius idea's that eventually spawned 2 very successful sequels.

The next game I got was Pokemon Stadium, it was Pokemon, I was 11 years old, who wouldn't want to get this? However I did spend all my time on the games crazy emulator thing, that lets you play your Blue, Red and Yellow versions, and abused the double speed, I also used the professor Oak's lab thing to dupe.

Then I got Mystic Ninja, and man was this fun. It's relentless amount of action, platforming, martial arts and really cheesy lines and puns would keep me entertained for days and days at a time. I would say this is one of the better games on made.

Now those are just some of my favorites, but I have tried plenty of strange and obscure games also, you might have heard of the Bomberman Hero's series, its not bad, but it's just a little strange IMO. Hexen was another weird one, Chameleon twist, Glover, Tetrisphere, Gex... they were very interesting games, you don't see many like these around these days. Of course I was already very impressed with the work I've seen from Nintendo, and I'm sure they will keep making quality games for a while, which leads me to the next generation after N64.