Nintendo Memories (SNES)
Unlike the NES, I do remember getting the SNES, vaguely. What I don't remember is the reason. Somehow, I can recall it was a Wednesday night. But it wasn't my birthday. And it wasn't near Christmas (I don't recall the store being particularly packed). It's hard to imagine I'd have gotten the SNES close after its launch... I'd have been pretty fortunate in that case. Maybe that's how it was, since I do recall being really excited for it. I distinctively remember this commercial playing in Target stores, at the game section:
The game looked phenomenal. My favorite scene was Mario running through the corridor with the burning hot rocks in the BG (I think this was Ludwig's castle). It looked really dangerous and cool; the NES didn't have glowing colors like that. The spotlight in Bowser's castle was cool too. Man I wish game commercials were still this cool; still advertised the game as something that would blow you away with excitement and adventure.
Super Mario World was what really got me into Mario. It was the first Mario game I was decently good at, although it still took me a long time to beat. I collected a fair amount of Mario stuff at the time as well, which I sadly no longer have. These include the books Mario Mania, the collection of the Super Mario World comic that was in Nintendo Power, and a hardcover Super Mario Bros comic that seemed mostly based on 3.
The game that had to have the biggest influence on me, however, was Mega Man X. I was super stoked for this game. Everything about it looked awesome. It was supposed to come out in December, and that would be my big Christmas present. It got delayed until January though. We bought it at a Babbages, and it was seventy freakin' dollars. But damn it was worth it. I remember the first night I popped it in, I played the intro stage, then played Chill Penguin (pretty sure I knew to start there from Nintendo Power), and died at Penguin. And then I stopped for the night. I wasn't mad at all. The game literally felt that intense. Playing that much of it was overwhelming. I also recall getting to Armored Armadillo and being amazed by the graphics of the mine shaft in the BG. I was certain it was a photograph.
Two more awesome games were Super Mario Kart and Kirby Super Star. I was actually fortunate enough to get friends over fairly frequently to play these games with. It's no surprise though, they're both truly awesome games. I actually remember being quite good at Super Mario Kart, especially in the battle mode. Then I lost the game. I was so certain my friend Nick stole it from me, since he'd got the game shortly after. This was kind of stupid in retrospect since Nick came from a well-to-do family and had all the good games. Literally over a year later, I actually found Super Mario Kart under my mom's car seat.
I also enjoyed Mario Paint a lot, for not being a real game or anything. I could waste hours of time just screwing around in there, often recreating things from the Mario Paint guidebook. They had a contest for Mario Paint videos, and the guy who won had used Mario Paint to recreate music videos for Christmas at Ground Zero, Bohemian Rhapsody (with Wayne's World influence), etc. At the time I remember feeling it was unfair an adult could win the contest, having much more experience and expertise than a kid. But damn, those must have taken him a lot of work. I wish they were on YouTube.
Surprisingly, Mega Man 7 was only a rental. Not sure why I never got around to picking that up, and although it's not one of the better Mega Mans there's still a lot I like about it. X2 and X3 were rentals too. I eventually picked up X2, years later, at a used game store, but I hated X3. Rented it once and that game was too damn hard.
Towards the end of the SNES, Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi's Island were also two games I was hugely into. I think I really bought into the hype for both of them with those Nintendo Power promo videos (which I never owned, but Blockbuster would rent them out for free, along with Hardware Wars). I really loved DKC, and I got every damn secret there was in that game.
Yoshi's Island, meanwhile, is bittersweet. I did truly like it, but it came out around an odd time where it wasn't close to my birthday or Christmas, I think. Whatever the case, I had to front the money for it myself, and I did this by trading in my NES, GB, and all the games for each. Some people baulk at GameStop's trade in rates, but those mom and pop used game stores back then really screwed you. My mother even made me confirm I was absolutely sure I knew what the hell I was doing (and I wasn't, always listen to your mother).
It's not that I didn't enjoy Yoshi's Island, it was pretty satisfying for the time (these days I do have a little trouble wondering what I saw in it that was so great - especially with that whining baby). I figured I'd played all those old games enough and I'd never need to again. But eventually the desire for them came back. I was fortunate enough to pick up the majority of them again, before mom and pop used game stores were all but decimated. Seriously, I know they still exist out there, but come to Phoenix Arizona. It's all GameStops, the end.
I also had Kirby's Dreamland 3... which I liked, yes, liked a lot, but something about it was weird. I couldn't put my finger on it, but the game lacked the dynamic and bad assitude of Kirby Super Star. It was just... I dunno. Really oddly subdued, weird moogy bass music. Gooey.
Other prominent rental games were Plok and Earthworm Jim. I liked Earthworm Jim a bit, but the game was a bit too tough for me. I couldn't get beyond the underwater stage without using the level skip code. Plok was a blast, definitely one of those cult following games. Very weird in presentation and theme, very unique. Really awesome music though. Nickelodeon magazine had a Plok comic like... once. I dunno. Not much of a story about a brightly colored clansman trying to get his grandfather's flag back. I remember in the second world, Plok could get that power amulet. This would let him eat shells, which made him look SUPER pissed off. And that let him do a buzzsaw attack when he jumped. It was so weird though... there was no fanfare or feeling of reward for finding it. It was just... kinda there. It seemed important, like there should be some reason you'd find it, since it was a major ability. And I don't think there were any others. Weird.
Also rented Darius Twin a bit, which I also must have cheated at since I sucked at shmups (and still do). Weird game with giant fish bosses that had bizarre names. What really stood out was the boss Hyper Greatthing, a big mechanical whale, which had its own unique battle theme which was very haunting. No reason, it wasn't even the last boss. That left a big impression on me somehow.
F-Zero was a bad ass game, but I never owned or rented it. Just played it occasionally when I visited a friend who had it. He also had Hyperzone, which is a cool shmup I don't think people remember well today. Last boss was a brain in a jar that I was too squeamish to look at.
Oh, and I did rent Faceball 2000... more than once. I liked it even, but I'm so ashamed of that fact. HAVE- A NICE DAY.
Oh, and I did have Super Mario All Stars. Really odd that, I was excited about the game and wanted it badly, but I never played it much because, again, I kinda sucked at the first three SMB games (and the Lost Levels sure didn't help). However, I do have a fond memory when my mom rented it when it first came out. She did this specifically so that when I came home from school, and went into the family, she'd be there playing it just to shock me. She had a "Oh hey, you ever hear about this game?" attitude when of course she knew I'd been excited about it. That was awesome.
Man, that's all I can really think of... I may have had a couple other SNES games, and I definitely rented others. Once I rented Kirby's Hole in One, and couldn't figure out the mechanics to it. When Kirby lost the stage he looked so depressed, and it crushed me so much I didn't play the game again before returning it.
Okay yeah, that's it.
Click to viewThe game looked phenomenal. My favorite scene was Mario running through the corridor with the burning hot rocks in the BG (I think this was Ludwig's castle). It looked really dangerous and cool; the NES didn't have glowing colors like that. The spotlight in Bowser's castle was cool too. Man I wish game commercials were still this cool; still advertised the game as something that would blow you away with excitement and adventure.
Super Mario World was what really got me into Mario. It was the first Mario game I was decently good at, although it still took me a long time to beat. I collected a fair amount of Mario stuff at the time as well, which I sadly no longer have. These include the books Mario Mania, the collection of the Super Mario World comic that was in Nintendo Power, and a hardcover Super Mario Bros comic that seemed mostly based on 3.
The game that had to have the biggest influence on me, however, was Mega Man X. I was super stoked for this game. Everything about it looked awesome. It was supposed to come out in December, and that would be my big Christmas present. It got delayed until January though. We bought it at a Babbages, and it was seventy freakin' dollars. But damn it was worth it. I remember the first night I popped it in, I played the intro stage, then played Chill Penguin (pretty sure I knew to start there from Nintendo Power), and died at Penguin. And then I stopped for the night. I wasn't mad at all. The game literally felt that intense. Playing that much of it was overwhelming. I also recall getting to Armored Armadillo and being amazed by the graphics of the mine shaft in the BG. I was certain it was a photograph.
Two more awesome games were Super Mario Kart and Kirby Super Star. I was actually fortunate enough to get friends over fairly frequently to play these games with. It's no surprise though, they're both truly awesome games. I actually remember being quite good at Super Mario Kart, especially in the battle mode. Then I lost the game. I was so certain my friend Nick stole it from me, since he'd got the game shortly after. This was kind of stupid in retrospect since Nick came from a well-to-do family and had all the good games. Literally over a year later, I actually found Super Mario Kart under my mom's car seat.
I also enjoyed Mario Paint a lot, for not being a real game or anything. I could waste hours of time just screwing around in there, often recreating things from the Mario Paint guidebook. They had a contest for Mario Paint videos, and the guy who won had used Mario Paint to recreate music videos for Christmas at Ground Zero, Bohemian Rhapsody (with Wayne's World influence), etc. At the time I remember feeling it was unfair an adult could win the contest, having much more experience and expertise than a kid. But damn, those must have taken him a lot of work. I wish they were on YouTube.
Surprisingly, Mega Man 7 was only a rental. Not sure why I never got around to picking that up, and although it's not one of the better Mega Mans there's still a lot I like about it. X2 and X3 were rentals too. I eventually picked up X2, years later, at a used game store, but I hated X3. Rented it once and that game was too damn hard.
Towards the end of the SNES, Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi's Island were also two games I was hugely into. I think I really bought into the hype for both of them with those Nintendo Power promo videos (which I never owned, but Blockbuster would rent them out for free, along with Hardware Wars). I really loved DKC, and I got every damn secret there was in that game.
Yoshi's Island, meanwhile, is bittersweet. I did truly like it, but it came out around an odd time where it wasn't close to my birthday or Christmas, I think. Whatever the case, I had to front the money for it myself, and I did this by trading in my NES, GB, and all the games for each. Some people baulk at GameStop's trade in rates, but those mom and pop used game stores back then really screwed you. My mother even made me confirm I was absolutely sure I knew what the hell I was doing (and I wasn't, always listen to your mother).
It's not that I didn't enjoy Yoshi's Island, it was pretty satisfying for the time (these days I do have a little trouble wondering what I saw in it that was so great - especially with that whining baby). I figured I'd played all those old games enough and I'd never need to again. But eventually the desire for them came back. I was fortunate enough to pick up the majority of them again, before mom and pop used game stores were all but decimated. Seriously, I know they still exist out there, but come to Phoenix Arizona. It's all GameStops, the end.
I also had Kirby's Dreamland 3... which I liked, yes, liked a lot, but something about it was weird. I couldn't put my finger on it, but the game lacked the dynamic and bad assitude of Kirby Super Star. It was just... I dunno. Really oddly subdued, weird moogy bass music. Gooey.
Other prominent rental games were Plok and Earthworm Jim. I liked Earthworm Jim a bit, but the game was a bit too tough for me. I couldn't get beyond the underwater stage without using the level skip code. Plok was a blast, definitely one of those cult following games. Very weird in presentation and theme, very unique. Really awesome music though. Nickelodeon magazine had a Plok comic like... once. I dunno. Not much of a story about a brightly colored clansman trying to get his grandfather's flag back. I remember in the second world, Plok could get that power amulet. This would let him eat shells, which made him look SUPER pissed off. And that let him do a buzzsaw attack when he jumped. It was so weird though... there was no fanfare or feeling of reward for finding it. It was just... kinda there. It seemed important, like there should be some reason you'd find it, since it was a major ability. And I don't think there were any others. Weird.
Also rented Darius Twin a bit, which I also must have cheated at since I sucked at shmups (and still do). Weird game with giant fish bosses that had bizarre names. What really stood out was the boss Hyper Greatthing, a big mechanical whale, which had its own unique battle theme which was very haunting. No reason, it wasn't even the last boss. That left a big impression on me somehow.
F-Zero was a bad ass game, but I never owned or rented it. Just played it occasionally when I visited a friend who had it. He also had Hyperzone, which is a cool shmup I don't think people remember well today. Last boss was a brain in a jar that I was too squeamish to look at.
Oh, and I did rent Faceball 2000... more than once. I liked it even, but I'm so ashamed of that fact. HAVE- A NICE DAY.
Oh, and I did have Super Mario All Stars. Really odd that, I was excited about the game and wanted it badly, but I never played it much because, again, I kinda sucked at the first three SMB games (and the Lost Levels sure didn't help). However, I do have a fond memory when my mom rented it when it first came out. She did this specifically so that when I came home from school, and went into the family, she'd be there playing it just to shock me. She had a "Oh hey, you ever hear about this game?" attitude when of course she knew I'd been excited about it. That was awesome.
Man, that's all I can really think of... I may have had a couple other SNES games, and I definitely rented others. Once I rented Kirby's Hole in One, and couldn't figure out the mechanics to it. When Kirby lost the stage he looked so depressed, and it crushed me so much I didn't play the game again before returning it.
Okay yeah, that's it.