Favorite Video Games, Part 2

I've spent a lot of time over the past couple weeks enjoying South Park: The Stick of Truth. It is easily one of the funniest games I've ever played and the whole game is littered with fan-service references to the show's past. This coming week, I'll be diving into the Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (the last games in the series I really engaged in and didn't just play hoping for the best) and Infamous: Second Son (the first next-gen game I'm really excited about). I imagine I'll write up some thoughts on each of these games in future posts.

So here is round two of some of my favorite video games/video game memories over the years.  If you're just joining me, you can catch up on my thoughts on Atari, early PC, and Nintendo games in Part 1.


The next system in this series was Nintendo's original handheld: the Game Boy. My sister Jamie and I shared one of those really old heavy off-white ones to start but eventually our parents let us each have our own. And while I remember playing many hours of games like Bubble Bobble, Kirby's Pinball Land, and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, I don't really have any compelling memories/stories about them so they get a mention here before moving on. I'd also cover the hours upon hours of Tetris, but I mentioned that in the previous chapter.

• Dragon Warrior I & II and Dragon Warrior III - As mentioned among my Nintendo favorites, Dragon Warrior IV really won me over. But I never had the opportunity to play its predecessors until Nintendo started re-releasing them as Game Boy games. These games didn't quite live up to the level of DW IV but they were good enough to lock me into the series for years to come. Speaking of series that locked me in...
• Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow - God damn you Pokemon and your brilliant "Gotta Catch 'Em, All" marketing schtick. In the beginning, my sister and I each had our own versions of the game: she had Blue and I had Red (because hell yes I was taking the one with the fire dragon Charizard). Being the good brother that I was, I would even offer to play both versions of the game for the first few hours and trade all of the starters back and forth so both of us would have a Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander. Of course, then I would proceed through the game much quicker and beat the crap out of her when we'd battle. When Yellow came out, we'd take turns playing through it to enjoy the more show-based storyline.
• Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal - By the time Gold and Silver came out, we were nearing the end of our gaming time together. We still each got a version (I told Gold and Jamie had Silver) but I was in high school and she was in middle school when they came out. And Jamie has always been the more extroverted between the two of us so while I spent more time continuing my gaming, she was out becoming a social butterfly. By the time Crystal came out, it was pretty much just for me. Although, when she moved to Tennessee last year, I let her take our old purple Game Boy Color and those original Red, Blue, and Yellow cartridges with her. I've continued collecting the newer games and re-releases so I was happy to give her that piece of her childhood.

There was a time when I could name all 151 original
Pokemon in their Pokedex order. Those were the days.

Before Playstation versus X-Box, there was Nintendo versus Sega. When I was growing up, my dad worked at Park 'n Swap in Phoenix on the weekends. I don't remember if that's where we picked up our Sega Genesis but in hindsight, I'm willing to guess that at least some of our games/systems may not have been entirely legal when we purchased them off of somebody's folding table. Anyway, point is: for a while, we were a family playing both sides of the original Console Wars.

• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Sega's answer to the Italian plumber was a faster-paced mascot who could pretty much run circles around Mario. The early Sonic games were great and Sonic 2 improved on pretty much everything the original had done. Plus, now that I'm older, I can better appreciate that at least Tails isn't just a palette swap like ol' Luigi.
• NBA Playoffs: Bulls vs. Blazers - this comes from a time when I loved basketball. Basketball and soccer were the two sports I really got into growing up and I was a Suns fan through and through. This game came after the 91-92 championship matchup between Chicago and Portland but it was the next year that led the 92-93 Suns to the final showdown with the Bulls. Sure, we still lost, but when I played this game, my Suns could win the title. And I think the starting lineup of Charles Barkley, "K.J." Kevin Johnson, Thunder Dan Majerle, Danny Ainge, and Tom Chambers will be forever burned into my brain.
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - before I really got into acting, I remember definitely wanting to be a stunt man a la this show. I was/am a nerd so I always plays pretend as Billy, that original Blue Ranger. But when I played this fighting game, I pretty much always wanted to play as Tommy the Green Ranger because the Dragonzord and Dragon Dagger were way cooler than the Tricerotops and Power Lance. Side note though: I was watching through some early episodes on Netflix a while back and they do not hold up well.
• Ecco the Dolphin - because were a dolphin WHO TRAVELED THROUGH TIME!!!  Suck it, Flipper!

Sonic's smirk clearly meant he had attitude. I mean, minus the
actual middle finger, he's flipping you off pretty hard here.

Next up for Sega was the battery-draining machine that was the Game Gear. This was also our last of the Sega systems as we never got the Saturn or Dreamcast systems (or if we did, I don't remember anything from them). And aside from the aforementioned Sonic games there was really only one reason to drain six AA batteries at a time...

• Mortal Kombat - "Holy crap! Look at all that blood!!!" was not something I could really say for fear of my mom taking the Game Gear away. But damn it was fun to play as Sub-Zero or Scorpion and just brutally murder the other kombatants in glorious 16-bit handheld color. It definitely kept me away from that boring old Game Boy until the Game Boy Color came around because when it came to the hyper-violent photo-realism of Mortal Kombat versus the seven different shades of grey blocks in Tetris, there really wasn't any comparison. Given how much I would play this back then, my folks probably made the right call investing in the AC Adapter rather than $1,000 worth of AAs.

My actual Game Gear and the three games that survived years of
yard sales: Sonic, Sonic 2, and Mortal Kombaaaaaat!!!

Alright, and with that, I'm going to wrap up this chapter of the favorite games. The next round will kick off with some of my favorite Arcade games over the years and I'll delve into at least the Super Nintendo.

How about you? Did you serve valiantly in the war between Nintendo and Sega? Has Pokemon taken up countless hours of your life? Let me know.