The Gamer Anthem
I love Video Games. I would definitely say my oldest hobby is playing video games. Now video games have been a major part of my life since I was a kid, in fact I was practically rised by them and taught many important life lessons by my virtual heroes. So sit back and let me tell you about my virtual life...
Starting off in the early nineties I was growing up in a golden age of gaming. I was staying at my Aunts for a while and I remember receiving my first video game console. Back then the Nintendo / Sega War was in full swing, you either had a Sega or a Nintendo at your house and I started off with a Sega. A Sega Master System Mk II.
I only played 2 games on it, Some Helicopter Shooter game. You know when Shooter meant you were a helicopter in the middle of the screen and then targets / obstacles will come at you in patterns or straight lines and you had to manoeuvre around them. And the other game was Sonic... I don't know which Sonic it was because I was more interested in mini explosions. But I honestly didn't play that system much at all. I actually still went outside and played with other kids.
That and I was more a Nintendo fanboy. I don't remember whose house I went to but I was given a NES controller and the screen read 'Super Mario Bros' and I was instantly hooked. I was too young to even remember clear faces, just the simple red palette of this Italian Plumber whose face has basically been tattooed onto my soul since that aforementioned day. I think I was 5 at the time but from that day on I was a Nintendo boy for life.
But my Nintendo upbringing came originally from my Game Boy. Now I had at least 3 separate game boys and between them I remember only owning like 4 different games, but hey my mother did the best she could and looking back on it now, I was lucky to get what I was given. Actually I remember why I never complained... One of them games I had was Poke'mon Red and another one was Poke'mon Yellow. Those games fed my Poke'mon addiction. Seriously Poke'mon was like HUGE back then. Back then the first Poke'mon Movie was given an International Wide Theatrical Release. Why? Because every damn kid loved Poke'mon. Kids would drag their parents to the cinema to see this movie. That does remind me, because I never owned Poke'mon Blue... I've never caught a Magmur or a Meowth in my lifetime. Damn, that'll haunt me forever. (Don't get me started on first Generation Poke'mon, I could talk your face off about Poke'mon)
But I remember owning other Gameboy games besides Poke'mon. I had some weird Helicopter Rescue game and Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure. Now the Helicopter game was a simple side scrolling shooter game but Bill and Ted's was this intricate puzzle plat-former. It also loosely followed the plot to one of my favourite childhood movies. I never got around to finishing the game because sadly I lost the gameboy in a spontaneous rugby game at a fiji day festival. Why I had a gameboy in my pocket whilst playing rugby is beyond me.
I never had much of a PC growing up. in fact I still have my family's first PC in the stoage shed down the back of the house and there are no games on it besides the 4 windows games that come with it. On a side note my record at Solitaire is 43 seconds, Top that!
But I did however go over to family and friend's houses to play their computer games and I have fond memories of Shooters like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Duke Nukem 3D. But one christmas my father bought me a game CD pack with 4 critically acclaimed games on it. I don't remember 2 of them but the 2 I do remember were Pitfall and Earthworm Jim. Both magnificent Action plat-former games. I loved exploring the World's and finding secrets in both. I also prided myself on never using cheats so it took me forever to beat those games.
On a side note, I HATED THE ASTEROID ZONES IN EARTHWORM JIM!!! UGH!!! But this fucking ending rules.
Just for a little context, there is a Cow launcher at the start of the game... You have no idea what it did until the very end. This was a running theme on the Television show too.
But the strongest video game memories I have of my childhood come from my Super Nintendo, I only ever had 4 games on the SNES system but they were 4 of the damn bests games anyone could ever own.
Donkey Kong Country, NBA Jam, Super Mario Allstars and Super Street Fighter II
You tend to see One or all of those games in Best of all time lists and for very good reason. They were all amazing games.
I remember collecting the KONG letters in DK Country and travelling from World to World in Funky Kong's Funky Flights. I remember rampaging through levels on the back of Rambi the Rhino and I plowed through endless waves of enemies. I remember the weird sexualisation of Candy Kong at her save points. But what I seem to remember most is the advice from Cranky Kong and the magic of the mid air roll and jump trick. Basically you ran up to the edge of a platform then rolled off and whilst rolling in mid air you could preform a jump that would help you jump across large gaps to get to secrets or to traverse further into a level. How such a thing was possible was beyond even the wise old Kong himself but it was still amazing advice. But you can't bring up Donkey Kong Country without having to mention the sensational soundtracks. The Pirate Ship theme in the game is the stuff dreams are made of.
But I eventually got around to renting Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3 from the video store and some of the songs shone through like a Firecracker in a Cemetery. (That was a weird analogy)
Stickerbush Symphony... Hauntingly beautiful.
Then there was NBA Jam, arguably the greatest basketball game ever released on console. I haven't played the other ones yet but I do hear there are some good ones that rival the awesomeness of NBA Jam. To put things into perspective, there are still tournaments held to this day over SNES NBA Jam. In fact just last year the internet site / community of CollegeHumor had an NBA Jam off in their Weekly Video Game corner.
You know, I never knew about the Bill Clinton code when I originally had the game... Such a pity.
Then of course how can you not talk about Super Mario All-Stars? The King of SNES Games, Super Mario Bros 1, 2, 3 and Lost levels all on the one cartridge. That's like Orange Box levels of Value at the time. Super Mario Bros 3 is still one of my favourite games of all time and the Ending Theme from the game still floats through my mind from time to time. I don't think I've ever felt more satisfaction beating a game since Super Mario bros 3... The Final Bowser Ship Level was like navigating through an endless bombardment of cannon balls and bullet bills. It was insane. Then again i did bypass a lot of the game considering I knew how to get all the Warp Whistles.
Something about this ending theme just completes me
Just a quick history Super Mario Bros 2, After the massive success of Super Mario Bros the sequel was released as year later in Japan. Super Mario bros 2 was basically Super Mario Bros 1 with slight changes here and there to the level design and of course was a little harder. Now in North America they got a completely different game from the Japanese because the North American producers of the game didn't think it was a good idea to release a sequel of a popular game that was by all accounts virtually the same. (My how they changed their tone over time... take a look at the Call of Duty series). So in what I would chalk up to a nobly thought out mis-step the USA was given a completely different Super Mario bros 2 which was a palette swap of a game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic. Eventually America got the original Super Mario bros 2 released under the guise of Super Mario bros Lost levels. Whilst a completely different game to the original it still worked well and had unique enough game mechanics that it was able to stand on its own merit... Even though it had by far the worst ending of any Mario Game.
Spoiler: it was all a Dream... Seriously, No Joke
After I had finished all the Mario games in All-Stars I made a trade with a neighbor, Super Mario All-Stars for Super Street Fighter 2: World Fighter Edition. Super Street Fighter 2 to this day is still considered one of the Greatest Fighting games of all time for one reason and one reason only. Balance, each fighter had their own pros and cons but the game went through so many refinements that when World Warrior came out it was practically Perfect. I gravitated towards Ryu and his no frills Fighting style, basic turtling tactics with Ryu, no point being overly aggressive, all his special did considerable damage and were more for counter attacking or seizing openings in battle. My go to Combo was Air Heavy Kick, Crouching Heavy Punch into a Dragon Punch, did wicked damage and then I would either chip away at their health with Hadu-ken spam or throw out a few Hurricane kicks whilst they recovered. Street Fighter was definetly one of my biggest influences in my life as a kid and what initially drew me towards learning Martial Arts.
Some of these Character Profiles are interesting... But Zangief weighing only 115kgs... Come on, Dude is Huge
Well that and Bruce lee Movies... But I wasn't very good at using Fei Long (Bruce Lee Street Fighter Character). I was a God at Super Street Fighter 2, I was unnbeatable as Ryu... Until I played Johnny Chung, an asian kid from my class that spent his free time schooling people at arcade machines. Now I was an arrogant gamer at the time, I would boast about my prowess with Ryu and how I would decimate people with Hadukens and Dragon Punches, then Johnny comes in picks Chun Li and completely negates all my haduken spam with an aggressive aerial assault and kick combinations. That was the day I learnt the life lesson, "Now matter how good you are at something, there is always an asian that'll do it better"
It doesn't just apply to video games... THAT'S NOT RACIST, THEY'RE JUST BETTER AT THINHGS!
The Post Fight Sayings were Hilarious at times
Anyway my favourite internet meme to come from Street Fighter would definetly be Guile Theme goes with everything. The American Air Force Pilot Guile had a pretty standard stage, You'd fight him on a Air strip in the US somewhere in front of a Fighter Jet and a few of his crew mates. There were 2 breakable crate props on either side of the level but the theme is what stood out the most. Something about Guile Theme just screams "awesome fight music".
You know this video is Awesome... just admit it
Well that's enough for this entry, I'll probably get around to doing a part 2 to this, get around to the next generation of gaming consoles in the Playstation and Nintendo 64. But until then, you can watch the entire 1989 movie The Wizard. This basically summerises growing up a introverted nerd and was basically a 2 hour ad for Nintendo.
Enjoy...
I love the Power Glove... it's so bad
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