Jonathan said:
Great topic. The classics are some of my favorite. For a while they were all I played.
A few of my favorites were…
Duck Tales
This is classic NES platforming, ladies and gentlemen. I loved the show and I loved the game. Great gameplay, fun bosses, interesting levels, good music. It is a classic.
THAT'S awesome. I LOVED DuckTales, and also, DuckTales 2. In fact, the first DuckTales was the first NES game I actually owned, outside of the fact when I bought my NES in August 1990, it included the standard SMB/Duck Hunt cartridge as a pack-in.
Never really had a favorite system. As for classic games, I could list over 100 Atari 2600 games, but instead, I'll do something a bit more modern. As far as franchises went, I could love a game, and then, the next installment comes out, and it was just lousy. For instance, I absolutely loved Donkey Kong Country. I remember calling K-Mart the weekend before it was to be released, and the woman at the store told me she had them in stock already, and would sell me a copy even though the game was not to go on retail until…Monday or Tuesday. By that Saturday night, I was collecting bananas left and right and absolutely loving the game. I think the franchise I liked the best would be Sonic from the Genesis/Mega Drive days, as well as Sonic CD. But, if anyone remembers 1994, Sonic & Knuckles came out a month or so ahead of DK Country. And, of course, because I had ordered S&K, I hurried out and bought Sonic 3, so that I could have the "complete" game as mentioned on MTV. I had ordered S&K from Chips-N-Bits, and if anyone ever did business through them, you'd know they always dispatched orders via Airborne Express.
Why did I jump from DK Country to Sonic? Well, I'm building some background here. When S&K came that fateful morning, I opened the box, and put the cart straight into my Genesis. I played for one level as Sonic, reset the game, and played one level as Knuckles. Then, I locked Sonic 3 into S&K to play, what I still believe was nothing more than the "Complete Sonic 3". I think Sega developed Sonic 3, realized it would take up more than a cartridge would hold, so they split the game in half, and managed to charge twice the amount of cash for what really was just one game, divided onto two carts. The reason I figured it was one game divided into two was because of the ONE TIME I actually got debug mode to work. As you Sonic vets may recall, pressing the B button would turn you from Sonic into…well…a type of sprite cursor. Example: press "B" and Sonic is replaced by a gold ring. Use "A" to change through the different sprites, and "C" to place sprite. Anyway, when in sprite-placement mode, you could move ANYWHERE on ANY screen. Well, I found a lot of secret paths that just disappeared into nowhere…like the train bridge from Back to the Future Part 3. In addition to that, when the debug mode was entered, it enabled the usual Sound Test screen. There were all these songs from levels I'd never even heard of. I sat there thinking, "Mushroom Hill Zone? What's that? And what's Flying Battery?" Well, my questions were answered when I played with Sonic 3 and S&K locked together.
Damn, I'm like my grandfather was! I keep getting side-tracked. I promise, guys, I will get to the point now. Although I absolutely loved Sonic 3 & Knuckles, it was very frenzied and just all-around tense at times. I remember day 2. I woke up, went straight into the living room, and just started up again. I played the game all day. I was 17 at the time, and was supposed to study for my GED test. I called the instructor and told her I was sick. Well, actually…um…I didn't totally lie. I had just "junked" all morning and into lunch, not eating proper food, so I did have the shits when I called to cancel. So, I played on…and on…and on…
By the time I was done, that night, I could hardly see straight, and had a nasty headache from watching that blue fucker all day long. It only took me 2-3 days to beat the game…and about 3 months before I collected all the additional "Super Emeralds".
But then, that one fateful Saturday in November, I got Donkey Kong Country. It was not only the most amazing game I'd seen; it was just so easy-going. No tense jap-techno music. No frenzied RUN! RUN! RUN! TIMER!!! TIMER!!! 10 COCK-LOVING MINUTES TO FAIL!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! It was laid-back, soothing, and just fun. I was amazed that this game was a Super Nintendo game. When I had first seen the original screenshots for the game in EGM, (either Feb. or March issue) I thought it was a 3DO game because where the article was, there was a 3DO ad on the same page. I just assumed Nintendo had sold off Donkey Kong to Panasonic. And seeing the graphics, I had every right to think it was a 3DO game, afterall, the SNES was "only" a 16-bit system. It couldn't do something like that.
Man, I loved DK Country. The graphics, gameplay, and sounds were just fantastic. You know, I still have my Donkey Kong Country SDTK CD I ordered from Nintendo Power all those years ago. It was also kinda nice, too, because as of that Saturday Night, we were in for a Winter Storm Warning. So, while the snow was burying my town, I just snuggled in and played Donkey Kong Country.
The problem: the 2nd and 3rd games were crap. The second one's graphics gave me a tremendous headache if I played for more than 10 minutes. The third one actually induced a migraine headache. After staring at the screen for a half-hour, it felt like someone had taken a sledge hammer and a railroad spike, and cracked the front of my skull in. I don't know why, but the third one gave me blinding headaches. Maybe there was some sort of blurring effect? I don't know, but it was bad. And on top of that, the games sucked. I longed for the simplicity that was the first one. Rare didn't just drop the ball; they dropped it on a bed of extra-sharp galvonized nails.
So, I guess it's really a matter of "franchise" vs. "single game". Franchise-wise, I would say Sonic. From the first Sonic game to Sonic 3+Knuckles, it was all great. The first one had details that were mind-blowing. Comparing Sonic to Super Mario World, it's easy as to why people would often make the mistake of thinking the Genesis was "all-around better" than the SNES. He could run like the wind, and the backgrounds were so crisp and detailed. Sonic 2 was great, as it introduced Tails. Sonic 3 — even stand-alone without its missing half — was good. Hey, now you could make Tails fly by rapidly tapping the jump button(s). In between Sonic 2 and 3 was Sonic Spinball. At first, I was pissed. I thought Sega decided to take what was supposed to be Sonic 3, and made a pinball game instead. Gladly, I was wrong. And Sonic Spinball was actually great fun! Bought a Sega CD in Jan 1994. Rented Sonic CD sometime later. Loved it. Bought a copy in mid-Spring 1994.
Until Sonic Mega Collection, I'd never played Sonic 3D Blast. Good to see I didn't miss much. ‾__‾
Though, favorite individual game would likely be…actually…still might not be DK Country. I also loved Tazmania for the Genesis.
Oh well.
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