Well, here I am again. I've come back for more.
Today the hat has dictated that I will talk about a hobby that's been very dear to my heart for most of my life: video games.
There's a number of reasons video games are important to me. One, as a child I had no siblings and I had few friends. Thus, video games occupied my time, and they made me feel whole, like there was someone there and they were interested in me. Second, I feel that video games are a form of interactive art, and I believe they have themes and lessons that should not be completely disregarded as child's play.
As for my experiences, I guess I'll start at the beginning.
My first gaming console was the Intellivision, which I can best describe as an upgraded version of Atari. Nowadays the Intellivision's a lot like the Sega Dreamcast; it was vastly superior to its competition at the time, but there aren't a lot of people talking about it today. Anywho I assume that my father bought it sometime before I was born. Our Intellivision amused me, but it didn't see much play from me because I didn't find it particularly engaging. I was about three years old at the time, but still, I got bored quickly. It probably has something to do with my father buying a good number of low quality games that helped make the video game crash of 1983 such a smashing success. Ah well. At least I never had the displeasure of playing E.T.
Unfortunately, I have not had much experience with the Nintendo Entertainment System. The number of times I've played it have been at the houses of friends, at after-school programs, and at the houses of family members. At the time, I definitely wanted it, especially after I saw so many ads for it in the comic books I read. My father, I imagine he would have bought it for me but my mother likely said no because we had the Intellivision and it was a waste of money. This line of reasoning would later come back to haunt her.
For those of you reading this who are also gamers, feel free to suggest games to me. I always appreciate a new gaming experience. But don't go further back than the NES.
Flash forward to 1991. Oh yes, I know what you're thinking, and that's exactly it: my dad brought home the Super Nintendo. There is no adjective apt enough to describe the greatness of the Super Nintendo. Let me put it this way: It was so great, my grandma freakin got one. Yeah, try to imagine an 80-year-old woman pounding away at the controller. When dad brought it home, he got Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past with it. Those two were both great, no doubt, but my ultimate SNES experience actually didn't come until December of 2005 when I got my hands on Super Metroid. To say the least, it was amazing, and one of the top platforming games ever made. A lot of my love for the game can be attributed to its science fiction storyline, but the storyline aside, the gameplay alone is...perfect. Konami would later owe a lot to Super Metroid when they released Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, where Super Metroid's gameplay was used as a sort of blueprint. By no means is it a rip-off; it has its own unique style, but I think of it as a horror version of Metroid, and thus I love it equally.
Around 1993 or so, my mother decided to get me a Game Gear. She got it to keep me occupied during long trips, such as going to Disney World since we used to drive there. The Game Gear was fun, but it sucked up batteries like water and I found the games to be terribly difficult. I couldn't get past level 2 in Spider-Man, and I couldn't get anywhere in Shinobi. It really had a knack for pissing off a six-year-old.
From about 1993 to 1999, I did a lot of computer gaming. Computer gaming doesn't get a ton of love anymore, but I deeply respect the computer games of yesteryear. I used to play computer games as much as I did my SNES. My mother would often take me to Best Buy, or CompUSA, and we'd go through the computer games. There's a certain kind of game that I believe deserves mention here: point-and-click adventure games. For those of you who don't know what that means, I mean you used the mouse to direct your character and click on objects to use them, and you pretty much used nothing but the mouse to play the game. Some of the ones I've played include Monkey Island, King's Quest, Full Throttle, and Gabriel Knight. These games sadly died off with the advent of 3D graphics, but they'll always hold a special place in my heart.
When 1995 rolled around, I decided I wanted a Genesis. I don't know why, probably because I saw and heard so many cool things about the games for it and I always saw them in stores and felt sad that I couldn't play them. One day my mom told me that there was a sale on Sega Genesis consoles going, so we ran over to K-Mart and got one. My first games for it were unremarkable: Sonic Spinball and Batman Returns, but they were fun. The first thing I noticed about the Genesis was that the graphics were a bit primitive compared to the SNES, but this didn't detract from my experience. I remember the Genesis focusing very much on intensity rather than graphics, and I find this to be true after looking at Shinobi 3, Gunstar Heroes, and Sonic the Hedgehog. I notice that Cyberpunk is a common theme for a lot of Genesis games, such as Shinobi 3, Shadowrun, Phantom 2040, and Strider, while the SNES seemed to orient itself more towards Fantasy. That's not to say that each console didn't see its share of each, but I've noticed it.
Sega later released an add-on for the Genesis, called the 32X. I have it, and it was a flop. There's not much worth mentioning about the system other than Spider-Man: Web of Fire, which was its best game. I have it. No, you can't have it. Yes, I know how much its worth.
I finally got a Nintendo 64 in 1998. I really had to twist my mom's arm for this one; she didn't like me getting these things. But once I got it...man, it was pretty nice. The reason I wanted it so much was the WCW and WWF wrestling games made by THQ. I still consider them to be among the best wrestling games made, though they can be a little slow at times. The real gem of this console is Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Man, this game defines "epic." I spent about a month while I was in 6th grade going through everything in the game I could find, about three days of which were spent getting the Biggoron Sword, and I still don't think I got it all. Another game people people seem to like is Super Mario 64. Believe it or not, I haven't played the game. Maybe someday I'll get around to it.
In 2000, or 2001, I can't remember, I got the Playstation 2. Miraculously I was able to score one despite a shortage of the console at stores. I remember at the time I got it, there was nothing notable in the way of games. So I got Onimusha: Warlords, which actually turned out to be pretty good. Anyone who knows the game can recognize that it's basically a faster version of Resident Evil. Not much later, I experienced the Playstation games that I'd been missing out on for several years; most notably Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I spent three days play Metal Gear Solid nonstop, as I was fascinated by the complex plot and the equally complex characters; I'd never seen anything like it before in a video game. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a pure gaming experience with some atmosphere thrown in. I definitely wouldn't go to the game for story or voice acting, because the voice acting sucked and the story was...well, kind of just a lame excuse to go into Dracula's castle. I think "Holy crap" sums up the gameplay pretty well. In a good way, of course.
Christmas of 2002, my mother gave me a Gamecube. Which was funny because she vowed she'd never get me another game system. So much for that. The Gamecube...I don't know. I have mixed feelings regarding the Gamecube. There wasn't a ton of games for it, probably due to the disc size. But the games that were there, a lot of them were very good. Resident Evil 4 was perfect, in my eyes. Really, I could tell that the game had been designed with the Gamecube in mind. Another title that struck me was Viewtiful Joe, one of the more unique games I've played in a long time. Overall, I think the Gamecube didn't get the respect it deserved, but it came and went with a bang. I still have to extensively play Zelda: Twilight Princess, arguably the last great thing released on the Gamecube.
Sometime around 2003, I was bitten by the Genesis Bug again and decided I wanted a Dreamcast. I got a few games for it, notably Crazy Taxi, Zombie Revenge, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and House of the Dead 2. I remember for a long time during my Sophmore year of high school, every day I would come home and play Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and try to beat my old high score. I think my favorite team was Iron Man, Cable, and I think War Machine. Whatever the team was, it was pretty beastly. I suddenly have a hankering to give House of the Dead 2 another go and blow away some zombies.
A few weeks after I went to college in 2005, the Genesis Bug bit me yet again and I decided to buy an Xbox. It was only $200 at the time, I think. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic came with the console. Aside from Rogue Squadron, it's probably the best Star Wars game I've played. My experience with the Xbox was rather brief, albeit fun. I'm still trying to beat Scarface: The World Is Yours and Stubbs the Zombie.
Finally, there's the Xbox 360. I got it in December 2006, and I got Gears of War with it. I loved the dystopian setting of Gears of War, although I thought the controls were a little spotty in some places. Still, there isn't anything much cooler than taking a chainsaw to an alien. I used to have my ex-girlfriend cover for me while I charged toward aliens just to maul them with the chainsaw. Ah, fond memories. Just recently I beat Bioshock, which I thought was going to be kind of lame because of the way it started. But it turned out to be really good, an innovative first-person shooter; more so than Halo, I think. It helped that the game had some twists that I didn't expect, which I won't mention for the sake of those who have yet to play the game.
This concludes my discourse regarding my experiences with video games. I have to get going now; I've got a classroom to observe.
End, Blog #2.
Tags: Video Games Video Gaming
