I recently had the fortune (Suzanne's misfortune) of getting my hands on Suzanne's old Nintendo 64. Suzanne had a whole bunch of old games that I haven't played in years and it made me feel a bit nostalgic, so I thought I'd share with you all a few of the video games that have consumed large portions of my life. These aren't in any particular order.
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64):
I will start with the best. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been almost universally praised by critics and often slated as 'The greatest game of all time' almost every list places it in their top 5 greatest games. For those of you not familiar with the Legend of Zelda series of games, they centre around a young boy called Link and his efforts to save the land of Hyrule from the evil Gannondorf.
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| Our Hero! |
The series usually includes a mystical artifact known as the Triforce. The Triforce will grant the wish of anyone who touches it and the legends says that if someone who's heart is full of truth makes a wish Hyrule will enter an age of peace and prosperity; however if someone who's heart contains evil makes a wish the land will be plunged into darkness and chaos.
Ocarina of Time introduced a number of gameplay mechanics and features that would go on to become mainstays in the RPG/Action Adventure genre such as a specific action button for interacting with the environment and a target lock system. Game Trailers even went as far as to describe the game as a 'walking patent factory'.
This game gets a 10/10 in my book.
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistral's (Super Nintendo):
Lufia II is a turn based RPG game centering on the life of Maxim the monster hunter. When a bright ball of light is spotted streaming through the sky of his quiet town to land somewhere in the ocean, a feeling of great darkness comes over the land. Maxim is confronted by Iris, a seer who tells Maxim it is his destiny to fight and to lead men against the all powerful beings known as The Sinistral's. The Sinistral's are god-like figures of immense power who have come to earth in search of a great weapon, The Dual Blade, said to be the only weapon capable of defeating a Sinistral. Maxim begins his quest meeting companions and learning of Dual Blade's existence along the way.
By far the best thing about this game is the story. It is an epic of grand scale and personally, for me, rivals some of the best novels and movies you can name. I became emotionally attached to the characters in this story from an early age and the game has stuck with me as one of my all time favorites ever since.
10/10
Secret Of Mana (Super Nintendo)
Another classic SNES RPG, Secret of Mana is the story of a boy who finds a sword. Much like the legend of King Arthur, the hero (who has no official name in the game) discovers the sword and pulls it from a stone. Breaking the seal on the sword unleashes a wave of monsters onto the town and the towns people, seeing the sword as an evil omen banish the hero. Before leaving the hero is confronted by Jema, a Mana Knight who recognises the sword as the legendary Mana Sword, used to defeat the god-like beasts controlling the Mana Fortress in the wars long ago. Jema charges the boy with unsealing the eight Mana Seeds and restoring the swords power.
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistral's (Super Nintendo):
Lufia II is a turn based RPG game centering on the life of Maxim the monster hunter. When a bright ball of light is spotted streaming through the sky of his quiet town to land somewhere in the ocean, a feeling of great darkness comes over the land. Maxim is confronted by Iris, a seer who tells Maxim it is his destiny to fight and to lead men against the all powerful beings known as The Sinistral's. The Sinistral's are god-like figures of immense power who have come to earth in search of a great weapon, The Dual Blade, said to be the only weapon capable of defeating a Sinistral. Maxim begins his quest meeting companions and learning of Dual Blade's existence along the way.
By far the best thing about this game is the story. It is an epic of grand scale and personally, for me, rivals some of the best novels and movies you can name. I became emotionally attached to the characters in this story from an early age and the game has stuck with me as one of my all time favorites ever since.
10/10
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| Floating SkyFortress of Doom. Emperor Papatine's summer vacation house. |
Another classic SNES RPG, Secret of Mana is the story of a boy who finds a sword. Much like the legend of King Arthur, the hero (who has no official name in the game) discovers the sword and pulls it from a stone. Breaking the seal on the sword unleashes a wave of monsters onto the town and the towns people, seeing the sword as an evil omen banish the hero. Before leaving the hero is confronted by Jema, a Mana Knight who recognises the sword as the legendary Mana Sword, used to defeat the god-like beasts controlling the Mana Fortress in the wars long ago. Jema charges the boy with unsealing the eight Mana Seeds and restoring the swords power.
Again one of Secret of Mana's main strengths is it's story. It is engaging and compelling and it makes you want to continue to play the game. Secret of Mana was also one of the first RPG's to allow Co-Op play with another person. If you had a second control, pressing Select would allow you to take control of one of the three party members. Secret of Mana had an awesome menu system for selecting spells, weapons and items and rather than taking you to a seperate screen, a ring of icons would appear around the character allowing you to quickly select what you needed. This feature was replicated in another, similar game entitled Secret of Evermore.
9/10
Legend of Zelda: A link to the past (Super Nintendo):
The year is 1992. The year the Maastricht treaty is signed, forming the European Union. Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced to life in prison, Microsoft releases Windows 3.1 and the world simultaneously declares the first World Ocean day 5 days after test firing four nuclear missiles into the Pacific Ocean proving that mankind not only hates Planet Earth but is quite prepared to throw a big FUCK YOU to mother nature as well.
Another life changing event happened in September of 1992. Nintendo released their new AAA title, "The Legend of Zelda: A link to the past" and the gaming world changed.
You basically owe all those cool RPG style games where you have an inventory, collect items and go on an epic quest to this game. If you've never played it, shame on you. You're not a gamer.
I'm not going to ruin the story or even describe the experiance of playing this game. Go and play it for yourself.
10/10
Goldeneye (N64)
Everyone knows this game. Even if you've never played it, you've seen the movie. Even if you've never seen the movie you've played the Card Game.
First came Wolfenstein 3D and then Doom and Duke Nukem 3D and we loved these games. They introduced us to the feeling of control and skill that comes with playing an FPS. They were all epic in their own right, but the problem was that at the time Windows 3.1 was only just released, MS-DOS was still in it's prime and a PC cost the same as a car.
Goldeneye brought FPS to the console masses and it did it in style. It wasn't the first FPS on the 64 (anyone remember a certain pissed off indian dinosaur hunter?) but it is the one that will always be remembered. From sneaking around the much loved Facility to shooting it out with Trevelyan on the Array, Goldeneye blew away audiences world wide. As with Call of Duty now, the most outstanding thing Goldeneye had was the inclusion of 4 player split screen, so you could spend hours and hours blowing your mates up with proximity mines. I was a dab hand myself as some may testify and I remember many long nights spent huddled around a TV swearing and hitting each other with the controllers as we battled it out.
Goldeneye was a big part of what forged the First Person Shooter genre as we know it today and while it's graphics are now outdated and it's console mostly relegated to antiquity it will always have a place in history.
10/10
There has been some epic new games out recently too. Red Dead Redemption, Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops to name a few. I'm currently playing through Fallout: New Vegas and contemplating finally completing Dead Space soon, seeing as the sequel will be out soon. I'll write more later on some of these as they're definitely worth some attention.
Anyway, that's me done. I do have other games I want to talk about so don't hate on me if I didn't mention your favorite's but it's taken me like, 2 months to write this note and if I don't hit publish soon, this note will remain in Note Limbo forever and that's a horrible thing to happen to a good Note.
Ciao geeks. I'll leave you with this tasty bite.
Apparently you can't embed video in FB Notes so your stuck with a link. Watch it godsdamn you!
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| It's a very big game. |
The year is 1992. The year the Maastricht treaty is signed, forming the European Union. Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced to life in prison, Microsoft releases Windows 3.1 and the world simultaneously declares the first World Ocean day 5 days after test firing four nuclear missiles into the Pacific Ocean proving that mankind not only hates Planet Earth but is quite prepared to throw a big FUCK YOU to mother nature as well.
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| Humans. |
You basically owe all those cool RPG style games where you have an inventory, collect items and go on an epic quest to this game. If you've never played it, shame on you. You're not a gamer.
 |
| Epic. |
10/10
Goldeneye (N64)
Everyone knows this game. Even if you've never played it, you've seen the movie. Even if you've never seen the movie you've played the Card Game.
First came Wolfenstein 3D and then Doom and Duke Nukem 3D and we loved these games. They introduced us to the feeling of control and skill that comes with playing an FPS. They were all epic in their own right, but the problem was that at the time Windows 3.1 was only just released, MS-DOS was still in it's prime and a PC cost the same as a car.
Goldeneye brought FPS to the console masses and it did it in style. It wasn't the first FPS on the 64 (anyone remember a certain pissed off indian dinosaur hunter?) but it is the one that will always be remembered. From sneaking around the much loved Facility to shooting it out with Trevelyan on the Array, Goldeneye blew away audiences world wide. As with Call of Duty now, the most outstanding thing Goldeneye had was the inclusion of 4 player split screen, so you could spend hours and hours blowing your mates up with proximity mines. I was a dab hand myself as some may testify and I remember many long nights spent huddled around a TV swearing and hitting each other with the controllers as we battled it out.
 |
| Sideways! Oh fuck that's a killshot! |
10/10
There has been some epic new games out recently too. Red Dead Redemption, Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops to name a few. I'm currently playing through Fallout: New Vegas and contemplating finally completing Dead Space soon, seeing as the sequel will be out soon. I'll write more later on some of these as they're definitely worth some attention.
Anyway, that's me done. I do have other games I want to talk about so don't hate on me if I didn't mention your favorite's but it's taken me like, 2 months to write this note and if I don't hit publish soon, this note will remain in Note Limbo forever and that's a horrible thing to happen to a good Note.
Ciao geeks. I'll leave you with this tasty bite.
Apparently you can't embed video in FB Notes so your stuck with a link. Watch it godsdamn you!
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