NES – Bionic Commando
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjKzFihYYf0&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLE33D0AD22B5B66F7 [/youtube]Back in the days when most of my gaming experiences came from borrowing games from other people, and my uncle was the biggest gamer I knew (which also made him the coolest), I would spend many a weekend visiting family with all of us huddled around the NES waiting for our turn. Bionic Commando lended itself well to ”˜die and pass the contoller’ style gameplay, and I can still remember the joy of beating the entire game in a single sitting with three other family members.
Bionic Commando comes from a school of gaming not found much in gaming today. Lose all your lives and run out of continues? Sorry small fry, you kind of need to start over from the beginning. Tough luck.
SNES – Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU0_wESMZyA&feature=related [/youtube]One of the main reasons why one day I hope finally learn Japanese is because of games like Dragon Quest V. 17 years after the orignal was released in Japan, English speaking gamers were finally given the privilege to enjoy one of the finest RPGs to grace the SNES with the Nintendo DS remake. Dragon Quest V follows the main character through 30 years of his life, from when he was born all the way to marriage and children. Fan translations are available for the SNES original for those that would like to play the game the way it was intended to be played, so you have no excuse for not playing this game if you deem yourself a fan of RPGs.
N64 – Mario Golf
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=806KyO4lzcU [/youtube]I can’t say that I have ever had any interest in the sport aside from a few rounds of mini-golf at my local Putt-Putt, but when Mario Golf was released, all I cared about was how I was going to beat my friends after school in the games great multiplayer mode.
I still don’t pretend that I understand all the rules of the game of golf, but all I know is because of Mario Golf, no joke. Sure I had played the NES Open Tournament Golf, but I still didn’t quite understand what I was doing. There have been a few Mario Golf games since the N64 version, but in my opinion none of them have been quite able to capture the magic of the original.
Gamecube – Resident Evil
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQPksaD8p7Y [/youtube]There hasn’t been a game since the Gamecube remake of Resident Evil and the excellent prequel Resident Evil Zero that has quite managed to scare me the way those games have. Sure there have been subsequent releases in the franchise such as the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 4, but let’s be honest, they haven’t exactly been survival horror since RE3. Resident Evil 4 was a borderline shooter, and RE5 took it the whole way. I want another fixed perspective, walk around for minutes not knowing exactly when the next enemy is going to pop up type of Resident Evil. Give me back my childhood Capcom!
Wii – Battalion Wars 2
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ux4wcjVtL0 [/youtube]Don’t you tell me that ”˜Wii has no games,’ I just don’t want to hear it. Not when the sales numbers for Battalion Wars 2 indicate that that only me and 15 other people even bought the game. The spin-off to the Advance Wars series started life on the Gamecube, and was perfected on Wii with precision controls made possible with the Wii controller. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that the games are getter than their Advance Wars cousins, I simply love the games take on the turn based tactics genre, but both games are a delight and shouldn’t be missed.
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