The Throwback series is back for the month of March and this month we’re talking about one of my early childhood, life long loves, video games.
Much to my my parents dislike, I’ve probably logged months (maybe even a year.. maybe ) worth of time with video games over the years and even though it’s never come anywhere near full fledged obsession, I would definitely consider myself to be an active gamer.
So for this post we’re going to take a look of where my love for gaming all started, which, for me, was the Gameboy and Super Nintendo days. I didn’t include games from systems like the original NES or Sega Genesis because I didn’t own either. Also, keep in mind that these are games I owned roughly between the ages of 6-10 years old.
1.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles In Time:
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When it comes to lists like this, I would never think to officially give a rank to anything, but the fact that this was the first game that came to mind once I started reminiscing speaks volumes. This was probably my favorite Super Nintendo game ever and had everything my 7 year old self could enjoy: Co-op gameplay, an entertaining story, and NINJA TURTLES?!! To show just how much it’s stood the test of time, there was even a reboot version of the game that was released a few years ago that still managed to fall short of the original… Truly a gem of its time.
2.) Megaman X:
When you’re a child you could really care less about sales of any kind, but I’m almost positive this game sold extremely well because I can remember every guy friend that I had at that age owning a copy. The funny thing is that I can’t remember anyone of us ever being able to actually beat this game. Once you beat all the bosses, there was a final stage where you fight all of them again, as well as fighting the ultimate boss, who nobody could seem to beat. I’ve had sleepovers dedicated to the sole purpose of beating Megaman X only to have it all end in failure. It was still a lot of fun,had a ton of memorable characters, and led to a lot of memories of trying and failing with all of my friends.
3.) NBA Jam:
Every decade worth remembering has a couple of pop culture phrases that can only truly be appreciated by the people who were around during that time. If you don’t look at NBA Jam and mentally or verbally shout “He’s on Fire!” (or “Boom Shaka Laka!”) then you probably were either too young or too old to enjoy the game that would serve as the blueprint for future great games such as the NBA Street series.
4.) Super Street Fighter II:
If you’re a casual fan of Street Fighter, you’re probably a little annoyed by the fact that Capcom is getting ready to release the 4th (or 5th?) installment of Street Fighter IV this year, and probably forgot all about just how many versions of Street Fighter II were released in the SNES days. I don’t think anyone under a certain age could keep track. All I knew is, my version of Street Fighter II was somehow different than my friend’s version, and my other friend’s version is different from ours as well. This, Mortal Kombat, and Killer Instinct were the fighting games that set everything off.
5.) Disney’s Aladdin:
A lot of people don’t realize just how much Disney had the gaming industry on lock back in the days of sprites and flat backgrounds. Aladdin wasn’t just the video game adaption of the movie, it was an AMAZING video game adaption of the movie and this isn’t nostalgia talking. It got great reviews for it’s time and sold extremely well (at least according to Wikipedia) and was an all around great game. Flying around on a magic carpet, throwing apples at temple guards, fighting Cobra Jafar, escaping from molten lava (the hardest level by the way) etc. the game was just FUN.
