Nostalgic Video Games

Story: I was seven years old, Christmas was approaching and in between my doses of WCW, an advert for a game called WWF Attitude kept playing. At this point, all I knew was that WWF was wrestling...and that's it. I was a WCW fan, but that was to change, thanks to this game. In fact, if it was not for this game, I probably would have stopped watching wrestling the moment WCW stopped showing over here. I got this game for Christmas and for a long time it was my favourite game (mainly because I had two PS1 games at the time). I loved to create my own characters and attempt to use them to destroy my opponents...usually ending in disaster. So, what made this game so addicting to me as a seven year-old? And does it still have the same effect on me nine and a half years later?

Why I Liked It: Even though I had no ideas who these guys were (except The Rock, my friend loved him so I knew who he was), I loved the different characters of the WWF. My favourite was Gangrel, a vampire who would drink "blood" from his goblet and spit it into the crowd. As a child I loved this and he became one of my favourite wrestlers when I started watching the WWF (even if he rarely ever appeared by that point). Another wrestler I grew to like thanks to this game was Kane. I thought his music was awesome, but I still feel ashamed that I actually thought he was a robot for many months until I finally saw him on television. This is because of his voice in the game, another thing I loved about this game. Before every match, the wrestlers would trash talk each other. In fact, I used to start matches just to hear them talk. I also liked the commentating, but I was not used to hearing voices in games by this point.

My Opinion Of It Now: The actual matches are boring. Compare it to the Smackdown! series, it just takes so long to finish a match. I always wondered why I never managed to win one of the belts in the game. It was because it just could not keep me interested in it for that long. The characters walk so slow and I can never get used to the controls (perhaps this is a side-effect of playing too much Smackdown! games). It is not the worst wrestling game I own (WCW Mayhem may just take that honour, I haven't played it in so long), but it is definitely not the best. It has aged terribly. The only thing I would say I like about this game is the nostalgia factor. This was the game that originally got me into the WWF (WWE now-a-days) and so I have a place in my memories for nearly every guy in this game. However, I would rather keep this game in my memories, than have to play it again.

Score: 4/10

Part two of this epic list of ultimate epicness (in other words, part two of this totally uninteresting list) and this is where it gets good. From 6 to 1, including some obvious choices, some kind of obvious choices and one particularly WHAT THE FORK choice. This is my personal favourite game series’ of all time, part two.

6) Sonic the Hedgehog

As I briefly mentioned in the first part, the first console I ever played was a Mega Drive (Genesis), so obviously this hedgehog was a permanent resident in our household. A fact that I like to keep reminding my sister is that when I was two years old, I could get further in the original Sonic (for the Master System, we were a SEGA house) than her. That is not because I was some sort of gaming god, nor was it because she was particularly bad (although she was pretty bad…), it was because I was addicted to it that I learned the first few levels off by heart. However, soon I was to lose contact with my hero, as the SEGA console got put away, replaced by some Nintendo handheld console that no one has ever heard of. The next time I actually owned a Sonic game would be in 2004 when I bought Sonic Adventure 2: Battle for the Gamecube. I loved it, this was my favourite Gamecube game for a whole three days (then I bought Super Smash Bros…). Eventually I also got the Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the PS2 and it was like my early childhood on a disc. It was the Sonic I knew and loved. Not this rubbish they produce these days, pure 2D wonderfulness. I refuse to have it any other way (apart from Adventure 2, I do occasionally still play that one…).

Favourite Game: Don’t actually have one, so I’ll cheat and say Sonic Mega Collection Plus

5) Football Manager

Probably the odd one out of the list, the black sheep, the hideously fat one among a bunch of skinny people, the tall person among midgets, the one who stands in a trench coat outside your house with binoculars…I think you get the point now. The Football Manager series (known in other areas as Worldwide Soccer Manager), is strangely enough a football management simulation series. I got into this game by accident also. Back in 1999, I had a football (soccer, whatever) management game that broke, causing me to cry to my Mum to get me a new one. She had no idea which one to get and so she bought me a game called Championship Manager 3. After initial disappointment (it was the wrong game), I decided to give it a shot. I loved it. More than loved, I was hooked. Granted, I had no idea what I was doing and rarely got beyond one season, but I did not care. I actually played this game for five years, until Championship Manager 4 came out. A couple of years later my PC broke and I went a whole year without being able to play it. Eventually I got another PC, but it was not long after that I discovered a game that I bought on impulse that would change my life. It was called Football Manager 2005. Since then I have bought the game pretty much near release date and have written many online stories based on my experiences, yeah, I am that sad that I would go on a website and talk about my experience playing a game. Thank god I don’t do that anymore. Still though, for soccer fans, this game is brilliant. If you are just a causal soccer fan with no idea about anything else apart from “Kick ball into net”, then I would stick with games like FIFA. Still though, Football Manager games are addictive. Overall, I have spent 14 whole days (yeah, two weeks of my life have been used on these games), which is more than any other series on this list (except number one…)

Favourite Game: Football Manager 2007

4) Pokémon

This is childhood. As a kid growing up in the late 90’s and early 00’s, it was hard to avoid these games. They were a phenomenon, and a phenomenal strain on our parent’s wallets. What made these games so good? I actually cannot tell. I am a fan of turn-based RPG’s anyway, so the gameplay itself is enough for me, but as a kid? Cannot remember, but damn it, we played these games for days. We watched the television show like it was our own animated bible, we bought so much trading cards that, combined, we probably could have fed an entire impoverished country for a week (slight exaggeration). As we got older, however, the cartoon became rubbish and we became ashamed if we played this “childish” game…at 10 years old, we thought this game to be childish. Eventually I decided to play Ruby (it came with my GBA SP) and I loved it. Since then, I basically give the middle finger to the childish tag and embraced the series. While the spin-off games do not do anything for me, I do still enjoy playing the main game. While so many improvements can be made, the traditional Pokémon games can keep me entertained for hours at a time. It’s simple, yet challenging. It is easily more fun than attempting to train real life creatures to battle (I was once young enough to actually believe this could work…).

Favourite Game: Pokémon Gold/Silver

3) Metal Gear Solid

I almost missed this series completely. I only got into this series after borrowing the second game, Sons of Liberty, at the same time as borrowing…Eye Toy Play (I was 11...). I decided to give it a chance and loved it. Despite forgetting the “stealth” element of the game several times (Gung Ho style does not work in the game…), I eventually got into the story and wanted to play the previous game. Fast forward two years later and I got Snake Eater. I loved this game even more, and it was during this time I became a proper MGS fan. However, I still hadn’t played the first game, which meant there was many story elements of the second and third games that confused me. So, in 2007, I finally decided to purchase Metal Gear Solid for the PS1. I…kind of liked it. I found it hard to get used to the controls after playing the other two, but the story was good and the gameplay is still familiar enough for me to like. I do not own a PS3, so I will have to wait years before I get to finally play the Guns of the Patriots. Despite this, Metal Gear Solid is one of my favourite game series of all times. Characters have interesting backstories, the story is complex (perhaps a little too much so, and a little OTT at times), good soundtrack and it was one of the first games to have good voice acting in the game.

Favourite Game: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

2) Grand Theft Auto

What a surprise. GTA is possibly the biggest known game series at this current time. It is controversial, violent and hell of a lot of fun. Like a lot of people, I discovered this series through Grand Theft Auto III. While at the time this was a fantastic game, the sequels totally blew GTA III out of the water. Vice City has a much brighter setting, a great soundtrack (featuring so many guilty pleasures of mine) and Ray Liotta voicing the main character. What more could you want? Well, everything more that you wanted, it was in San Andreas. San Andreas is, for me, the closest thing to the perfect game that I have played. The soundtrack was better, the setting was good (although I prefer Vice City’s setting) and it has one of the greatest voice cast in video game history. San Andreas is the peak of the series, but we all thought that GTA IV would destroy San Andreas in every way. Unfortunately, the hype was too great and it did not meet it. It was still a fantastic game, but San Andreas was the better game. IV had amazing graphics, but that it the only thing about the game I like more than San Andreas. The series is still great and hopefully the next (non-downloadable) GTA game will improve the GTA IV series just like Vice City and San Andreas improved the GTA III series. The older games are worth a shot too, but the series really got fantastic after GTA III.

Favourite Game: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

1) Final Fantasy

This game series means more to me than every other series ever to exist in the history of everness. Although I can easily admit that Final Fantasy is not the best game series ever, it is the most important series in my life. From the age of seven until right now, I have been hooked by this game. Cannot explain why, I fail to defend my love of the series all that well and I do not care. I love this game series (‘cept X-2, that needs to die a horrible death - preferably being burned alive to remove all evidence of it’s existence). It all started with watching a friend play VII, and I liked it. I eventually got Final Fantasy VIII (along with Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue. Ahh, childhood, I miss you so) and that is the game that turned me from “yeah, I occasionally play games, but that is it” to the “OH MY GOD, MUST PLAY GAME” man that I have become. No matter which game I play, I can sit there for hours just training my characters (‘cept X-2). While the series has slipped in recent years (although I am not going to blame the merger with Enix, it is around about that time I feel FF games started to become inconsistent), I will always have a place in my heart for Final Fantasy (but I will always hate Final Fantasy X-2 with a passion that shall never die).

Favourite Game: Final Fantasy VII

Ever since I held my first Mega Drive (Genesis) controller at the age of two years old, I have considered myself to be a gamer. Nearly fifteen years have past since those days and I have grown loyal to a number of game series. Twelve of them, to be exact. Some of them have nostalgic qualities, some are simply great games. Here, I count down my own personal top 12 game series. This is a list that everyone will disagree with, everyone has their own favourites.
There are two rules:
1) The series must contain at least three games.
2) I must have played at least three of them.
This means that a number of great series, including The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and a lot of other old games are not represented on this list. So, on with the first half list…

12) Guitar Hero

Ideally this would be replaced with Rock Band, but there is only two games in that series so far. Guitar Hero, developed by Harmonix, is a game everybody knows by now. Anybody can play it and it usually contains a fantastic collection of songs to pretend to play guitar to. I was introduced to this series in the summer of 2007, when I decided to get Guitar Hero II for the PS2. I thought it was an excellent game and when III came out, I was excited. It is also where I feel the series went downhill. While it still contained a good soundtrack, something did not seem right. Harmonix no longer developed the game, that duty was given to Neversoft and maybe this had something to do with it. Harmonix would go on to partner EA and MTV to create Rock Band. While Guitar Hero is the more well known brand, Rock Band is, for me, the better game. It had a soundtrack I loved, it was great to play on guitar and vocals (maybe not so great for anyone who had to listen to me “sing”) and I just felt it was brilliant. World Tour did introduce the whole band concept, but it still could not get me to switch sides. This is the reason why this series is down so low, it just is not as good as Rock Band in my opinion. I still like it, just not as much.

Favourite Game: Guitar Hero II

11) Gran Turismo

The first game I ever played on the original Playstation, it did not really catch my attention until I was on holiday in London a few years ago when I had this overwhelming urge to play it. When I came home, I promptly bought GT4 and proceeded to race my heart out. I am not usually into car racing games, usually because I suck badly at them. However, I got obsessed with this game and spent days playing it. I still sucked badly, but early on in the game I got a car which was far superior to every other car I was racing against that even crashing against a wall at 100 mph three times could not stop me winning the race. I love dominating! Alas, I eventually had to grow some skill at the game to proceed and found it hard to do that. Despite getting all the licenses, I still sucked at actually driving properly. However, it is still a good game for everyone, casual players to racing game nuts. I still do not consider myself to be a fan of racing games, but this game managed to create a little soft spot in my heart.

Favourite Game: Gran Turismo 4

10) Tony Hawk

I was a late comer for this series. The first game of the series I bought was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 for the GBA…and I hated it. I also bought THPS for the PS1 around six years ago…and hated it. I thought third time lucky and bought Tony Hawk’s Underground for the PS2...and loved it. Do not know how or why, but I suddenly became a Tony Hawk fan. Not a big fan of skateboarding, but I do love these games. From Underground onwards I just had to buy these games, although not really because of the actual game. The soundtracks for these games usually feature some fantastic songs, even if I do tend to switch off all the Hip Hop ones. Only one other game can compare with Tony Hawk when it comes to introducing me to new bands. While the game itself is pretty good, it is made so much more better thanks to the soundtrack.

Favourite Game: American Wasteland

9) Mario Kart

I discovered this series thanks to Mario Kart Advance for the GBA. I did not even choose this game, it came with the GBA which I got for Christmas, meaning it is the first (but not the last) case of accidentally getting into a series. This game was brilliant and four years after I got it, I was still playing it more than every other handheld game I owned at the time(with the exception of Pokémon Ruby). I eventually got Mario Kart DS, which I thought was simply fantastic…until some idiot at my school managed to lose it. Bastard. Anyways, my sister also bought Double Dash for herself, but I eventually claimed it for myself (in my defence…it is my Gamecube…) and again, thought it was good, although I did prefer the handheld versions. Finally, just this week I bought Super Mario Kart for the SNES off eBay, and it is also a decent game. Even though I rarely get to play with others, it is multiplayer which makes this game so good. There is very few things as rewarding than hitting your sister…with a red shell. Would have been higher, but after this entry, nostalgia starts to take action, so it cannot really compete with the power of nostalgia. Still, it is one of the few occurrences when a spin-off title off an already awesome series (which is not featured here, due reasons of not owning three (that will change soon though…)) actually does not suck major lollipops.

Favourite Game: Mario Kart DS

8) Tekken

A series of games I have been playing since 1999, Tekken will always have a place in my games collection. While many people will say Street Fighter is the far more superior series, I have only just got Street Fighter 2: Turbo for the SNES, so I cannot really agree. While I think the series has passed it’s peak, after the sheer brilliance of Tekken’s 3 and Tag Tournament, they are still fun to play. With a sixth game coming out in the Autumn, I will no doubt buy it and love it. There are many characters, each one with their own backstory, rivalries, friendships and unique styles of fighting. However, it is hard for me to properly justify liking this series so much, I put it down to the fact I have been playing these games for so long (yet mysteriously I cannot play them very well. I would most probably lose to a three year-old girl…with no arms…and mental disabilities…).

Favourite Game: Tekken Tag Tournament

7) WWE Smackdown!

Again, nostalgia has a big part to play in this series being this high in the list. From the age of six, until about twelve, I loved wrestling. I had dreams of being a professional wrestler. I “trained”, first using a teddy bear and then my quilt as my “opponent”. I even slept with The Rock…and by that I mean I had The Rock pyjamas. Needless to say, I loved the video games as well…half by accident. I watched WCW, but still got WWF Attitude for the PS1, even though I had no idea what the WWF was, except it had wrestling. I got the game and not long afterwards started to watch the actual WWF, just as all my friends were getting into it. Naturally, when WWF Smackdown was released, we all loved it. Looking back, I fail to see how we enjoyed the first game so much, especially after the awesomeness of the second game, Know Your Role. The series has since dipped up and down in quality, sometimes being great (Shut Your Mouth, Here Comes The Pain, vs. RAW 07), sometimes being rubbish (Just Bring It, vs. RAW 06 & 08) and sometimes being good, but not great. Overall, despite not being into the real thing any more, I still have time to play these games. While they are not as good as they were back in the day, they are still fun to play.

Favourite Game: WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth

Title: Pokémon Yellow
Year Released: 1998 (Jap), 1999 (N. America), 2000 (Europe)
Developers: Game Freak
Publishers: Nintendo
Console: Game Boy

Background: Let me start by saying that this review will obviously be quite a short one, mainly because this game is basically a slightly upgraded version of Pokémon Red/Blue. This game was probably more popular then Red and Blue was as by this point we had all begun to be obessed with the Pokémon cartoon series and this game capitialised on this, by introducing some minor changes which were inspired by the cartoon series. However, was it better than Red/Blue, or was it just an unnecessary makeover?

Story: There are only very minor changes to this story to the Red/Blue story. Instead of having the choice of three Pokémon, you are forced to accept Pikachu, who will follow you around everywhere. You can turn and talk to him and he will show some reaction and emotion. If you let him get fainted too much, he will start to hate you. Treat him well, and he will love you. Another minor change is that Jesse, James and Meowth of Team Rocket from the cartoon series, appears in this game as enemies. You will face them a number of times during your journey, instead of facing random members of Team Rocket. Other than that, there are no other real changes to talk about.

Graphics: The images of the Pokémon have been redone and as a result they are similar to they way they look in the cartoon series. This is much better and makes them look nicer, in my often-wrong opinion.

Sound: Just the same as in the previous games.

Conclusion: While I probably should have done this review at the same time as the Red/Blue review, I felt that this needed a seperate one, just because it is better. If you do not own any of the three between Red, Blue and Yellow and you wish to buy one...get Yellow. It is probably the better of the three.

Final Score: 7.5 Pikachus out of 10.

Sorry for the pathetic length of this review, but there is not much more to say about this game. In two weeks time (hopefully) it will be...Pokémon Stadium for the Nintendo 64.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was planning on reviewing X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse. However, due to a lack of availability in Europe and the fact it is not a good game for emulation, I have to change it all. So, just to make sure I do not make this mistake again, I will only review games I have already purchased, just to be sure. Also, I am going to put down the next seven (non-Pokémon) games I am going to review (so I don't forget). In order:
1) Earthworm Jim (SNES)
2) Duck Tales (NES)
3) Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
4) F-Zero (SNES)
5) Street Fighter 2 Turbo (SNES)
6) Super Mario Bros. (NES)
7) Super Mario World (SNES)

You might have noticed that all of these games are for either the NES or the SNES. That is because I recently bought the two consoles and thus doing reviews on games for that consoles makes sense to me. Anyways, I'm sure this is a waste of time, so I think I will end it now.
Byeb.