So I wanted to make another list. I thought about doing my top games of 2009, but that's too typical and boring. Then realizing I've been having nostalgia lately for the numbers one game on this list, I realized, why don't I make a list of the top ten games I have nostalgia for? As you will see, there are certain games on certain consoles that others may choose that are very much omitted from my list. Therefore I will explain my gaming progression through the years briefly. It went in this order: NES -> SNES -> N64 -> PC -> PC and Gamecube -> PC -> Xbox 360. As you can see, I have never owned a Playstation. Don't ask why, it just was never in my house. So yeah, some of you may say "BUT YOU'RE MISSING SOME GREAT GAMES" I sure I am, but this is the history that I had. So, without further a due, here we go.
Actually, I lied. There's 11 in my list. I couldn't get it down just to 10. :-P
I really don't know what it was about this game that I loved so much, I was quite young at the time so maybe it was just that, but I loved and played a lot. Over and over again I remember. Mainly the half pipe in my memory, but they are some good memories. I couldn't say if it was a good game or not now that I think about it, but I enjoyed and that's all that really matters. But just look at that Electronic Arts logo on the box! Wow! Hehe...quite interesting how things progress.
10. Cruis'n World (N64) While I enjoyed its predecessor, Cruis'n USA, it was this game that really hit it off for me. Man I had a great time with this game. Really loved the Cushman, the 3 wheelin' cart vehicle. Especially going through the jungle race if I remember right. And the world music in that game, I still have some of it in my head to this day when I really think about it. And plus, who can forget the pixelated babes at the beginning and end of races? I was young...that was probably the main reason I liked it. Hah. Not really... I don't think so anyway... It was great though. Definitely played this A LOT.
9. Star Fox 64 (N64) To do a barrel roll, press Z or R twice! One summer I probably beat this game at least 6 times. I loved how you could take different paths to get to the end of the game. (Probably why later on I would find that I am an RPG lover.) I remember it being a challenge as well as incredibly satisfying to take down the enemies.
8. Super Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (SNES) I am a huge Star Wars fan...and I loved this game! You could play with a lightsaber! I mean, how awesome was that? I did a little reading about this game before I started this list, and even if it may not have been too true to the actual movie...that doesn't matter. I remember fighting enemies and jumping from place to place while swinging my lightsaber. Those are some wonderful memories.
7. No One Lives Forever (PC) This game would go in a list of my top games of all time if I were to ever make one. I love this game, I still go back and play it now and then. Not every year, but maybe once every 1.5 years or so. But I played it through a couple times when it first came out. I mean, it was a shooter that was funny, and had a dialogue tree?! That's...something not even found today! Plus the atmosphere and colors are absolutely awesome. Not to mention that for the time period, the AI was actually pretty damn good, so it offered quite a challenge. I could glow about this game for a long time. Plus the multiplayer! I almost forgot! I played the multiplayer for hours at LAN parties with my friends. Man...that was some AWESOME times. God I love it so much.
6. Ken Griffey Jr Presents Major League Baseball (N64) Being from Seattle, Ken Griffey Jr was a hero for me growing up. This is the best baseball game ever made and I remember playing it so much. Hitting homers with Griffey all the time and having the announcers in game yelling his name. For me, at the time, that was a special moment. This game was great!
5. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) I loved and still love Donkey Kong. I could have easily put Donkey Kong country (for SNES) or Diddy Kong racing for the 64 on this list but I figured one DK was alright for the list. I loved this game, I remember playing and really enjoying just the character selection screen at the top. Also loved it when you had to get in the amazing mine carts and do levels in those. Man...the music in this game was wonderful too. Great memories from here.
4. Double Dragon (NES) I was too young at the time to play it in the Arcade. I know it is famouse for being "revolutionary" in the beat em up genre in arcades but I just loved this game and have great memories punching and beating up the guys to rescue the chick. I don't remember who she was, but I just remember doing that. The music sticks in my mind too. This game was fun.
3. Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (PC) This is perhaps my favorite game of all time. I still go back and play it off and on throughout the year. So maybe "nostalgia" isn't the perfect designation for it as I still do play this from time to time. But I remember getting the demo of this game on a CD (man remember those days?!) in I think 4th - 5th grade or something like that and absolutely falling in love with it when I first started giving it a try. I soon after got the full game and since then, have put so so many hours into this game I would never want to know just how many I have.
2. Balder's Gate 2 (PC) This was the game that made me realize how much I love RPGs. My addiction to RPGs started at this point. It also was my start of my immense love for BioWare. I love this game and there's a reason why I love Dragon Age: Origins which just game out so much as well. BG2 was and is a fabulous RPG of epic proportions. So many good memories from playing through this game numerous times but the awesomeness of my first experience through will forever be in my memories.
1. Star Wars Galaxies (PC) I'm a huge Star Wars fan, so it was only natural that I play the first Star Wars MMO. Though its not that old of a game compared to others on my list, it is clearly the game I have the most nostalgia for. I played from release day to right before the so called "combat upgrade" was released. I was a full Pre-CU player. To give a little perspective, I played to about the time that WoW was released. Even though I only ended up playing this game for about 1.5 years (still a lot!) it is some of the best year plus I have ever had in gaming. Sure the game had flaws, it was far from perfect but I loved it for what it was, it was Star Wars and I was a player living in that fabulous universe! I think though what makes me have so much nostalgia for the great times that I had playing Star Wars Galaxies is that the game that I played and enjoyed so much, physically doesn't exist anymore. Its a completely different game now, and therefore the nostalgia I have for my experiences in the wonderful universe will always be in memory.
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I'm a huge nostalgic gamer. Here are some of my favorites:
1) Quest for Glory series - Most of the Sierra adventure games have been released in various compilation forms over the years or digitally, but for some sad reason, Quest for Glory was last released as a compilation when the last game in the series came out sometime in the late nineties. This is an example of a series that I know has been surpassed by similar games (Elder Scrolls), but I still hold the series in such high regard. It was one of the first RPG's I ever played.
2) Leisure Suit Larry - I started this series with the second game, and I loved all of 'em. Well, until the last two atrocities in the series, that is. Al Lowe's cheeky, witty writing was both immature and completely lovable. Along with this series, I'd also say Space Quest. Great humor, though it loses something in translation to today.
3) Might and Magic - I'm not talkin' Heroes of Might and Magic. I'm talking full-bore classic M&M goodness, with hard-as-nails gameplay, customizable parties, crazy nonsensical stories, and all the weapons and spells you could ever want in an RPG. Or at least, so I thought at the time. Probably another series that has since been surpassed, but I'd love to see a return of the classic formula on the DS, where I think it would work perfectly.
4) Arcanum - I thought it was almost criminal how this game was released and quickly unsupported. Here was a potential franchise in the making, a series of games that should and could have stood side by side with Fallout in a modern era. I drool over the thought - a steampunk RPG with modern sensibilities and the engine of Fallout 3? Mmmm mmmm mmm. Too bad it'll never happen.
5) Legend of the Mystical Ninja - I refuse to revisit this game. I do not want to spoil any of my fond childhood memories of this hilarious gem.
6) Full Throttle/Grim Fandango - I liked the Monkey Island games, but for my money, these were LucasArts' finest projects. I still replay them on about a yearly basis. Still hilarious, still visually striking, and still as awesome as they were.
7) Wing Commander 3, 4, Prophecy - I liked the gameplay, but I loved the hokey videos even more. Man, these games had some classic cinematic moments. Another series I think deserves a comeback.
8) Gabriel Knight/Lara Bow - Two fantastic Sierra adventures that you don't hear much about these days. A definite highlight for anyone should be the fact that Gabriel Knight is voiced by Tim Curry.
9) Adventures of Willy Beamish - No one, and I mean, no one remembers this game, but man, back in the day, its cartoonish art-style and its writing were top-notch. The gameplay wasn't so hot, even then, as it was too easy to get stuck in later chapters without proper items from earlier in the game.
10) Star Wars Racer - An excellent game, even today. The graphics were jaw-dropping at the time, although not so much anymore. Still, the gameplay holds up wonderfully, and there's still no game with quite its feel.
So I wanted to make another list. I thought about doing my top games of 2009, but that's too typical and boring. Then realizing I've been having nostalgia lately for the numbers one game on this list, I realized, why don't I make a list of the top ten games I have nostalgia for? As you will see, there are certain games on certain consoles that others may choose that are very much omitted from my list. Therefore I will explain my gaming progression through the years briefly. It went in this order: NES -> SNES -> N64 -> PC -> PC and Gamecube -> PC -> Xbox 360. As you can see, I have never owned a Playstation. Don't ask why, it just was never in my house. So yeah, some of you may say "BUT YOU'RE MISSING SOME GREAT GAMES" I sure I am, but this is the history that I had. So, without further a due, here we go.
Actually, I lied. There's 11 in my list. I couldn't get it down just to 10. :-P
I really don't know what it was about this game that I loved so much, I was quite young at the time so maybe it was just that, but I loved and played a lot. Over and over again I remember. Mainly the half pipe in my memory, but they are some good memories. I couldn't say if it was a good game or not now that I think about it, but I enjoyed and that's all that really matters. But just look at that Electronic Arts logo on the box! Wow! Hehe...quite interesting how things progress.
10. Cruis'n World (N64) While I enjoyed its predecessor, Cruis'n USA, it was this game that really hit it off for me. Man I had a great time with this game. Really loved the Cushman, the 3 wheelin' cart vehicle. Especially going through the jungle race if I remember right. And the world music in that game, I still have some of it in my head to this day when I really think about it. And plus, who can forget the pixelated babes at the beginning and end of races? I was young...that was probably the main reason I liked it. Hah. Not really... I don't think so anyway... It was great though. Definitely played this A LOT.
9. Star Fox 64 (N64) To do a barrel roll, press Z or R twice! One summer I probably beat this game at least 6 times. I loved how you could take different paths to get to the end of the game. (Probably why later on I would find that I am an RPG lover.) I remember it being a challenge as well as incredibly satisfying to take down the enemies.
8. Super Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (SNES) I am a huge Star Wars fan...and I loved this game! You could play with a lightsaber! I mean, how awesome was that? I did a little reading about this game before I started this list, and even if it may not have been too true to the actual movie...that doesn't matter. I remember fighting enemies and jumping from place to place while swinging my lightsaber. Those are some wonderful memories.
7. No One Lives Forever (PC) This game would go in a list of my top games of all time if I were to ever make one. I love this game, I still go back and play it now and then. Not every year, but maybe once every 1.5 years or so. But I played it through a couple times when it first came out. I mean, it was a shooter that was funny, and had a dialogue tree?! That's...something not even found today! Plus the atmosphere and colors are absolutely awesome. Not to mention that for the time period, the AI was actually pretty damn good, so it offered quite a challenge. I could glow about this game for a long time. Plus the multiplayer! I almost forgot! I played the multiplayer for hours at LAN parties with my friends. Man...that was some AWESOME times. God I love it so much.
6. Ken Griffey Jr Presents Major League Baseball (N64) Being from Seattle, Ken Griffey Jr was a hero for me growing up. This is the best baseball game ever made and I remember playing it so much. Hitting homers with Griffey all the time and having the announcers in game yelling his name. For me, at the time, that was a special moment. This game was great!
5. Donkey Kong 64 (N64) I loved and still love Donkey Kong. I could have easily put Donkey Kong country (for SNES) or Diddy Kong racing for the 64 on this list but I figured one DK was alright for the list. I loved this game, I remember playing and really enjoying just the character selection screen at the top. Also loved it when you had to get in the amazing mine carts and do levels in those. Man...the music in this game was wonderful too. Great memories from here.
4. Double Dragon (NES) I was too young at the time to play it in the Arcade. I know it is famouse for being "revolutionary" in the beat em up genre in arcades but I just loved this game and have great memories punching and beating up the guys to rescue the chick. I don't remember who she was, but I just remember doing that. The music sticks in my mind too. This game was fun.
3. Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (PC) This is perhaps my favorite game of all time. I still go back and play it off and on throughout the year. So maybe "nostalgia" isn't the perfect designation for it as I still do play this from time to time. But I remember getting the demo of this game on a CD (man remember those days?!) in I think 4th - 5th grade or something like that and absolutely falling in love with it when I first started giving it a try. I soon after got the full game and since then, have put so so many hours into this game I would never want to know just how many I have.
2. Balder's Gate 2 (PC) This was the game that made me realize how much I love RPGs. My addiction to RPGs started at this point. It also was my start of my immense love for BioWare. I love this game and there's a reason why I love Dragon Age: Origins which just game out so much as well. BG2 was and is a fabulous RPG of epic proportions. So many good memories from playing through this game numerous times but the awesomeness of my first experience through will forever be in my memories.
1. Star Wars Galaxies (PC) I'm a huge Star Wars fan, so it was only natural that I play the first Star Wars MMO. Though its not that old of a game compared to others on my list, it is clearly the game I have the most nostalgia for. I played from release day to right before the so called "combat upgrade" was released. I was a full Pre-CU player. To give a little perspective, I played to about the time that WoW was released. Even though I only ended up playing this game for about 1.5 years (still a lot!) it is some of the best year plus I have ever had in gaming. Sure the game had flaws, it was far from perfect but I loved it for what it was, it was Star Wars and I was a player living in that fabulous universe! I think though what makes me have so much nostalgia for the great times that I had playing Star Wars Galaxies is that the game that I played and enjoyed so much, physically doesn't exist anymore. Its a completely different game now, and therefore the nostalgia I have for my experiences in the wonderful universe will always be in memory.
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