For those of you not familiar with 'The Feeling' is it basicly a series of blogs where I put a spotlight on some, in my case, oldschool games that I used to (and still do) love and play from one end to the other... and back again in my early years of gaming.

Now explaining it in detail would take up half the blog post, so feel free to check out my introduction where there's a lot more to be found.

And why not start where it all started?... Lets do that. Now I can't talk big about being one of those 80's gamers who saw the rise of Nintendo cause my life as a gamer first started back in 1993. I was only a few years old then and my experience with video games were, safe to say, very limited as it is with most kids that age. I did, however, had some gaming background in me before I got a game I could finally call my own.

My older brother, who's 8 years ahead of me, had been confirmated that same year and in present did he get one of the wildest computer's you could ask for back then, at least as far as we knew. I don't remember much about the PC itself, except it had Windows 3.1, a 60 mhz processor, 8Mb of RAM and came with one of those old, nicotine yellow monitors that took up half of your desk space. Trust me - it was a monster!

My brother weren't really a gamer in the sense of the word. I'm not really sure why, but it seemed like it never really caught he's interest to the point of actually buying and expanding his collection, he just liked to play now and then and luckily did he have a good friend who supplied him with all sorts of games (and naughty 3-color pictures) on floppy disks. Yup, some of the first games I ever had my hands on were a bunch of DOS games played on that machine.

Opened had a new world and boy did I love it. I clearly remember sitting behind my brother whenever he had friends over, just to get a glimpse of what was happening on the screen. When I finally, on one of those rare occasions, got around to actually play the games did it feel like heaven!... Though I was more often told to get the f... out... unfortunately.

Christmas was right around the corner that year, but I don't remember wishing me any games since I had my brothers computer to play on. However, that would soon turn out to change. From being the little guy sitting behind my brother, begging to play, did I get my very own and first console - the original Nintendo Gameboy in a present from my mother. While I didn't exactly go all N64 kid (and started ordering games from Blogbuster) was I, nevertheless, extremely surprised and exaggerated at the same time.

Battletoads was developed and released by Rare for the Gameboy in 1993 (NES 91), and is undoubtly one of the hardest games I have ever played. Despite being insanely difficult did I love the game. The story took place around the battletoad Zitz who needs to rescue his two best friends Rash and Pimple with a helping hand from professor T. Bird and his spaceship The Vulture.

The game was a classic 2D beat-em-up and featured a trial and error type of gameplay (also seen in Megaman) where you had to memorize the whole thing if you wanted to make it through the second level. The enemy army were obscure and featured a wide arrange of different foes. Axe-wielding pigs and rats with mohawks were just some of the stuff you could encounter. It took patience and reflexes which resulted in the fact that I never got around to the part where you actually have to rescue your two friends.

Even with the help from insane finishing moves was the game flat out punishing and forced you to play the same levels over and over if you wanted to advance. Not quite the formular for a great game could you say, but the NES version of Battletoads (which is even harder) is considered a classic by many gamers these days. Despite it's "flaws" was it still fun playing it, and isn't that what it's all about? for me, it is.

- mnB