I've finally decided to use this space for something other than collecting dust and housing the family of doormice I found on my front step the other night. I'm a regular at Giantbomb but I'm one of those people who lurks around, offering the occassional input on something but otherwise just keeping to myself. Well here's where that's going to change, I've decided to start my blog with an introduction to my life, my favorite game for each year of my life to be exact. This list goes from 1987-2009 so that's 22 games for people who have a tough time counting, also I don't really care about exact release dates, as long as it was released somewhere that yearit's good enough for me. These games aren't necessarily the games I was actually playing that year (well how could I play them if I was a baby), they're my favorites now. So without further ado let's get this personal reveal going.
NES Box Art Ah the glorious year of my birth and not just because it brough me into the world, this was a hell of a year for gaming and I had a tough time picking just one. Ultimately I have to fall back on Final fantasy, the original for the NES. Final fantasy has always been one of my favorite names in gaming and even today the first game is arguably one of the best, which is saying a lot. Without this little gem, the company we know today as Square-Enix might not even exist, which would be a real shame.
The story of the game is bare bones, you play as the four Warriors of light and it's your mission to save the world. That's about it, though it does have a couple of twists along the way, none of which I'll bother spoiling here. What always brings me back to this game is the fact that it lets you create your own adventuring team from the start and you can make them anyway you want to. It's got a degree of personality that wasn't duplicated in any of the later games.
1988- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES) Okay this year gets a little tougher, but it's certainly not without it's great games. One that I only just discovered fairly recently is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. This game had actually come out earlier in Japan on the Famicom disk system (another thing I only just got hold of) but this was the year of it's western release. I remember admiring this game from afar in the odd issue of Nintendo Power my brother would occassionally get hold of (since we didn't have Nintendo Power in England) and thinking it looked like the best game ever made.
I like this game for the way it attempted to change up the then very new Zelda formula and it actually works very well. The game's pretty tough though, but that's part of it's charm, still one of my favorite entries in the Zelda series.
1989- Ninja Gaiden ( NES) Front cover of Ninja Gaiden (US) for NES This is a great game to just jump in and play for awhile, it feels surprisingly satisfying to play despite the fact that it's hard as hell. It features some interesting innovations for the time, including some pretty nice looking cutscenes. Aside from that it's just a fun game to play, there's not much more to say other than it's a stellar example of simple 2D platforming on the NES.
1990- Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikaru no Tsurugi ( FC) Haven't heard of it? Neither have a lot of people I'm sure, but this is the game that started the Fire Emblem series and the first game to star Marth, known mostly over here due to his appearance in Smash Brothers. It's very primative compared to later games in the series but it's remarkably advanced for it's time. I won't bother explaining the story because anyone who's interested should definitely check out the DS remake Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, it's pretty much a 1-1 remake.
1991- Street Fighter II ( ARC) Oh yes, now we're getting serious. Street Fighter II is and always will be one of the best fighting games (THE best fighting game depending on what circles you're a part of) ever made and I really did sink hours and hours of my youth into this game despite barely understanding how to play. I remember most fondly playing against my brother who played as Ken, whereas I mostly played as Ryu, it was truly an epic and fitting rivalry. Actually did I mention my brother's 11 years older than me and one night shattered any notions I had of being decent at the game by utterly crushing me in less than 10 seconds? Well he did and from then on I vowed that I would become better than him.
1992- Sonic 2 ( GEN) The first but certainly not the last appearance by the hedgehog on this list. When I was growing up you were either a Sonic kid or a Mario kid and most people I knew were Sonic kids. I played a lot of Sonic 2 growing up, I was always blown away by the graphics and the speed of the gameplay. Sonic was my hero for the better part of my life, I read both the english and american versions of the comic, watched the first two TV shows and bought way too much of the merchandise. I was also always a fan of the dynamic way it handled 2 player co-op play, if one of your friends wanted to join in as Tails all they had to do was pick up the controller and start playing, simple as that.
1993- Rocket Knight Adventures ( GEN) Rocket Knight Adventures Mega Drive front I fear that once again this is a game not too many people will have heard of. I myself never actually got to play it when I was younger, but I did read the short lived comic strip that appeared in the english Sonic the Comic. Sparkster was Konami's attempt to create a mascot along the lines of Sonic or Mario and Rocket Knight Adventures is certainly a great attempt. It's a fun and original game full of that trademark Konami quirkiness. Also, it could just be me, but I think an opossum with a sword and a jetpack is pretty badass.
This game was followed by some great sequels, both called Sparkster and released for both the SNES and the Genesis, though both were completely different games. Unfortunately after that Sparkster disappeared into obscurity.
1994- Sonic 3 ( GEN) US Box Art Now this is the Sonic title that I truly played to death. It took everything that was great about Sonic 2 and made it even better, with bigger levels and set pieces and it even included a save feature which let you play any level you like over and over. It could lock onto the later Sonic and Knuckles and become an even bigger game, joining all the features of the two games into one. You could now play as 3 very unique characters, all of which had slightly differing storylines. Fans of Mario may lynch me if they wish but I think this is the best 2D platformer ever made.
1995- Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness ( PC) From the best 2D platformer to what I believe is the best real time strategy ever made. Nowadays it's all World of Warcraft, but back in the day it was just plain old Warcraft. I remember sinking hours and hours into both of this game's campaigns and then where I was bored of that I'd make my own scenearios using the game's easy to use map editor. Most people will try to tell you that Starcraft is the best RTS ever made, but they're wrong I'm afraid, Warcraft II is where it's at.
1996- Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu ( SFC) Fire Emblem's back on the list with easily my favorite game in the series and possibly my favorite game ever. The story of this game plays out like a Shakespearean tragedy and there's plenty of sacrifice before it's over. The hero, Sigurd is one of my favorite characters in gaming and with good reason. I can't really say enough good things about this game so I guess if you want to know my complete thoughts on it check my review on Giantbomb.com, that's a website.
1997- Final Fantasy VII ( PSX) Front cover of Final Fantasy VII (US) for PlayStation Once again the second appearance of a game in the Final Fantasy series, it's my favorite in the series and another contender for my favorite game of all time. I think the reason I really like Final Fantasy VII so much is because I really like it's characters, mostly Cloud who I think I identify the most with out of almost any fictional character I can name. This is another game I could go on about for a very long period of time but I won't for the sake of keeping things brief. Just for the record though I was one of those poor saps who thought that there was actually a way to bring Aerith back to life.
1998- The legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time ( N64) Oh let's keep it simple shall we since I'm getting sleepy. This game was mindblowing at the time, it's awesome even now and if you don't agree you obviously missed out and I feel for you in the deepest part of my heart I really do.
Alright so a little more than that, Ocarina of Time was Zelda's jump to 3D and it was perfect in ever single way. Some games of this age struggled and a lot failed to make the jump to 3D, but Zelda became several times better.
1999- Garou: Mark of the Wolves ( ARC) Another niche title, but one that I think deserves a lot of respect. Garou gets points with me for pulling of some very fluid looking 2D animation without making the controls feel stiff. All in all it's a very satisfying fighting game and one that I greatly prefer over more popular alternatives such as Street Fighter III. I also like the characters a lot in this game, mostly Rock Howard who almost strikes me as a character who's a little deep to be in a fighting game.
Apparently I've been alive for a long time, who knew? Break music anyone?
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