Today I was looking at my collection of games and out the corner of my eye I saw the first game I've ever owned. It's Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Genesis! Now pay close attention to what I said there, first game I've ever owned, not played. The first game I've ever played was Super Mario Bros. So yes Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the first game I've ever owned and I was blown away by it. It was fast, fun, colorful, and I had no idea what I was doing. I never did beat that game until many years later, but I was hooked after that. Sonic holds a special place in my heart, so seeing some of his more modern games has been painful to say the least. Let me just put it this way, the last console Sonic game I played was Adventure 2! On the handheld the last one was Rush Adventure. So yeah I'm just that turned off from the modern Sonic games. Although Generations did seem very interesting, but it looked Incomplete to me.
The second game I ever owned was Street Fighter 2 Champions Edition. Man that started my addiction with fighting games! I love them! Although I must shamelessly admit I sucked at Street Fighter for the longest time! It took me up til Street Fighter 3 to actually figure out how to throw a Hadouken. I promise you I am no longer that remedial. However at the time I was and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do that "stupid blue fire ball thingy". Everyone else can do it, but not young NeoNinja. Nonetheless I had a lot of fun with the game and it taught me how to play without relying on the projectiles.
So many great games I played on the Genesis, from Aladdin to Zombies Ate My Neighbors. Then by some miracle I received a Super Nintendo and Super Mario All-Stars! Boy did I love that! Four games in one package all of which I sucked at lol. Yes there is a trend here, and like I said I am no longer that remedial. Now go figure it would be years before I played one of Nintendo's other staple games like The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Star Fox. When I did finally play them I was happy I was older and half way knew what I was doing. Next thing I knew I was buying (begging mom) for every game that caught my interest. Bomberman, Rayman, Crash Bandicoot, Gex, Vector Man, and Kirby to name a few. So many hours wasted away and enjoying the fantasy in front of me that I semi controlled.
One of the first M rated games I bought was Duke Nukem A Time To Kill. The guy at Sam Goody should never have sold it too me. I didn't know what to expect from it. I just thought the cover art looked cool, boy did I get a surprise with that! Loved the game, but it took a while for me to fully understand the sexual humor and even now I probably don't understand all of it. Actually now that I really think about it, I think this was the first M rated game I ever owned and played! I'm proud to say I actually beat it to, unlike the others lol. The next M rated game was probably Doom 64, again I was late to the party. Needless to say Doom freaked me out! Some good times playing games I wasn't the appropriate age for.
Now RPG's I got into late by my standards. First rpg I played was Final Fantasy 7. I say that was a good one for a first timer. The reason I didn't like rpgs for the longest time was because of the turn based system. I prefer being in direct control of my characters and I still do. However I learned to appreciate the strategy that goes into a fight with a turn based battle system. If you go in expecting to win by just hitting attack attack attack, well then you're in for a world of pain!
After Final Fantasy 7 I went back and played some of the older classics like Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire 1-4, etc. I owe a lot to Final Fantasy for introducing me to something I never thought I would like. Like Sonic however, the recent Final Fantasy games have been lacking. I'm hoping the story telling and gameplay improves again with the launch of FFXV. In the mean time there's always the Tales series, and Dragon Quest series to keep me going. Speaking of Dragon Quest, my first Dragon Quest game was DQ8. Man what an experience that was! I recommend everyone to play that game if you can find it!
Yet again another game series I was late getting into was Megaman! When I say late I mean late! Megaman X7 was coming out when I started to play the original Megaman! I played quite a few Megaman games and I liked them, but didn't see why folks would go gaga over it. Same thing with Megaman X, but I enjoy X more than the original. My mind was changed when Megaman Legends came! Wow what a game that was! I didn't and still don't fully understand the story, but I enjoyed the exploration and the characters. I'm actually playing through it again right now and then I'll work on Megaman Legends 2 after I beat it. Capcom do the right thing and give us Megaman Legends 3!
My first FPS was on the Nintendo 64! I think many of you already know where I'm going with this. Ah yeah I'm talking about the game that gave the z button a purpose, the legend that is Golden Eye 64! All I can say is that game was so much fun! I never did beat it without cheats, but I don't care it was fun and got me slightly into fps's. However I'm not a huge fan of them. I don't like realistic military fps's. Sorry CoD, Battlefield, and Medal of Honor. I tried you out, but we're just to different. The only other fps to give me the fun I desired from an fps was Halo. I remember when it first came out and everyone swore by it. Well I think it's overrated, or rather people made it overrated much like what they did with FF7, MGS, etc. Saying that my god was it fun! I loved the vehicles, the colorfulness of the game, the weapons. It was just chaotic fun to me.
It's amazing how much the gaming industry and the games themselves have evolved since my earliest memories of gaming. Now you have dlc, online services, and don't get me started on hard drives. Sometimes I wish things would go back to being a bit more simplistic. Whatever happened to putting in the cartridge, turning on the power button, and play away? Those are the breaks I guess. I'm not bashing the modern consuls or anything of the sort. It's just looking at some of my old games gave me a nice rush of nostalgia. One of the things I truly do miss about the old days was the friendly rivalry between fans of different consuls. Now it's just downright cut throat for no good reason. The internet has empowered to many with keyboard courage, but that's something else for another day.
I thank you all for reading my jumbled up mess of a blog and some of my gaming memories. Please share some of your gaming memories if you'd like. Nothing like going down memory lane and reliving some of the good times.
