Old School Gaming Week Spectacular

While rebuilding my modded Xbox and updating all the emulators that I haven't really played since I got my xbox 360, I decided to put away all my new consoles and and the new pretty games with nice graphics and get down to some good old gaming. Back to a time when games relied more on their storylines and their gameplay more than just graphics.

So I will take you back to this so called magical time, with my modded xbox by my side, and a controller in my hand, and quite a few sodas and maybe some candy (in the memory of The Candyman, Brady)

Got to Watcha' Playin' to see my commentary or logging of how the week played out

Chrono Trigger (Super Nintendo)

This game is known as one of the best RPGs of all time. And if you know me at all, you know that I hate RPGs with a passion. There are only two RPGs that I like, and this is one of them. The other is Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic. The reason that I like these two games are because they aren't the normal traditional RPG games. The don't have random battles, where you are on a quest and strolling along and all of a sudden you are in a fight, where you have to wait your turn to fight. You completely forget what you are supposed to do and get side tracked because of all the random battles that you've been in for over 2 hours while all you need to do is get over to the other side of a field.

That being said, Chrono Trigger has only partial wait time, you have to wait for your characters to charge back up, which if forgivable and the few random battles you do have can be easily avoidable or you can just run away. You don't just have them everywhere you go, lousy RPGs.

Another reason why I like this game over say any one of the 30 or so Final Fantasy games....what is that you say, they are only up to Final Fantasy XII, well, what about the 20 that are just all of the originals with new side missions and the Tactics games that are on PSP and Game boy? Anyway's, as I was saying, the reason this game stands out is that the characters don't have like a million emotions and aren't a bunch of pretty-looking boys who dress like girls and you really can't tell if the main storyline is about them liking a girl or if they are having dreams about the other scantly clad dressed guys in your party. Yes, I am making a gay joke.

Anyway's, the story is, that you are a boy named Crono, or whatever you want to name yourself, I just stuck with the pre-named characters, since when I played this game last time, I named them all after my friends and myself, and when one of them died, I got way too emotionally attached to this game. But that is a story for another time. You meet up with this girl who happens to be the princess and you, her, and your fix-it chick friend travel through time to save the earth. The story is a little more than that, but I don't want to give it all away.

I remember playing this game in my room that was in the garage of our Coto house on my modded xbox. Before I had every game ever, I downloaded this one off the internet and played it. Sadly, I didn't have this game when it came out on the real Super Nintendo, first because it was hard to find, and it cost allot. I rarely bought games back then, since I was a kid and didn't have a job and all. Most of my games were either used or from garage sales.

Any ways, I never finished it when I lived in Rancho Uncommon, because I got stuck on this one Boss Battle where you had to fight a Dragon/witch or something. I can't really remember, and when I finally loaded the game back up a year or two later, my game save became corrupt and I just didn't have the heart to play all the way through it again. Until now.

Sonic The Hedgehog 1, 2, 3, Sonic and Knuckles, and Sonic CD (Sega Genesis and Sega CD)

Sonic is one of my favorite games of all time. I remember being at my Grandma's house and going to my friends house who lived across the street to play his new Sega Genesis. He had so much cool stuff, he was older than me by a couple year too, so he had lots of toys and stuff that I didn't have yet. We got up to his play room, I think it was either in the attic or some sort of huge bonus room and we played Sonic all day long, he also had a game called Pit-Fighter that I later played with Devin on my modded xbox. That game was fun too.

No matter how crappy the Sonic games of today are, I will always have a special place in my heart for all things Sonic. I still haven't gotten that Hedgehog that I wanted as a pet yet, but my friend Ryan McAnlis from Jr. and High School had one, and he named it Sonic ...Sadly it wasn't blue, I would make mine blue though.

Anyways, I played though each Sonic game chronologically. I started with the first one on Sega Genesis and worked my way through, making sure that I get all the Chaos Emeralds and am able to change into Super Sonic.

Sonic The Hedgehog

The first Sonic game, just titled Sonic The Hedgehog, is a great single player game, which is what most games were back in the day, none of this multiplayer online death match stuff, and if a game did include another player, it usually was only a fighting game. Although not my favorite game in the series, it does however hold my favorite soundtrack, beginning with Green Hill zone. This track is my absolute favorite song in the entire Sonic series, followed by the Bonus level song from this game, I don't know why, but it just makes me feel so happy. Then you got other good songs, like the Labyrinth zone, and others as well. I suggest that you download the soundtrack and listen to it in all it's 16-bit glory.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2

Next, there is Sonic The Hedgehog 2, This is the game that I got when I got my Sega Genesis. The story behind how I got my Genesis is awesome. My Aunt Gail and Uncle John (who looks like a cross between Arnold Schwazzeneggar and Lars from Heavyweights) called my house and I answered the phone. They asked what I wanted for Christmas because they were going Christmas shopping... I should have known something was up, because it was the middle of June, but being a kid, you really don't think about these things that much. I just told them about the newest and bestest video game console out The Sega Genesis of course, and it also included Sonic The Hedgehog 2! (Back in those days, every console came with a game...now you can only get games with consoles when they've been out forever and need to push sales, and you usually get terrible crappy games. See the original Xbox with Tetris and Star Wars clone wars....ugh.At least when I got my Xbox it came with Sega GT 2000 and Jet Set Radio Future.)

So after I told them that, I hung up the phone and went back to playing video games or playing with my action figures ...I don't really recall. Later that night, my Aunt and Uncle and my cousin Carly came over and hung out, they gave my mom a huge TV that we kept only until I moved out just recently and as we all crowded around the TV after my dad set it up, they asked me to come over to them, I did, and they pulled out a box wrapped with bright red and white wrapping paper (I have no clue why I remember the color of the wrapping paper) They told me it was for me, and even before the last words came out of their mouths, I was furiously ripping apart the paper.

What to my eyes it appeared! It was a Sega Genesis, with Sonic The Hedgehog 2 included!!!! I couldn't believe it. They told me that they just couldn't wait till Christmas, which I now know is a bunch of crap, but man, that was one of the happiest moments of my life. I'll never forget it, and I'll always love my Aunt and Uncle, not just for that, because they are just awesome too!

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 also introduce the new character Miles "Tails" Prower, which is my favorite character, not only because he shares the same moniker as I, but also he is just a cool guy, He's a fox with two tails, which he uses like helicopter blades and flys. Some people think he is a terrible character, but no matter what anyone says, he's awesome to me.

This is also the first Sonic game that I beat and got Super Sonic in, which....well It's Sonic, but turned Golden, and basically has Super Speed Shoes on the whole time and glides or flys along the ground instead of running when you get to full speed (takes about half a second). Easily the coolest for Sonic has ever taken. All you have to do is get all the Chaos Emeralds and then get 50 coins and jump in the air.

Sonic The Hedgehog 3

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 holds a special place in my heart for many different reasons. One, being that it brings back fond memories of when I was in third grade and Mission Hills and it was raining and my mom got me McDonalds and they had Sonic 3 toys, it was raining and that was my favorite weather. Then the next day, my dad drove me all around town, trying to rent it at blockbuster. We finally got it, and I remember I was so happy, my dad is awesome.

Next it introduce Knuckle the Echidna (I had know idea what one was for a long time, I thought he was just a Hedgehog with deadlocks for the longest time) He was cool for the fact he was more of a reddish/maroon color, he was fast (but no where near as fast as Sonic) he could glide which really helped out in levels, and could latch onto sides of walls and scale them, which also really helped in levels.

There also was a really cool carnival level, which I loved the music to, but in the second act, I remember getting stuck in one part and could not get out and died every time... It frustrated me so much, I think that might have been the first game that I swore at ...I'm not sure, but it wouldn't surprise me, that part was so annoying. I couldn't get past that part for like months!

Also, when you were playing this game, this is the first game where the levels "changed" in the different acts. In the first level, you are on Angel Island, and in the next act, everything catches on fire, thanks to Dr. Robotonik (No I will never call him Eggman, like the series started doing ....I never understood that!)

Road Rash (Sega Genesis)

Road Rash is the only video game that I ever got my Grandmother to play before she passed away. But unfortunately for Grammie (thats what I called her) she wasn't very good, she didn't like riding fast and pulled over for the police when they came up on the side of her ...I'm not lying.

This game might have fueled my passion for motorcycles, because even when I was young and playing this game, I thought that this looked really fun, and that is when I started thinking about motorcycles. I also thought how cool it would be to grab a chain and whip someone on a bike going 100 mph.

I love this game for a few reasons. First, you are racing on a motorcycle. Second, you get weapons, and can kill people. Third, you can save the money you earn in the game and buy better bikes. Fourth, you can get hit by cars, which I think was my favorite part of the game. And fifth, you can run over cows that are in the middle of the road and they moo. Again, another one of my favorite parts.

There were two other games that were released for this system, each with better bikes and better graphics. Also the settings changed. Just like the Cruisin' series for the Nintendo 64, the first Road Rash game was set only in california (I'm still not capitalizing that crappy state name) then the second one was all around the United States, then the third actually went around the world, to wonderful locals such as Africa.

Toejam and Earl &, Toejam and Earl 2: Panic of Funkatron (Sega Genesis), ToeJam and Earl III (Xbox)

Toejam and Earl Is one of those games that made a system that was old and played out, new again. I remember the first time I played these games, I rented them at a rental store that was next to the Ice Cream store in the same plaza as the Saddleback Lanes bowling ally. That store is long since gone, but I'll have fond memories renting games like Toejam and Earl and Kid Chameleon

There are only a few people in my life who have played this game and love it, excluding myself I only know two other people that like this game, one is Tom, and the other is Lynzi Lambert. I remember her coming over to my house and playing this on my xbox when I first moved out by myself in my LAN Party house. She told me that this was one of her favorite games, so I put that little nugget of information into the back of my brain, and got her a original Sega Genesis and Toejam and Earl for her birthday this last year.

Super Mario All Stars+World (Super Nintendo)

This game was awesome for one single fact...It had all the Mario games combined into one nice single package...Mario 1,2,3,The Lost Levels, and Super Mario World. It was like owning 5 games in one....kinda like The Orange Box . Makes you wonder wow developers don't do this more often, most games now a days aren't more than a couple gigs each anyway. They could easily make a "Series Edition" and put it on a Dual Layer DVD, or Blu-Ray for PS3 since it can hold so much data (that they never use up any of the space anyways) They still only have about 7 to 8 Gigs on Blue-Ray Discs still...Yeah DL-DVDs can hold that...But I am getting off the point.

Super Mario World Introduced the cape, which is my favorite power up in the Mario universe, other than the Wing Cap from Nintendo 64 and it's awesome music.