 | |||
| Home |
The State of the VideogameI've been playing videogames since the beginning of my recorded history, around when I was five or so. That's a pretty long time considering I'm almost 20 now. Holy crap, I was raised on videogames... back before people thought they were cool. Way back when, if you admitted playing videogames, all the other kids thought you were some sort of freak, a nerd almost. Of course, that's when low-tech gadgets like the Nintendo were the thing. The very first game I beat all by myself was Super Mario Bros. 2. That's right, all by myself. And I did that when I was about seven or eight. Pretty impressive, no? I did it myself, without Dad's help. Boy, I loved that game. It wasn't anything like the original Super Mario, which was pretty cool. When you think about it, I could have spent time learning to play the piano or doing a sport or something to that effect. Instead, I was playing games. Sad? Not a chance. Just because I got a kick out of hangin' out with Mario and company doesn't mean I was a complete social incompetent. I still went outside and played like other kids. I got a lot of fond memories of jammin' on videogames. I must've beaten some 20 Nintendo games back then. I'd name them all but I forget these kind of things. Let's just say twenty and leave it at that. Man, I was a wizard and the controller was my magic staff that I'd use to work magic. Eventually, the Nintendo evolved into a Sega Genesis. That was back in '91. Nintendo and Sega had just fired the opening shots of the Great Console War. It's not a time period that would show up on any textbook, but for diehard gamers, it's a period of time everyone should know about. It was Sega's Genesis system versus Nintendo's Super Nintendo or SNES as it was called. Gamers never had it so good... or bad, depending on your point of view. On one hand, you would strain your brain for hours on end thinking about what made the Genesis better than the SNES and which had the better games. You couldn't really tell. It was that comptetive. To this day, I still have a headache thinking about which was better. The SNES had all the good sports and RPGs. Titles like Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, and all the Madden football games come to mind. If you liked those, the SNES was your bag. But the Genesis had all the good action games like Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage. Obviously, each system had its specialties. I hardly doubt a great philosopher like Socrates could have made up his mind either. In the winter of '91, I opted for the Sega Genesis. At the time, it did seem like the good and logical choice. The very first game we got for it was Sonic Spinball, an OK title. The good games we got down the road were: Streets of Rage 2, Road Rash 2, Sonic and Knuckles and Robocop vs. Terminator. Sweet. One thing about action games though, is you get tired of them pretty quickly. That's when I realized that I might've goofed. Right around '94 or '95, a new type of game came out: fighting games. I'm talking about the good junk like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. These games were awesome man! And the concept? Like a breath of fresh air to us gamers. It was probably at this time that the Sega Genesis (and Sega for that matter), was starting to lose its foothold on the market. Fighting games were to become the final nail in the coffin. You see, the Genesis didn't have the technological chops to recreate fighting games straight from the arcade. Meanwhile, the SNES made near-flawless ports of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat and stuff. Fighting games also required more than the three buttons that a Genesis controller had; that didn't help matters much either. As a result, sales of SNES systems went through the roof and I felt a large cosmological presence laughing its ass off at me. Doh! I picked wrong! I doubt I would ever live that down. In hindsight, I'd pick the SNES. Fast forward six years later, the Christmas of 1997. Probably another great console war, but nowhere near the magnitude of the original. It was new-kid-on-the-block Sony and their Playstation versus Nintendo and their Nintendo 64. Again, another brain straining choice. Does being a videogame junkie ever get any easier? This time it was reversed. Nintendo had all the good action stuff and Playstation had all the good RPGs. Once again, I think fighting games made the difference. Allow me to elaborate. You see, right around when the Playstation was in its second year of existence, there was this really kick-ass fighting game by Namco called Tekken. It revolutionized the way fighting games were made. 3-D characters. Chain throws. Tenstrings. Simple special moves. This was the fighting game to end all games. In my holy opinion, it was much better than Street Fighter. And what do you know? I began my training in the ways of Tekken and I became pretty damn good. "I have to have this game," I thought. "It's for Playstation? I'm sold." So I opted for the Playstation. Last time there was a console war, I picked wrong. But Fate, being a strange mistress, was on my side. I picked right! All right. Life is good. And it was. Playstation had all these quality games and shit. Stuff like Final Fantasy VII and VIII, Tekken 2 and 3, Driver 2. I could go on and on, but that would probably be best left said on another chapter, capiche? Needless to say, it feels good to be on the winning team for a change.
| ||
