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Commando

Platform: NES | Genre: Run ‘n’ Gun | Year: 1986 Current Market Price: ~$4 USD (cart only)

Growing up in the 80s my parents refused to buy me a console. I was lucky enough to have friends who had various consoles and spent much of my time at their houses. What my dad didn’t keep me away from was arcade machines and arcades in general. That said, I have vivid memories of seeing the Commando cabinet... to be honest I can’t put my finger on which establishments I saw them in... granted, just about every arcade had this title.

Keep in mind, this was the same year that the Schwarzenegger movie of the same title had come out in theaters, and yes, young me watched it. Imagine how I felt when I found out I’d be able to play as the Commando!

The arcade game was hard as hell and crazy-fast paced. You play as Super Joe, making your way through various battlefields, saving captives and blowing stuff up along the way. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t make it past the second stage on a quarter.

It’s safe to say that the NES port was fairly faithful though young me could tell that it was not the same. The developers managed to pack a ton of sprites on the screen with minimal flicker and slowdown. My memory of the home port is a little fuzzy... I remember spending a lot of time passing the controller back-and-forth between my buddy and myself; taking turns after we had exhausted our lives. We were both young and I’m pretty sure we were frustrated that we couldn’t get anywhere near the end. This home port has five levels... five... and we couldn’t finish it.

For this article I did play through again. And I bested it, twice through! It’s still tough as nails... many continues were used.

Legend of Zelda, The: Ocarina of Time

Platform: N64 | Genre: Adventure | Year: 1998 Current Market Price: ~$20 USD (cart only)

LoZ: OoT is one of my all-time favorite games and the most memorable for me on the N64. Dig around the innernets and you’ll find that I am not at all unique as the game is heralded as one of, if not the best video games of all time.

I was going to include some of the accomplishments/achievements that came from this game, but you can read all about them by doing a little Googling... in a nutshell, OoT introduced many mechanics that changed the way future games were to be made/played AND set the bar. Dan Houser once stated, "Anyone who makes 3D games who says they've not borrowed something from Mario or Zelda is lying." 

My first memory of OoT took place in front of a demo TV outside a video game store. I remember watching the title sequence and demo scenes and being in awe! What I saw was nothing like any other game I had seen before.

At some point my best friend let me borrow his N64 and this game… I was in for a treat.

After popping the game in and watching the same title sequence I had previously seen in game shops, but now on MY OWN TV, I pressed start and entered my name. The opening cut scene gave me an idea of what I could expect for the next while… I was blown away. I could tell that nothing was pre-rendered.

Link woke up after the opening sequence and I stepped out into Kokiri forest I was greeted with a small 3D playground where I could learn all of Link’s basic movements and how chatty Navi, his fairy companion, was. If you’ve ever seen any memes or references to the phrase, “Hey, listen!” this is where it’s from.

Once I found the Kokiri sword and scrounged enough to buy my Deku shield, I made my way past Mido, along the narrow winding path and was met by the Great Deku Tree. The first dungeon (in the Deku tree) was just a taste of what was to come!

I played Ocarina of Time for at least 2 days straight and eventually achieved a 100% game. Since then I’ve completed it again, at 100%, multiple times and will surely do it again.

The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood

Platform: GBA | Genre: Fighting |  Year: 2002 Current Market Price: ~$15 USD (Cart only)

If you’ve read my posts up to now you should already know that I played a ton of fighting games growing up. As such, I had to pick this game up when I found out about it. What’s so special about it? It’s just another fighting game, right?

It just so happens that this is one of the best ports of a game in the fighting genre from arcade to handheld... don’t believe me? Then have a gander at the screenshots above. Seriously, these screenshots are coming from a game running off of a GBA cart. Ridiculous! Not only do the visuals match the full-blown counterpart, but the sounds are mostly in tact if not compressed a little bit.

Game play-wise you have the ability to call in strikers and access to all of the moves (super moves) you expect to have access to. The sprites are big, the movements fluid, what more can you ask for?

This game is perfect for the GBA as it only requires 4 buttons. There’s also a three button mode for those of us who find it awkward to enter d-pad motions and hit the triggers. This mode maps certain moves to a ‘direction + button’ combination.

Ice Hockey

Platform: NES | Genre: Sports | Year: 1988 Current Market Price: ~$5 CAD (Cart only)

Ice Hockey was one of, if not the first, sports games I played on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Having been raised in Canada Hockey was a sport that I watched a lot of. My cousins lived in Edmonton/Fort McMurray and it was the era when the Edmonton Oilers and Wayne Gretzky were dominating the NHL, their Dynasty Years.

This game was relatively simple, but super fun. It’s Ice hockey, but 5v5 as opposed to 6v6. The thing I remember most was you were able to choose what player types you wanted: Skinny, average or large. The skinny player was fast and good at face-offs but could easily be knocked off the puck. Medium-sized players were all-rounders whereas large players were poor at face-offs but had hard hits and hard shots.

Ice Hockey also included fights where the losers ended up in the penalty box.

It certainly wasn’t as pretty as Blades of Steel which was released at the end of the same year, but it was just as much fun!

餓狼伝説 ～宿命の闘い ～ (Garou Densetsu - Garō Densetsu Shukumei no Tatakai) [a.k.a. Fatal Fury: King of Fighters]

Platform: Super Famicom | Genre: Fighting | Year: 1992 (JP) Current Market Price: ~ $23 USD (Complete)

Fatal Fury was a Neo Geo game that came out around the same time as Street Fighter II. This game was, in fact, designed by the same person who created the original Street Fighter... I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I found that out since the controls for both games are horrendous.

You, the player, get to choose from Joe Higashi, Terry Bogard or Andy Bogard. Each character has a vastly different move set... since this game was so heavily influenced by Street Fighter there’s your Sagat clone in Hwa Jai, Balrog clone in Michael Max and Zangief (Wrestler) clone in Raiden.

I’m embarrassed to say that I spent a lot of time playing this port. Let me start by saying this is one of the worst ports of an arcade game that you can get your hands on. The controls are even worse than they were on the Neo Geo, they removed the two-lane fighting system, you cannot do two-vs-cpu battles, and during vs battles only player two can choose to use the enemies.

You can see in the screenshots that I used Terry... Somehow I’ve played the game enough that I’m actually able to pull off special moves. There are screenshots of his “Power Wave” and “Burn Knuckle” but I couldn’t get one of his “Rising Tackle”. I did pull it off once but wasn’t quick enough to capture a screenie.

I’ve already given too many words to this game, but before I finish I have to mention that Fatal Fury was SNK’s first foray into the fighting game genre. Garou went on to be hugely popular/successful. Those of you who’ve played fighting games through the years may have also played The King of Fighters series... Fatal Fury was the starting point for that franchise. This was the original King of Fighters.

PS: I hope you appreciate what I do for you... That last screenshot is Terry kicking Geese off the building. I FINISHED IT FOR THIS POST.

ファミコンジャンプ 英雄列伝 (Famikon Janpu Hīrō Retsuden)

Platform: Famicom | Genre: RPG | Year: 1989 Current Market Price: ~2,678円 (cart only)

This is one RPG that I wish had a translation. Think “Project X Zone” only ~23 years earlier and with some of the most well-known characters in Japanese manga history. 

This game was released for the 20th anniversary of the Shonen Jump publication. I was lucky enough to be exposed to these (telephone book sized) manga compilations during my years in junior and senior high as my friend’s grandmother would send them over from Japan. As you can imagine, I mainly flipped through the pages and enjoyed the artwork.

My description of the size of the books is not exaggerated, they were about an inch-and-a-half thick. The current weekly releases contain twenty-one titles, I remember the ones in the early-mid 90s to have about the same. That said, you can imagine how many characters they had to choose from and what potential story arcs they could conjure up.

The opening sequence shows a little boy peacefully reading his Weekly Shonen Jump comic and all of a sudden being sucked into it. From what I gathered through the first barrage of dialog he’s equipped with a Dragon Radar and has to set out looking for the 7 dragon balls. The first character I came across was Yamcha, of Dragon Ball fame...

Other notable characters in the game include:

Kenshiro (Fist of the North Star)

Goku (Dragon Ball)

Arale Norimaki (Dr. Slump)

Pegasus Seiya (Saint Seiya)

Kinnikuman (Kinnikuman)

The list goes on, but I should stop here..

Earthbound (aka Mother 2 [JP])

Platform: SNES | Genre: RPG | Year: 1994 (JP), 1995 (NA) Current Market Price: ~$250 CAD

Earthbound is a game that I’d been trying to get my hands on for a long time. Though it’s one of those games that isn’t so uncommon it’s garnered itself a reputation that’s pushed its price up pretty high. I’m still trying to figure out exactly why. The reason I say “for a long time” is not because there were no copies available but rather, I was not willing to pay that much for it... 

This game came out very late in the SNES cycle and is a localization of the second game in the Japanese “Mother” series (the first game was never localized). In fact, the SNES was already on its way out.

On top of the late release Earthbound is also known for the off-kilter marketing campaign; the theme being, “this game stinks”. The campaign included scratch and sniff stickers placed in its ads. As you can imagine, they were stickers that didn’t smell good. I recently did a search and someone described one scent as “Like a skunk on fire or something”. It’s reported that some magazines received complaints because of the smelly stickers.

There’s not much else I can say about this game other than I haven’t played it yet and that was one of the factors that set it as a “must acquire” game on my list... I obviously caved and purchased a copy, else there would be no pic and no post. Maybe I’ll do a let’s play series for it...

Currently, the holy-grail for me would be to get a CIB copy which at this time is ~$790 CAD according to my sources. I’ve not seen one for less than ~$1200-~$1500 in stores...

Double Dragon

Platform: Game Boy | Genre: Beat ‘em Up | Year: 1990 Current Market Price: ~$42 CAD (Complete)

I have very fond memories of Double Dragon for Game Boy. This game was developed by Technos and published by Tradewest.

Being an arcade kid I played Double Dragon to death both in the arcade and then at my friend’s house on the NES. When they released it for the Game Boy I was stoked. This version, like the NES predecessor, also had a two-player mode. It was a one-on-one fighter where you could choose from various DD characters.

Though it was a port of the NES than the Arcade version I was still excited. To me the visuals were great, especially for a Game Boy title. Though the gameplay felt a little bit slower it still felt like Double Dragon. One of the best parts of the game was the music. The music on the Game Boy holds up just as well today as it did when I used to play back-in-the-day.

I’m actually considering speedrunning this title. It’s short but enjoyable :)

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon

Platform: Game Boy Advance | Genre(s): Platform-adventure, Action Role-Playing Current Market Price: ~$44 CAD (Complete)

I believe this is my first post covering a GBA game. Circle of the Moon is a game I’m surprised I didn’t get to earlier. I only recently acquired it and played it to completion. (Note the 100% save file :)). It was actually one of the launch titles for the handheld system.

This game was done in the Metroid-Vania style, where the player slowly progresses through the game while slowly exposing the map and acquiring new weapons/abilities allowing them to progress to previously inaccessible areas.

Circle of the Moon features the Dual Set-up System (Unique to this title). This system has the player collecting various magic cards named after gods/goddesses of Roman mythology. There are ten action cards and ten attribute cards. The player can combine and action card with an attribute card to unlock a special magic ability. If you do the math, this allows for total of 100 different combinations.

Battletoads in Battlemaniacs

Platform: SNES | Genre: Beat ‘em Up | Year: 1993 Current Market Price: ~$55 CAD (Cart only)

As a fan of the original Battletoads, on both the Game Boy and NES, I naturally wanted to play Battletoads on the next platform up! For starters it had graphics that were way closer to the arcade game and a rockin’ sound track to boot. The sprites are large and detailed and the signature moves never get old... to me at least :)

I have to be completely honest with you, this game when you first start playing and are unfamiliar with the move set can be extremely frustrating. The level of difficulty and amount of cheap deaths will definitely put a lot of people off.

If you have a friend who also loves beat ‘em ups (and is up for a challenge) you will have a decent time although you will be stuck with the same character through the game unless you swap controllers. Weird, right? Player one will always be Pimple and player two is always controlling Rash. Zitz is not playable because he’s been kidnapped and it’s up to you to rescue him.

Alleyway

Platform: Game Boy | Genre: Breakout clone| Year: 1989 Current Market Price: ~$6 CAD (Cart only)

Alleyway was one of the global release titles for the Game Boy.

At the time, I was not aware of the original Breakout (which had been released just prior to my birth). Like many others, I had played the (then) recently released Arkanoid in arcades... and loved it. Now I could play it on my handheld, wherever I went!

Alleyway was much simpler than Arkanoid. It didn’t have any pickups so you couldn’t shoot the bricks nor get multi-ball nor any of the other cool things. But who cared? As you can see from the second screenshot MARIO was piloting the paddle!

During regular stages there was no music. All you could hear was the plinking of the ball off the paddle, bricks and walls. Those sounds bring memories of me completely engrossed... in an almost meditative state. It was a steady rhythm that put me into a trance.

役満 (Yakuman)

Platform: Game Boy | Genre: Mahjong | Year: 1989 Current Market Price: ~￥108

Yakuman was one of the release titles for the GB in Japan.

As I mentioned in another post with an MJ game, I didn’t really play MJ that much so as you can expect I didn’t really play this game either :play

I’m sure I tried to learn/play at some point. But to be honest, I didn’t have much interest.

熱闘ワールドヒーローズ2 ジェト [Nettō World Heroes 2 Jet]

Platform: Game Boy | Genre: Fighting | Year: 1995 Current Market Price: ~$70 USD (Complete NA)

Netto World Heroes 2 Jet is one of the entries in the “Dead Heat Fighters” series (a series of Game Boy ports of arcade fighting games... mostly from SNK).

Takara had managed port these fighting games largely intact, impressively enough. For these ports they decided to move away from the AES style graphics and redo every character using chibi-style proportions. What resulted was a bunch fighting games with familiar characters with a new endearing look and charm.

The best part was, the games felt very familiar, they actually played similar to their arcade counterparts. Sure, the animations were different, but you could feel the personality of each character shine through... the moves and win/lose poses were all there :)

Ultraman Club: Teki Kaijuu o Hakken Seyo! (ウルトラマン倶楽部)

Platform: Game Boy | Genre: Strategy | Year: 1990 Current Market Price: ~$10 CAD (Cart only)

This is a little strategy game that I never really took the time to figure out. I was too young at the time I got it... not to mention, I couldn’t read Japanese.

ティーンエイジ・ミュータント・ニンジャ・タートルズ (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Platform: Game Boy | Genre: Action | Year: 1990 (JP) Current Market Price: ~$36 (NA)

Released as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan in North America this was the first TMNT game to grace the Game Boy.

As Game Boy titles go, in my opinion, this game was both fun (though simple) and impressive. The artwork and characters were based on the cartoon from the late 80s and it is very apparent. The art was spot-on, clean and clear. The in-game sprites were large and well animated... in-between each level you get a snapshot; a cut-scene if you will.

This game had a pretty decent cast of characters too. Footsoldiers, Mousers, Roadkill Rodney, Rocksteady, Bebop, Baxter Stockman, Shredder and Krang, among others... Splinter also makes appearances during bonus games.

Taking control of a turtle of your choice, you fight your way through five different stages. Along the way there are also hidden bonus stages... the bonus stages come in the form of various mini games, I remember enjoying the challenge of searching for each one and playing against the AI.

The gameplay is very simple and the game short, but still fun. It took roughly 20 minutes to play through the whole game for this post and Mikey got captured because I was careless when I was trying to get screenshots for you :p

I can’t forget to mention that the music is super good. As you can expect, the signature TMNT theme is present.

I’m not sure how many times I saved April as a kid...

Secret of Mana

Platform: SNES | Genre: Action-RPG | Year: 1993 Current Market Price: ~$170 CAD (Complete)

This game is one of my favorite items in my collection, all of the contents were in mint condition when I purchased it from one of the local establishments. I have to admit, I overpaid for it... but then again, I did trade a CIB LttP as part of the deal, so yea, I paid less cash.

Secret of Mana was different than any other RPG that had come out around that time. It was a mix of action & RPG elements with a real-time battle system that you could interrupt at any time with the menu wheel. It was also unique in that your party contained three characters, any of whom you could switch to by pressing the select button. If you had a multitap you could play with up to two other people!

I bought the NA version because as a teen, I had played through Seiken Densetsu 2 (聖剣伝説2) with my friend but didn’t have much of an idea what was going on. I didn’t expect him to translate every line as we were playing. What I do remember were the vibrant visuals, great game play and awesome use of the SNES’ capabilities.

As with any other game above $50 I asked the seller to show me the PCB and we were both floored at the condition. It looked like it had just come off the press. The box also has most of the original packaging intact :) The seller was convinced that the person that sold it to him had never played it and potentially only opened it to verify that the cart was still in the box, but that was not the case. When I popped it in there was already a save file.

The most memorable thing for me in this game comes right after you hit the power switch. The opening sequence and music, as simple as it is, gets me every time...

らんま1/2 町内激闘篇 (Ranma ½: Chōnai Gekitōhen)

Platform: Super Famicom | Genre: Fighting | Year: 1992 Current Market Price: ~￥1,922 (Complete)

Yet another fighting game in the collection :)

This game was actually completely Americanized for the west as Street Combat. It’s already not a very good fighting game, that was made even worse when they brought it over with the overhaul to a weird sci-fi theme. The reason? The Ranma 1/2 anime had not really reached American audiences...

Unfortunately, I also spent a good amount of time playing this title. The controls from the afore mentioned Ranma game were inherited from this one... X to jump, Y to punch, B to kick and A for special moves. Pressing Y and B together also made your character perform a different special move.

As you can see, a considerable amount of effort went into the games visuals. Too bad so much can’t be said about the gameplay and character balancing. Mind you, this was the early 90s and fighting games were just taking off. I had completely forgotten about the bonus stage where you chase around Happosai and try to land hits on him. Every hit results in a piece of underwear flying out of his little bag... look closely at the screenshot.