I've examples.



If you'll watch the action in this trailer, its pretty bad ass. The guy at one point shoots a hookshot at a dragon, goes over, then attacks a dude killing him. Jumps back to his dragon.

Did you actually play Lair? I just did.

I got gamefly and I added every game I had the least bit of curiosity about. I've gotten Lair today. The storyline is not only awful, but it's entirely unskippable. I actually watched more cutscenes than actual gameplay. I'm not joking either! It was all talk and barely any play. My dragon kept going the wrong way and I couldn't keep the camera focused. It would slide crazily when I tried adjusting it and so that's that.



Not that Brutal Legend was a bad. I enjoyed it, but its a strategy game. If you watch the trailers or play that demo, its anything but hinting at a game like that. It's pretty much the opposite of whats in the trailer. Yes, he gets the girl. Yes, he has that car. Yes, he can decapitate dudes. But it never looks anything as cool as any of this at any point.



This notorious trailer made laws change in europe to say "NOT ACTUAL GAMEPLAY." Because this isn't actual gameplay. This sure looked cool though. If only games were so handsome. Seeing all this in 30 seconds, tanks being blown up, a nazi hit in the face, and all the planes that's actually pretty cool, isn't it? Too bad the game was a major step down from anything in that.



Mercs 2 was fun. I played for about a half hour and beat half of it. No really! I got a ton of worthless achivements and blasted the crap out of everything. But not once did I hear this song or experience content that felt or looked like this. Advertising just makes it look so much more than it was.



This isn't colored bars moving up a screen. At all. It's something completely different. In fact, I'll go as far as to say I dislike things going on in the background when the game is actually going on. Not that I'm a big fan of these gimmick music games. I don't like music. I like heavy metal, but both Rock Band and Guitar Hero are as far removed from Heavy Metal as current Heavy Metal. Which is pretty damn far if you ask me.



I don't think I ever want to watch a trailer for a game again. Things are so horrible now. They're advertising in the advertising. I just want to scream at the computer screen. I just did. You could probably hear it I was so pissed.

I could post hundreds of videos from the old days. They're even worse.


I'm so angry. All I can do is post on the internet about it though.

As a kid at the local Dairy Queen they had a playchoice-10 machine. At the time I didn't know this, but being something of a gaming enthusist I've found out that nintendo released arcade units with nintendo games on them called Playchoice-10. These machines were around a few places I saw, but the one I recall was that dairy queen one. I recall playing Mario 3 on it, but more than that, I recall Ninja Gaiden. Specifically the opening cutscene. A lone field. A full moon. One ninja gets a close up. Then the other. Weeds blow in the air as they stare each other. Then it shows the legs. They run at each other. Look at each other. Run some more. Jump. Slashing noise. Both fall to the ground. As I type this, I have to play the game right now. I frantically got up and got it out of the box, put it in, picked up my controller anxiously and watched the whole scene again.

Another scene from the game.


I can't tell you what happens storyline wise one game to the next. I've tried. I really paid attention and read wikipedia today. I still don't know. I don't understand at all. I could read a novel and still not know what or who is going on. Something with spies and ninjas and magic, and then theres a sword. And I don't get it. Alls I know is, I like it. I like being a ninja and hitting people until they die. That's always been enough for me. You're after your fathers killer from the starting movie, that's all I need. Until when I replayed it that is. I've grown quite fond of the cutscenes. The storyline itself isn't terribly complicated. Something of a revenge plot, the CIA shoots your Ninja character at some point, bad guys steal statues, and this scene at the mountain.



That really strikes me because of the way it happens. I was just minding my own buissness walking along this level, after being killed by stupid birds constantly and consistanty, and then this scene happens. You walk over to the peak of this mountain and you see off in the distance where you're heading. I giggled at how inspiring and action movie like this scene was. I really wished I could pay attention better. It's a shame I can barely recall plot details from RPGs I've played either. But this mountain scene will stick with me for years. I don't know how I didn't remember this thing. A sudden realization that, maybe in my youth, I never made it that far? This isn't the type of thing that leaves your memory like that scene in Final Fantasy 9 with that extra party member who leaves, I dare anyone to remember that guys name ten years after playing through it once, this is different. This is the type of thing you mention in blog posts. It just happens out of nowhere and was so jaw dropping.



If you've played any action platformer you know how to play Ninja Gaiden. Its very simple. One button jumps. One button attacks. You can bounce jump off walls and things hanging are attackable for power ups. Anything else can kill you. And it pushes you back too, which can kill you. The main thing I'll point out with this and Castlevania is the speed. Castlevania feels so much slower and almost methodical next to this. In this, within minutes you've killed twenty things. I say things, as I have no ideas who or what these guys are supposed to be. Of course, you'll realize by the third level that this simplicity becomes more complex. Enemies are added that seem to exist soley to knock your ninja into the death pits. Your health becomes a precious commonity, much like Castlevania, in that one hit from a regular enemy spells doom for a boss. I've only made it to stage

My favorite thing I noticed today was the bosses explode after you beat them. No explination necessary. It just seems to make sense. A full on series of explosions, for no reason. I assume they're in the storyline somehow but I can't follow it. The bosses never really had anything to do with anything, they're always big lumbering things that end up hitting you, then you them, until someone dies. Guess who that usually is? One particularly nasty guy just jumps around the screen. Making hitting him near impossible. He jumps to the right in an arc, then back left. He shoots bullets at you that you can destroy, but I always seem to get hit anyway. The infiltration of this castle level itself wasn't so easy, but then to fight this guy. Get sent back to the start. Over and over. Now that's a video game! And this is only stage three!



One last and final note is about the creator of the storyline itself. In the credits, they're listed as RUNMARU. It was typical for developers and people who worked on games to get silly credits like that, I don't know why. But recently an interview on Hardcore Gaming 101 right here that talks about this person working on the game. Well, if you're a follower of these types of names, you might recognize that person's real name, Masato Kato, as having worked on several big game franchises. Not that Ninja Gaiden isn't a big name, but Chrono Trigger and several other well known storyline based games are also there. Such as Princess Maker 2, a masterpiece of strange japanese gaming. Oh you've never played THAT? or seen it? It's a game about raising a daughter who can marry you, as well as several other suitors. And other wacky things! But this guy wrote Chrono Trigger and Ninja Ryukenden! How cool is that! In my opinion, it's ice cold, it's so cool.

Today I replayed this and woah nelly. I can't stop myself. I'm on the third stage, and I feel special doing THAT, and made it ot the boss. I yelled something to the effect of: "I had him to two blocks. TWO BLOCKS!" I yelled, enthusastically at the game. No one was around to hear it, but I don't even have to explain what this means. You know it. I know it. But I guess I will say. First of all it means I take video games too seriously. Secondly I suppose this means I'll have to replay the entire stage as that was my last life. Oh, no I got a game over. I have to replay the entire game. In the weeks that passed between this sentance and the last, I've slowly worked my way up to stage five. I doubt I'll be able to finish this. The level I'm at is particularly full of the bird enemies. I know that this is barely a harbinger of the rocket ninjas to come, but my goodness do I hate the birds. Some day I'll finish it up. Maybe.

American


European


Japanese


Did you ever play Ninja Ryukenden? Did you ever actually beat this game?

BONUS

Here's as many screens of myself dying as I could manage to capture. I would pause and snap a quick picture.

Toejam and Earl is a strange adventure game for the genesis. It was one of the major exclusives and sort of a big deal. I never got to play it in those days. It wasn't until the new mellenium when I got access to every game ever (read: a job read: money) that I got a copy of the game. I can't quite follow what's going on. I'll try to explain. Or let you just watch the commercial.

Two funky aliens space ship is destroyed and they have to put it back together.


Easy enough premise. The hard part to explain is what exactly these guys are. One is a hip hop three leg having red guy, the other is a slug man. A fat one. I don't know either. The enemies you meet are just as off and I don't quite know where to go or what to do. But I always like playing it!



I always go up a few levels and try to find my ship, get lost, and give up. I hate that that's all I know from parts one and two of their adventure. I want to know more. I want to play this thing and figure it out. I want to do more than just wander a few levels up. I'm going to have to use gamefaqs. And even that I've tried before and it still doesn't quite help.

So I'm going to do just that. You wander around picking things up, searching for pieces, go up an elevator, fall off the edge of the world, try again, die, reload, try again. And suddenly things are all different located. Random generation of items and objects seem to be why I can't recall how or where to go. However, I seem to have fun playing every time I boot this up. I don't think I've ever gotten all ten pieces of the ship, but I don't care. I just like seeing what I can do. Bouncing around, running, finding presents that hurt me, playing two players. It's all a fun game. Like just wandering around and meeting a carrot man. Carrot men are always interesting.



The humor of the game is probably why. It's geniunely funny to be two weird aliens walking around lost looking for things to see and do. Speed boosts that speed you up to walk off the ledges and fall are hilarious. Especially in two player mode. For some reason when I play games with people, the other person never played a game before in their life. At least that's how they always act when presented with a controller. And I love putting games like Contra Hard Corps in front of them to see their reactions, but more so, I like putting games like this and Mister Misquito in their hands. To see just how they react to it.



The sequel, was also pretty wild. I played it once a few years ago and I have a copy here. I'm anxious to try it out after replaying this again. It isn't the same way as the first game was, its a 2D platformer not an isometric game like the first. I'm on the look out for a copy of Toejam & Earl 3. I've yet to find one, but I'm sure ebay will have a few. I can't say anything of the game itself, but I want to play it.

BOX


EUROPEAN



JAPANESE


I'll ask you guys, did you ever play Toe Jam & Earl?

BONUS:

I think this is official information on it:

Check it out... We're ToeJam and Earl. And we ran into a small problem. More specifically, a large planet (I shoulda never let Earl drive...). Help us hunt down the pieces to our rocket ship and we'll let you jam out some tunes on our megawatt rapmaster. Deal? WHOAH!! We're bumpin' into some of the weirdest creatures in the universe: Earthlings. Boogie down with bewitching hula girls. Block a nerd herd. Or hurl tomatoes at a crazed dentist with a drill. Split up and scope things out. Or hang together to share your stuff. Pick up presents you can use - like wings, rocket skates and inner tubes. Or ones you'll wish you hadn't opened - like bees, tomato rain and school books. So grab a friend - or join the jamminest party you'll ever play!

BONUS BONUS

In my research, I found some video from GameTAP about the game. Some information and a bit more about it are here. This video feels like it was trying to emulate the old video game videos from the 90s. I'm laughing at its production value.

River City Ransom is one of the games I wished I had got as a kid. A friend of mine had it, we would play for a bit, then get stuck. We didn't know you could wander around the city or that you get stronger buying foods. We just liked beating the snot out of the little guys. If only I had traded him something for it, action figure, a poster, or maybe just throwed him some money I could have gotten it then. Instead I waited until last year to buy it (and Castlevania 3) for twelve dollars apiece. Honestly, that's well worth it. Even having emulation available, I wanted a phisical real copy to play on. And play on it I did. For three days. The TV was mine, I tried to take down my passwords with a camera (to little success) and at one point the dog reset my game with her tail. But I beat it. I did what I couldn't do twenty years ago. Now when I play I torture myself on the advanced difficulty, hoping that I can beat it there as well. Still, there is something to be said about how much fun River City Ransom is. Beat em up's should all have RPG elements.

This is the storyline. Some more bits at the end and this are all you really need.


Gameplay is so simple but brilliant. Standard beat em up rules are in effect. Punches with one button, kicks with the second. Press both and you jump. Pause and select bring up your menu of statistics or items. The game itself is a little tricky to explain. Each street you go to lets you fight nine members of a gang. Depending on the gang that comes out, they could be easy losers or tough fighters. So picking where to fight and get cash can be tricky. Would you rather fight the lesser guys for low cash or try for the big prize against the really strong punks? On top of the streets having that going on, you also move in a less traditional manner. Which when I was a kid lost me. I had no idea that left to right wouldn't work. But sure enough, you go left to right, up and down, the city isn't gigantic but you could lose yourself in it easily. I do still yet on occasion. One point has you go through a building to get to the next half of town and I just get confused. Every so often instead of a street with gangs you'll fight a gang then a boss, or you'll be in a town where you can shop.



Yeah, beat em ups should all have RPG elements. Especially when presented like this. You've stats that all are exactly as they sound. Throw, weapon, punch, kick, and the rest are all pretty clear. The way you increase them is brilliant. You use the money from the gangs to purchase food upgrades. And you can buy books to learn karate, such as stone fist or dragon kick. Imagine kicking or punching three times in a row. You also can buy more advance flips and throws that are tricky to pull off, but put a hurting on your enemies. Whats really great is how humorous all these resteraunts are. For example, some places let you get a free smile.

Besides that is that you also can use weapons. Each of the gangs uses weapons on you, but you can steal them. So you can whack them with barrels, chains, bats, and even each other. You can pick one guy up and slap him at some other dork. You can throw weapons, you can throw the second player, you can do it all. Speaking of the second player I think that's where this really shines. Usually I play one player, but when someone is over this lights up completely. When someone comes over to play video games and has no clue what they want to play, I know exactly what to whip out. Myself and a friend about four or three years ago ended up playing this for two days straight. He actually came back over and said "hey lets play that game some more." So of course we did.

Photo of my password. I never used it.


This game is so charming. As are all the games with this look. Technos had released many games with this "kunio" blocky big eyed guy characters, Super Dodgeball being the other most well known nes game. They also did a few other River City games.Renegade, an earliar release on nes and for coin op, was part one to Ransom. Its clear that there are similarities, but its not near as classic as this. Renegade I don't much care for. As for sequels, I've yet to play one I really enjoy. I'm told the snes japanese only one is great, but it isn't english. And isn't named right, so I forgot its name. A few months passed with me hunting for the name, Shodai Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun. Forgive me for forgetting THAT. It came highly reccomended, but I couldn't get it to work. A remake on gameboy advance is out, River City Ransom EX. While not horrible, I didn't enjoy it as much. My main problem with it is the graphcs. It just went too far into the anime look instead of the big head block look. Ultimately though, it was a great game. So I can't fault it that much. Other than that, the other kunio games will get written up soon.

Old arpartment, with Abbey where she sat throughout the game.


Box


Europe


Japanese


Shodai Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun - SNES spritiual psuedo sequel



River City Ransom is technically one of the best games ever. Mechanicly, presentation wise, and sheer fun factor. Have you ever played it?

Continuing where I left off, is Mega Man X. Mega Man's 8-bit adventures we're greatly, mostly, but I understand how some people would want something a little ediger. More mature. With a more fleshed out storyline and flashier effects. Enter Mega Man X, the first of many spin off Mega Man series, that also spawned its own series of games currently at number 8, as well as an RPG being released. This is all about that first game. They did eventually do Mega Man 7 for SNES and 8 for Saturn/Playstation, but neither took the series in the right direction. The X series totally did things right. I don't want to write about Mega Man 8 unless pressured into doing so. Here is why. Mega Man X just seemed like the right thing to do, where as those games did not.

Looks like you can't make it right? Well you can climb walls somehow. Just jump on a wall and climb it with jumps!


Twenty dollars for a new Mega Man! It was 199X. My half brother had told me all about Mega Man X while we played the first Mega Man. "X is so much better. It's so much cooler." He would go on and on. He told me about the secret in Sting Cameleon where you get the armor and so on. He was all about Mega Man X. Of course, we had trouble with regular Mega Man. Ice Man's death trap of a level with those blocks that disappear and reappear. How would we handle something with sixteen bits of flashing blocks? Many years later after I lost touch with him, I happen to find in the Super Nintendo section: Mega Man X. I had to have it.

And so I had it. And nonstop, I played it constantly. Before gamestop, funcoland, and all these other places where you could buy games, I had nothing. I had flea markets and an Ames. That Ames burned down and things went dead as far as buying new games. I was not interested in the Nintendo 64 or Playtation at that time, that would come later. Even now I still prefer the two dimensional gameplay of sprite graphics, why else would I talk mostly about old school games, but finding this at our new Wal Mart made me so happy. This legendary, to me, Mega Man X. I couldn't stop playing.

The first night I managed to beat Chill Penguin. I had no idea the sequence of bosses or weaknesses or any concept of that. I just picked and went for it. Until I beat that pengiun bastard's face in. Obviously after beating him, I knew I had to beat Flame Mammoth. So before school, I woke up early and played and played - I was actually late becuase I had to beat him. I had to use my new found ice powers to finish off a second boss, write down my password, and sprint out for school. I experience similar things now, escept I'm finding a save spot and rushing out for work. It's amazing how much I've grown as a person in twenty three years.

I laugh at this guy's official art. This is Boomer Kuwanger. He's renamed Boomerang in the PSP to make more sense of his weapon. More interestingly, I never really knew what this jerk actually was. As a kid we thought Boomer Kangeroo, but no, it's Kuwanger. Its some type of Beetle, which explains his design better. I just wanted to quickly write that out for some reason.


As for the game itself, which I've barely spoken of three paragraphs in, I'll speak at length about how great it is. As near perfect as Mega Man can be. All the bosses are perfect Mega Man style bosses. Instead of being a "Man" they're all animals. And have pretty clear properties, mostly. I've only twice in my life heard a monkey refered to as a Mandrill. I and the rest of the universe see's that type of monkey and says "monkey!" Not Mandrill. And certainly not a "Spark Mandrill." The battles with each boss all feel like classic Mega Man to me. They each have their patterns and weaknesses, but more than that, they react to their weakness. For example, the armadillo is shocked out of his armor and becomes really easy to beat. Another cool thing, is beating a boss effects another level. Such as when the fire level becomes frosted over when you beat the Penguin. Little touches like that make this game super effective for me.

Full powered and full energy tanks, full armor.


All the boss powers are solid powers. You've a three shot weapon, an ice one, a fire one, electrical one, then you have a boomerang, a homing weapon, and then it gets a little obscure. One guy, an Armidillo, gives you the rolling shield. It's a ball shield that rolls, surpisingly. Then you get what is probably the most satisfying weapon in all of the Mega Man games. Nothing has ever made me personally feel as powerful as this thing. Storm Eagle gives you a tornado weapon. Not a little dinky tornado like top man-type would give you or the one in Mega Man 8 that barely shoots up. No, you shoot out a screen crossing vortex that kills everything. Even Super Joes, you know those guys with the shields? This thing murders them. I love it!

Then after you beat all the stages, you get the Sigma stages. Which are all awesome spectacles to behold. Each has a seperate boss that are really wild fights. Like the Spider boss and the door robots. What's really cool is you get Zero, another hero robot in the Mega Man X games, you get his upgraded gun. This allows you to charge your special guns and gives them all new attacks. It's possible to get this earliar in the game, as well as several upgrades, but they're hidden in the levels and I always forget whats where. I know I did when I last played and just said "Well I'll just play it anyway. I don't care about boots that break rocks." And I don't care about the boots that break rocks or the helmet. They're fairly useless. I do care about the Hadoken though. You can actually find a hidden hadoken ability. Nothing really major, just a quick "hadoken!" and its over with.

Anyway then it comes to the impossible final fight with Sigma and his dog. Yes he has a dog. This is the most intense boss sequence in all of video games. Well maybe not. But it is intense. You've a several part fight against his dog, him, then him as a giant room spiked beast that kills you. At least it killed me. I never figured out that the shield was the weapon to use on this guy. I feel like such a loser. Let's all laugh at me who kept charging his weapon to attack this guy. I feel awful about that.



Music on this thing is incredible. It makes such great use of the super nintendo. Mega Man's always known for great music, and X is one of the better examples. My favorite being the Armidillo stage theme. Something about it does it for me. Maybe it's that I've heard it so much grinding for the health to fill up my four back up things. It's just so catchy and sticks with me. I usually play games muted, but I catch myself humming the songs when the sound isn't on sometimes.

As for sequels, X2 and X3 are really great super nintendo games. X4 I bought off of ebay along with Mega Man 8. I love it. It's big addition was anime cutscenes that didn't make Mega Man look stupid. X5, X6, X7, and X8 I passed on. I recently got X5 but I've barely played it. So far its everything I want. At some point I'm going to make time for it, and when I do, I'm sure I'll love it. I can't not love Mega Man games. Proper real Mega Man games. Not this jokey RPG Mega Mans. Which there actually is a Mega Man X RPG that I will probably play. I play everything.

I will mention a fun game that I got for PSP. Mega Man Maverick Hunter X. It's a remake of Mega Man X in 3D, but 2D. All new level layouts for bonus items, unless I'm just stupid and forgot what went where, it adds voices for the storyline stuff (which I don't really follow. X wakes up in the future or something, and I don't care. I want to play Mega Man. How much deeper should a game be than here's the bad guys, go get em!) and I found it to be a great PSP game. It does play with level layouts and boss battles a little. Not much, but I was able to notice some minute differences as someone whose played a lot of Mega Man X. One of only a handful of PSP games that are actually good. I'll also mention Mega Man Powered Up, despite not being Mega Man X. It's a remake of the first Mega Man and also good if you have that system.

Mega Man X is great. A great game. If you have to play one other Mega Man besides 2, play X.

American


PSP


American box was great, but look at this Japanese one!


Did you guys ever play Mega Man X? I know I sure did.

AND



My cousin James called me to come to his house. He had this new game, and I had to play it. Much to my surprise, this wasn't just a game. This was a gameboy game for his super gameboy. He didn't have a gameboy, everything he played gameboy was on that. And when I got down I noticed an RPG. Before Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy, I had Pokemon Red. Being the nice guy that I was, I somehow took over and played 90% of the game. Commanding our attacks and strategy the other 10%. I even borrowed that off of him a few times to get us farther into the game. I loved it. It was so wonderful. An RPG that proved simple graphics and gameplay were all you needed for a game. Oh yeah, this was 1996.



The premise is simple, you've a simple quest. The gameplay is simple. But theres a lot to do and things get more complicated. Never too much to be too taxing, unless you count the warp tiles in two dungeons, but other than that I really think this is a great starter RPG or a great RPG to play. Its simple really. You're a kid who wants to be the pokemon master. Pokemans, or "pocket monsters," are used for fighting. Each move uses a certain amount of power points and once thats out you'll have to recharge at a healing center. Also in play is a rock paper scissors element, fire attack beats grass, grass beats water, water beats fire. It gets more complicated than that with bug and pyschic pokemons thrown in, but theres a handy chart in the manual that I used many times to recall what beat what. Yes, I'm serious.

The gameplay is really easy to figure out. They give you one pokemon to start and its part of your goal to capture all 150 pokemon. There was also one extra pokemon available from special nintendo sponsered things, or if you're like me you used a cheat device to get it. But that's only half the goal and it isn't necessary to finish with that. No, the main goal is shown pretty early, mentioned below. Red/Blue are pretty basic RPGs. You've a six character party made up of the pokemons. Each pokemon having their own element or elements and elemental attacks. Whats strong against one is weak against another, for example fire beats grass but not water. Grass beats water but not fire. And so on. I really enjoy the weakness based gameplay. Each move your character uses a certain number of "power points" or PP. Run out of PP and you can't attack. Something which caused a lot of humor was running out of power in a big "boss" battle and hearing me or James say "No PP!" Obviously urine jokes were made about that. How can you not make a joke about that? It's so easy and we were just ten.



In the world there are 8 gym leaders. Each one specializes in certain elements. A rock leader, one with water, another with electirc, and so fourth. Thats your quest. In pretty much all the pokemon main series that is your goal. There are 8 masters to beat. Once you beat them, you're allowed to fight the elite four in a guantlet style battle with no healing center in between. So be sure and bring healing items! After you finished up that, you could go get the secret "clone" pokemon MewTwo. And that was it as far as a single player game. I've played through that several times over, its lost none of its charm for me. All the monsters are all memorable, or mostly memorable. You can also go get three "secret" bird pokemon, each with elemental powers.



I've one major critism of Pokemon blue and red. Pokemon Red/Blue are RPGs that are both the same game, except for certain pokemon in certain areas aren't in the other game. It encourages trading between players, real people playing the game with a "link cable," to get everything. I really would prefer not to have stupid side dungeons or team rocket to go off on. I'd rather just have the eight gym leaders to get too. A little bit of a hassle in between, but I recall being stuck on that boat for so long. And then the ghost tower and then in saffron city. Even with the guide I bought, remember buying guides? I sure do. Even with that, I was still lost. And I'm still lost when I tried to replay it.



Some debate ranges about which pokemons are the best. For me, I prefer my Charizard, Sycther, and more of the intimidating mean looking pokemons. Like Gengar. But for sheer power, I liked MewTwo. Whenever I finally managed to battle anyone, a full few years later on the N64, I dominated with my team. Unstoppable. Josh and James both couldn't handle my pokemons against theres. Of course, I probably leveled up too much. Either that or I commited too much to memory about how do to battles. Or maybe I'm revisionist. I always won. I'm the best the ever was. Yeah. I never lost to his Blastoise ever.

One thing I want to say is the anime. The anime which aired around 2:30, was almost like a guide to the game. It was the game more or less. But they added two friends for your hero, the first two gym leaders. And a few things padded the story out. But it more or less was the game. You would see him in the show go to the next town and that was the next in the game. So every day that summer at 2:30, James showed up at my house. We would watch our show, then go play Pokemon red. The show ended on an episode with Eggexuctor, and the next bit of the storyline eventually got put out but was a noticable decline. Maybe I was too old for the anime by then, I still like some shonen stuff but not all of it, but the first set holds a place in my heart. And I cant talk about this game without mentioning it.



Now as good as Pokemon red/blue was, gold/silver was exactly like the first, but more pokemans and more gyms to fight. At this point I stepped up my game. My parents got me both versions. And on top of that, I had an old brick gameboy to trade with. So I could play with all three starters on my own game. I could do anythnig. I could trade myself. And on one occasion give the gameboy to someone else to battle myself. To say I was into this stuff might be an understatement.



My last big remembrance about pokemans was missingno. Remember missingno? At the start of the game is a guy who teaches you to fight with a Weedle, one of the lesser pokemans. Late in the game when you can fly and surf, you go talk to him, then fly to the fire gym town and surf along the coast. Sure enough, a glitch occurs called "missingno" and you fight this strange thing that lets you duplicate items, including rock candies that level you up instantly. This changed the game for the group. Suddenly Josh and James had pokemons capable of taking my own on. Of course, I always won. Revisinist history is great isn't it? I barely mention the HM moves and I always win. Pokemon Red/Blue was so great.

After about a year with this, I gave up on the pokemans. The movies and anime became lamer and lamer. Not that it wasn't already fairly silly and childish, it just became worse. I couldn't tell you what the hell happens in Pokemon the movie 3, but I know I saw it. It had a big puppy and Unknowns. Other than that, it was 90 minutes of pokemon gibberish. And as for the TV anime, once they veered away from the games I didn't care. It seemed incredibly stupid to do that. To steer a video game cartoon a hundred thousand miles away from the game. Good job.



But, then they released an incredible Nintendo 64 game. Yes, Nintendo 64 and incredible game in the same sentance. Pokemon Statium was such a huge deal for me, not only could I put my pokemon there and fight my friends, we could do it in 3D. And I could fight their pokemon from their games. No link cable nonsense. No super gameboy to gameboy nonsense. Here we could put our guys together and fight it out. I loved it. They loved it. It was great. I never tried pokemon statium 2, but it does the same thing with Gold and Silver. I'm fairly certain something similar exists on the gamecube for sapphire/ruby. Outside of that element the game let you fight battles against game controlled enemies. Very cool pokemon game, I just wish the single player experience had been like pokemon on the gameboy. XD Gale, a gamecube release, looks like that game, but I've yet to pick up a copy. Why? For one there are so many pokemon games and related series I can't bare to spend my time, as something of a grown up, deciphering which pokemon games are what. WiiWare has several, there are a couple in the Diamond and Pearl set. Well after Ruby and Sapphire, I'm a little burnt. I actually quit playing halfway into Ruby, then about a year later I played through Emerald. I don't even remember if I beat it, all I remember is not letting my mudkip evolve when it was really high leveled. That's a shame really that its all rolled together that I don't even remember what all happened in the game. I always remember games. I just sighed out loud. I've found gameplay thats very similar, but done in a more mature way in another series. Which makes me happy, but I still hold a special place for the pokemon games. I can always remember Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow as fondly as anything. One of our friends had yellow, I had blue, James had red, and I forget who had the other two colors. But for a good year, pokemon dominated our culture with the cards and tv show, and for me at least, the games. I even had that strategy guide, the official one with all the charts in the back. That thing was awesome.

American




Japanese






I've a copy of Platinum that I've not started yet. But I do have it.

Have any of you actually NOT played a pokemon game? And did you catch em' all?