Nintendo Nostalgia Gaming

For some reason, I had an itch to play A Link to the Past, which I hadn't played since the SNES was current hardware. This urge developed into a full blown NES/SNES nostalgia trip. I went and found a list of games for both systems and made a list of everything I remember playing for more than a rental weekend. Some were still great, others not so much (or never were). It was fun to see a bunch of translation errors that I forgot or never noticed, which made me smile. The end credits for Strider were particularly amusing. It's also weird that many of the end game screens have no way to get out of them except to reset the NES. My modern gamer mind keeps asking, "Is there anything else? I don't want to miss something if there is more."

I didn't replay Super Mario World because I played sooo much of it originally, and I know it's a great game, it's just too long to play again for this experiment. I also played the fuck out of Bubble Bobble back in the day and beat it before so I didn't go back to that one either.

Here are my impressions for the games I played.

(Just a note: The point of this exercise was to revisit games I remember liking as a kid. I had no interest in spending as much time playing them as I would have originally. As such, I made liberal use of quick save states and online FAQs. Also, because I wrote all of these as I finished the games and not all at once, there's a lot of repeated phrases.)

SNES

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past



Still as great as I remember. It seemed a lot shorter than before, but that's probably because I didn't spend much time wandering around and exploring. I also re-played the game over and over as a kid, so that probably made it seem longer.

Jurassic Park



Not the best game, but I played it a lot as a kid so I have a soft spot for it. I don't think I had beaten it before, but I went through the whole thing pretty fast.

Super Metroid



Great, great game. The music is top-notch, especially the title screen/opening credits. My only complaints are that the jumping can sometimes be a bit hard to control properly, and other than bosses, I was never in danger of dying or running out of missiles. Other than that I loved it. I even remembered to save the animals at the end.

Demon's Crest



I was big into gargoyles as a kid, so I automatically loved this series. I didn't play much this time around because it isn't very good. The platforming in the NES one was better. The Mode 7 overworld map was neat though.

Earthworm Jim 1 & 2



I loved these games as a kid and played them a lot. This time, I only got to level 2 of the first game before turning it off. The humor is very much a product of the early 90s, and didn't age well. The platforming is difficult with all the animation, and foreground/background elements. I couldn't get into it all at. Coincidentally, a few days after playing it, the guys on the Giant Bombcast randomly started talking about it and had the same complaints and experience I did. The second game is much easier, and every level is of a different style of gameplay, but I grew bored of it pretty quick. Thanks for the ruined memories.

Mega Man X



This is such a great game, with great graphics too. I love all the upgrades and the secret Hadouken upgrade that one-shots any enemy/boss. I was originally going to play X2 and X3 but after the introductory level of X2, I decided I didn't need to play through the other two. I had a blast with the first one, and I was set.

Illusion of Gaia



This was a game that I held up as practically mystical. This an action game with some RPG elements, and a bit long, so I was only going to play a little bit of it, but after seeing the game again I had to play through the whole thing. I was big into ancient civilizations when I was younger, and this game has you explore several of those places, so it hooked me. This is one of my favorite games, and I would probably put it above A Link to the Past.

NES

Gargoyle's Quest II



I played through about half the game and got enough out of it. Decent platforming.

Rygar



I played about 10 minutes of this before deciding it was terrible.

RC Pro Am



I did one race, it was enough.

Cobra Triangle



A boat racing game of sorts that my friend had that I coveted. I played through 5 or 6 levels and called it good.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles



For some reason I played this a lot originally. It's not very good. It controls poorly, the music is all wrong, and just has frustrating gameplay. So obviously I played through the entire game this time around. I recognized the place I could never get past and realized it wasn't very far into the game. The occasional bad translation was fun though.

Strider



I remember this game being amazing as a kid. It's still pretty good, since it has you backtracking through past levels once you get the right keys. They give you a ton of abilities to use by spending energy, but I never had to use any of them. The jumping/collision is completely broken though. Despite that, the game was still fun.

Legend of Zelda



I played A Link to the Past this time around prior to playing the original, and this one seems really small and basic comparatively. The world is small, and the dungeons are really easy. Oh well, it's the first one, I shouldn't be too hard on it.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link



I played this a decent amount at my friend's house, but we never got very far. After playing and loving Legend of Zelda, I always thought of Zelda II as a weird off-brand Zelda because of the drastic departure in gameplay. But going back to it now, I really enjoyed it. The controls are really smooth, the use of high and low attacks/blocking makes combat interesting, and there's leveling up. Definitely feels like an adventure. I'm glad I gave it another try. Weird moment: the end screen says, "Thanks a million."

Super Mario Bros 2



I played this a lot and always found it delightfully weird. Except for trying each character once, I stuck with Mario the whole time. I remembered where the warp zones were, but decided to skip them and play through all the levels. This game seemed somewhat on the easier side.

Contra



Still a great game, but seemed pretty short. After a refresher game where I died a bunch, I did a runthrough that I blasted my way through. Once you get the spread gun you can just barrel your way through it. The last alien level brought back a lot of memories.

Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II



When I was looking through lists of games to find the ones I remembered, I ran across some box art with Fabio on it that looked familiar. When I watched a video, I had an intense wave of nostalgia because I had completely forgotten this game existed. I remember not getting too terribly far in the game. I played a bit this time but didn't bother playing too much. The controls aren't very good, and it is difficult in a poorly designed sort of way. It was fun to see it again though.

Ninja Gaiden



Played this through an thought it was alright. The cut scenes went on for way too long. Some were 5-10 minutes it seemed like. I know it was the first of its kind, but I didn't like them.

Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight



Ignoring the bizarrely shoe-horned in connection to Street Fighter, I always found this game very intriguing; like getting into a sort of surreal sci-fi novel. The backdrop for this is alien worlds: a sand planet, jungle planet, and the like. I still find it really interesting. The gameplay is basically going from small arena level to small arena level, sometimes single screen and sometimes larger, to fight a specific enemy. Occasionally they throw in a forced scrolling level. Your mobility is pretty varied with climbing, hanging, dropping, etc. I found it to be a nice playthrough.

Ghostbusters



This game is fucking garbage. Even as a kid, I knew this game was fucking garbage, but we owned it, so I played it a lot. You only do one thing in the game: drive to a location and then capture some ghosts. Over and over again until it tells you to go to Zuul's building. The graphics are bad and the gameplay design is worse. I originally never made it all the way up the stairs to fight Gozer despite using the turbo button on the NES Advantage (since you have to tap the A button to walk). This time around, I spent way too much time grinding out the cash to buy the three items used to protect you and I made it to the top. After beating Gozer, one of the lines on the end screen is, "Congratulations! You have just completed a great game." Thanks for nothing.

The Simpsons: Bart vs. The Space Mutants



I remember renting this game multiple times and it was really hard. I think there are 5 stages and I only ever got to Stage 2 once or twice. In level 1 there's just too many items to turn purple in a specific way with too many options to reliably figure out how each one works. I checked online to figure some of them out. Overall the game isn't so great. I didn't even bother trying to finish Stage 2 this time around.

There were a few other games that I played a couple of minutes of just to see if they jogged my memory, but I think I hit most of my greatest hits from childhood. I rather enjoyed this little trip down memory lane. Too bad it ends here. I didn't really play video games between the SNES and the XBOX360, except for lots and lots of Counter-Strike (1.6 era). So unless I try to track down the 'greats' from my lost years, looks like I'm back to my roguelikes and indie games.

Enjoyed this post! Retro gaming is where its at!
Contra, Super Metroid, Great Great Games, you are quite wrong on Rygar..it has a lot of mojo

Nice post!

A Link to the Past and Super Metroid are among the very best games ever made. There are games "as good as" those, but none are better. They are timeless, essential designs that still captivate, surprise and delight today. They are also meticulously crafted, which flies in the face of the modern trend toward anything goes/user created experience.

Mega Man X is really great, I love the way that game looks...some of the SNES' best sprite work. And one of the best Mega Man titles, I'd rank it up there with 2 and 3, easily.

RC Pro Am, remember that came out when that pro controller or whatever it was called came out...which was kind of the first analog controller. And it is really what the stick on the 3DS is based on. We played a TON of RC Pro Am back then...not surprised that one didn't hold up. It was pretty much buried by Rock n' Roll Racing a few years later (a BLIZZARD game, no less!)

Forgot all about Cobra Triangle...and Wizards and Warriors. I played both of of the W&W games...man, they were AWFUL! But that was back in the day of walking up to Fast Forward Video and renting anything they had on the shelf.

That TMNT game was horrible too, but yep, I played the shit out of it. Mad the whole time about how they messed up TMNT by making it for little kids.

NES Strider was very different than the Genesis one...it was a little better in some ways, even though the Genesis edition looked amazing at its time.

That Ghostbusters game, good god. I had it on the Commodore 64 and I tried SO HARD to like it. I even convinced myself that I did like it for a while. I still have that horrid chiptune loop of the theme song in my head.

I find that revisiting SNES games- aside from the absolute top tier NES titles (Super Mario Bros. 3, River City Ransom, Kirby's Adventure, etc.)- tends to be more rewarding. The 16 bit era is really where things sort of took off and the games have aged more gracefully. It was when artistry became more significant, IMO. Look at those Metroid screens...that is just amazing visual work.

Mode 7...man, I love that. I remember reading about that in game magazines and wondering what that was going to look like.

Save states, FAQs and so forth are a godsend for revisiting games like this...I have NO desire to spend all summer trying to get through Dr. Wily's castle these days. But I can use the save states and do the exact same thing in 20 minutes.

Oh yeah, let's pour one out for the NES Advantage...probably the heaviest, least ergonomically sound controller ever made. God I can still feel the coldness of that metal base on my legs, its corners digging into my skin. And sitting there unscrewing the joystick ball for no reason. And those turbo buttons...which pretty much broke Track and Field...

It was like 1,000 pounds too.

Michael Barnes wrote: And those turbo buttons...which pretty much broke Track and Field...

Especially since you could wedge those giant buttons under the housing and just let it do its thing.

can't believe the hate for RC Pro Am. Loved that game, so arcadey, so chill. What was the name of the arcade game with the four steering wheels? RC Pro Am was like a jazzed up fun version of that.

Ghostbusters was such a bad game that I was hooked in trying to like because of the economy system. Anyone buy the vacuum cleaning for Ecto-1? That thing was a money making machine! I never survived the walk up the stairs in the big building at the end. That's as far as I always got but I loved getting money and upgrading stuff. It might have been my first exposure (Comm 64) to that type of game engine. I loved it.

Micro Machines lays waste to RC Pro AM and Rock 'n Roll Racing.

Play ActRaiser. Fucking great music, with a good enough unique game to keep you going. Sort of smushes KID ICARUS into POPULOUS.

I had (and adored) an NES Max, guys. I know from bad controllers.

I've mentioned it elsewhere, but I currently have an NES, SNES, N64, and an Atari 2600 hooked up to my TV. It's been a blast. I spend most of my time on the NES for some reason (I had a day disappear just playing Pro Wrestling), but I did finally finish Super Metroid. Super Star Wars has been my jam as of late, so there is that, too.

I'm lucky to have a really great retro gaming store in my area, so I've been filling out holes in my collection and picking up weird stuff here and there. That's where I got the 2600, a machine I'd never touched up until a few weeks ago. No nostalgia attached to it but I love it. I play a lot of Asteroids, Missile Command, and Yar's Revenge. It's easy to forget that though these games are so simple, it was the first time anyone has done it. We take it for granted now with it being used all the time, but somebody had to figure it out.

Oh yeah, I plyed Bionic Commando a lot as a kid, but Rearmed was a great remake so I didn't play it this time around.

Zelda II is my favorite Zelda, by far. Such a good game. Gannon laughing at you when you die -- what a dick.

I also love the First Final Fantasy for NES and Kid Icarus.

And, it is hard to beat Super Tecmo Bowl - still the best football game out there.

Link to the Past and Super Metroid were easily my two favorites on SNES.

I also played the shit out of this (and on PC before SNES). Always liked this kind of game.

Gemfire

mad dog, how did Gemfire play? It looks amazing and is right in my wheel house as well.

I remember playing Defender of the Crown like crazy on NES cuz I thought it was that type of game, but it wasn't.

It wasn't under Lords of the Realm I and II on PC and The Ancient Art of War and The Ancient Art of War at Sea that I really started coming into these types of games.

I wish I had found that for NES