Games I Grew Up On: Zelda II - The Adventure of Link

The majority of video games used to be unforgiving where a lost life could mean you have to replay many hours of gameplay.  Zelda II: The Adventure of Link was a prime example of this.  You have a set number of lives, losing all of them sends you back to the palace where Zelda is stuck in an eternal slumber and you'll have to make the trek back to wherever you lost that last life.  If this was on the last boss, you'd have to fight your way back through the super difficult levels just to get to the super difficult dungeons to fight your way to the super difficult second to last boss and finally fight the final boss (which, fortunately, had a simple trick to defeat somewhat easily if you grew tired of making your way to him again).

Zelda II was one of those really rare sequels that has so little in common with the original that it's hard to see them as a series.  I guess there's still an overworld map, but you don't fight anything there.  Instead, if you touch an enemy in the overworld map, you get brought to a side scrolling view where you have to walk to either the left or right edge of the screen to get back to the overworld.  The game also had a (in my opinion) really awesome RPG aspect to it where killing monsters garnered XP that would eventually give you more levels to put into your health, your sword, or your magic.  All three of these were crucial and by the end of the game, you'll have maxed your level so you can't choose incorrectly, you just determine how hard/easy it is to make it through the game to the end.  The map also held a number of secret locations that stored extra hearts, important items, and more monsters that you'd either need a guide to play along with or memorize where they all are because they are visually indistinguishable from the land around them.

I've managed to beat this game once and I had a friend who just celebrated his victory over the game.  This is definitely a game where beating it is an accomplishment.  This game also just came out for the Wii U virtual console and is also available on the Wii and 3DS virtual consoles, so if you're really itching for some true challenge and exploration, then I would recommend this game.  I am Error.

Games I Grew Up On: StarTropics

Another game I love to replay from time to time is the game, StarTropics.  This game combined a tropical theme with a strange sci-fi theme and 2D overhead travel and puzzle solving with 2.5D action gameplay.  It also had an amazing soundtrack that matched the theme incredibly well.

One of the most memorable things about the original copy of the game is that it came with a letter that at a certain point in the game, you were told to dip in water to read a message required to progress further in the game.  Basically it was copyright protection, but along with the Monkey Island code wheel and Advanced Dungeon and Dragons journal copy protection it was one of my favorites.

In the game, you play as Mike who is looking for his uncle, Dr. Jones the archaeologist (I see what they did there...) who has mysteriously disappeared.  The journey to find your uncle takes you into the belly of a whale, through a booby-trapped shipwrecked pirate ship, and ultimately into a spaceship.  There are very interesting bosses, tough action, a lot of instant kill death traps that require skill to navigate, many hidden areas with secret goodies, and plenty of powerful items to help you survive.

I want to say I've only beaten this game once and I'm pretty sure that was with the use of an emulator's save states - it's a difficult game to say the least.  But it is well worth a play through, especially with a Nintendo Power map at your side as you play...

Games I Grew Up On: Q*Bert

One of my first biggest gaming mistakes was buying the game, Q*bert, for NES.  I don't remember how old I was, but I had a regular allowance and my parents had taught me how to keep a balance book of my money and how to save it (I think games like Dragon Warrior also helped).  I had finally saved enough money to buy my very first video game, my mom (lovingly) took me to Toys 'R Us, but back in those days there wasn't an internet filled with video game reviews, so all I had was a wall of video game box art and some minor information on the games.

I'm not sure what drew me to Q*bert, maybe it's that the main character looks like characters I would doodle, maybe I was just overwhelmed and grabbed a ticket for a game I could reach, or maybe I felt bad that the main character was getting killed on the cover.  Sadly, I wouldn't fare much better while playing the game.

The game takes place on an isometric colored pyramid.  Each time Q*bert jumps on to a different step, the color changes.  The goal is to color the entire pyramid a specific color.  Unfortunately, there are a few enemies - a springy snake, gremlins that change step colors, and purple creatures that jump on the wrong sides of the pyramid.  If you get trapped at the bottom, there are one time use spinning discs that will take you back up to the top of the pyramid.  It was a fairly typical high scoring, never ending, super skill game.  What makes the game a lot less fun than it could be is that the controls are super confusing.  Since the pyramid is on diagonals, it doesn't match up to an NES control pad that well.  It almost always cost at least one life to determine if down would go down left or down right or if up would go up left or up right.  This is even worse when you're panicking from all the monsters after you and things bouncing around.

I know my brothers gave me a hard time for buying this game and I think it was only played like 5 times total at my house, so not exactly a game worthy of being the first game I ever bought, but it was a great lesson in researching your purchases before making them.  I think that's a lesson that more people need to learn, especially before they get their hands on a credit card.

Games I Grew Up On: Crystalis

One of the very earliest action RPGs I ever played was Crystalis.  The music was top notch, the gameplay was a good balance of intense (usually for boss fights) and pleasant (wandering around killing monsters for money/experience), and the setting is amazing (100 years after a nuclear war where magic has been rediscovered and is combined with science).

The player wakes up in a strange tower with no memory, but is guided by four different sages through the story to ultimately combine four different elemental swords into the Crystalis sword and defeat Emperor Draygon who is conquering the world.  As cliche as that sounds now, it certainly wasn't when I was a little kid.  Although I'm not sure how well this game stands up if you didn't grow up on it, it's definitely a game I go back to play every once in awhile.

Essentially, combat is like Secret of Mana.  You run around in a mostly top-down view, stab at enemies with B, can cast some spells, can charge up your sword attacks to various levels by standing still (the character, not the player) and holding B (the player, not the character), use gold to buy upgraded armor and shields or useful items, talk to lots of people to figure out what to do next (eventually you get a Telepathy spell that lets you read people's minds, which is an interesting way to get information), and vanquish evil.  I really want to go back and play this game again now just thinking about it...