What nostalgia means to me

Blogulation time.

First off I want to say thanks to anyone who went over to Conor's blog. Much appreciated :)

Let's talk about nostalgia shall we?

I decided to download more games for various old game consoles. The oldies really are the best. New consoles are good and all, but there's a certain magic about 16-bit graphics. I play my SNES emulator more than I play my PS3 at the minute.

Here's a list of the games I've been playing recently for various consoles:

Gameboy
- Pokémon Blue

Gameboy Advance
- Pokémon Fire Red

NES
- The Simpsons - Bart vs. the Space Mutants

SNES
- Adventures of Batman & Robin
- Bebe's Kids
- Biker Mice From Mars
- Contra III: The Alien Wars
- Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest
- Earthworm Jim
- Lemmings
- Pilotwings
- Super Mario All Stars
- Super Mario Kart
- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

Sega Genesis/Megadrive
- Michael Jackson's Moonwalker
- Sonic The Hedgehog

A few of the games I only know about because of The Angry Video Game Nerd. Some of them I know from my childhood. I guess I'll review some of these games from a *slightly* more mature viewpoint than I would have had all those years ago.

Pokémon Blue is awesome. 'Nuff said really. Pokémon's been kind of ruined really with an over abundance of Pokémon to catch. Pokémon Blue takes me back to how simple Pokémon used to be. It was one of the first games I remember playing on the Gameboy Colour. Although it wasn't really in colour, more just a mix between blues, greens and reds. Each city has a vaguely different colour, but there aren't individual colours. Rip off really.

Then we come to Pokémon Fire Red. I never played Fire Red when it came out. I'm not really worried. One problem is that my emulator has some serious sound issues as it sounds like a harrier jet in my room when it's enabled. Another problem I have is that, it's just, too smooth. It's not as good as the original Blue or Red if you ask me. That's one reason why I don't like the new games, they're too polished. Pokémon has it's flaws, but it's supposed to. That's part of it's charm. This kind of removes that. I'd rather play the original Red than Fire Red.

Okay onto the Nintedo Entertainment System. Bart vs. the Space Mutants. What can really be said. AVGN talked about this in his Simpsons episode. It really is a bad game. It's not worth your time. There is no charm in the graphics, unlike other NES games. The gameplay is awful. Jumping is impossible. I played it a few times as a gimmick, but can't be bothered anymore.

The Super Nintendo. What a console. I consider it probably the best console of all time. It just, sums up gaming for me. It's wonderful. The Adventures of Batman & Robin is also an excellent game. Based on the animated series (which I also loved), it's a wonder to play. The gameplay works, though I do find it a bit difficult at times. That's probably because I'm just a bit shit at it. Seriously though, I highly recommend this game. Get an emulator just for this game.

So from that high, we drop far, far down. Bebe's Kids. The Nostalgia Critic reviewed it. His summation is pretty much bang on. The characters are slow, they walk around as if they are submerged in lumpy custard the entire time. The controls are bizarre. The music is awful. Play it for the novelty factor, but don't get too stressed out in the Haunted House level, it's not worth it. I've tried that level a number of times, but I now refuse to do it anymore. Also there are no saves or continues. Don't bother really.

I remember going round to my friend Phil's house and playing Donkey Kong Country 2. I don't know what it was. It was kind of 3-D, and for the Super Nintendo, that was impressive. It's a really fun game, the best of the trilogy. There are some difficult parts but that's all part of the fun. I highly recommend it, if you like Donkey Kong.

How amazing was Earthworm Jim? Everything about him was amazing. I loved the game as a kid. I never realised that you can't save, and it doesn't have a password system. The only way to complete it is to do it in one sitting. That's kind of annoying, but it's still amazing. Seriously, get it.

Lemmings. It's Lemmings, does anything else need to be said?

I'll finish with Yoshi's Island. Whenever I remembered this game and downloaded it, the first thing I did was enable the sound and turn the volume right up. I lived in this game when I was young. It was, just, amazing. I'm being deadly serious, this is probably my favourite game, possibly of all time. It just captures so much of my youth for me. And it saves after every level. It gets two thumbs up. Two big thumbs.

A few more things about Nostalgia...

I wonder if anyone remembers Street Sharks. Man, I was young then. I had Street Shark toys and everything. They were the shit back then. Apparently the show only ran for less than a year, maybe I just watched re-runs over and over again. It's probable, I loved it so much.

It saddens me that there won't really be TV shows like that anymore. There's a certain magic about your childhood television memories. Everyone remembers what they watched as a child. For me, it was the classics like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Biker Mice From Mars, you know, the good stuff.

Anyway, if you've actually managed to make it this far then I commend you. Why not leave a comment about what nostalgia means to you?

Thanks for reading :)
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