Saturday, November 7, 2009

Super Nintendo - A Blast from the Past

Back when I was in kindergarten, my family bought the newest console on the market. It was high tech, the games were going to be instant classics, it was the Super Nintendo. As a five year old boy, I sat in front of that 20 inch screen for countless hours playing Super Mario Bros until I beat every stage, found every secret and rode every Yoshi there was. I was a 90s kid, raised on the Super Nintendo. Here's my list of enjoyable SNES games.



Super Mario Kart : This is the original go-kart Mario game. The premise being Mario and his pals racing against each other on go-karts. You can use boosts such as turtle shells, stars, banana peels, mushrooms to your advantage. Even lightning bolt to shrink everyone around you. I spent many hours playing this game.

Super Mario Bros : This game came with the console. Out of all of the Mario brothers games, IMO this one is the most complete. There are the most hidden levels, stages, back-tracking stages in this games. Besides, it was also the first time that you could play with Mario's dinosaur pal, Yoshi in his various forms (blue, red, green, yellow).


The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past : Link's mission is to find the legendary Master Sword to defeat the wizard trying to destroy Hyrule. The wizard is determined to open a portal between Hyrule and the Dark World where he would be able to take over Hyrule. In this RPG, Link is able to explore two worlds that are completely opposite. The music, the gameplay, the story line just makes this game one of the best ones I've ever played with in my life.


N.B.A. Jam Tournament Edition : As a lifetime sports fanatic, I continue to play all sports games released on every console. Even the technology has surely improved since the inception of SNES, there has not been one basketball game more fun to play than NBA JAM T.E. It was an entertaining 2 v 2 basketball game. "A key feature of NBA Jam was the exaggerated nature of the play - players jumped many times above their own height, making slam dunks that defied both human capabilities and the laws of physics. There were no fouls, free throws, or violations except goaltending. This meant the player was able to freely shove his opponent out of the way. Additionally, the game had an "on fire" feature, where if one player made three baskets in a row, he would become "on fire" and have unlimited turbo, no goaltending, and increased shooting ability, until the other team scored (or the player had scored four consective points while "on fire")." (wiki).


Super Metroid : Another installment in the very successful Metroid series. Bounter hunter Samus Aran protects the galaxy from the Space Pirates and their attempts to harness to powers of the Metroids. As a kid I really didn't understand the complete storyline behind the game. A family friend left it at my house and never came back for it. The internet was still developing and there was no google nor wikipedia back then, so I never researched it. To the best of my memory I just remember it being kind of dark and morbid. Playing this game made me feel like the Omega man, the last person left in a world of darkness. It was definitely addicting and at times challenges. There was only solitary exploration, because Samus did not interact with any other characters. I always enjoyed rolling into a ball and dropping those bombs that would detonate seconds later. The ending of the game is pretty sweet but still leaves the series unresolved leading to the last game in the series, Metroid Fusion. In 2010, the interquel between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion this one being called Metroid: the other M.

Donkey Kong Country : Silly Apes retrieving their bananas. Great fun.

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