Video games – Page 4 – DaveGladow.com

My games of 2020

I’ve been keeping a running thread of video games I’ve beaten on Twitter this year, which has been a fun project and a highlight of 2020 for me personally. Being under lock and key during a pandemic, it seemed a good time to make some headway on my backlog, go back to some favorites just for fun, and to clear some space on the docket for some new games … which is now reality as Santa delivered the kids (and to a lesser extent Mom and Dad) a Switch for Christmas.

Woohoo!

Didn’t put it into a NY resolution exactly, but wanted to play a lot of different video games and beat them this year, especially since my collection of mini consoles continues to grow. This will be a thread of games I beat with some thoughts on each.
— David Gladow (@davegladow) March 28, 2020

Anyway, I took the liberty of ranking the games I’ve beaten this year and included them in a list below. What you won’t see is a whole bunch of other games I played/enjoyed this year that weren’t “defeated” per se. Puzzlers like Mean Bean Machine, Tetris, Chew Man Fu, and Bubble Bobble ate a ton of my time, but weren’t an easy out. I also dipped my toes in with games I just didn’t have time or motivation to finish (such as Super Return of the Jedi, Comix Zone and Zombies Ate My Neighbors) as well as some games previously defeated to continue the process of unlocking items (like New Super Mario Bros. Wii). Finally, there was stuff I played with my kids that I had no interest in beating … like SSX Tricky, Kirby Super Star or Eternal Champions. Honestly, there’s a lot I played this year that didn’t make this list. But I wanted to be fair and only evaluate a game in its “complete” form (or at least as close to that as possible).

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 7)

Of the many gaming opinions I’ll often state as fact, none inspires quite the level of self-confidence as “Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the best retro Sonic game.”

Yes, Sonic CD has many fans. Yes, Sonic 3 & Knuckles as a combo of two solid games becomes a better version of itself in its unified form (sort of like the Devastator or Voltron of video games). But I feel comfortable, confident, and maybe even downright cocky about this particular stance.

Sonic 2 is incredible.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Genre: Side-scrolling platformer
Released: 1992
Platform: Genesis
GameFan Score: 197/200

Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 6)

Within the pantheon of video games every gamer should experience, quality is a must. It’s essentially your starting point: Is this game, for lack of a better term, “good?” That’s always first and foremost.

But closely behind that consideration is the importance of a game within the industry. Does it have historical significance in a way that other games of that era might not? If one were to put together a timeline of video game history, what games would require representation?

Street Fighter II was unlike anything that had come before it, and it revolutionized the gaming industry in a way that is exceedingly rare. Per Wikipedia, the game is responsible for selling over 200,000 arcade cabinets, 15 million software units, and $10 billion of revenue for Capcom. And I can corroborate those numbers on a personal level; Capcom inspired me to purchase a Super Nintendo, four different versions of the game, and pump countless quarters into arcade cabinets over the years.

But what made the game so popular? And why do many people think “Hyper Fighting” might be the best version of all?

Let’s go down those two rabbit holes together, shall we?

Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Genre: Fighting
Released: 1993
Platform: SNES
GameRankings Score: 82%

Super Mario Bros. 2 — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 5)

For anyone who has played more than a singular Super Mario video game, there is no easy answer to the question of which game might be your favorite or even “best.” The standard of quality is so damn high, that basically any answer is a correct one.*

* Anything other than “The Lost Levels,” anyway.

This should not be news to anyone, of course. Nintendo’s No. 1 mascot achieved his status for a reason, and that reason was absolutely his impecably designed games. I feel reasonably confident in saying that people were NOT clamoring for a fat plumber in overalls with an appetite for magical mushrooms to serve as their own personal hero/savior.

It was the game play that inspired the devotion, and finding holes in that game play in any particular iteration of Mario’s adventures is a pretty silly endeavor.

Yes, none of these games is perfect. But the sum of positives is so much larger than the negatives, it’s fairly pointless to dwell on the latter.

Super Mario Bros. 2
Genre: Side-scrolling platformer
Released: 1988
Platform: NES
Nintendo Power’s Top NES Games: No. 8

Mega Man 2 — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 4)

When Mario blew the hell up back in the mid-80’s for Nintendo, it sparked a desperate gold rush in the video game development community to establish their own mascot-worthy characters.

Some of these attempts were feebly bad, and we can all point and laugh at them to this day (We’re all looking at you, Alex Kidd.).

Others actually panned out. One of Capcom’s many tries at establishing a “face” for their company, Mega Man, was neither prioritized among their efforts (execs pushed characters like “Captain Commando” instead) nor even deemed worthy of an eventual sequel after his first game met a tepid response from the public. Famously, Mega Man 2 was only allowed into development as a side project for a small group of employees who felt passionate about the potential, and said individuals weren’t paid for their efforts.

What resulted was a labor of love, a game which defied all expectations to become a critical and commercial hit, and a launching of the character of Mega Man into the rarified air of such household names as Mario, Pac-Man, Sonic and the Belmonts.

Mega Man 2
Genre: Side-scrolling platformer
Released: 1989
Platform: NES
GamesRadar’s Top NES Games: No. 2

Air Zonk — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 3)

Every now and then, a piece of culture comes along your path that doesn’t necessarily have wide appeal or grand success, but yet it speaks to you on some level. You understand beyond a shadow of a doubt what its creators set out to do, how perfectly they achieved that task, and as a result, that particular slice of art somehow becomes yours as well.

In these cases, you’ve simultaneously taken on the rare honor of relatively exclusive ownership (and all of the smugness that knowledge entails), while also being given the mantel of responsibility of trying to share the good word. You are not merely an observer of greatness; you’re also now a part of it.

I have before, am now, and will in the future be forever a preacher at the alter of Air Zonk.

Air Zonk
Genre: Shooter
Released: 1992
Platform: TurboGrafx-16
Avg. Critic Score: 8/10

WhoDatJedi Podcast: The best Halloween themed video games to play in October

We had a really great conversation on this week’s WhoDatJedi podcast with the creators/hosts of the Nerd Cave Retro podcast about the best video games to play in the month of October.

In the mood for some spooky, Halloween-themed video games this month? Read on to see/hear our choices.

Tecmo Super Bowl — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 2)

There’s something to be said for polish. Sure, innovation is great, because it lays the groundwork for everything that comes afterward. But when that innovation leaves vast room for improvement, sometimes that improvement can feel like water in the desert.

The original Tecmo Bowl was a smash and critical success, introducing a fast, arcade-like feel to the game of football. Playing fast and loose with such trivial concerns as physics or the rules of the game, the decision to go this direction was without question a good one, as it upped the fun and general sense of chaos beyond what they might have achieved with strict adherence to those guidelines.

The challenge for the sequel was to improve on the original game’s limitations while also preserving the original’s “feel.” While it wasn’t the lone NES sequel to be charged with such an enormous task, it was absolutely among the most successful at rising up to said challenge.

Tecmo Super Bowl
Genre: Sports
Released: 1991
Platform: NES
IGN’s Top 100 Games: No. 24

Chrono Cross — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 1)

What happens when a sequel isn’t really a sequel, but more of a thematic continuation, but only because it deviates so wildly from the source material, but ultimately in a good way, but not in a way most fans expected or wanted?

Welcome to Chrono Cross, one of the more fascinating non-sequels in the history of video gaming.

Chrono Cross
Genre: RPG
Released: 2000
Platform: Playstation
Metacritic Score: 94

All the Turbografx-16 Mini games ranked

Here’s where I crack my knuckles, take a deep breath, and get to work: I’m going to rank all of the games on the Turbografx-16 Mini (and give you a few thoughts on the system itself), and while this is without a doubt a silly undertaking, I am after all, a silly man.

If you have no clue what I’m talking about, let me catch you up! The Turbografx-16 Mini is the latest and greatest* retro micro-console to hit the video game market. These “mini” consoles are basically plug-and-play versions of classic gaming systems from the past pre-loaded with a set number of games and designed to work with modern televisions. This particular one is over 50 games, some of which are NOTORIOUSLY (all caps) difficult/expensive to acquire.

* Yes, it’s the best of the mini consoles, and by a substantial margin.

My nostalgia for the original system is well documented. And the good news is the new mini-system lives up to basically all expectations. Yes, it’s niche. Yes, it has some (okay, several) clunkers. But it gets into levels of greatness and insanity most systems stay away from at all costs.

Hey Nintendo, release 60 percent of your games in Japanese, you cowards.