The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle

Ah, carrot collecting at its finest. This game is basically Pacman...if he were a rabbit, the pellets were carrots, the ghosts were cats, ducks, coyotes and Yosemite Sam and instead of the super pellet you had an assortment of heavy objects to drop onto or throw at the enemies. Ok, so maybe it's not that much like Pacman, but you get the hint. Basically Bugs is trying to rescue his beloved Honey Bunny at the top of this "Crazy" castle of stairways and large Marioesque warp pipes. For some reason you need to collect all the carrots on one floor to advance to the next, and for some other reason you are being chased around by Daffy, Silvester, Yosemite, and Wile E. They each have a different movement pattern and some alternate color versions who also move differently. As basic as it may seem, this was actually a pretty fun game. Check out some game play here.

Pokemon Red and Blue

In honor of the upcoming release of Pokemon Platinum version, I have chosen to feature Pokemon Red and Blue today. This (Blue version specifically) is the game that made me get my first GameBoy. You would never imagine how addictive this game was unless you started playing it first hand. It is only then that you would find yourself staying up as long as possible trying to get to one more Gym battle. For those who (heaven forbid) have never played a Pokemon game, Pokemon Red and Blue are the first of the series. The two versions play very similarly except each had some exclusive Pokemon that you had to trade between the other to obtain. You play as a boy who sets out to become a Pokemon master by catching them all and/or defeating everything in your path. Ever since its release in 1996, there has been many other games to follow up adding many different Pokemon and locations. Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green were released as remakes of the epic Red and Blue to allow a new generation the honor of playing through the original with enhancements to the extreme. Definitely a must play.

For more info on Pokemon (from basic to super expert trainers) try these mega sites:

http://www.serebii.net/index2.shtml

http://www.psypokes.com/index.php

Casino Kid

Typical underage gambling story. A kid needs to defeat every dealer in the casino and challenge the evil casino king. I have included the Japanese game cover as well just to show how epic it is. The US version basically took all that underage gambling out and put in some generic casino symbols. This game frustrated the hell out of me. Not the poker and blackjack, No. That was fun! It was the grotesquely long passwords you had to put in to continue were you left off last. You had to plug in 30 characters! Now imagine plugging that in without a keypad. Also, consider you had to write it down on paper whenever you wanted to "save". See, it wouldn't have been so bad, but my NES happened to crash every time I tried playing this game, hence the frustration. Well, at least this game gave us lots of bunny waitresses to flirt with. Click here for a gameplay video I found for your viewing pleasure.

Duck Hunt

I felt obligated to pay my respects to the game that was brave enough to be the following act to Super Mario Bros. Duck Hunt is a game about a hunter and his dog. Pretty basic, no? It introduced us to the fun of point and shoot game play (reminds me of....nevermind). I have fond memories of this game, although I loathe that dog, deeply. I also remember how my younger brother would hold his gun to a white sheet of paper and hit with 100% accuracy. Ahh, the early days of video game cheats. Good times. 

Super Mario Bros.

How could I possibly start with any other game? Super Mario Brothers started it all for me. Being a child of the 80's, my first gaming system was the NES.  And what came with the NES? Super Mario Bros. of course. That and Duck Hunt (but I'll leave that till later).  Not only did Mario become a pop culture icon, but he is one of, if not, the most recognizable characters in the world. Who would have thought that a game were a plumber finds some magic vegetation, stomps on turtles and saves a princess from an even larger turtle would be such a big hit. Seriously though, to this day, I can't get over a good platformer. I can't even imagine the hours I spent on this gem.  In fact I even recall when I was a younger gamer, before I got the NES myself, playing this with my more fortunate cousins. And yes, I was stuck with Luigi all the time. And yes, I would still be on level one when my cousins would be on level 3 getting infinite extra lives on the steps as so many of us recall. But I digress. Thankfully I got to experience my own copy and was able to conquer that learning curve. Nintendo sure hit the jackpot on this one.  It even spawned a DS remake recently called New Super Mario Bros. (lots of fun, especially the multiplayer games using the DS download function).  Thank you Shigeru Miyamoto for bringing the world of Mario into our lives.  

*For those of you who don't know Mr. Miyamoto, he is the game designing genius who brought us Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong and other Nintendo classic series.

Games that started an era

I wanted to create this blog to reminisce about the games that got us hooked from the start.  Every generation of gamer emerged out of an era.  For many, including myself, it was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) days. For some of you it might have been the Sega Genesis or SuperNES period.  For others it may have occurred when the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64 systems were big. Whenever it was, there will always be a game (or games) that will have a special place in our hearts, and this blog will help share our love for the classics.  Stay tuned for links and anecdotes from our favorite retro games of the past.