OLD HEAD VIDEO GAMES

I am an Elder Millenial? I dunno - it’s 2022 and I’m 40. Do the math. Anywho - I was a small and kind of shrimpy kid - and I grew into a small and kind of shrimpy man. I was never a great athlete or artist; musician or magnate. These were things I learned early in life. I did what most boys and young men did though - I dreamt big and being as it was the tumultuous times of the 80’s and and 90’s there was newly re-founded escape available to the many of us who were made mediocre - video games.

Beyond cartoons and movies here was a reborn medium where we could control destiny, explore, conquer, and overcome fantastic odds and situations.

I became enamored. I still am but not in the same way. That’s the way love goes I suppose - it changes as we do over the long years. But we remember those first ones. Nothing that follows ever feels the same. Although new loves may be better, more wholesome, more complete, more steeped in wisdom and experience there is never anything quite as exciting or adventurous as those firsts.

For me those games existed on the original Nintendo Entertainment System, the original Gameboy, and the Super Nintendo. Many of the games I loved have been highly praised over the years

For the Nintendo:

Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 3 / Megaman’s 1-6 / Zelda 1 + 2 / Final Fantasy / Dragon Quests 1-4 / Metroid / Castlevania / Punch-Out / Double Dragons 1-3 / Contra

Gameboy:

Tetris / Zelda: Link’s Awakening / Super Mario Lands 1 + 2 / Final Fantasy Legends 1 + 2

Super Nintendo (so many):

Zelda: A Link To The Past / Final Fantasy III (6) / Chrono Trigger / Secret Of Mana / Super Mario World / Super Metroid / Donkey Kong Country / Super Mario Kart / Mortal Kombat 1-2 / Street Fighter 2 / Final Fight / Megaman X / Super Mario RPG / Star Fox / Super Mario All-Stars

Oopsies - I already getting lost in the nostalgia of the greats.

No - this post is about the slightly to criminally under-appreciated - the games were great but never got the marketing machine behind them or gained the required cult following to be remade or even directly ported to new hardware. Games that had to live on in the underground world of ROMs. Games that I felt deserved better dammit. SO HERE GOES. My games that Nintendo (or their original developers if still in business) should find a way for us to play on all the fancy hardware we have now because in spite of their simple, pixelated, blocky, simplicity; their crude technology and sometimes merciless gameplay - they were fun.

Nintendo Entertainment System:

• Adventure Island II (Hudson Soft)

• Battletoads (Rare / Tradewest)

• Cobra Triangle (Rare)

• Little Nemo: The Dream Master (Capcom)

• Jackal (Konami)

• Marble Madness (Rare)

• Karnov (Data East)

• Life Force (Konami)

• Paperboy (Eastridge Technology)

• RC Pro-AM (Rare)

• Rad Racer (Square)

• The Simpsons: Bart vs. The Space Mutants (Imagineering)

• Smash TV (Beam Software)

• Dragon Spirit - The New Legend (Now Production)

Gameboy:

• Star Trek (Visual Concepts)

Super Nintendo:

• The 7th Saga (Produce)

• Cybernator (Konami)

• illusion of Gaia (Quintet)

• UN Squadron (Capcom)

• Knights of the Round (Capcom)

• Soul Blazer (Quintet)

See? Not that many. Get on it Nintendo.