Bomberman '93 (TG16 | 600 Points)
Bomb Man is the robot that Dr. Light and Dr. Wily created when they were drunk. I mean Fire Man was in charge of the city's heat, Elec Man was the city's electricity... wait we're not talking about Mega Man? Oh wait, Bomberman. Whoops, wrong game series. Bomberman though is still fun, and is one of the rare titles you can play with up to 5 people. Plant bombs, run away, and hope that your friends get hit by the blast. Last man standing wins. Easy right? Yeah, you say that after you don't realize your friend planted a bomb near you and blew you up.
Donkey Kong Country (SNES | 800 Points)
Donkey Kong Country brought life back into our favorite kidnapper gorilla. Up until then, Donkey Kong was trying to stay on the good side of the law by attempting to adhere to his parole. But once K. Rool stole all of Donkey Kong's banana's, he decided to get revenge by seeking out K. Rool and also killing any alligators, bugs, and insects that got in his way.
Gunstar Heroes (GEN | 800 Points)
Red and Blue have been all star gunslinger brothers, saving the world. However when their third brother Green teams up with the bad guys, Red and Blue have no choice but to go out to stop this evil organization. Yes, the names sound like they came straight out of Pokemon, however the game play is top notch. This fast paced game will have you shooting at pretty much everything that comes your way. Believe me when I say that even with co-op play, this game is hard.
Kirby's Adventure (NES | 500 Points)
Everyone's favorite pink ball that has a black hole as a stomach is back. Kirby's first adventure is tough and shows that it doesn't matter what color you are, it just matters how much your stomach can take. Kirby is so good that every time you die it's always funny when Kirby eats the hand that points to "End Game"
The Legend of Zelda (NES | 500 Points)
Unless you don't already own LoZ for the Game Boy Advance or on the special Legend of Zelda Collectors Edition for Gamecube, you should pick it up for the Virtual Console. If you do own it already, then go and skip to the next game. This game started off the open-ended RPG. You could go anywhere you wanted to go, do anything you wanted to do. You even could shoot laser beams from your sword. Laser beams from a sword people. How cooler can you get?
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES | 800 Points)
We don't talk about Zelda II. It may be a cool game and the 100th game to hit the Virtual Console, but as Zelda games go, we don't talk about Zelda II. Zelda III, however, made up for it. LttP started the whole Light World/Dark World game play. You had the Light world and the Dark world, and both you had to free from Ganon's control. Long, open-ended, and you can still shoot laser beams from your sword.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64 | 1000 Points)
If you already own a copy of this for Gamecube, skip on past. If not, you should pick up Ocarina of Time. Why? Well because it was the 1997 Game of the Year, that's why. A lot of games now try to model off of Ocarina of Time. Even Twilight Princess tried it. Needless to say this was the second game to help Nintendo's 64.
Ninja Gaiden (NES | 500 Points)
Do you like games that cause you to throw your controller half way across the room? Then Ninja Gaiden is for you. In terms of difficulty, it ranks up there with Mega Man 2 and Battletoads. Yes, this game is tough. Impossible, no. Going to take you 20 years just to get passed Stage 2, probably.
Sonic the Hedgehog (GEN | 800 Points)
Mario and Sonic. So good to see them on the same console. Now if they were in the same game besides the upcoming Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, that would be even better. Why not put Sonic in Smash Bros. Brawl? I mean you do have Solid Snake after all. But then again if they put Sonic in there, I would want them to put Mega Man in there too. EXE, not any of the other ones. Seriously, EXE is the only one of the Mega Man's that actually use a sword. Zero doesn't count, he's not Mega Man. Oh wait, this is about the Sonic the Hedgehog game right? Well it's good, get it.
Star Fox 64 (N64 | 1000 Points)
4 words that will always help you in life, "Do a Barrel Roll!". Star Fox 64 rebuilt the series from Star Fox on the SNES. It was good to see this game reborn and actually perform better than the first. And it also taught you that doing Barrel Rolls will deflect enemy attacks. Now if only Star Fox Assault could learn from 64.
Super Castlevania IV (SNES | 800 Points)
I'm not a big Castlevania fan. But when NickBrutal told me that Super Castlevania IV was coming out to the Virtual Console, he also told me to never show my face to him unless I bought it. Needless to say, I bought it. It's good. It's not like the newer Castlevania's on the DS, but it still carries the Castlevania feel.
Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, World, and 64 (NES, SNES, and N64 | 500, 800, and 1000 Points)
Unlike the Zelda series where certain games are good and certain ones are bad, all of the Super Mario games have been good. Yes even Super Mario Bros. 2 the hacked Doki Doki Panic version. Super Mario Bros. 1 showed us that even a plumber from Brooklyn could save the world while jumping like Superman. Super Mario Bros. 2 told us that vegetables are good for you and bad for everyone else. Super Mario World told us that not all dinosaurs were flesh eating monsters. Some were used as horses and held a black hole as a stomach just like a certain pink ball. Super Mario 64 showed us that paintings don't hold a thousand words, they're actually transporters to other worlds. Words worlds, same difference right?
There you have it, 15 must have games. Of course that's a small fraction of the video games out there, and I didn't even touch other good ones like F-Zero X, Mario Kart 64, or even R-Type III. But this will get you started until you wait for better games like Super Smash Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, and of course Super Metroid.
It's time for the first "Incredibly Insane That You'll Probably Won't Care About" award. Today's award goes to Crash Realism. Today's game demo's, because I'm too cheap to actually go out and purchase them, are Forza Motosport 2 and Test Drive Unlimited for the X-Box 360. Now granted, both of these are the demos, so they might not be the real thing. But when it comes to crashes, I'm sure that's the last thing they worry about, unless it's a game all about crashes and then it's the first thing to worry about. However, with these two games, making sure the car actually rides like a car is on the top of the list.
Before we go into details about the two games and their crash realisms, I should inform you what this is all about; seeming it is the first "Incredible Insane That You'll Probably Won't Care About" award. You see, I'm the kind of guy where if you give me a flamethrower and tell me to go burn the enemies, I'll go and do that. And I'll probably burn any innocent civilians I see, and forests, maybe a few cars. I just go nuts. It's that reason that I love games like Mercenaries and Crackdown. I mean, what other game can you place 7 C4's in the middle of a road and wait for an unsuspecting car so you can shoot it up into orbit? What other game can you shoot out someone's tires on a bridge, watch them lose control, and go over the bridge themselves? So I'll go out of my way and find the oddest thing that only I will ever do in a game. But I can't give out these awards for silly games like Mercenaries and Crackdown. I have to find legit games that are developed with the serious gamer in mind. Professional sports, RPG's, hell even Halo 3 isn't safe when I get my hands on it. I'll find something that's insane in that. But then I have to find another game in the same genre with the same type of insanity.
Forza Motorsport 2 demo came up on X-Box Live and I decided to check it out. I heard the first one was great, but I never got a chance to play it. Now I'm not a racing realism kind of guy. My dad is though. So after giving it a spin I figured he would really like it. But then again, I wouldn't. Why not? The fact of the matter is that this game is probably as much realistic when it comes to car racing as Sony's Gran Turismo series. There are statistics on the cars so in depth that I never even knew about. Needles to say, I started playing it like it was an arcade racing game. I failed. After fidgeting with it for about an hour, I noticed my car wasn't looking all that great. It had some scuffs here and some wear and tear there, nothing major. But then it kicked in, let's see how the crash realism works. Now granted, I know it's just the demo, but usually the graphics and impact aren't really affected. Game play and the cars available will though. But who cares about that, let's get to the crashes.
Crashing your car is quite hard to do in the game, even if you start heading down the wrong way and get into head on's with other cars. For the most part, your car will get scuffed and your hood will get banged up. After crashing my car for an hour, the only real damage I saw was the fact that you could clip off the back bumper. That's it. No big dents, "you're car is totaled." I mean, even Burnout Revenge you can total your car. I must have crashed that car thirty times on head on's, but my car kept sailing. If only real life was like that. The cool thing was that the collisions were pretty realistic. Many times I found myself hitting another car at and angle, only to find myself going out of control towards a wall based on the way I hit the car. Way to go guys.
The other demo that I picked up was Test Drive Unlimited. I always wanted to try this game out because I heard that the Live portion was like an MMO racing in which you're all pitted on an island and can do whatever. So after getting used to the game mechanics, since I'm still used to playing arcade race type games, I started to see how crashing went. For a real interesting concept in a video game, the crashing mechanics were somewhat worse than Forza. Because it's supposed to simulate real life, every time you crash into a car, or even bump a car for that matter, a Police meter activates. Bump a car six times and you get a hefty fine, not good. Even still you can wreck the car that you crash into depending on how you hit it and how it goes flying, but your car is indestructible. No cracked windows, no dented bumpers, not even scuff marks on your car. It's still got that shine on it like you just got it this morning. They may have done some great jobs with the damages on other cars, but I was really hoping to have my own car to appear damaged.
Incase you ever get fed up and want to see professional looking cars get banged up, go with Forza Motorsport 2. Yes its professional racing and no it's not going to have cars shatter into a million pieces or is it the actual purpose of the game, but at least it shows damages to all cars. Therefore the award for Crash Realism goes to Forza Motorsport 2.
Things have been a little hetic over here between work, school, family, and a Custom Robo comic I'm working on. But don't worry, I'll get some more stuff up... eventually. I'll have my reviews of Ryuusei no Rockman (Mega Man Star Force), Rockman.EXE 4.5, and Super Paper Mario on their way as well as Custom Robo Arena.
-GM_Link
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