the 16-bitter

Every week I hope to bring you readers a useless list of one thing or another, and this week I'm talking about surprising games. Specifically, games that caught me off guard in one way or another.

10. Snail Maze (Sega Master System)
The Master System is a very nice machine. I completely enjoyed lifting the sleek, sexy console of yesteryear out of the nondescript brown cardboard box (thanks to PayPal and eBay) and shooting missiles in 3D for hours on end, (me, sporting the Master System's technical wonder, the 3D Glasses on the right). That was how I started my nights about a year ago, but I wasn't prepared... The system itself has a little 'easter egg' of sorts that I happened to stumble upon, and it completely surprised me. I absentmindedly turned the console on and did something else in the kitchen. Then, by the power of Sega magic, the boring screen that usually says to insert a cartridge ("shit, or get off the pot") slid to the left to reveal... What? Then a wonderful bleeping music emanated from the screen and took me by surprise. After my eyes shot over to the screen to see what I was missing, all I noticed was that I had only 30 seconds left to do something. So without even thinking about how odd the occurrence was, or what I even had to do within the time limit, I hopped over the couch and started playing. Only when I was done did I realize that there was no cartridge in the system, and that my Master System had tricked me! That was one of the few times that a console (not a game) caught me off guard.

9. Sonic Adventure (Sega Dreamcast)
After playing and enjoying all of Sonic's other platforming odysseys I felt that nothing could go wrong. Sonic had an all-time fan in me, glowing true through the many hours I spent relentlessly pounding away at my three-button controller in anticipation of beating the pulp out of Sonic 3 and Knuckles. I was ready, more than ever, to experience Sonic in 3D. Apparently, Sega wasn't ready to make that jump with me. Sonic Adventure suffered from so many things that all altered my experience, and kept it from becoming the joy that was playing Sonic in 2D. The amount of speed that is prevalent in the series was really obscure in 3D, to the point where staying on the predefined path was nearly impossible, as one wrong move, and you'd be flying to your doom. The game had hints of Mario 64 written all over it, and my not being a fan of Mario's 64-bit outing, it definitely affected the way I played the game. This game is the kind that plays like shit, but looks amazing while doing it. It was gorgeous seeing Sonic rendered in 3D, but that was just about it. I was surprised by Sega's effort (or lack thereof), and I was surprised by how poorly Sonic translated into 3D.

8. Seaman (Dreamcast)
Something about the Dreamcast made developers look at games in an entirely new light, and Seaman is a game that plays to this. Taking the Tomagotchi craze to a new level, Seaman seemed gimmicky and of the not-too-fun variety of games, but hell, it wasn't a 3rd-person action-adventure title, like everything else out at the time. So I picked it up used at the local GameCrazy, and popped it in. I think for a month after that, I started and ended my days with Seaman. The voice recognition amazes me, to the point where, even after exhausting the long list of vulgarities I know, Seaman would come up with opinion on this or that. I was surprised to be taken in by such a game, to the point where I'd wrap my day up siting on the couch and looking into a fish tank, and occasionally calling him a fucker, then saying, "Just kidding".

7. Wii Sports (Wii)
I know what you're thinking, how cliché of me to mention Wii Sports at a time like this. Well, what can I say? Up until I played the predictable lineup I thought of the Wii differently. I wanted to play it badly, but nothing that I'd seen, read or played (yes, even the lackluster Excite Truck) convinced me that Nintendo's next console was worth a damn. Only when I played Wii Sports for myself did I change my mind completely. Not only did the game alter my perception of the Wii, I can actually say something that will lump me in with the beer-drinking, once-fratboy-now-dad Madden loving crowd: A sports game is fun.

6. Zoo Keeper (Arcade)
I admit to never playing this game on a real arcade cabinet.
Now that that's out of the way, I stumbled into this neat little gem when I was finding roms to fill my GP2X's SD card with, and I started playing it a week ago. This game has me hooked! I cannot stop playing. The game is simple: a cage in the middle of the arena lets go of animals, and as you run around the square, you build a brick wall that keeps them in. Seems simple. The trick is to let them all out and have a jumping fest! For every three or more escaped snakes, lions, or rhinoceros you are able to jump over, you get an obscene amount of points. I haven't thought about playing another arcade game until I get the top high score seat. I was caught off guard that such a random game, randomly falling into my lap could consume me as Zoo Keeper does. I couldn't even imagine how much money I would spend were there a Zoo Keeper machine within 100 miles of my house.

5. Metal Slug 2 (Neo Geo MVS)
This adrenaline-pumping, gorgeous game went in one ear and out the other when I was young. A night at Old School Pizzeria with a bunch of quarters in your pocket can, and will lead you to make a few discoveries, and at 16 I tried the game, and was horrified. Here I was, in the middle of the desert, a white man with blond hair and far superior firepower, shooting unequipped, goofy-looking "a-rabs". The political, rebellious bone in me prevented me from going further. And for years I wrote the game off as something unreasonably stupid and vulgar (which it might still be). But because of my political awareness I glazed over the most important part of playing games: It was fun. I put some quarters in the Neo Geo two years ago, and ended up being completely blown away. The detail of every small sprite in the game was developed so beautifully, it was a gem to look at. The game played smoothly, and was hard as bullets. It had so much character, flickering the developer's love in detail into my eyes. What a sight!

4. Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast)
Because I wanted to experience the Dreamcast fully, I had to play through Skies. I just had to. One of two notable RPGs on the system that still captures people's hearts, Skies was supposed to be the normal, boring turn-based RPG in the vein of Final Fantasy. And in many ways, it was. What I was surprised by was that a game like that could engulf me to the point of trying to beat it. The story was pretty standard, the battle system was standard, and the graphics were alright. But something about it drew me in and held me. Up until that point I completely wrote off anything with more than three pages of text in the whole game as being stupid, Skies changed my mind by being everything I expected, but nothing that I was used to.

3. Samurai Shodown 4 : Amakusa's Revenge (Neo Geo MVS)
This game sent me on a huge hunt to find every SNK fighting game worth playing. A long, and dreadful hunt, sometimes ending in the discover of a Fatal Fury that should have been kept forgotten, but also unearthing some fantastic titles that have become my personal favorites, like Garou: Mark of the Wolves and The Last Blade. Amakusa's Revenge made me see fighting games in a different light, and after playing for hours on end, I just plain couldn't perform on my old favorite fighters, like Mortal Kombat, or Soul Calibur. The gameplay mechanic is such that just plain button mashing won't get you anywhere. Most of the characters require precise action to be effective, and this was unlike any other fighter I had enjoyed in the past.

2.Space Harrier (Sega 32X)
I was completely unaware of this game's existence until a great Retro Revival in Retro Gamer. I was drawn by the odd positioning presented in the screenshot, the fact that instead of a shooter that shoots up or right, like most of the retro games I'd played up until then, you controlled the player up, down, left and right, and shot away from the camera. Needless to say, I returned from a grand odessy to Seattle with Space Harrier for the Sega 32X under my arm, and a look of anticipation on my face. From the second the main theme started, I was hooked. For some reason, the frantic speed in the game, coupled with the instant pick-up-and-playability of the game drew me in like a black hole. I found myself writing down my good scores and trying to beat them, I wanted to finish the game before I turned 20 on a skimpy three lives. I even invested in a Genesis 6-button arcade stick just to get that tiny edge. Well, My 32X broke, and I haven't had the time or money to look for a working new one, so I have been feinding for it ever since last summer. I even plan on learning to code, just to add the Space Harrier machine to the MAME lineup for the GP2X so I can play it wherever I want. I'm in utter awe that any game, much less a cheezy one from the arcades, could consume my gaming life so completely.

1. Sonic CD (Sega CD)
I read all the reviews, complaints, and praises for this game before I bought it. I thought that nothing about a 2D Sonic would surprise me... I was wrong. Sonic CD created so many feelings in me that I wanted to burst open. Anger, frustration, sadness, and wonder all competed within me to control my being. In the midst of my fury, I'd find Sonic bouncing in an inescapable tunnel of bouncers, while the clock bore down, threatening to put an end to it. I'd find Sonic losing rings to things that I couldn't even see on the screen. I'd see Sonic bouncing up and down in a giant, inescapable room full of electrical cords. This game was far from fun, in fact, I'll venture to say that it's the worst Sonic game I have ever laid eyes on; and I cringe whenever I ponder picking it up again. When I read the praises of this game now, I just wonder, "Why? What's the trick? How could anyone find anything enjoyable about this game? What am I not understanding?" Sonic controlled horribly, the levels were designed atrociously, the day-glo graphics were ugly and quite annoying, and the soundtrack, even utilizing the Sega CD's CD-quality audio, was lackluster (I had the US version, I hear it isn't so bad on other versions, but the low quality of the game prevents me from trying to find the good ones). This wholly and utterly surprised me, as this was one of the last of the 2D Sonics developed for Sega's own consoles, and I thought I'd at least get Sonic the Hedgehog goodness, and not a migraine.

So, there it was, the first of many Lists of the Week. Feel free to comment below!

Thanks for reading the 16-bitter.

Labels: gaming, nintendo, retro, sega, surprising, wii

Posted by Rayek on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 10:57 PM | Permalink