The next post:

So I figure my life is gonna go into hyperspace soon so I better pen another blog post before I truly become an old man. So… on to the good stuff, where were we, ah yes… Super Nintendo vs. Sega Genesis. A lot has been written on the matter, so I’ll say it straight up front, both rocked and its hard to pick one over the other, though i'd have to give the edge to Super Nintendo. In some ways, its my favorite video game era, it took the foundation of Nintendo and kicked it up a notch without messing with 3D graphics (to which Playstation 1, and N64 started the growing pains of that leap forward.)

Sega… got that at the Ala Moana mall believe it or not. It must have been over the summer in the Japan days. We spent time in New York every summer as well as visited family in Utah when we lived in Tokyo. On our way back to Japan, we would stop in Hawaii for a week. Anyways, I saved my allowance for pretty much the whole year and when we got to Hawaii I picked up a Sega. My first experience though was a year or 2 back where a friend in Virginia was playing a Michael Jackson game. It was pretty much amazing (I still want to revisit it, its probably really lame). As this was before the internet (gamespot and IGN), I got my gaming news from others as well as Electronic Gaming Monthly from time to time. The system came with games back than and it was sonic 1 and 2. Also got Ecco The Dolphin and streets of rage 2! My brother got NHL 93 and 94, FIFA 94 and Roger Clemens baseball. All these games were sweet and caused much fun to be had. In Japan I had my own room in which I had a TV set up with the video games. Once in a while I was sent to my room…which being trapped there wasn’t too bad of a fate at that point :v.

Super Nintendo… got that in the University Mall at Babbages! It was about 2 years after Sega. The family downstairs had one and I instantly wanted it. They had Super Mario World and F-zero. Both amazin’. After another year of saving my allowance (I still save my money a decent amount for nice things, a life lesson in patience/reward learned in my formative years) I finally got it. It started with an earthquake, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To the Past.

Goodness gracious me, that was a dang fine game. It was huge! There were so many things to do. Also it led to one of the only evil thing my brother matt ever did to me. I can’t remember the fight, but I do remember the conclusion…he erased my game! Talk about crushing the dreams of a poor lil orphan child. Anyways, last summer I played and finally beat it and concluded that it’s probably my favorite game of all time. Even now, its music and sound effects continue to influence my life as they are prominent in my cell phone texting sounds as well as were featured heavily in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

My sister and I up to this point hadn’t bonded too much over video games but one key game from this period changed that: Mario Kart. The original Mario kart was genius. I actually prefer it in many ways to the cube and wii versions. Mario Kart 64 is a close contender though. Anyways we often had “Mario at midnight” rendezvous and played into the night. Also if you've ever heard me say "Mario", my pronunciation of Merio* came from these days. We still aren’t sure if mom and dad knew we were up late, perhaps they allowed it since we weren’t fighting.

Speaking of fighting another key game of this time that changed the gaming world was Mortal Kombat 2. I remember feeling a lil guilty over the games extreme violence (toasty) but again it brought me and my bro, and surprisingly my sister together. I first played it in the arcades in Hawaii in the Fun Factory. It was over the top, dumb, and very, very entertaining. Like Zelda, the game is still a lot of fun today. Between that and Street Fighter 2, Jeff Woodland and I had many a glorious battle.

There were other games, but these defined the era for me. They were the Japan days, the Poughkeepsie days (in fourth grade I lived in Poughkeepsie again) and the beginning of middle school with Ryan Barrett. And thus it was, even so...

Nintendo Part 3: highlights from other games...

When i set up my new apartment it will be easier to finish off the rest of my Nintendo memories since every game we had will be displayed. I'll update this then.

Mario 2: Totally crazy, hard, and great. It was all a dream but i'm glad it introduced the Shyguy.

Mario 3: Fantastic, fun factor off the charts even today.

Blades of Steel: So whomever loses a fight goes to the penalty box... how cool is that? So i went to her room and read her diary

Battletoads: dang fun, impossibly hard...even with game genie!

Zelda 1 & 2: more on these when i cover A Link to The Past

Ninja Gaiden: cinematics blew me away back in the day

Bubble Bobble: Bonding time with Nia

Ghostbusters: Fun game...terrible ending (just words)

Tis all for tonight, tune in for the update later. Also next time we'll be discussing the Next Generation... super nintendo verse Sega!

Nintendo Part 2: (Mega Man)

And so we move on to one of the greatest franchises of all time...Mega Man. In fact, its so great that capcom released Mega Man 9 and 10 within the last few years, which tickles me to no end.

So we only borrowed the first one so we never had it. Thats probably ok since it was pretty dang hard even for mega man standards. In fact, we never had Mega Man 2 back in the day. But... in the year of 20XX the series kicked into full gear and we borrowed that one a ton! A pinnacle in 8 bit music, and difficult but conquerable gameplay, Mega Man 2 stands as one of the greatest games of all time. The dragon (video was on easy mode...lame) at the end of the first Dr Wiley stage caused much frustration and elation when defeated.

We actually had Mega Man 3 and 4 when they came out. Both excellent games, building on the foundation of 2. Recently I got the Mega Man collection for Gamecube (playable on Wii) that has 1-8 on it. Its a party.

And as I mentioned, the 9 and 10 just came out. Heres to many more from the blue bomber.

-Fun fact, Mega Man is Rockman in Japan.

-fun music videos

Also Mega Man 9 remix rocks!

So i might as well get to it eh? (Nintendo: part 1, the France days)

Well, as in the battle of any format such as VHS vs Beta, Sega vs Super Nintendo, Blu Ray vs HD DVD etc... content is king. So like the early days of those battles, imma jumpstart the blog with heaps of content. Now the beginning is a very good place to start and its only fitting that I commence with Super Mario Brothers since came out this day 25 years ago. Before there was Mario, i did not know video games (well i was only 6 months old anyways). Before our family got a Nintendo I suppose we had some computer games (the topic of another post) but we didn't have Atari. So the real genesis of games came when my family lived in the south of France. I really don't know how or why, but my theory is that Grandma Betty sent it on my folks request (and $). As i was a wee young lad, i don't remember the occasion, but soon enough, it became a part of me. Its a well known fact among my family that I called it Onintendo since i wanted it "On". We didn't have too many games for a while, but the ones we had ended up being some of the great classics. We had the triple game with the aforementioned Super Mario Bros. , Duck Hunt, and Track & Field. We also had Excitebike, Tetris, Jaws, and Castlevania 2:Simon's quest. Many a hours were spent with these games, even my sister and my dad got into Tetris. But my main game buddy was my brother Matt. In fact, he still is since we are going to beat Reach tomorrow :D Though not classic by others, "Jaws" was one that we always played. In fact, in one of Matt's famous tall tales, he told me that Jaws 2 was coming out and that it would have Hammerhead sharks! He would always have some kind what is now referred to as "Fan Fiction" about our games. This of course I took as reality.

Anyways, i don't remember much of France...mainly just moods, atmospheres and smells. But alas, those games have been with me ever since then. I just packed up all of them and they will be displayed prominently in my new apartment in Palo Alto. Almost all of them are operational unlike some other systems. And oh yes, they will be played on my 50 inch with 7.1 surround.

So thats my first real post. I hope its over the top enough for ya.

Welcome to Medieval Times!

Welcome to Medieval times!

So after the wonderful experiences with the VIP's of 203 and the Reachin for Peaches blogs/, it has become necessary to branch off and bloom on my own with this very special blog. Its almost a metaphor for me moving off on my own. But only "almost" as it will mostly focus on the past and pending. Which is to say the media i grew up on. Rather than writing of important stuff like how my career took off and how Zooey Deschanel and I finally got together, i'm gonna focus on the different periods of video games, movies and music. In a way these things have affected my life way more than they probably should have, so as such, this is kind of my journal for the subject matter that doesn't matter but really does matter since they shaped me into who i am today. So as a journal of sorts, the purpose is to give the reader insights into the mind of a friend. But more importantly, it will be a place to whine over whether Mega Man 2 or Mega Man 3 (totally 2) is the better game, and discuss the tragedy of the Sega Dreamcast, the triumph of the common man in Pete and Pete, as well as grapple with such tough issues as whether The Bends is better than OK Computer (hint: it is). And thus it begins...