Am I a retro Gamer?

That was a question that was asked to the at the buzzer crew on our last episode in our opening segment. All of us agreed that for the most part, we enjoyed retro games, and would like to play them all again from time to time. We enjoy the new but cherish the past. Which, in my opinion, is a pretty good way to live life overall!

However, this got me to thinking, what are some of my favorite retro games. Basically, I would classify these games as ones that aren’t always universally acclaimed. They’re ones that we got maybe as a gift from a grandparent that had no idea what a game was and saw a cute picture on the front of the box, maybe they’re the game that you got as a kid that you just thought was awesome for one reason or another. I can think of two of these that stand out in particular for me. Specifically, these games were not on our top 25 games of all time, nor were they even on our top 100. No, these are games that I like and probably have a bit of a cult status:

Ecco the Dolphin – Also known as probably the hardest game of all time. To this day, despite the fact that I owned a Sega Genesis as a kid, and downloaded Ecco the day it came out for the Wii Virtual Console, I have not gotten past the 4th level. That’s right, a game that

came out in 1994, with a ton of kids playing it and most likely beating it, I still haven’t. It’s a crazy game from start to finish. Ecco jumps around like a happy dolphin does, and somehow blows his entire family right out of the water. On the way to recover them, he finds an alien conspiracy, where the aliens steal ocean life in order to sustain themselves. Ecco has to then travel back in time to when the aliens first came to Earth to stop them from harvesting ocean life. Really, it’s the marine version of Independence Day, with Ecco starring as Will Smith.
Ecco is one of those games that I like for odd reasons. Mostly, because as un-manly as it is, I really like dolphins. I’ve always wanted to swim with them in Sea World and I’ve always thought they were one of the most unique animals I’d ever seen. Not to mention that the one time that I actually saw a dolphin in real life, it spit in my face and swam away. I’d like to think that Ecco is a little more friendly, and wouldn’t spit in my face.

Much like the original Super Mario Brothers, I vow to beat this game one day. It’s too old and I’ve played the first level way too many times to not beat it.

Earthbound – Earthbound is a game that I think is a little more popular than Ecco, but still isn’t very widely known. My best man Andy swears that this is one of his favorite games of all time, and the pure hilarity of some of the characters makes me agree with him.

Earthbound is different from most RPGs because it feels like it takes place in Anytown, USA with kids that could be your neighbors.

Well..that is if your neighbors were kids with psychic powers. Since the setting of your adventure is in a town, and not a forest or a faraway land forest, the enemies are the “new age retro hippie” or the “Unassuming local man.” The money in this game isn’t anything made up like simoleans or gil, nope, its just plain old $$$. The items in this game are items that I actually feel like I would need on an adventure. For example, instead of a mystic potion to restore my HP, I get a hamburger. To heal a status ailment, I get a toothbrush to clean away the bad.

I feel like Earthbound was one of those RPGs that you played in order to break the monotony of the medieval setting of all other RPGs. I mean, how often can you get the magical sword of alakazam in order to defeat the final dragon and rescue the princess at the end of the game? No, I feel like taking Ness and Poo out on an adventure with only their fists and Ness’ trusty Yo-Yo to defend them.

Every once in a while games of the past get better with age. As I pop in these games again from time to time, I learn that nostalgia can be a great thing. Don’t take this the wrong way, I love when a new game comes out and truly blows my socks off. I felt that Zelda’s Skyward Sword, Mass Effect and Heavy Rain for example. There have been a lot of games over the past few years, and some of them slip through the cracks. But the best part is, as I keep getting older, they keep staying the same age!