Gaming Retrospective (Part 4)

Shortly after getting the Game Boy Color (or perhaps before - my memory is extremely fuzzy on this point), my family also got a Nintendo 64 (OH MY GOOOOD). Now that I think about it, it was probably the fall before we got the Game Boy Color - so, Fall 2000. Anyway, it was very late in the N64's lifespan, so we were able to buy it pretty cheaply. My brother and I had saved up money together for it, and we each got to pick out a game to go with the system. My brother's choice was Bio Freaks, a pretty crappy Mortal Kombat ripoff (but it was made by Midway, so I don't know why it wasn't just another installment of Mortal Kombat). My pick was the complete opposite - Kirby 64. In retrospect, Kirby was a great first N64 game because of the 2D controls - it helped ease me into 3D gaming and the insanity that is the N64 controller.

The majority of our N64 games were rentals, not purchases - we didn't have much money to spare on gaming at this time. We picked up a few more games here and there, mostly lesser-known ones, while all the big names in N64 were rental-only, like Pokemon Stadium, Mario 64, Mario Kart, and the two Banjo-Kazooie games.

One day we visited our rental store to find they were offering a game I'd never seen before. It was called Paper Mario. Intrigued, we checked it out. And I could not stop playing. I had never played an RPG that wasn't Pokemon at this point, and Paper Mario's length and epic feel blew me away. We wound up keeping the game for nearly a week (you were supposed to return game rentals two days after paying) because I had to see the end, and I did. The whole thing was spectacular and cemented Paper Mario as one of my all-time favorite games. I love everything about it - the gameplay, the music, the art style, the dialogue, the atmosphere, it's all amazing and I love it to pieces.

In direct contrast to the N64 and Game Boy, we got right on the GBA train when that came out. Well, almost - my brother has a birthday in August, and we were going to give him a GBA with Super Mario Advance, but although we found the game, we didn't find the system! They were simply out of stock. Rather than hold onto Mario Advance until the system was available, my mom opted to return it. That Christmas we each got a GBA and a game: I got a white one with Mario Kart Super Circuit, and my brother got a purply see-through one with Earthworm Jim. Neither game made much of an impression on me, and it wasn't until Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire released that I really got into the GBA. The best times of the GBA's life for me were actually well after I'd replaced it with a DS, as a number of GBA games came into my possession for cheap as the system began to die out. Even as recently as 2010 I found new-to-me GBA games I liked, like Drill Dozer.

GB's Nintendo 64 Favorites:
Paper Mario
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Tooie
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Pokemon Stadium 1 and 2
Mario Kart 64
Super Mario 64
Space Station Silicon Valley

GB's Game Boy Advance Favorites:
Pokemon RSE
Pokemon FRLG
Final Fantasy I (Dawn of Souls)
Final Fantasy IV
Super Mario Advance series
Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland
Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
Metroid Zero Mission
WarioWare: Mega Microgames
Drill Dozer