Sloppy Potatoes

THE LIST: 5 Classic Video Games

If you don’t remember these games fondly, you’ve never played them. These are five games that I’ll always remember dragging me into this hobby. They are by no means my favorite games or the best games of all-time, though they are in the conversation on both counts.

The original NES Legend of Zelda and the Star Wars arcade cabinet at the amusement park didn’t make the list even though I have great memories wasting time on them.

Ms. Pac-Man: If I see an arcade cabinet with Ms. Pac-Man painted on it today I’m going to stop and drop a quarter or two in just to play it. I bought it when it became available on Xbox Live Arcade and also bought a classics compilation for my Game Boy Advance for this title and the next one on the list, Galaga. Ms. Pac-Man is better than it’s predecessor, Mr., by a bit in my opinion. I like the mazes, and the moving fruit bonuses.

Galaga: Pew! Pew! Pew! (Those are lasers… never mind). When I first played Galaga, it felt like a breakthrough game, like Space Invaders on steroids… if I knew what steroids were back then. The enemies enter in awesome set patterns then dive bomb at you, there are bonus rounds, but most importantly was the ability to upgrade my ship. What, let you steal my ship so I can get it back and have double the firepower? Yes please.

Tecmo Bowl: Bo Jackson. Those should be the only words necessary to remind people of how awesome this game was. It was the first game that said here, use real NFL players, and it’s arcade play was as fun as it was fast. Yeah, so the scores were ridiculous. I don’t care. I want to play this game again, right now, but it’s not available on any consoles currently. Neither are it’s awesome sequels, II, Tecmo Super Bowl (season stats? Yes!) and Super II.  Bring it back Tecmo… In fact bring them all back in sequence. And while you’re at it, dig up the code from Tecmo Baseball and Tecmo Wrestling.

Super Mario Bros.: Uh, this is the quintessential video game. It brought gaming, real gaming, into the home. Yes the Atari and Colecovision came first, but the NES, and this pack-in game ended the video game recession and ushered in a new era that led to the games we all love. This game is simple, you run, jump over obstacles and on top of bad guys to kill them. It sounds almost too simple to be fun, but it is incredibly fun. This title was packed with multiple kinds of power-up, enemies, bosses, warp zones, cheats and everything was so neatly packed in that my sister, a true non-gamer, played it until she saved the princess.

Metroid: Yes, Zelda and Metroid were out at about the same time and followed similar  play structures, but there was something about Metroid. Actually many things, including: the music, the setting, the graphics, the creatures and bosses and worlds, the Freeze Beam, Screw Attack, Hi-Jump Boots, collecting missiles five at a time, unlocking a new weapon, Metroids, Mother Brain and the end sequence where you have to scramble out of the planet before it explodes. It took me what seemed like forever to find my first missile pack, I remember my family was leaving to go swimming, but I said I had to write down the code first because “I think I just found something really important.” Little did I know I’d be writing down codes for months while I explored everything, eventually collecting 230 or so of the 255 available missiles. Then, of course, the big reveal: Samus Aran, the bounty hunter lead character, is actually a girl. No WAY!

What classic games got you into gaming? Leave a comment below.