Emulation...?

Hey everyone, just thought I'd make a quick update about what games I've been playing recently and all that.

For a bit of time now, I've generally been playing games in 2 distinct groups. Part of my time has been dedicated to what I call "home games," basically anything I can play on Wii U/3DS/XBox; games that are relatively recent. And then there's "computer games," or... basically, emulation. I tend to play these throughout the week. At school, at home while procrastinating doing homework... You get the idea.

Now, before you jump on me for *gasp* emulating (if that's what you were going to do)... let me clear something up first.

I started using emulators on my MacBook back when I wanted to play Link's Awakening, sometime after beating Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask for the first time. At the time, I didn't have a 3DS, so I didn't have any reasonable way to play the game outside of emulating it. That being said, I now own the game, as well as a 3DS, so that's all cleared up.

Anyway, being a (relatively) young gamer, I clearly missed a whole lot of games from the NES/SNES/N64/PS1 era. Almost all of the games on my "to emulate" list (yes, that's an actual thing) are older games that I missed out on. Often, I'll even buy the game legitimately once I have enough money. Not that this completely justifies it, but I'm not exactly willing to pay 5-10 dollars for 50+ retro games that I could easily just play for free on my computer. Sorry if it sounds blunt, but it's true. I know it's not entirely ethical, but in my mind, I've given enough money to gaming in my life that I don't exactly feel too guilty emulating some older games.

Anyway, defensive rant aside, I just wanted to make this post about my endeavors into older games and whatnot that I've been playing on my computer, as well as what my to play list consists of. I know, it sounds nerdy and somewhat ridiculous, but I just wanted to get my records on paper. Virtual paper. On my blog. Something to look back on in 20 years and think, "Wow. I spent a lot of time playing games."

So, that aside, let's get started.

I believe, after emulating the first 4 Zelda games, I started with Super Mario Bros. I played through SMB 1-3, as well as Lost Levels (with heavy use of save states, I might add), before coming up with a definite list as to which games I wanted to play. But, being me, I had to make an organized list where I could write down all the games I wanted to play sometime in the future. Over the course of a few months, I managed to create a list about 100 games long. After looking at it, I don't really plan to finish the list for another 5 years or so. Kind of like a long-term plan for what I want to do with my life.

Heh. (I'm joking, I swear)

Anyway, I moved on to Super Mario World for the SNES, and in that time I also beat Mega Man 1 and 2, also with heavy use of save states. Those games are hard. Although, I'm proud to say that I've now gone back and beaten both 1 & 2 without save states on my 3DS. See? I told you I bought some games. I'm not an entirely bad gamer.

After SMW and MM1-2, I ended up physically typing down my list so I could glance at it whenever. As a matter of fact, here's a picture:

Not that I expect that to make sense to everyone. I used a lot of abbreviations just to make it all fit vertically on my screen...

Anyway, I enjoyed the first 4 Mario games. 1 and Lost Levels (I played the Japanese Famicom version, so technically SMB2) were really similar, and the latter was incredibly unforgiving. Super Mario Bros. 2 (International one) was very different, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. And Super Mario Bros. 3 was a blast. I didn't realize all it introduced to the series, and it started a lot of traditions. And then I loved Super Mario World. It felt like an upgraded SMB3, and improved in almost every way.

Mega Man 1 was alright, although incredibly difficult. Mega Man 2 was much better. Still difficult.

Anyway, I proceeded to play through Mega Mans (Men?) 3-6, in coordination with SMW2: Yoshi's Island and the Super Mario Land series for Gameboy.

Yoshi's Island was better than I was expecting. I adored the graphics and music, and the gameplay was a nice change of pace. The final boss is definitely one of my favorite bosses in any Mario game. The only thing it was lacking was an overworld. They could have easily done something like in Super Mario World for an overworld to make the game better, but that's alright. It was a whole lot of fun nonetheless.

Mega Man 3 I felt was a bit of a step down from 2. Even a glance at the title sequence shows how much less detail there was put into the game:

MM2

MM3

That being said, the music was incredible. Mega Man 4 was a bit better than 3, but still wasn't outstanding. It was also around this point that all the games started to blur together. And then, I know this is a very unpopular opinion, but 5 is actually my favorite out of the original series. I loved the story and the whole plot twist in the intro, and the robot masters were pretty cool too. I also loved 6 (specifically the level design).

Again, I'm judging these games as if they were all released at once. I'm sure if I played them as they came out back in the day, my opinions would be different. 6 wasn't all that different from 1 or 2.


Alright, Mega Man aside, let's go back to Mario. Sorry if this is getting repetitive, haha. I'm just trying to cover all the games I've played up to this point.

Super Mario Land, by the way, was one of the very first games for the original black-and-white Gameboy. It was very short and very easy, but it was still fun. I beat it in one sitting, in about an hour and a half. Super Mario Land 2, on the other hand, was incredible. It had a killer overworld, awesome levels, much better graphics, was much longer, and it introduced Wario. Pretty impressive for a black and white Gameboy game.

Now, here is where the Super Mario Land series kind of turned into the Wario Land series. Super Mario Land 3 is subtitled Wario Land, which then spawned an entire series. For now, I'll just call it Wario Land. Wario Land felt a lot like Super Mario Land 2, but this time, Wario was the main character. It had a similar (but somewhat improved) overworld, and similar gameplay. However, Wario used hats as powerups instead of mushrooms and fire flowers. The game also introduced the concept of treasure found in other Wario Land games.


For the sake of brevity, I think I'm going to end this here. I don't want this post to get too long and monotonous, haha. I'll follow this up with a part 2, and I'll cover the games up to where I currently am in the list (playing Final Fantasy 2 and Mega Man 8). It shouldn't be too long before I get that post up, so let's all hope that I don't succumb to procrastination as usual.

Thanks again for reading, and I'll see you next time!