A game A year: 1986 at 12:29 AM

 

The Cold War should have involved Sean Bean more often...

 So, another month, another installment of A Game a Year or...A.G.A.Y....if you MUST shorten it.

1986: While yo guys where listening to Burning Heart, I was probably badly trying to walk. So, yeah, I didn't to much gaming. I did however, maybe play a game from this year much later. Well, I remember it somewhat. It was called Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

A miner with a horn is a miracle indeed.

For those of you too young to remember, Alex Kidd, was Sega's earlier attempt at rivaling Mario for that platformer Mascot crown.  An apelike  boy with huge ears, he would go on to be replaced with  Sonic as Sega's mascot. But not before having a franchise that spanned multiple games. 

He's since been in Shenmue  as a toy, in a racing game, and in Celebrity Rehab.

My cousin Beto, who was recently killed, had a Master System, and had this and Ghostbusters(which never worked, no matter how much we begged him to try it.). I don't really recall being let play, but I do remember a boy,  Rock Paper and Scissors and colorful graphics.So, is Alex Kidd any good?

Well it's very HARD, that's what it is.  The controls are slightly slippery, so our Rice cake, Yen obsessed boy can fall right into a one hit kill. Yes, it's a one hit kill game. The game restarts you very close to your point of death, which you's think would be good, except if you respawn near a deadly frog.

The game is also heavilly dependent on money. Alex collects bags of Yen in order to buy items, some which turn stages entirely different.  A staged design for a fast motorcycle is no fun if you walk it. So you use your gigantic fist to open crates and rocks. But some crates hold a hooded figure that will hound Alex and kill him. So here lies a problem: the game makes you choose between grinding early to by items, or slogging later through a boring open field,

The graphics are very colorful. The Master System had nothing on  the N.E.S. in the graphics department. Hey, I bet they could make a great Bart vs the Space Mutants on that.

I didn't get very far. Hmm. Maybe Beto was on to something by not letting me play. Go with God, Man. Jump behind counters for safety away from gunfire in heaven...

Bonus round!

My choice of game for 1985 left a lot to be desired, so it's good I stumbled upon another obscure game from that year. You ever wonder why people make such a fuzz about Street Fighter 2? It's because before it, fighting game's used to be like this:

Konami's Galactic Warriors! Choose your robot!

Marvel vs Capcom 2's selection screen.

You're choices are strong robot, girl robot and pyramid transformer. The controls are simple: you have a laser, a telescopic punch, a regular punch and a block button. However, block is like seconds, man and then you have to push it again.. Is this "realistic"? I'm not qualified to say, as I'm not a martial arts robot. I will say, though once you learn to spam the telepunch, you're almost  a winner.

Music was nice, though. But , yeah, this game isn't getting it's characters made in M.U.G.E.N. for a reason.

A game A year: 1986 at 12:29 AM

 

The Cold War should have involved Sean Bean more often...

 So, another month, another installment of A Game a Year or...A.G.A.Y....if you MUST shorten it.

1986: While yo guys where listening to Burning Heart, I was probably badly trying to walk. So, yeah, I didn't to much gaming. I did however, maybe play a game from this year much later. Well, I remember it somewhat. It was called Alex Kidd in Miracle World.

A miner with a horn is a miracle indeed.

For those of you too young to remember, Alex Kidd, was Sega's earlier attempt at rivaling Mario for that platformer Mascot crown.  An apelike  boy with huge ears, he would go on to be replaced with  Sonic as Sega's mascot. But not before having a franchise that spanned multiple games. 

He's since been in Shenmue  as a toy, in a racing game, and in Celebrity Rehab.

A game a year: 1985 at 5:47 AM

It was a weird year for makeup.

 
I was born 25 years ago. I started playing videogames at about age 4-5 I believe. As such, I believe it would help me understand my lifelong obsession if I play, or at least reminisce about, a game from each year of life I had.

The year was 1985. A new comic strip is created whose ingenuity and creative writing will inspire thousands to paint peeing boys in their vehicles,  French secret agents sink  a ship out of homophobic hate, and a little game system known as the Nintendo entertainment system was released.

This is the year I was born in, and needless to say I was way to young to buy the N.E.S. let alone play it. My first console was an Atari, so needless to say,  I wasn't exactly the trendiest kid in the, er...rural area.

The only games I can  find where released in the year where Tetris, Super Mario Bros, and Duckhunt, and I didn't have or rent the first 2. Let's go with Super Mario. Nobody's ever written about that!

And wow, has the platformer genre changed a lot since then. Mario's movements are slightly sluggish, and without much of his ability to back out on his jumps, each leap across a chasm could dangerously overshoot. It is a fun game. I just think it's funner if you're Megaman.

What else can I say about the genre/franchise/console launcher? It's a fun little game, but wake me up when they invent having more than one power up. I still prefer the (fake) second one and the third one.

A game a year: 1985 at 5:47 AM

It was a weird year for makeup.

 
I was born 25 years ago. I started playing videogames at about age 4-5 I believe. As such, I believe it would help me understand my lifelong obsession if I play, or at least reminisce about, a game from each year of life I had.

The year was 1985. A new comic strip is created whose ingenuity and creative writing will inspire thousands to paint peeing boys in their vehicles,  French secret agents sink  a ship out of homophobic hate, and a little game system known as the Nintendo entertainment system was released.

This is the year I was born in, and needless to say I was way to young to buy the N.E.S. let alone play it. My first console was an Atari, so needless to say,  I wasn't exactly the trendiest kid in the, er...rural area.

The only games I can  find where released in the year where Tetris, Super Mario Bros, and Duckhunt, and I didn't have or rent the first 2. Let's go with Super Mario. Nobody's ever written about that!

And wow, has the platformer genre changed a lot since then. Mario's movements are slightly sluggish, and without much of his ability to back out on his jumps, each leap across a chasm could dangerously overshoot. It is a fun game. I just think it's funner if you're Megaman.

What else can I say about the genre/franchise/console launcher? It's a fun little game, but wake me up when they invent having more than one power up. I still prefer the (fake) second one and the third one.