Origins of a Gamer 02:01:10: Week Two – Enter the Console

Posted by Chris Crowing on 02.01.2010

This week our intrepid Gamer’s evolution passes into the Console Era, with salient appearances from Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario, Tetris, Duck Hunt, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter…



Failte,

This week I'll be talking about the second stage of my evolution as a gamer, moving on from my initial home computers and into the age of the consoles. But first…

COMING SOON - 411 Deathmatch Championship

I'm still looking for contenders to be crowned 411 Mania's most beloved Games, Game Character and Game Franchise in the upcoming 411 Mania Deathmatch Championship!

So, if you've got an opinion on whether World of Warcraft or Halo 3 are the defining games of the noughties, whether Sonic is a better character than Mario, or whether FIFA Football is better than Pro Evolution Soccer, don't miss this opportunity to nominate YOUR favourites – so get involved and make your top ten picks in each category known in the comments, like so...


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Origin of a Gamer: Week Two – Enter the Console

When I was of an age, my first console was a Sega MegaDrive which came with the obligatory Sonic the Hedgehog. I am of the opinion that Sonic is one of the greatest games, franchises and characters in the history of gaming. For one thing, he looks cooler than the other side of the pillow, with his knowing expression, electric blue hairstyle and bright red running shoes. However the most important thing is the simple, addictive and endlessly engaging game-play of the original series…

Go from left to right as FAST as possible, avoiding and killing enemies and grabbing rings. Kill bosses by jumping on them repeatedly and avoiding their implausible weapons.



Throw in the catchy soundtrack and the trippy-as-hell bonus levels and Sonic had a perfect balance for addictive, habit-forming gaming. If ever there was a point in my life where my computer based pastime went from playing games to pass the time to Gaming as an end in itself it was right here…

Through a series of judicious swaps with my cousins, I possessed (at some point or another) Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles and every single one of these games was gold, but I have to say that Sonic 2 is probably the very best.

Of course, there was more to the MegaDrive than Sonic, and the game which jumps most readily to the memory was of course Mortal Kombat. A games franchise which has spawned numerous sequels, movie spins offs and all that wonderful merchandising stuff isn't to be taken lightly and although many people prefer the Street Fighter, Tekken and Virtua Fighter series, for me it is Mortal Kombat which has the emotional and nostalgic appeal (while I'll admit the other games probably have the better gameplay.)

The darker setting seemed more in keeping with the time – this was the 90s after all, and Street Fighter's day-glo 80s aesthetic just wasn't as appealing to me. Even better, this game had a variety of masked ninja's each with their own signature moves. Which do you prefer, Sub Zero's ice attacks or Scorpion's ‘get back here' move – and that's before we even start talking about Smoke or Reptile…



I remember the various sequels started adding increasing silly variations on the awesome ‘fatality' moves, with babalities and animalities making an appearance. I remember wondering out loud at one point in high school why they didn't call animalities ‘bestialities' instead, because that sounded so much cooler. Think it through…

I had a pile of other games for my Megadrive which made much less of an impact including Mega Bomberman, Mario Lemieux Ice Hockey and Batman Returns.

Taking the place of F-19 Stealth Fighter to some degree was Urban Strike where I spent hours flying over jungles and such, launching rockets at and callously machine gunning some generic foreign soldiers. I'd like to say that such things have become passe given the march of peace and our civilisation's unstoppable drive towards ascendancy, but as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 shows us, this is NOT the case...



I had my first experience with a football (soccer) game on the Megadrive, with the most outdated Italia 90 being my first - it remains a classic example of computer-controlled goalkeepers having no consistency by one minute pulling off physically impossible saves, and then allowing the most speculative shot to sail into the net.



Later I would have Fifa 95 which would be the last game I would buy for the MegaDrive before it was replaced by the PSX. Given my love for football and the real-world license, the Fifa games would become an annual obsession...

I also had a Nintendo GameBoy, although I never got as much play out of it as I might have done. The only game I had for the GameBoy which really made an impact was the classic and ubiquitous Tetris.

IMHO it's an almost perfect game, and I've had a version of Tetris for my last three or four mobile phones. There is simply nothing better for soaking up time, and the game has a near-religiously habit forming effect as you strive to beat your high score...

I never had a NES or a SNES, but I did have friends who did and I spent many hours playing Duck Hunt...



Super Mario World...



and the legendary Street Fighter 2.



HADOUKEN! - Had to be done, sorry. I'm really annoyed that word was effectively taken as a name by a band of unabashed crap emo-ness.

I always thought Ryu was an awesome character (a name that means both Dragon and Discipline in Japanese, that's just COOL) and I'm currently intending on going out for Halloween dressed as Ken (cheap effective costume, with serious geek points...) so I guess you could say Street Fighter made a real impact on me, despite the comparative lack of gaming time.

That said, for me the MegaDrive was the big winner in the first incarnation of the Console Wars - I know that many will disagree with me, and I'll admit that the SNES had the better titles and was a better system overall, but a MegaDrive is what I HAD and that counts for a lot when you are fourteen...

Come back next week when I'll be pushing the timeframe forward to the era of the PlayStation and it's



@ el pieablo - YES, I had Robocop and it was briefly one of my favourite games, before I realised how terrible it was. I mean, using MILK as a power-up, how 80s is that. Except that it was the 80s, so I guess that should be OK, erm….



@ Steve H - Thanks for the props man, hope you enjoyed this week!

That's all I've got this week, thanks for dropping by!

Slainte,
Chris Crowing

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