Before I drone on about the 'good ole days' of 1990's fighting games, I think its important to put that time into perspective, and also share just a bit about myself.
I really don't remember a whole lot about the 90's. Clinton was president through most it, terrorism was starting to become a buzzword, sitcoms like Friends ruined television, movies like Jurassic Park gave us a look at what kind of hollow entertainment we could all get out great special effects.
I was growing up in a family that was separating and my mother suddenly had me to raise by herself. Ask any single mother and she'll tell you its hard work, even more so when your son is around 10 years old. I needed something to do at that age that could shut me up, or at least get me out of her hair as she worked 2 jobs PLUS did college. She did what any mom would do, she bought me a Super Nintendo (or the SNES).
The only system I owned prior to the SNES was the Nintendo GameBoy. The Gameboy was and still is an unexpectedly cool, successful system, but in those days that thing was just a toy. My friends in my neighborhood all owned the Sega Genesis and Sega Game Gears that looked WAY cooler that my little toy with 2 buttons, a green and black screen and a horrible penchant for eating 4 AA's in about 3 hours.
The SNES looked pretty tame on the outside, a gray box with purple and lavender buttons that made it look like something Richard Simmonds would throw at you when angered. The SNES was truly better on the inside, its games sounded better then the Genesis, its games also looked way better too. For a 16 bit system it was shocking to see Nintendo have the same processing power of its competitor, and yet make games that looked and played twice as good. 16 bits was big in these days and game companies were determined to squeeze as much out of those 16 bits as possible, but to be honest I as well as most of the 10-16 year old gaming community had no clue what '16 bits' really meant (truthfully, I still don't know).
Another plus was that the SNES produced arcade games that I loved and dump my allowance quarters into like Street Fighter 2 and the eventual Mortal Kombat. The difference between the Genesis and the SNES really began to show when these arcade translations because SNES versions ROCKED! For example, the Genesis only had 3 buttons on its controller, making SF2 impossible to play. It was and even bigger pain in the ass to play Mortal Kombat on the Genesis. The SNES gave us all the versatility of the arcade and almost perfect graphics to boot.
The Genesis wasn't ALL bad. The Genesis had good games as well. I always thought of the Sega Genesis as the game system for grown-ups. The first Mortal Kombat really looked like shit on the Genesis but it sold way better than the SNES version. Why? Because the Genesis kept all the blood and gore in the game (via the blood code) The SNES version of Mortal Kombat suffered from censorship and it was because the folks at Nintendo didn't want to cross anyone seeing how the SNES was owned mainly by a younger crowd.
Hope was in the air for Nintendo however, Mortal Kombat 2 arrived and gave us ALL that carnage that we young gore-hungry gamers begged for, money or Nintendo that was lost from MK1 was paid back in full red glory. MK2 on the SNES made me feel like I was in the arcade. No codes, no modified fatalities, no BS, just the fun that cost nearly $59.99 to play. I might be wrong on that price but I remember when games were expensive enough to make me a blockbuster customer quite often.
Remember game carts? bloody hell, I sure do. These things were good but only for about a year. Constant removal of these cartridges would wear at the electric contacts, thus giving us gaming experiences that would freeze up or go blank. I can remember going nearly faint because I to blow like a hurricane into certain carts just to get a game to work (which is a trick that game manuals advise you NEVER to do, but we all did anyways). The cost of these things wasn't easy to swallow either, about 50 a pop. Some games would go on clearance back then (because they were games that sucked) and you could find them at the bottom of a rack at Wal-marts, and nowadays they are practically free on e bay or thrift stores, but when the only viable medium is a buggy gray cart that went dead after a year of serious playing, you settle for it and blow like hell into the cart until the games' start menu looks right. I still giggle when I think bad on that, I almost blew blood vessels trying to get Contra: Alien Wars to work.
At one point in my life as a youngster I owned a Gameboy, a SNES and even a Genesis, and like the idiot I was, I sold ALL of those just to buy a Playstation one (which was my last system i ever bought and now I don't own anymore). But in these days of Roms and emulation, I rediscovered all the classics I used to love. I loved the fighting games, I loved the Beat-em-ups, and the shooters always are a treat of nostalgia coolness. Remember only seeing the ONE side of a character? That was all that was needed in those days, and damn was it fun.
These days video gaming really just sucks in my opinion (MY OPINION). Games are too long, the controller has about 10 buttons, the games are too complicated, and they seem like a lot of WORK and no FUN. Games lately have no good versus evil, its just evil versus even worse. I like Grand Theft Auto, but honestly its not much of a game, its just a criminal simulator. Running over hookers in a stolen car and taking her money to buy a machine gun so you can kill a zombie sounds like the premise to a shitty horror flick and many video games are following that formula. It wouldn't shock me to see what happened to the industry back in 1983-84* happen again today as a result of this kind of this dull monotony. If it does happen, it'll really suck because the industry is currently trying to get us to buy a game system for $700, and if game developers can't come up with games that are truly fun again, then you might be owning a $700 DVD player.
I'll stick to the classics that never bored me and are uncomplicated. If you, the reader, feel the same, then stay tuned because I'll be writing often about the classics of the 16 bit era, before those games became garage sale fodder.
*look up video games and 1983-84 on a search engine and you'll know what I'm referring to.
I was growing up in a family that was separating and my mother suddenly had me to raise by herself. Ask any single mother and she'll tell you its hard work, even more so when your son is around 10 years old. I needed something to do at that age that could shut me up, or at least get me out of her hair as she worked 2 jobs PLUS did college. She did what any mom would do, she bought me a Super Nintendo (or the SNES).
The only system I owned prior to the SNES was the Nintendo GameBoy. The Gameboy was and still is an unexpectedly cool, successful system, but in those days that thing was just a toy. My friends in my neighborhood all owned the Sega Genesis and Sega Game Gears that looked WAY cooler that my little toy with 2 buttons, a green and black screen and a horrible penchant for eating 4 AA's in about 3 hours.
The SNES looked pretty tame on the outside, a gray box with purple and lavender buttons that made it look like something Richard Simmonds would throw at you when angered. The SNES was truly better on the inside, its games sounded better then the Genesis, its games also looked way better too. For a 16 bit system it was shocking to see Nintendo have the same processing power of its competitor, and yet make games that looked and played twice as good. 16 bits was big in these days and game companies were determined to squeeze as much out of those 16 bits as possible, but to be honest I as well as most of the 10-16 year old gaming community had no clue what '16 bits' really meant (truthfully, I still don't know).
Another plus was that the SNES produced arcade games that I loved and dump my allowance quarters into like Street Fighter 2 and the eventual Mortal Kombat. The difference between the Genesis and the SNES really began to show when these arcade translations because SNES versions ROCKED! For example, the Genesis only had 3 buttons on its controller, making SF2 impossible to play. It was and even bigger pain in the ass to play Mortal Kombat on the Genesis. The SNES gave us all the versatility of the arcade and almost perfect graphics to boot.
The Genesis wasn't ALL bad. The Genesis had good games as well. I always thought of the Sega Genesis as the game system for grown-ups. The first Mortal Kombat really looked like shit on the Genesis but it sold way better than the SNES version. Why? Because the Genesis kept all the blood and gore in the game (via the blood code) The SNES version of Mortal Kombat suffered from censorship and it was because the folks at Nintendo didn't want to cross anyone seeing how the SNES was owned mainly by a younger crowd.
Hope was in the air for Nintendo however, Mortal Kombat 2 arrived and gave us ALL that carnage that we young gore-hungry gamers begged for, money or Nintendo that was lost from MK1 was paid back in full red glory. MK2 on the SNES made me feel like I was in the arcade. No codes, no modified fatalities, no BS, just the fun that cost nearly $59.99 to play. I might be wrong on that price but I remember when games were expensive enough to make me a blockbuster customer quite often.
Remember game carts? bloody hell, I sure do. These things were good but only for about a year. Constant removal of these cartridges would wear at the electric contacts, thus giving us gaming experiences that would freeze up or go blank. I can remember going nearly faint because I to blow like a hurricane into certain carts just to get a game to work (which is a trick that game manuals advise you NEVER to do, but we all did anyways). The cost of these things wasn't easy to swallow either, about 50 a pop. Some games would go on clearance back then (because they were games that sucked) and you could find them at the bottom of a rack at Wal-marts, and nowadays they are practically free on e bay or thrift stores, but when the only viable medium is a buggy gray cart that went dead after a year of serious playing, you settle for it and blow like hell into the cart until the games' start menu looks right. I still giggle when I think bad on that, I almost blew blood vessels trying to get Contra: Alien Wars to work.
At one point in my life as a youngster I owned a Gameboy, a SNES and even a Genesis, and like the idiot I was, I sold ALL of those just to buy a Playstation one (which was my last system i ever bought and now I don't own anymore). But in these days of Roms and emulation, I rediscovered all the classics I used to love. I loved the fighting games, I loved the Beat-em-ups, and the shooters always are a treat of nostalgia coolness. Remember only seeing the ONE side of a character? That was all that was needed in those days, and damn was it fun.
These days video gaming really just sucks in my opinion (MY OPINION). Games are too long, the controller has about 10 buttons, the games are too complicated, and they seem like a lot of WORK and no FUN. Games lately have no good versus evil, its just evil versus even worse. I like Grand Theft Auto, but honestly its not much of a game, its just a criminal simulator. Running over hookers in a stolen car and taking her money to buy a machine gun so you can kill a zombie sounds like the premise to a shitty horror flick and many video games are following that formula. It wouldn't shock me to see what happened to the industry back in 1983-84* happen again today as a result of this kind of this dull monotony. If it does happen, it'll really suck because the industry is currently trying to get us to buy a game system for $700, and if game developers can't come up with games that are truly fun again, then you might be owning a $700 DVD player.
I'll stick to the classics that never bored me and are uncomplicated. If you, the reader, feel the same, then stay tuned because I'll be writing often about the classics of the 16 bit era, before those games became garage sale fodder.
*look up video games and 1983-84 on a search engine and you'll know what I'm referring to.
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