7 Likes
The final bit was actually the easiest I thought - like they gave you a quick, easy puzzle to solve as it’d been so tought getting there.
The bit where you’re running around as a three-headed beast trying to dodge purple tentacle took some working out though. Very similar to the end of Monkey Island 2 when LeChuck keeps randomly turning up!
1 Like
This had me enraged on my last playthrough
3 Likes
The witch in Granny’s Garden gave me nightmares for weeks.
Chuckie Egg was fabulous.
3 Likes
Secret of Mana on the SNES immediately springs to mind, really hard to find in the shops so it meant all the more when I finally got it, first time I’d ever played an rpg and was fairly stunned at how involved it was, I remember being so emotionally invested, absolutely in bits at the ending.
Really fond memories of Super Mario 3 and hopping about in the frog suit too.
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Gaming for me started on the Atari 2600 when I was a kid with Big Bird’s Egg Catch & Cookie Monster Munch (which made me cry when the cookie monster ate all the cookies. Why didn’t he share them?!?)
My older brother had a ZX Spectrum so I got to experience one of the greatest games ever made in Chaos: Battle Of The Wizards…such a tight little turn based strategy game with lots of cool spells and a bluffing/illusion mechanic.
Eventually he got a 486 PC so I got to be there for seminal moments like Doom & Warcraft. Easy to forget now but Doom 1993 was scary as shit at the time, all those growling monsters in the dark and the visceral guts when they exploded…probably shouldn’t have been playing that at 6-7 years old but oh well.
We got a Mega Drive in the early 90s so my first taste of JRPGs were the wonderful SHining Force 2 & Landstalker. Both had incredible soundtracks by this lad:
Incredible mix of jazzy prog influences that really drew you in to the game. Remarkable how much better the music in Japanese games was compared to Western titles of the day, worlds apart in terms of composition and instrument choices.
Like so many other people in the late 90s we got a playstation and I have so many vivid memories of that time and that console, was my gaming golden age tbh. Strong memories of trying to beat my brothers on Tekken 2, I remember being blown away when he told me that Lee had an INFINITE KICK! Like what, how is that possible? He must be superhuman!
Not much to look at now but at the time it was such a huge step up from stuff like Street Fighter 2 and Battle Arena Toshinden, honestly felt like the future was here.
I got FFVII on christmas day in 1997 and it became and remained my favourite game. Some of the sheen has been taken off by the endless fanboyism, remakes and spinoffs but the charm and open hearted wonder is still there in the original, and the soundtrack of course is seared into my brain.
Just have to give a shoutout to the insane work Squaresoft did with Vagrant Story. Unbelievable what they pulled off on the PS1 in terms of lighting, art direction & cinematography. Just a gorgeous game dripping with atmosphere.
That’s a brief tour of my childhood gaming history I guess, so many wonderful memories.
Honourable mentions to: Micro Machines, Master of Magic, Bushido Blade, Tenchu: Stealth Assassin, Soulblade, Ultima VII, Dune 2, Theme Park, Diablo, Streets of Rage 2 & others.
7 Likes
Does anyone remember Advent? Text adventure game. I never managed to finish it but I tried playing it recently and oh my god, i couldn’t get anywhere at all with it
Big fan of all the old point and clicks mentioned above as well as these:
The Settlers games
All the Dizzy games
5 Likes
text adventures always seemed crazy hard and obscure, I’m amazed anyone had the patience and concentration to finish any of them
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I used to click my cursor onto the pig farms in Settlers just because of the noise they would make
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I’m not sure that ‘love’ is the right word, but…
Martello Tower
It was a great game but looking back I wonder if 13 year old me was a little too concerned with getting the perfect infrastructure for my pig farm to adequately feed my coal miners.
I love it when parents do this kind of thing, like they’re Hal in Malcolm In The Middle.
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So many hourse playing this with/against my brother.
Playing this with the cheats on because it was solid.
I remember writing down level gen codes for each other when we created a good one with loads of bridges.
7 Likes
Turrican 2 - holds up very well
There is argument that everyone else should have given up after Super Mario 3. It remains perfect.
Imagine that on my death bed, able to move only my thumbs and my eyes, I will still fancy giving FFVII one last run through on the way out. Might not bother with the choccobo racing that time tho.
6 Likes
It’s Descent
Lots of mine already mentioned like Dizzy, Sonic 1 and 2, etc but here are a few of mine:
Paperboy on the C64
Spent more time trying to get the cassette to load than actually playing it, but I loved it
Space Harrier II on Mega Drive
Imagine being about 5 or 6 and seeing that. Fucking hell
PGA Golf Tour II on Mega Drive
This was the family entertainment when nothing was on the telly. I have such fond memories of it 
Golden Axe II on Mega Drive
Nuff said.
California Games on Mega Drive
Was hopeless at every single game (esp surfing) but I still wanted to be the roller skater when I grew up
6 Likes
I lost months of my life playing SWOS on the Amiga
Also remember spending hours on holiday as a kid in some caravan park arcade pumping 50p’s into this
4 Likes
The arcade version of Paperboy is the best - used to have a MAME emulator with that - but just about every port of it is really playable - even the Spectrum one was great, just the sprites were a bit odd-looking.