The blink of an eye...

I have been all over the place since my last little entry. I have been having a sort of a revival of all things retro lately. I dusted off the SNES and tossed some money at tracking down a few games. Some I had owned previously. Some I have never played before. It was worth the money. There is something so honest about these games that have literally stood the test of time. I mean, the industry is so obsessed with the "new shiny". The next big title is obviously the best right? Well not so much. Oftentimes new titles are just the same old games with new levels (lookin' at you here Modern Warfare). Eventually, they become a bit blase. If I wanted to play the same game again, why shouldn't I just go play the same game again? I won't deny that there are some great set pieces in the MW titles and other games like them. Heck, the single-player campaign may even be good enough to warrant a purchase for plenty of people. But the multiplayer beast in me was put to rest a long time ago. Until somebody constructs a matchmaking system that puts me exclusively with other working stiffs I will always, ALWAYS be nailed by some 12-year-old kid with nothing to do after school other than wax newbs like me 5 seconds after I spawn. Right. So my multiplayer forays seem to consist entirely of more-or-less social gatherings with friends where I spend more time concentrating on conversations with them than on actually accomplishing any objective in-game. Or so I tell myself.

    But I digress. The SNES library I have put together is remarkable to me alone. I am sure some people would love to get their hands on some of my titles, but overall I would say it is nothing special. My favorite SNES game is Mega Man X and probably always will be. It is perfect in a way that other games wish they could be. The controls are tight. The level design is superb. The music is catchy. The bosses are a perfect complement to their levels and the game in a way that few other Mega Man games have had. The game itself has a nearly perfect difficulty curve, perhaps only just ramping up a notch on the Sigma stage bosses. But, like any other enemies and stages in the game, pattern recognition and experimentation will net you a victory. The entire game is an overall length that practically begs for a speed run. My time is not that great compared to people who do this every day, but there is still something beautiful about making a perfect jump, shooting an enemy in mid-air, and sticking the landing on a small platform that wasn't even on the screen when you jumped. I have Mega Man X2 and X3, but they lack the magic and energy of the first. I have Final Fantasy III (VI really) and it is excellent of course. I actually had a spare copy that I sold to a buddy not long ago. I have Mega Man 7 which is a very expensive game for whatever reason. I have never played it. I have Turtles in Time and Knights of the Round for when I want to get my brawler on. I have Mechwarrior for that moment that I want to blow crap up. I have various Street Fighter games for when I want technical fighters. And oh yeah, I have Chrono Trigger.

    The first time I played Chrono Trigger was on an emulator on my PC. I didn't play very far because I was using the keyboard for input and it totally sucked trying to play that way. I got as far as the first jump back in time and then I had had enough. When I played it on the SNES I was familiar with the opening level which has you running around a marketplace during a festival. I went through it and continued on the game. Well, eventually there is a part of the game where you are put on trial. The game was using things I had done during that initial level to try and convict me of a crime. These little things I had done in that level were being misconstrued to paint a picture of my character. "Look! He ate that old man's sandwich! What a monster!" Of course, I didn't get to say that the "sandwich" in question was just a blob of pixels that gave me a generic action prompt when I approached it. "He grabbed her necklace before he even helped her get up! Obviously he was only interested in her wealth!" I didn't get to explain that I had already played that part of the game before and I knew that if I talked to her first she would make me go find her necklace before I could progress in the story. So I ended up in jail. I am certain that landing in prison is the next part of the story. That no matter what I had done I would have ended up there. But I still wanted to start the game over and do it 'right' during that first level just to see what they would say about me then. It was such a slap in the face. Such a surprise. I know that games tell a story that is more or less rigid. Some games attempt to offer you the illusion of choice, but it really is just an illusion. It was pretty cool playing this game that is over 20 years old, that is still taking modern games to school.

    Also on my retro binge is my Netflixing. I have been watching this cool new reboot of Voltron and it is pretty awesome. The animation is great, the voice acting is spot on and there is a lot of humor thrown in to keep things light-hearted. Well, how seriously can you take a 150-foot tall robot that fights aliens? I also picked up a Thundercats reboot and it is wonderful. Right now, I bet myself a dollar that if I ever went back to watch the original Thundercats I would just hate it. I don't plan on ever trying to find out. The reboot, on the other hand, is great. I have been having a blast watching it with the ladies. We watched an episode yesterday where our intrepid heroes end up in a huge thicket. They meet a diminutive race of flower beings, one of whom is named Emmerich. He is a small child when they meet him. Well, it turns out this species grows old and dies in a single day. It was kind of a beautiful story that they told, and touching. You wouldn't expect to find that from the Thundercats, would you? Well, enough rambling from me for now.