A blast from the past #1

Back from the summer holidays (yes, it's summer in the southern hemisphere), batteries recharged and in a nostalgic/retrospective mood, I'm starting this series of posts that relate to (my) childhood.

We kick off with the best hand-held console ever to come out of Japan, the one, the only, the Game Boy 

Yes, it had a tiny screen. Yes, it didn't have colour. But you know what... WHO CARES??? We are talking (very) early '90s here, it was A W E S O M E and we loved it! Collectively I must have spent at least 2 years of my life (and Supreme Being knows how many batteries) playing something on the Game Boy. 

I've lost track of how many and which games I owned, so what follows are the ones that have been etched in memory. Plus, there was a huge Game Boy culture in Greece, so swapping games with friends was quite common, making it even more difficult to remember exactly all the games I've played. 

Here it goes...

(1) Fortress of Fear

The first game I bought (together with the actual Game Boy). Yes, I was already an epic fantasy geek. I don't care too much about what the Wiki article says on reception by the critics etc. I was ten, I didn't care. Oh, and the music of this game... the music...

(2) SML 2: 6 golden coins

The second game I bought (together with the Game Boy and FoF). Trivia: originally I wanted to buy Castelvania, but mum and/or dad said something along the lines of "two games with demons on the cover is too much (for your tender, innocent soul I might add)", so SML2 it was.

And I don't regret it really. SML2 was an amazing game. Quite large, quite challenging (for a ten year old), with imaginative levels such as Mario in space and Mario underwater, and of course it marked the debut of Wario.

(3) Raging Fighter

One of the two 2D versus fighting games I owned. Obviously, it was a blatant copy of Street Fighter, but again, WHO CARES? I have played this with the "Game Link", i.e. connecting two Game Boys and playing against a friend, which was more than enough. Plus, it included a sumo-like character named "Bulk". Priceless...

(4) Mortal Combat II

The other 2D versus fighting game I owned. This game requires no introductions and no explanations. It's the one with the fatalities. 'Nough said!

(5) Kung Fu master 

The Game Boy adaptation of the first beat 'em up game. A Bruce Lee-type of character beating the shit out of bad guys. Who needs more?

(6) Probotector 

Originally, this was released as Operation C or something daft like that in the US. Luckily, some very clever Europeans changed the human hero character to a manga-like robot and the human bad guys to alien bad guys. They also changed the meh cover of the US game, to the above cool cover, making the game 10 times better that in the US (ok, technically, the game didn't change, but you get my point).

(7) NBA - All Star Challenge 

Basketball, of course. While it did not reach the awesomeness levels of NBA Jam, still it gave you the opportunity to choose any two NBA stars (think original Dream Team) and play one-on-one style.

(8) Zelda - Link's Awakening

According to one guy "... best Game Boy game ever, an adventure so engrossing and epic..." And yes, it really was! If I could get my hands on a Game Boy now, this is the game I would choose to play. It had everything you want from a game, and then some. I could write an entire post just for this game. Probably, my all-time-favourite game.

Of course, during the years many other games passed from my Game Boy. Alas, memory does not serve me too well - I definitely remember playing Terminator 2, Kirby's Dream Land, Spider-Man, Duck Tales, Gargoyle's Quest, Home Alone 2 and The Hunt for Red October. And I did also get to play Castelvania, borrowed from a friend...

Part 2 will follow (at some point), devoted to either board games or tv series (in which case the one left out will become part 3) ...