Collection Additions Volume 9: Road Tripping in Search of Games

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. I apologize for the lengthy absence, it seems that life has caught up with me lately and I haven't had nearly as much time and motivation to write interesting things about games as I'd like to. However, that hasn't stopped me on my quest for ultimate video game collecting glory, and recently that very quest took me beyond the suburbs of my home on Long Island and into the great blue yonder in search of games high and low.

This adventure recently took me to Asbury Park, New Jersey, which is not only home to a very cool pinball museum/arcade, but also a fantastic little video game store called Kill Screen Games. They had a huge variety of retro games, consoles and accessories, and the second you put me in an establishment like that with a handful of money, I'm undoubtedly going to walk out with a pile of games. So what did I get? Let's have a look.

So here we have Zoop! for the Sega Genesis, Street Fighter II for the Super Famicom, China Warrior for the Turbo Grafx 16, and Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for the Nintendo 64.

Let's start off with the obvious here- Street Fighter II, which I believe needs no introduction. It's one of the greatest and most memorable fighting games ever made. Everything about it is great and it still stands up as the gold standard of fighters to this day. I already own literally 5 different versions of this game, including three on the Super Nintendo and two on the Sega Genesis. Why get it for the Super Famicom? Well, there's just something about playing games from other countries that fascinates me, especially if they are already some of my favorite games ever. I like trying to spot differences between what they got and what we got here in the U.S. As for SFII, the only difference I can see is in some of the enemy names (i.e. M. Bison, Vega, and Balrog were all shuffled around) and the text is almost entirely in Japanese. Still, it's fun to see it in a bit of a different light. Also, not for nothing, but I think the Super Famicom console and cartridges just look way cooler than their American counterparts.

Moving on, we have a strange little puzzle game called Zoop! for the Sega Genesis. I admittedly had no idea what this one was about, but I have seen it many times before. For three dollars I think it was worth investigating. What I got..well...is certainly quite interesting. It's very unique, I'll give it that. It's a bit difficult to explain so if I do a poor job, just refer to this video instead. As a little triangle piece, you move around a grid shooting away corresponding-colored pieces that move in from all sides. Once you clear away a certain amount, you move on to another stage where the difficulty increases. Yeah, that was pretty bad. Sorry, just watch the video. In all, it's not bad. I definitely enjoy the jazzy soundtrack it has.

Next we have China Warrior for the Turbo Grafx 16. As I've mentioned in the past, I'm a bit of a sucker for TG-16 games; if I see a bunch of them, I'm pretty much guaranteed to walk away with at least one, especially if it actually comes with the case. China Warrior is definitely on the more common end of the spectrum as far as TG-16 games go, as I've seen it many times before. As far as it's quality as a game...well, it seems to me like it can't make up its mind about whether it wanted to be a side-scrolling beat 'em up or a straight up fighting game. What you get is some kind of weird hybrid. Also, as you can probably tell from the picture, the first thing you notice is that the characters are huge. As in, they take up half the damn screen. Well, at least its consistent?

And lastly, there's Turok: Dinosaur Hunter for the Nintendo 64. This game is freakin' awesome. It might be one of the best first person shooters on the N64, for that matter. I remember playing this game as a kid and having a blast blowing away dinosaurs and such with modern guns. It's sequels got even better, adding in multiplayer that rivaled even the likes of Goldeneye 007. But this one started it all and is still a lot of fun to this day. I remember it also had a ton of hidden bonus features like a cheat code that turned every map into a disco with flashing lights and dancing dinosaurs. Now that's trippy. Another bonus about this one is that it might be the best condition box I have for any N64 games. I'm personally not really a stickler when it comes to the condition of my games, but this one looks like it just came off the shelf of a Toys 'R Us for the first time yesterday. It's also got all those little extra pamphlets and stuff that came with all N64 games. Pretty cool.

So that's it for this week, thanks for reading. Hopefully I will have more material to write about soon, but I can't promise anything for the time being. Just keep checking back for updates and as always, game on.