Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room. It's been a while since I've done a collection updates edition, and I certainly have not slowed down on that front. I've purchased quite a bit over the last few months, evening out my collection with various ins and outs across several different consoles. That's said, let's check out what I got.
First off, we have a bunch of complete black box games for
the NES. I often have these random thoughts where I suddenly decide that I want
to focus on a certain thing, and for a while I was fixed on obtaining complete
so-called "black box" games for the NES. For those who aren't aware
of the history, the "black box" NES games consist of 17 games that
served as the launch titles when the console was first released in America in
the Fall of 1985, plus an additional 13 games that came shortly afterward. The
30 games are collectively known as the "black box" games due to their
black color and similar artwork scheme. Anyway, there's something just
incredibly aesthetically pleasing to me about these games, so I wanted to try
and grab a few complete ones, mostly the easier-to-obtain ones. Golf, Pinball,
and 10-Yard Fight were very easy to find for cheap, while Gumshoe and Popeye
proved a bit more of a challenge.
Next, we have something I've been meaning to buy for quite a
while- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Everyone knows that The Legend Of Zelda
is an absolute classic, and owning it is a must for anyone who has an NES. But
what of its lesser known sequel? People have a lot of mixed feelings about
Zelda II, but I believe the general consensus is that it is vastly inferior to
the first game. At any rate, I've never actually played it myself, and my
complete copy of the original looked very lonely on my shelf without the sequel
next to it, so I knew I eventually had to get a complete copy of that one as
well. It took me quite a while to find one in good condition for a reasonable
price, but I jumped on it once I did, and now I can put them together and feel
that much more complete about my collection because of that. Well, that is
until I realized that the actual title is "Zelda II," meaning I'd
have to put it at the very end to maintain alphabetical order. Have I ever
mentioned I am a fantastically huge nerd?
Here's a great flea market find I made: a complete copy of
Mario Paint for Super Nintendo. For the uninitiated, Mario Paint was basically
Nintendo's version of Microsoft Paint, complete with it's own mouse peripheral
that could be plugged into the Super Nintendo. You could draw freehand, use
pre-rendered backgrounds to color, and even make simple animations and music.
There were also a few mini-games thrown in as well. It might seem primitive for
today's standards, but back then this game provided hours upon hours of
entertainment, all without really having much of an objective as a game. It's a
very common SNES game, but what isn't so common is finding it complete with the
giant, oversized original box, as well as the mouse, a plastic mousepad, and
all the instruction booklets with it. The only thing missing from my copy is
the inner styrofoam tray that held everything, but considering how cheap I
got it for at the flea market, I'm not complaining.
Moving up a few generations, here's two Gamecube games that
stand out in the Gamecube library: The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Another Zelda game here, and I suppose now
is as good a time as ever to say that I honestly have not played very many
Zelda games in my lifetime. I own a bunch, but out of those I have only really
played the original, Ocarina of Time, and Link's Awakening (the last of which I've never
beaten). That said, with the purchase of two more in the series, I hope to
change that soon so I can call myself a proper gamer. The Twin Snakes is quite
an interesting specimen, as it's an updated remake of the original Metal Gear
Solid (which, if you're keeping score, is technically the 3rd installment in
the franchise). I'm not sure if much else was changed besides updated graphics,
but I'd really like to play it soon and find out. It also apparently includes
Metal Gear Solid 2 as well, which is probably one of my favorite games of all
time.
And last but not least, it may not be related to retro games,
but I'd be remiss to not include my most recent addition, a Playstation 4
console given to me by my girlfriend for my birthday. I may be about 4 years
late to this party, but between games like Resident Evil 7, The Evil Within 2,
and Sonic Mania being released or coming soon, I felt that I now had enough of
a reason to obtain a current-generation console. Sonic Mania is definitely at
the top of the list for me, and I plan on purchasing it later this week, so
look forward to a review of that in the future after I've played it through.
So that's all for now, thanks for reading and as always,
game on.
