A few days, I saw a link to a cartoon that was coming from the last issue of Nintendo Power. Besides being stunned, I clicked the link. I saw Nester (the magazine's unofficial mascot) talking to his son about NP and passing out gaming tips. Can't lie, I almost wanted to shed a tear, especially at the final panel. The final cover is a great homage to the classic first cover.
Nintendo Power was the very first magazine I had a subscription to. Back when I was a huge gamer and my life revolved around reading and playing the NES. It was my guide on knowing the video game world and back then, you didn't have much to read on it. I remember one of the first issues I got in 1st grade with Super Mario Bros. 3 on the cover.
I'd read them cover to cover, over and over until the next month came. I'd take it to school and I'd read it in my spare time. Reading up the codes to help me get through Super Mario Land 2 or Tiny Toons 2 on Game Boy. Learning every little thing about every new game so I could talk about it. Finding out how to beat those extra-hard bosses. Seeing the level layouts.
I even had dreams of being a video game designer and I created a series of games called "Superevan" back in 2nd grade borrowing heroes and enemies from my favorite games. The Main Boss was named Katz and I created a few extra characters like Crabman and his little brother Cramban, a spelling mistake that just stuck.
I said a while ago that I wanted to go back to my gaming roots and discuss some of my favorite video games. I did it earlier celebrating the 20th anniversary of Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog. Now I'm gonna take yall down Memory Lane with one of my favorite video game characters, Kirby.
I remember when I got Kirby's Dream Land on Game Boy for my 8th birthday and Mom surprised me with a party at school with my friends. It was weirdly original because every video game character was either an animal or a human. Kirby was a.....cream puff? A cream puff with a super high metabolism who never gained weight despite having Hoover vacuum lungs. It was unlike any character I saw but I spent many hours playing that game.
Kirby's lungs were his only weapon as he fought back by inhaling somebody and spitting back out. You'd think that'd make for a stupid game but the right combination of challenging opponents, cool music and extra powers made it actually cool. The best weapon was the Mint Leaf and it came at the end of Level 3 when you fought the boss.
King DeDeDe was the main boss but for a final boss, he definitely sucked compared to Bowser or Dr. Robotnik. He could inhale just like Kirby, wielded a powerful hammer and jumped around like House of Pain. He got some great upgrades later in the series.
To this day, Level 3 (Float Islands) still has one of the best level music I've ever heard in a Nintendo game. It fit the beachy theme of the level and it's only fitting that for Kirby's Dream Land 2, they brought it back.
If you beat the game, you got a secret code to play a harder level and as soon as I found out, I played it all the time. The enemies were harder and more aggressive and the bosses were even crazier. Even the mini-bosses had attitude (Poppy Bros. Sr. in Level 1 bum rushing you after throwing bombs).
I challenged myself with Nintendo's challenge. First, beat the game on the harder level (DONE). Then beat the regular game without getting hit (After playing the hard level regularly, this was easy as pie.). Finally, beat the harder level without getting hit. That took months to do and a lot of enemy memory but I remember the day I finally did it. Felt like mini Johnny Drama calling out VICTORY!!!!
The franchise got a much needed upgrade on NES with Kirby's Adventure and it gave Kirby the ability to steal powers by swallowing what he inhaled. Kirby could swing a sword, become a fireball, put guys on ice or even better, do wrestling moves on guys he'd inhale. The coolest weapon? Easily the UFO. I'd play those levels over and over just to keep the UFO power because you couldn't take it with you to another stage.
I tried to draw Kirby for years after watching the intro. Add in the bright graphics and cool minigames, especially the quick draw shootout, and it became one of my favorite NES games and one of the last classics of the console. He made dudes not ashamed to support a pink cream puff.
Plus there was a treat for old KDL fans with Level 7-6 taking it back to the Black-and-White. The music got an upgrade, especially Level 5 which also made the KDL2 cut. Level 4 and Level 7 were almost dreamlike and could lull you to sleep. But nothing beats the ending music, which I used to deliberately let run for about 5 mins while I celebrated the end of the game
It's only a shame the franchise never got a cartoon until most of us who grew up on him left cartoons behind (it also failed because the cartoon looked as corny as Iowa.) Kirby may not be Sonic or Mario but he's just as iconic on a smaller level to millions of gamers as you fans of Super Smash Bros can see. And Dream Land is still one of the best games ever made for Game Boy.
I was watching Sonic the Hedgehog gameplay videos on Youtube and I saw a comment that said they bought it the day it came out. June 23, 1991. Made me feel like an old man reading that but it also made me think about how far video games have come and how they owe a lot to that year.
If you were an 80's baby, you remember that 1991 brought us two games and systems that made the NES seem obsolete. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Genesis) and Super Mario World (Super NES)
I'm saying for the record that both games are two of the most influential in gaming history simply for the fact they were 16-bit systems that had bolder colors and a lot more than side-scrolling action. The first time I saw a commercial for Sonic the Hedgehog, my mind was blown because it made Super Mario Bros. 3 (another of the greatest games ever) look like a relic.
Sonic was cool from his spiked hair look to his speed. All Mario had was cool costumes but Sonic had speed and cool enemies to fight besides Bowser's kids. Plus the secret levels of finding those Chaos Emeralds that I could never get until I played Sonic 3. Even the music sounded next level. Once you got started and heard this song, you felt like you were at the next level of gaming.
Without Sonic, video game music would be boring. Remember how you used to play games just to hear the music on certain levels? Some NES games had that but Sonic took it to the next level - Streets of Rage owes its killer soundtrack to it. Plus Sega was the cool kid on the block promoting the fact they weren't Nintendo.
The game dropped on June 23 and I remembered going to my godbrother's house and playing the mess out of it. I could never get past Level 2 but I just enjoyed watching something different from my basic NES system.
Everybody jumped on this like hotcakes so what did Nintendo do? Like any good company they responded with their own innovation in Super Mario World a couple months later on August 13. And just like Sonic, Mario blew me away with this game.
The cape, the cool worlds, and of course adding Yoshi as the coolest sidekick. I remember reading Nintendo Power and getting the magazine with SM World guide and just marveling at the graphics. It was as if they recreated Super Mario Bros. 3 with more characters, brighter colors and secret worlds.
But once again, I was stuck with my NES so I had to play this on my friend's systems. For the record, I at least had a Game Gear which, by the way, blew the Game Boy away because of - wait for it - graphics and brighter colors. I didn't get my Genesis until 1995 when Sonic 3 & Sonic and Knuckles were carrying Sega way past Nintendo's prime.
Sonic the Hedgehog singlehandedly changed the gaming world forever because it brought healthy competition to gaming systems, introduced slicker, brighter graphics and the need for games to stay cutting edge with storyline. All things that happen today as we battle between PS3's, XBOX 360's and Wii's. You were either a Nintendo or Sega kid growing up (NINTENDO ALL DAY)
Can't believe it's been 20 years. Games have come a long way from me reading Nintendo Power and Gamepro and Electronic Gaming Monthly. I might start doing some more gamer posts for my 80's babies to reflect over.
