The Undiscovered Treasures of Childhood: My Gaming El Dorado(s)

My gaming childhood mostly centered around Blockbuster and Nintendo Power. It was before the internet (90's kid here), so I never knew the release date of the games covered in Nintendo Power, which was my only source of information. I would frequently have to go to Blockbuster and hope for the best. Frequently, the game I wanted wasn't there. Frequently, if it was popular, the game I wanted was out of stock. Frequently, I didn't ever want to "waste" a rental on a game I was only tangentially interested in. This, understandably, left a lot of games from that era unplayed, including most handheld games.

This ended up creating a list of "legendary games" or "forgotten treasures" that hold an almost mythical place in my heart, to this day. On the off-chance that I have returned and visited these games, it's always been an amazingly cathartic experience, as if it's been a journey decades in the making.

Mega Man X3 was one of these experiences - it was the hardest original X game to procure, and by far the most expensive, sitting at the way-too-expensive-for-a-kid price of 80 dollars. I did eventually track down the game, trading a copy of X2 for it. The cartridge I got was mostly broken, and you had to open it up and wedge a screwdriver in there for it to even work at all. But! Finally playing the game I'd pined after for so long was absolutely amazing, especially because my best friend at the time shared my interest and longing for it. He borrowed it after I was done with it. It had been the subject of many a lunch table conversation, and we had found our holy grail at last.

The prospect of hunting down an almost legendary blue flower to propose to your loved one of choice was romantic even to my six year old self. I know, I'm a sap.

The original Harvest Moon was another. I remember longing after it in Nintendo Power, captivated by the bizarre prospect of a game solely about living a life on a farm, finding the premise utterly unlike anything I had ever seen before. I was always hoping it would one day appear on the shelf at my local Blockbuster. It never did, and I was only able to play it much, much later. It's for this reason that it was also one of the only lifelong longings to disappoint, as it was an object of my distant affection for a very long time, long enough for me to play Harvest Moon 64 before it - which is an all-around superior game.

Most, however, still remain untouched to me, even almost two decades later.

Some of these legendary, mythical games include:

Perfect Dark

This was a follow-up to Goldeneye for the N64, made by the same developers. And every kid knew Goldeneye was the best multiplayer game ever, so its spiritual successor had to be even better! It also had extensive coverage in Nintendo Power, for what seemed like a very long period of time, so I saw this game quite a bit... without ever actually seeing it, physically.

I still fantasize about the couch co-op experience that never was. I refuse to revisit it now, as its multiplayer-centric focus on a very dated console made it a product of its time, and I firmly believe that you had to be there to fully appreciate it.

Fun fact: The "Ghost Babel" subtitle was dropped in the US for some reason, with "Solid" adapted as the subtitle instead. This is why I used this cool key art instead of the box art. Why drop a cool name like "Ghost Babel?" That sounds awesome.

Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel

A game that's an alternative sequel to Metal Gear 2 for the MSX, which means it's set in an alternate universe to the Solid series on Playstation. Despite this, it feels more like the first Metal Gear Solid game than any other game in the series according to everyone I know who has played it. Whereas the mainline series went in different directions after the first game, focusing on things like social commentary, a vintage spy theme, or meta-commentary on the director's own experience of the aging process, this just looks like a tried and true, by-the-books sequel. A pseudo-anime stealth adventure with a colorful cast of characters and just the right amount of Hollywood cheese. I think a lot of people wanted that instead.

I should really play this. I'm hyping myself up for it all over again just writing about it.

Conker's Bad Fur Day 

I was, like most kids, a huge fan of platformers at the time. Being somewhat of a prude by nature, and much more so in my childhood than now, I avoided this game for its supposed adult and racy content. Not because my parents wouldn't let me play it (they would have) but because I would have felt dirty doing so. The way it was marketed, you'd think it was pornography or something. Turns out it's really just South Park style humor. Still, I've never gotten around to playing it or its remake.

Mario is Missing

Luigi looks... off. What is that enemy even doing?

I know what you're thinking. What the hell is this bad game doing on your list of legendary games? Isn't it universally hated and made fun of by almost everyone?

Hear me out for a second.

I would always see this at Blockbuster, calling out to me. "I'm a Mario game!" it said. "Luigi is the main character!" it said. But then I would look at the back of the box and see its questionable nature. Why waste my rental on an educational game? I ultimately made what I still think was a rational decision, especially for a gullible 1st grader, and passed on it every time. But its whispers still intrigue me, on a deep and primal level. It IS a Mario game, and it DOES star my favorite Mario brother, after all...

Beyond the Beyond

In the era of JRPGs, this game always looked to me like another Lunar or Wild Arms or Suikoden, titles I held very dear to my heart. But something about it seemed "off." I could never put my finger on what it was, either. The character design and overall art style looked like other games I liked. The genre seemed to fit my tastes. The weird Engrish-y name was a lot like other weird Engrish-y games I played and liked, like Wild Arms. But something in my gut told me I wouldn't enjoy it. Reviews I've read since then have clarified that as true. At the same time, its developer, Camelot, has made a lot of actually very good games, like Shining Force and Golden Sun. I know everyone says it's bad. I know it probably is. But, like Mario is Missing, the initial intrigue I felt towards it remains.

I think it's kind of funny how I'm perfectly content leaving these games untouched after pining after them so strongly in my youth. Some desires truly do fade with time. I'm still slightly curious about some of them, but for the most part, I'd be ok never playing any of these games for the rest of my life.

Except for Ghost Babel. That game is just hard to find. Still it eludes me!

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue: Underrated Classic, Perfect Sequel

This game needs to be experienced by more people. Its predecessor, Lunar: Silver Star Story, been remade a hundred times (ok, well, three), but Lunar 2 was never remade past the PSX version. This means that unless you were around playing JRPGs in the 90's or regularly delve into retro games, it's unlikely that you've played this game. I love the first game as much as anyone else, but its sequel brought it to the next level in so many ways. Let's look at what Lunar 2 does right.

-It has a better soundtrack (and SSS already had a good one)

-The cast is much more colorful and involved in the story this time around. Lucia, the resident heroine, goes way beyond damsel in distress, Ghaleon comes back and subverts his role from the first game in completely unexpected ways, Leo is an amazing frenemy, the major villain feels a LOT more threatening this time around, I could go on. Every party member and villain feels incredibly fleshed out and substantial in this game, and the cast interact with the world and each other in much more nuanced ways than in the original game's relatively vanilla plot. The hero himself (named, appropriately enough, Hiro) also has a much more substantial personality and active role in the story than the relatively blank slate that Alex was in Silver Star.

Nall, Alex's dragon sidekick from the first game, returns in human form as a sort of Peter Pan analogue this time around. He acts as a mentor to the new heroes, which is a nice twist from his role as goofy sidekick in his last journey.

Leo is a white knight type of guy. Only problem is that the white knights aren't on your side. Uh-oh!

-The world is more creative this time, too. You get different cultures, such as Jean and her martial arts dojo, Nall and his band of misfits, and Leo and the holy knights that he serves, that feel completely unique from the rest of their world. In Silver Star Story, everyone seemed to live on a fairly culturally homogeneous world.

This screenshot is actually from the Sega CD version of the game. You can tell the sprite art has a slightly different, darker style to it in the original release.

-The stakes felt higher, the cast was more fleshed out, the story was pure unadulterated JRPG goodness with excellent pacing and use of its extended cast, the connections to the first game were on point, the soundtrack was bangin', and it's easily one of the best RPGs of the PSX generation (I never played the Sega CD version).

Characters from the first game return, often in very different roles. Watching their development between games is fascinating.

It does everything the first game did and more, while also carving out a unique identity for itself. I would put it above Grandia II, another sequel to a beloved RPG that has had the fortune of recent re-releases, as a classic sequel of its era, because it evolves without changing the mood or tone you grew to love in the first game all that drastically.

Classic Working Designs humor.

It's one of the only games I've seen that balances playing it safe and subverting expectations almost perfectly. The party members you get are blatant inversions of the first game's (the womanizer is now the healer instead of the warrior and the shy mage became the outgoing mage, oh my) but it works on both levels.

I'll top this article off with the lovely world map music.

I would say don't sleep on this game, but it's hard to find nowadays. I really wish it would get remade. If you can find it, I'd definitely set aside time to play it, as it's truly one of the classic greats.