Key

1996

So, I'm going to be breaking my own rules again. Here's the scoop: 1996 was a pretty big year in gaming. Both for games that eventually became my personal favorites, but also for those particular game franchises in general. This is a year where we saw a lot of great games being released. Knowing that, I'm going to go into this post talking about a few different games out of the bunch instead of just one. Simply being the fact that a lot of the games that were released in 1996 are still some of my favorites of all time. Hell, I would say that most games from the 90's and early 2000's still sit pretty high on my favorite games of all time lists. While that list certainly has expanded over these many years, I still have them pretty high up there. I consider many of the games I played on the Nintendo 64 to be in those categories. Anyway, we're going to be talking about Pokemon Red / Blue, Crash Bandicoot, and Duke Nukem 3D. Super Mario 64 was also released this year but I just talked about this game in depth in my last journal during November so I don't want to talk about it again.

Starting off, Pokemon Red / Blue and then eventually Pokemon Yellow are still some of my favorite games of all time. I started with Pokemon Yellow back in the day when I had my first Game Boy Color, and now many years later, I have a copy of Pokemon Red and Pokemon Silver with a Game Boy Advance that has a back light. And man, it's wonderful. I'm slowly but surely playing through Pokemon Red again and I'm having a blast. Aside from it just being one of the best games ever made, it's also one of the most broken games ever made. I still get lost in videos watching people absolutely destroy this game to beat it in literally no time flat. That's really just a fault of the times though. The developers did what they could do, and I'd honestly say the Pokemon game series has gotten gradually better as time goes on. And as systems get more and more powerful, the Pokemon games are still a staple in people's collections and will probably continue to be so for many years to come. I think people are just waiting for a true next gen Pokemon game that not only plays well, but runs well. They've got the gameplay element absolutely locked, but are unfortunately building games for a system that can't run games that well. So, it's a double edged sword. But, Pokemon Red is just a great game in general and definitely worth playing if you've yet to dip your toes into Pokemon games in general. Or start at the end of the series of games and go backwards. Do whatever you want.

Right now I am running a Beedrill as my main Pokemon in my current playthrough of Pokemon Red, and I never really realized just how strong this Pokemon is. Especially in the early game because you can evolve Weedle pretty quick. My Beedrill has become an absolute powerhouse and I love it. It's making the playthrough really really fun. I always like to try and use different Pokemon that I hadn't used before when I play these games because I know there are so many out there that could be people's favorites if you just used them. But, there's also a lot of crap Pokemon so it's hard to tell sometimes.

Moving on, we've got Crash Bandicoot. I have very good memories of this game because my cousin who lived up the street from us had a Playstation with Crash Bandicoot, and I remember going there all the time just to play it. It may not look the prettiest to today's standards but that's what remasters are for. And man did they nail this one perfectly. While the original is certainly still worth playing, I would say if you're going to dabble into Crash Bandicoot, pick up the remaster, or remasters I should say. It's still one of the most fun games to play through even today, and I would play through this one in particular many more times before I get tired of it. Hell, the whole series of Crash Bandicoot games are at the very least, fun. I never really had a bad time with these games or any Playstation game released in that era. There was something different about them that set them apart from the rest. Though Nintendo 64 still had some absolute bangers. Both did well, although Playstation did better this year. Anyway, tis a good game.

Next and final will be Duke Nukem 3D. This is kind of a fun one because I actually really like this game a lot, so much so that I think I still have a copy of it on Steam somewhere. It's very very similar to the original Doom but it's got some comedic moments that sets it apart. My experience with Duke Nukem, while fairly limited, has always been pretty good. I never really looked at the games and cringed or anything. This series, and I suppose this game in general has always sort of been in my collection in some fashion, mostly because I just respect the series enough to support it. It's a first person shooter, but it has it's own charm which is why I like and appreciate it so much.

Just kidding, that wasn't the last one. The next one I'm going to talk about is not one I have actually played, however it's one that I have always been interested in playing, and have always kicked myself for never finding a copy for myself. That of course goes to Super Mario RPG. Everything I've seen about this game just makes me want to play it, but aside from an emulator, I just don't really see that happening any time soon. More so because I would like to more do it on original hardware to get the real experience. To me, it seems like a really fun time and I've heard people say nothing but praises for the game. And it's just one of those games that will forever be on my want list despite never had played it myself. I know I want to play it though because I've seen a lot of gameplay on it and it just seems like a good ol' RPG with Mario characters. And that to me smells like a good time.