My Favorite Games - Super Nintendo

I first started playing video games at my sister's house. I'd come over to babysit my niece and once I put her to bed I'd stay up and play on my brother-in-law's Nintendo. I would play Tetris for hours. And if I grew bored of that I would put in Mario Brothers for another couple of hours. I liked Duck Hunt too, but the gun always seemed to be broken. For Christmas that year I asked for a Nintendo system. I didn't think I'd get one because my parents didn't see much use in playing video games. When I opened my presents Christmas morning I was surprised, but not in a good way . . . at least at first.

I got a Nintendo system but it was a Super Nintendo system. I was disappointed. I thought I'd never be able to play the games I'd come to love. Now I've got a system that I didn't know how to use and didn't know any of the games I could play on it. My disappointment was obvious to my parents 'cause they kept apologizing all day that they couldn't find a Nintendo system and that the guy in the store said this one would be better. Whatever.

I was young. And I didn't pay any attention to what was going on in the world outside my own neighborhood. I figured this would be one of those Christmas gifts that you play for a few hours over the Holiday break from school before it finally finds a more permanent place in the back corner of your closet. Little did I know that one disappointing Christmas gift would change my life forever and I would cherish for a long time. Thanks Mom and Dad!

To refresh my memories and make sure I had all the right games in the right order I spent the weekend playing almost all of my Super Nintendo games and boy did that take me back.

#1 Super Mario Kart
I learned how to power slide from Mario. I learned that racing and throwing banana peels behind you is a blast. And once I mastered the art of firing red and green Koupa shells there was no one who could stop me. I do love racing games but since I started out with "kart" racing games the realistic stuff doesn't appeal to me very much. I can see that type of racing everyday on the freeway.

#2 Tetris Attack
This was the first game (and probably only game) that I was instinctively better at than my brother from the first moment I picked it up. He always been able to preform better than me in any type of game as soon as he starts to play. If I practice and work at it I will eventually get the better of him more often than not, but that wasn't the case with this game. I don't know why I'm better at it than him. I just tend to see moves way ahead of the move I happen to be making at the time. Because of my natural skill at this game I got to see my brothers competitive side come out. Which of course brought out MY competitive side. (My gamer score is higher than his gamer score)

#3 Super Mario All Stars
Here I was afraid that I'd never be able to play Mario on my new Super Nintendo. Shows you how little I knew of Nintendo. With this game I got the original Mario game plus the hidden levels and Mario 2 & Mario 3. I felt better about owning the latest game system and even bragged to my friends that I have all the games on one cartridge. There were plenty of worlds to jump and explore through and I was loving every one of them.

#4 Super Star Wars trilogy of games
Finally instead of just watching the movies you actually get to play them as well. I figured the Star Wars game would be like the original Star Wars game that I loved to play in the arcade. I was wrong. But I liked being wrong. These games really frustrated me more so than anything else I had been playing. If you wanted to make it up to that top platform you better be sure to make perfect jumps all the way up. One slight miscalculation and you'd find yourself plummeting down to a valley of spikes or some other nasty death. It was all about being careful and precise . . . and I hadn't learned those skills yet. Still working on them too.

Honorable Mentions:
Donkey Kong Country, Frogger, Ms. Pac Man, Space Invaders, Clue