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Collection essentials #167 and #168: NES Zapper and SNES Super Scope

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It came to my attention that I talked about the NES Zapper at length since I had several NES light gun games on my list, and yet I didn’t count the Zapper itself as a collection essential. Oops. I guess I still have to figure out a rule with regard to what accessories I’ll put on the list. The system’s main first-party controller I won’t count as I consider that part of the console. I did already count R.O.B. as an essential so I really think I should count the Zapper as one too. The Zapper was a big part of the NES’s early success, with Duck Hunt being the most notable title. It made for gameplay that was easy for anyone to understand play, yet could still provide a challenge. When the light gun trigger is pushed, the screen goes black for a split second, and any part of the screen that contains an enemy or item that can be shot will be white. If the area of shot is within white, then a hit will be registered in-game.  For the Super Nintendo, a new gun accessory was needed, and Ninten
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Collection essentials #166: ActRaiser (SNES)

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ActRaiser was a strong early release for the Super Nintendo from developer Quintet. Not only was it technically impressive and well-made, but there isn’t much out there in the gaming world quite like it to this day, due to how it combines two different genres into one. A lot of the design of ActRaiser’s world and characters takes inspiration from religion and mythology. The main antagonist and protagonist were called God and Satan in the original release, and they were renamed as “The Master” and “Tanzra” upon being localized into English to avoid controversy. Many of the game’s bosses come from mythological creatures such as the Minotaur. When you start up ActRaiser, it seems like a fairly normal side-scrolling action platformer, as The Master manifests himself as a dude armed with a sword and goes around kicking butt. After you beat a level, though, the game shifts to something completely different. ActRaiser has “sim” sections where The Master and his servants try to help humans to
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Collection essentials #165: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

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The first video game console that I ever played. The Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System was such a huge success, and naturally their follow-up was highly anticipated. They perhaps waited a little longer than they should have to get it onto shelves, with the Super Famicom launching in Japan in 1990 and Super Nintendo launching in 1991 in North America. This relatively late release allowed competitors to gain more of a foothold than they may have otherwise. Nintendo didn’t quite dominate to the same near-monopolistic extent as they had before, but the Super Nintendo would still be a force to be reckoned with. The Super Nintendo was clearly, right off the bat, much more advanced than the NES which came before, and was more powerful than Sega’s Genesis/Mega Drive in most (but not all) facets too. The console boasted colorful graphics that were about as good as it got when it launched (though arcade games and newer hardware did surpass it before very long). The cartridges could hold a lo
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Collection essentials #164: Tetris (Game Boy)

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Here’s the big game that really put the Game Boy on the map. Nintendo made the very wise decision to include Tetris as a pack-in game with Game Boy systems, so buyers would have one of its very best games to play right off the bat.  I already talked about a couple versions of Tetris previously, so I’m not going to talk too much about how the game works or the history behind it. See those previous posts for more such info. Tetris on the Game Boy is a really solid version of the game. It’s similar to the NES version, but arguably better since it has an actual two-player mode. The Game Boy had an accessory called a “link cable” which connected two systems together for multiplayer modes. (I had mentioned multiplayer in Pokémon already but didn’t mention how it was done, whoops!) The iconic Tetris theme that most people remember debuted in this version of the game. I don’t have a ton else to say about Game Boy Tetris. It was one of my early Game Boy acquisitions, so I have plenty of exper
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Collection essentials #163: Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land (Game Boy)

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Wario was the main antagonist of yesterday’s game. Nintendo quickly decided to give him a shot at being PROtagonist. This would be the first time of many. Just because you’re playing as Wario doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a good guy. Wario is entirely motivated by greed. At the end of the last game, Wario got booted out of his castle by Mario, and so his objective in this game is to get his hands on a whole bunch of money to build an even better castle. As he goes out looking for treasure, standing in his way are a bunch of pirates, so I guess there’s no real good guy in this game on either side. Wario plays a lot differently than Mario, too. Sometimes he can stomp on enemies like Mario, but Wario also relies on a charge attack where he puts his arm in front of him and runs forward to forcefully collide with an unfortunate enemy in his path. Wario is also fond of picking up items which he can then throw, and this includes enemies, who often get toppled when hit rather than dying instantly
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Collection essentials #162: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy)

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The second Super Mario Land was also made without the involvement of series creator Shigeru Miyamoto, so it continues to feel quite distinct from the console Mario games, but it also is quite different from the first Super Mario Land as well. I’m happy to say that this is quite an improvement over the first Super Mario Land in pretty much every way. There’s more content, better graphics, better music, better gameplay…better everything. The game has a world map this time (where you move Mario around the world in order to select which level to play next), and the levels are divided up into a series of “zones” with different themes. For example, in “Pumpkin Zone” you will play Halloween-themed levels. This helps the game inject more “personality” into its levels and makes them more memorable.  There’s some exclusive stuff in this game, such as the “Bunny Mario” power-up which lets him hover. Quite a few of the enemies don’t appear in any other Mario game. However, there’s one thing this g
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Collection essentials #161: Super Mario Land (Game Boy)

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  And now we jump from the very last game made specifically for the original Game Boy (Pokémon Yellow) to one of the very first which was available on day one.  It’s no surprise that the Game Boy would launch with a Mario game. What may perhaps be surprising is that the series’ creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, had nothing to do with it. As a result, Super Mario Land feels very distinct from most other Mario games. There are a lot of other things that are a little different, such as the jump physics, the way Mario’s fireball moves, and the fact that the music for the invincibility star is the can-can rather than the usual theme. Super Mario Land also introduces Princess Daisy as the damsel of distress, the third different lady that Mario has had to save up to this point. Daisy wouldn’t be seen again for a while, but eventually became a recurring character starting in the late ‘90s. Super Mario Land also features two “shoot ‘em up” levels where Mario pilots a submarine and a plane, flying arou
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