History of an Ex-Nintendo Fanboy

Yes Nintendo Fanboy

Previous blogs I talked about my love for PC gaming. But for the early years of my life Nintendo probably held my attention more than PCs.

In fact I could probably be considered a fanboy for Nintendo for a time.

When being a fanboy meant something

Remember the days Nintendo versus Sega. I do and it was fucking awesome. I remember being at school and your friends that had Sega were such noobs.

VERSUS

My SNES kicks your Genesis.

No way Sonic would kick Mario's ass.

Get real you dumbass.

Aw the playground of kindergartners graders such fun.

Before the internet was the place to have such arguments and well the arguments were frankly much less annoying.

But to the point

Why was Nintendo worthy of my devotion. Well the games of course.

I remember one day I wasn't doing much but in comes my dad with a damn SNES and Super Mario World and Mario Kart.

And I was in love. The fun of Mario Kart was instant. At first sure we sucked but after a while getting better than beating your parents and friends. Super Mario World was a load of fun as well. I remember being sick as a dog and not being able to sleep and my dad stayed up with me and we played the game until 5 in the morning when I finally could get to sleep. Still pop the game in every once in a while and play it through even though it only takes a few hours to beat now. Did I need sonic? HELL NO.

Of course I got to relive some of the NES classics with Super Mario Allstars.

I loved playing through those Super Mario Brother games with my brother it was a load of good fun.

Zelda, Metroid, Star Fox, and the like were also staples of my gaming past.

Donkey Kong deserves mention though. My gaming partner my brother and I played through these games many many times and we loved ever minute of it.

Super Mario RPG one of my favorite RPGs of all time was and is still awesome. I remember at first trying to only level up and go into added HP and it was fucking hard. Especially with Mario/Geno/Bowser on Smithy you often times just ran out of items. I just got done replaying it last week and put all into Attack and Defense for Mario/Geno and this time I use Peach and put all her levels into Magic Attack/Defense. And wow so much easier. Sure I didn't clear 200 HP but the damage they did was very little especially with Geno Boost. Anyway the point is the game is still loads of fun.

But you know what? Nintendo had some bad ass third party support for their console back than.

O yes I almost forgot Sim City. OMG that game ate up so much time during cold winters. I loved building up my city. And for those of you that played the game you know just how much it sucks waiting for money to come in. I remember switching over to the TV to pass the time easier and I forgot about it for a while and came back with my city pretty much leveled. And I had not saved for a long long while since my city was about 100k population. And it was over a million when I went to TV watching. /SADNESS. And if you played it you remember the music. Seriously could they have mixed it up more?

Also Pilot Wings for the SNES was so much fun for me for a reason I am not sure. I loved the flying missions and the jetpack was a tad more annoying. The 64 version super mega MEH.

ANYWAY. Were was I? O yes third party games.

Third Party games has a lot to do with the survivability of a system and later I will discuss this in why my Fanboyism waned.

OMFG Chrono trigger. The first game I really played that offered some variation on the full out turn based battle system. Which to this day except for Mario RPG I really cannot stand. I like more of an Action RPG I.E Kotor and hopefully Fallout 3. Well Chrono Trigger was fun fun fun. The story was interesting and wrapped up in a matter that didn't piss me off.

Even the Mega Mans that made the appearances on the SNES (what was it just 7 I can't remember to well) were fun at the time even though now playing the earlier ones I know that they were not as good as quality.

I LOVED THIS GAME. The AVGN put it well when he talked about the love affair many of us had with TMNT and being able to play them o god it was awesome. Leonardo was my favorite an average guy who did everything well.

A NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES

(Btw my Paint skills are neato yes?)

The Saturn as we know did not do very well in the sales and N64 did fairly well except for it didn't sell to well in Japan. In fact as of not too long ago it only sold 1/4 of the units in Japan as did in the Americas. The Playstation was also taking a rise and involving me in some more arguments but you know what at the time it didn't seem to big of a deal to me. I had my Nintendo.

But seriously who gives a shit about sales? Well the latest fanboys arguing about the 360 and PS3 but we are not of that breed.

The amount of games I could go on about is somewhat shorter for the 64 but still some stellar games were present.

The first party games were in most part in fine form for Nintendo this gen.

I was never a HUGE Zelda fan. I enjoyed the games but they weren't as orgasmic as some though they were from were I was standing.

However the Ocarina of Time I really really enjoyed. Fun game play and story was okay I just liked it. Majora's Mask wasn't bad but I had the same level of enthusiasm for it as I did on previous installments.

Mario 64 o Mario 64. So many people just loved this game. I have beaten it but I really hated every minute of it. Well at first I was getting into the 3d deal and it wasn't bad. But for some reason it was so annoying. Going back into the same course over and over again. Like WTF. Anyway Screw Mario 64.

Star Fox 64 though. I really really loved it. Except for Slippy fuckin frog. Shut the hell up.

Paper Mario was the first in the series and I really enjoyed it. It was a bit different of a twist on RPG with a different art style and it was quite fun. Story is well a Mario Story.

I really liked these games when they came on out and I played them through a few times. However now I really cannot get into them. It is just I don't know not that appealing to me anymore. Hopefully the new one is a good installment in the series and not just building dam vehicles.

Donkey Kong and Super Smash Brothers also made an appearance and what more can you say about Smash Brothers than just naming the game. It was my favorite game of the series really. Maybe had the most good memories from it playing it with friends and not but the other ones, while good, just haven't held my attention as much. Donkey Kong 64 I really didn't mind that much but I really did not like it a lot. It was okay a time through but I really didn't care for the way they did it. Way too much time in one level and even some backtracking.

Now you know I had to mention this game. An FPS that was hell of a lot of fun.

O ho got ya. Bet you were thinking of something else. Even though this game came out later than a certain other game and was the spiritual sequel according to some. It was still a very fun game in its own right. Spent much time with this game and loved every minute of it.

Now here you go. One of the best games in my opinion ever. Now if all game makers made movie adaptations of games this well we would be in heaven. The game play was fun and fresh at the time. The multi player was fun as hell. What more can you say than Goldeneye 64. So much comes to mind when the name is mentioned.

You cannot mention reasons why to be a fanboy of the 64 and not mention this game if you ask me. The multiplayer for one was fun fun fun. But the story was so different from what many of the 64 games brought and it was just badass.

The fervor starts to die down

Although I was still loyal to Nintendo the PS2 and Xbox were getting harder and harder to deny the quality of games on it. Although at the time I still held onto only getting a Gamecube but I eventually broke down and got an Xbox because of a few games on it I had to play. Also the sweet siren call of the PC was growing stronger and stronger with the advent of online gaming and actually getting high speed internet.

The Gamecube of course sported the usual suspects of the first party titles.

What a failure of a Mario title. It was the same damn challenge every single damn level only with different surroundings. The only bright spots of the game if you ask me was when you lost your flood (insert random joke) and had to do some platforming type game play.

I don't know why this game gets so much hate. Sure it wasn't a ground breaking game. But as a release title it was the first game I played and I didn't mind it that much at all. I surely enjoyed it more than Sunshine and I had some fun playing the game. Isn't that point after all?

The Zelda games were in fine form of course. Wind Waker was well I don't know I liked it alright but it just felt weird to me. No real appearance. Donkey Konga can get er hmm I don't know how to put it. Blowed to fucking hell comes to mind.

Paper Mario was fun but it wasn't nearly as fun as the first one was for me.

Was a very good and fun game. One of the best games for the Gamecube and one of the better games of all time for sure.

But by the end of the Gamecube my die hard loyalty to Nintendo was fairly well gone. Now if someone tries to knock Nintendo's forming years in the electronic era I am still quite protective.

THE GOD DAMN Wii

In my opinion the Wii is not a bad system in it of its own.

Mario Galaxy was thankfully a return to form for Mario at least.

Think back to the formative years of Nintendo on the electronic front. It had great first party support but not only that it had epic third party support. Ninja Gaiden, Double Dragon, the Rare games, Final Fantasy games started out there, and many many more games graced the systems.

Now what does the Wii have? It has some decent 3rd party games but 3rd party exclusives that are decent are few and far between. Madworld and The Conduit may be fun games but Competitive eating and such like WiiWare games can suck a dick.

Conclusion

I do have all the current Gen systems. 360, PS3, Wii, and of course my love of the PC outweighs all. I am not a fanatic though. I like playin the other systems and my old favorite Wii sadly has probably the least play time of them all.

My fanboy days for Mario can now only be looked back upon with fondness and hope for Nintendo's future.

Gif