Game Scoop! 868: Games of Our Lives, Part 1

(upbeat music) - What's up everybody? Welcome to IZ*ing Game Scoop. I'm your host, Damon Hadfield. And joining me here in studio is Nick Lemone. - I'm back, baby. - We're also joining my Sam Claiborne. - Hey, it's good to be here, everybody. - And Justin Davis. - Cool. - We got a great show for you this week. We're doing something a little different this week. This is an idea I've had kicking around for a little bit. We're gonna do the games of our lives. We've each picked the best game from each year of our lives. And we'll compare and contrast. So basically, we're just gonna be talking about a whole lot of really good video games this episode. A couple little side note, it says anyone out there in Scoop Nation who would like to go on this journey for themselves, you'll find that there are just some off years where you're kind of like, I guess it's this one. There's some lean years for you to see how it happened. But let's just get right into it. Games of our life, like fingers through the power glove, these are the games of our lives. I'll go first, I'll go first. Being the senior ranking officer of the Omega Cops, we turn the clock's back to 1978. It's kind of slim pickings in these years, but 1978 was Space Invaders, so it's classic. It's very obviously. Space Invaders. - Do you remember playing Space Invaders? - Yeah, but it didn't look like this. You want to explain this Sam White, how this looks the way it does, 'cause really Space Invaders was just a black and white game. - Yeah, 'cause it got ported to Atari right away and everybody played it there. But in our arcade, there's a cool reflective piece of glass and then the monitor reflects on that piece of glass like almost like a hologram, and then you can see a background through it, so that's what you're gonna see in here. - Yeah, it's really cool. But this was the biggest thing in our case since Pong. And you know, I don't know if this is true. There's urban legend about it. It's causing a coin shortage in Japan. I don't know if that's ever been proven, but that's the story, how's the story goes? - You can at least look at pictures of places in Japan with a million sit-down cocktail tables from Tito, all like one place and people like change smoke and cigarettes and playing it. It just looks like an absolute, you know. - I'm joking. - Yeah, that seems great. That's the world I want to live in. - Yep, yeah. This of course led to Gallagher and then scrolling shooters such as Devious and all the smokes that I learned from the 90s. You can get me a direct line from this to Dodon Patching. - Man only want one thing and it's disgusting. It's just an entire arcade filled with, just 100 yen space invaders machines. - Okay, 1979 is gonna be asteroids. I like asteroids well enough, but it's like, it's good game. - Yeah, it is a good game, but there's not really any other choice this that year. It goes to asteroids. - It wins the year by default. - Also has a cool presentational feature in the arcade that you'll never see at home because in the arcade it uses a vector monitor and then just has a very cool set of controls whereas Atari kind of made famously, made them, I think were accessible by putting it onto a joystick and just having big colorful asteroids. - Those vector monitors Sam, those are like really high refresh rates, right? - Yeah, basically it's not the same thing as a TV. It's drawing with X and Y dots, lines and then it's not doing like a top to bottom drawing of the screen. It's, yeah, they're not TVs. Whoever's playing this is trying to do a no-thrust run. Just shooting, no-thrusting. - Yeah, well, I'm using the OSHIT button. - High for space. - Yeah, high for space. Okay, as we go into 1980, Sam, when will you join the party? - Not till '81. - Okay, '81. So 1980 is obviously Pac-Man. - Classic. - Yeah, but look at the difference, you know, in just two years from space emitters, black and white space emitters to Pac-Man. It's crazy, it's like such a huge leap. I don't know why this footage is so jerky, but, you know, you got full color, characters, cutscenes, music. - Personality's with each of the AIs. Like they all have their own behaviors and stuff like that. - Yeah, yeah. Okay, so Sam, get in here and what would you pick for 1981? I wonder if any of these years will all be unanimous on? - This would be, I think, because I think you and I picked the same one, but there's a lot of options 'cause the 1981 exploded. But kind of the month I was born, this game came out and it's Donkey Kong, of course it told the story and it's the introduction of Nintendo to the mass market, but Nintendo had made a couple of arcade machines by then, but Donkey Kong, you know, was kind of a part of pop culture by the time I was not just doing stuff, not really as an arcade machine, just as like a character. - As in, it's on, like Donkey Kong. - There's a Saturday morning cartoon, there was serial, it was a big deal. Yeah, there might not be an Nintendo of America without Donkey Kong. - Yeah, yeah, and I think they're like, even the geographical location is because of Donkey Kong and shipping arcade parts over from Japan, like all that stuff. - Reckon stuff, yeah. - And also, I mean, well into the 90s, you would still find Donkey Kong machines. I mean, you'll still find it, but now they're the director of their back, but like, you know, they were still getting play, you know, 10 years later. - Oh yeah, so you wanted my, in my wide shot right here. - Cool, that's Donkey Kong right there. - Nice. - Is this the only good Donkey Kong game, Sam? (laughs) - I like the game and watch Donkey Kong. - Well everybody likes Donkey Kong 94. - Is that what it is? - Donkey Kong 94, that's the best one. - I like Donkey Kong Jr. - Jr. - But you're so flawed, I'm quite like crazy this weekend. - Yeah, I like Donkey Kong Jr. a lot. - Too much math. - Three is weird. - Yeah, the math one is pretty weird. - I like it too though. - Three is the weirdest one. - Yeah, you're just an alley. - Just Stanley the grounds keeper, whatever. - Taken it to Donkey Kong's jungle just to mess with him. - Okay, all right Sam, I bet we both have the same 1982 game. - That's back. - It's Miss Peck. - Yeah. - Peckman's better half. - This is the first game I like remember though, because I remember this on Atari at, you know, older kids' houses. - It's a ROM hack, the first official ROM hack. - Yeah, yep. - Dude, Miss Peckman's so good. I'm not sure, I'm thinking, I don't know if I've ever played Pac-Man. I think whenever I think about Pac-Man, I'm thinking about Miss Peckman. - You've never played Pac-Man? I don't even know how that would be possible. - Well, but I only, it's 'cause Miss Peckman is like, it's just superior, like I don't know. I mean, I like, like, maybe I have, but I'm just saying, like when most people are picturing Pac-Man, talking about how much they love Pac-Man, they're probably thinking about Miss Peck. - And I would also add that they're probably thinking about playing Miss Peckman with the speed shift, because everything feels slow without that. And that was ubiquitous. Everybody adapted, and Pac-Man has that too. I have a really cool version of Miss Peckman and upright cabinet where they had modified, it's a bootleg, Miss Peckman, and they had modified it to have a run button before they had done the full on-speed chips so you could choose between them. And it has like the marquee even says like, you know, I don't know, it's just like rapid speed or something on it, it's really good. - Yeah, when I was in college the later '90s, I lived in a house with three other guys. They weren't gamers, I was the gamer, I had the systems in the games, but they would play just 'cause they were there and available. And I got the NAMCO Museum for PlayStation One that had Miss Peckman on it. And the entire house became completely obsessed with Miss Peckman, I love that. And we were trying to beat each other's high scores and actually looking up, you know, the old books they would have published in the original day on how to like, you know, improve your runs. It was great. - That was great. - And it's got cutscenes? - Yeah, it's a whole world there. - Okay, Sam, for nice day, I picked the Star Wars arcade game. - Yeah, me too, I think you'd make that one. It's just like the, I think the most to this day, not only is kind of a cinematic artistic masterpiece, but when you sit in the cocktail, not the cocktail, the cocktail, the cocktail machine. And actually still, and I did this last weekend, it feels like a roller coaster. Like it's an actual experience before you could get into, you know, a 3D thing in the arcade or anything like that. Like it feels loud and in your face and futuristic and just, you know, of course the vector monitor looks, like nothing else on earth. It's just incredible. - Beautiful. - Yeah, it's so cool. And they had digitized voice samples in there from the movie. - Yeah, they sound good too. They're not like normal. - Well, they sound like they're a little garble. - They're not as bad as they could have been. - No, they could have been a lot worse, yeah. Yeah, this is so cool. I mean, it took six years to get this game after the first Star Wars movie, but yeah, it's much more than just, you know, your average run of the mill arcade game. Like you said, Sam, this is much more of an experience. - Yeah, and I think Dragon's Lair came out the same year and it's just like how different are these, you know? Like that's when the arcade really diverged, and everything got really creative, and then it completely all fell apart. - Yeah, cool. 1984 is my first console game. And I picked Hero for Atari 2600, which isn't super well-known. This is not the game. At least this is not the 2600 version. This is a different game. - This is the HD remaster. - This is not Hero. Hero is, you know, it looks like an Atari 2600 game where you're a miner with like a personal backpack helicopter, like a propeller blade that is above your head, and you dive down into the mines to rescue miners and avoid traps. - Oh, nice. - Oh wow. - Yeah, this is it. This is Hero, and it's an activation game. - It looks great. - Yeah, this is like, this is one of the better looking and better playing Atari 2600 games. The game you could actually probably have some fun with if you played it today. This year, I could have gone with Pitfall II, another activation game that's also very impressive, the 2600, but I ended up going with Hero. How about you, Sam? - I went with Marble Madness. - Oh, that's a before. - Oh, wow. - Yeah. - Yeah, and that's because my elementary school had a, you know, a bunch of math games. in organ trail and stuff. Also marble madness. We figured out how to like load that up on whatever Apple to GS floppy disc and play it. And you know, it wasn't very good on home systems on on NES or anything like that. And I will say not very good in the arcade either. It's just hard. It looks amazing. I love the aesthetic of it. I love the music. But yeah, it's just maybe I can maybe I could beat the second level. Yeah, I'm not getting in not getting anywhere past that though. It's a market joint and it's a trackball game. Yeah, I didn't know it was a markserny game. But the track ball is like, this is the whole thing, right? Like there's never been a game that's like benefited or been hard like, you know, playing this with an NES is just a nightmare. It's absolutely right. I mean, it's into the interesting challenge. Yeah, but like the track ball is like pretty cool. Like it's pretty good. Oh, man, look at those waves. That's so sick. It looks really good. Yeah, it does look really good. Yeah, and Mark's journey was under 18 when he made this game too. Wow. Cool. Yeah, tech again, just every year, the tech just goes crazier and crazier, right? For these arcade years. Until about until about 2015. Now it's like, now that's just over. Yeah, like after Arkham Knight came out, it's like video games don't need to look at this. Yeah. Okay, well 1985, we'll begin what I would call the Nintendo run. This is my first year too. Okay, all right. Well, then Justin wants you to share your pick. Super Mario Brothers. Yeah, same. How could it be anything else? Yep. I'm not going to troll, but picking something else. It was, it set everybody back on the video game track in the world. No, I mean, you know, Mario's jump was like, there's a lot that's revolutionary about Mario Brothers, right? Like it often gets ready. Oh, yeah, so there've been pitfall. There'd been a few other games that weren't like single screen arcade games before like scrolling screens did exist, but like, you know, Mario Brothers obviously took that to another level, but then also just the fluid movement was the big thing, right? Like that it wasn't sort of herky jerky jumping and running, but like physics and sort of the time that it took him to took Mario to accelerate and decelerate from his run. Like all of that, like no game had ever felt anywhere close to that good before Mario came up all the secrets to secrets all the rumors. Yeah. Do you remember how you heard about Mario Brothers when it was new, Damon? Yeah, I saw it. So I was used to going to Arcades and we go to show this pizza, which is like Chuck E. Cheese. And one day we went there and there was like a line to play a new game and it was super Mario Brothers. So I first encountered in the arcades and there's a line of people playing it. And so I get to got to know it there. And then one day I'm watching my cartoons and there's a commercial for the NES showing it's super Mario. You can play this exact arcade game at home. It was just a big deal, right? Yeah, yeah, it was you know, there's only slight changes with the graphics are exactly the same. Yeah. And still holds up to this day. It was such a big moment, like my cousins had the black box series of games and you know, some people had gyramite and stuff and the rob, but like when this came out, like this was Nintendo, like it was kind of synonymous and like the word got around about Nintendo. Yeah, exactly. And like and Mario was just it was just so much bigger than anything else. I remember playing this game for probably months without knowing you could run in it. Yeah, like you just don't know, you know, you have to read the manual sim. Yeah, yeah, you're killing innocent citizens. Yeah, you are. Oh, if I could read by that. It is, I mean, the game, the game doesn't get enough credit. I mean, maybe it does get enough credit, but like it is a little bit avant-garde of like you break out of the bounds of the game. I know Mario can run along where the score is. Yeah, that was a really big like that was the signal of like video games are a different medium than like movies or anything else of like that fourth wall break is really pretty cool. Yeah, good news to pretty pretty good music, but only like like I think it's less than two minutes of music. Yeah, the whole game is crazy. So Sam, what'd you pick for 1986? Okay, I picked Bubble Bubble. Oh my gosh. Wow. Okay. Good one. Good choice. Well, I picked a couple of co-op games coming up just because I have such good memories of like, you know, not having to like switch off and share a controller, you know, like to actually be able to play at the same time. Bubble Bubble is that first experience. Plus kind of introduction to Kauai and Japanese culture. It's Japanese stuff. It just didn't feel like anything in my life, aside from maybe duck tails or something, Disney, you know. Yeah, this is a kind of game that, you know, I was aware of. I didn't realize you learn later on in life that it was actually a really popular game and like families and siblings would play it together. Yep. Yep. What we I rented this, you know, as so much that I might as well bound it like I played this game so much. Justin, how about you for 1986? Well, I didn't know about Bubble Bubble. This was one of the lean years for me and I picked out run, which I don't have a particular game. No, but like I don't I don't I don't have an special affinity for it, but obviously I've gone on to play it as an adult and have a definite appreciation for outrun a little bit less for like the gameplay, which is fine. Like it's fine. It's fun, you know, fun arcade racing game, but just the color palette and the vibes and the music and the fact that you could like change the radio station and like, you know, all of that is what makes this game still stand out and be memorable to this game. And obviously the famous marketing line, but there's some truth to it of like, it's not a racing game. It's a driving game and that comes across in kind of the vibes and and just the feeling of like this Japanese game captures that California vibe really. And bonkers sprites. That's what I was going to say throughout this entire decade, throughout the eighties, Sega was obsessed with faking 3D and they just kept getting better and better and better until they had virtue a fighter. It still looks so good and it gets it lets every little kid achieve the dream of driving in a red sports car with the girl on your side. And then you get to flip the car when you crash. It's the best of all worlds, really. It's really cool that they have a passenger. I just think it's really it's it's just cute and funny to think about it that way. Like you're not an F1 race or you're just cruising. Yep. Yeah, that's great. Well, my pick, I guess maybe I'm fudging release years a little bit just to get the list of games that I wanted, but I went with Legend of Zelda for 1986 just because that was the heroes out in Japan. Yeah, I played through Legend of Zelda again during the pandemic and loved it. Still super playable and super fun to play today. It holds very safe. It's great with an old map to play along with it. Like that type of stuff really helps, but it's really fun and it just it's breath of the wild. So now people are kind of trained for this type of Zelda more than they were at the time, which I think is really cool. Yeah. And when I got this, I probably played it for an entire year, you know, just like, Oh, yeah, this will be a game that was kind of new thing. Yeah, it just felt like a whole whole world and that little gold cartridge in my NES. It was awesome. This out of the cartoon as well, which was really funny. Yep. Yep. Excuse me, Princess. Okay, 1987, Sam. 87 for me was Castlevania. Yeah. Just again, that kind of word of mouth vibe that like, you know, you know, again, like it was a cousins and friends like had this game that go over and just because it was just a stack of like horror movie references and felt like almost edgy and horror, like not not like a little kids game at the time. And then I just it was the best music. This game had the best music on the NES. It's so good. And all my friends knew the music for an NES game. It's crazy. You know, yeah. They like this level. People like this music the best I remember. I think this is out of all the NES games. The one if I had to fight for my life, you know, how far can you get in the video game without getting a game over in front of a live audience? It's this one and just and you get to death and that's it. Honestly, it's getting to Frankenstein and then there I usually drop the ball. Yeah, that one's so hard. Oh, they missed the meat. There you go. Yeah, yeah. So good. Yeah, I had a friend who introduced me to this game in here. I went over to play for a sleepover and we watched die hard and one of the Friday the 13's, like seven six or seven. Oh, yeah. And then we stayed up like all night long just playing Castlevania. Yeah, sick. I like in this game. You can you can there are boss weaknesses like Mega Man. And so like you if you like are really careful and you know, take the right weapons to each boss, they train you at the beginning by giving you the easy one in front of the bat in front of the deer. So well, not no, not for me. But yeah, I just think that's really smart. I was shook when I found out how easy Dracula could be as long as you had the holy water. I had no idea. And so I was like, just use the holy water, dude. I mean, like no death run the last level though. Yeah. Friendly reminder, we're only two months away from a new Castlevania game. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All right, Justin 1987. So I picked by the way, like I may be misunderstood the assignment slightly because I didn't pick I picked the game that at that time in my life was the one that like made the biggest impact on me more than like, you know, like modern me would, yeah, modern me would pick plane scape torment for like whatever year that came out, but like me back in the day probably pick Mario Party. So like, this is the first year that that comes into play just to okay. But anyway, I picked Mike Tyson's punch out. That's my thing or just yeah. I think it's absolutely top tier NES game. But for me, by the way, like speaking of like, you know, school yard rumors and stuff like that, it's like, I was so deeply confused because I had punch out and I found this to dream at the end of the game. And then my neighbor across the street had Mike Tyson's punch out and then he fought Mike Tyson at the end of the game. But what is What does this mean, is it a sequel? I don't know, but then it was all the same people. No, it's so playable. It's so good, maybe a little bit racist by modern standards, but it was the '80s, so no, like it's still-- I don't really have it. Some games is like, well, it was good for the era. It was good for the time. It's just dope. Yeah, it absolutely holds up. Some of the biggest and best sprites Nintendo ever put on a cartridge. And it's so full. Yeah, and it's really good to play casually. And it's also really good to learn the patterns. And each fight is also kind of like a puzzle. If you really want to take it seriously, yeah, it's so good. Yeah, it's a puzzle game. It's a shadow of the classes is a punch out like. No, I love-- that was my pick, too. Yeah, good. All right, then, good evening. In 1988, I would pick Super Mario Brothers 2. Yeah, I was hoping you'd pick that because that's easily the most important game for me from that year. But I picked Contra. So let's talk about Mario 2, because that's what I actually wanted to do. I love Mario 2. I think Mario 2 is actually a little underrated. Everyone-- oh, yeah. I-- everyone agree. Everyone loves Mario 3. I don't take anything away from that. In fact, that's on my list, too. But I think Mario 2-- it just just gets overlooked, I think, sometimes. Maybe because it's not truly a Mario game. I don't think it matters. Wait, what do you mean? Yeah. How much time do you have? The hype for Mario 2, I know there's the classic Mario 3 ad of seeing the world. But this was just as hype. So this game was a huge deal. It was as huge as any movie sequel that you'll remember from the time. It was a big deal. And Nintendo Power started to hype it. And I sat around in school with 20 other kids talking about Mario for three weeks before he saw the game. I love Mario's sprite. It has so much more personality than Super Mario. There's one. I also love just playing as different characters. And it's like they all have their own unique abilities. And for some reason, they would do the Scholastic Book Fair at my school. And they did these adaptations where they adapted video games that didn't really need adaptations into choose your own adventures. And this was a choose your own adventure book that they made. And this is how I fell in love with the game. Visualizing myself playing the game while I read the book is very key. That's good. It's got to be one of the smartest things Nintendo did at the air. Like they had a Super Mario Brothers 2 that would have been a disaster. They just smartly took this completely out of the game and wrapped it up with Mario stuff. And it worked. It was really great. Well, Mario 2 in Japan is just hard mode and annoying. And it's interesting now is like a quark of history. But this game is really accessible. And it has replayability with the four players. It's just a much better showcase of what the NES brought people, which is just like months and months of gameplay. Only PCs had that, right? But you picked Contra Sam. That's another great choice. Because co-op, but also because that Sam amalgamation of '80s qualities. Like it had the Rambo and the Alien. Commando. It's just that was the coolest thing you could appeal to four kids. They made a Rambo cartoon for kids, sometimes crazy. But it felt like big kids stuff, which helps. And then it's also like Mario 2. It's just more-- it doesn't work testable in the arcade game. You can play through it because you have a 30-life code. But that's the coolest code of all time. It's just really, really interesting to be like, yeah, we're going to put this game. You've won our arcade challenge. It's fine. If you just want to have your friends over, get a pizza and play this forever, then get 30 lives and figure it out. Yep. Everyone knows the Konami code because of this game. Yep. It's also in Gradius, but it's just a different vibe. Yeah. Contra was a lot more popular than Gradius, I think. I remember the inter-- like in between levels that faux 3D that they do. It pissed me off so much as a kid. It was so hard. Cool. And then Justin, how about you for 88? I picked Metal Gear, and I picked it for kind of a similar reason as Samov, like it felt like a big-- that's the first time I can remember playing a game be like, this feels mature. And this feels like this story twists and turns. And it's cheesy about modern standards. But back then, it's like the espionage story. And it's the first time I can remember, although I wouldn't have called it this when I was like five or whatever. But that game has environmental storytelling. You are parachuted into the jungle, and then you have to sneak into the base, and then you get deeper into the base, and you're rescuing people. It's telling you a wordless story, although there are words in it, too, by just where you go and what you explore. And that was it, I loved it. And the NES game is so hard, though. It is so hard compared to the MSX version. But you can smoke cigarettes. You can smoke cigarettes, and you can fell asleep. - I feel asleep. - I feel asleep. That's the worst type of all time, 'cause it means the opposite. Because if it actually meant that he's waking up, he's like, oh, fell asleep. And then that's when you try to sneak past him. But no, I feel asleep. You think he's about to go to sleep. - I think someone set us up the bomb. It's also from Metal Gear. - Yeah. - No, we have the bomb in your inventory, right? Like the bomb is planted in your inventory. - Yeah, it's from the Genesis game called. - A UN squadron. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, that one. - A UN squadron. - Wing commander, right? Or wing something? - If you think of zero wing, that's all your base are belong to us. - Mm-hmm, yeah. - But it. - I said, someone set us up the bomb. - Oh, they're both in the same room? - I think they're both from the game. - I think so. - Oh, wow. - Okay. - All right. All right, then. - Metal Gear was so ahead of its time, he had to dodge the cameras. Like, no one was doing that back in like the mid '80s. Like, it's crazy. - Could you, man? He was on to something. - Yeah. - Very Zelda-esque. - All right, it wasn't Metroidvania, too. (upbeat music) - For the final year of the '80s, I picked Mega Man 2. - Classic. - I was hoping somebody picked that. But not you. - No, I picked Sim City. - Me too. - Okay. - Yeah, well, interesting. Two Sim City, two Sim City's in a Mega Man 2. - I couldn't settle on a Mega Man. Like, I like Mega Man 3 so much. And I like Mega Man 2. And I played this non-stop, it's again, this and Contra and Castlevania have the best music. They're just so good. - Yeah, no, this is also a Nintendo power cover. Also a game I just love. The sprites, the large colorful sprites. This is like the best-looking NES games to me. - I like how by the time three came out, you could get one, two, and three. You could just play a lot of Mega Man by that point. I like, it was nice to have a game once a year. - Yeah. - Yeah, by that. I was on a thing that was established quite yet. - Yeah, I mean, they, there'd be four more. It's just come on just the NES alone after this game. - But yeah, it's just, you know, it's unfortunate because four came out so much later than, and then by that point, it was like the Super Nintendo was out. So the five and six came out to concur on Super Nintendo. So we played them. - But you both picked Sim City. Did you play it on a computer or would you not play it until the Super Nintendo? - I played on a PC, yeah. - Well, I played it on a computer. Definitely not in '89, but probably '91, '92. We probably played Sim City or had it on our, you know, DOS machine, and it was the first time I'd ever seen or been exposed to a video games where Mario and Excitebike and Punch Out and Metal Gear, and like playing a sim, like any kind of like PC sim game just was mind-blowing. Like I'd never experienced anything like that before. And, you know, don't put the industrial area next to the residential area and residential areas like to have parks next to them. Like, you know, it's very sort of basic stuff in a modern context, but like it was just, it felt unlike anything I'd ever seen before. - Yeah, really good graphics. I know this is hard to imagine, but like it looked better than the NES 'cause before the Super Nintendo, right? Looked amazing. And then Sim City 2000 was just incredible as a follow, but this was just fun just because like it, it was fun to cheat. It was fun to give yourself a bunch of money and then just see what happens in the in-states. This is asked, there's sort of interesting. It had a little tune that it would play. Like, everything about this game was, you know, set up to just feel like nothing else in existence. I mean, it's an interesting game for Nintendo to want for the Super Nintendo, but I guess they're thinking of uses for their mouse that they had that they were kind of right. - And a very cute will-right sprite. - And they keep a bowser in it. - I love that car traffic graphic. I forgot about that. - That's pretty good. - Yeah, this B-roll is deeply nostalgic to me. - Yeah, yeah, for real. I wanna play this. - Okay, well, now it is the 90s and there's time for clacks. When will a young fresh face Nick Lemone be joining us? - I'll be joining you in 1992. - Okay. - You're right, your arm's there. There's only one possible choice for 1990. - Yes, everyone agrees? - Yes, and be thrilled. - Hold on, hold on, wait a minute. What's about to happen? - Super Mario Brothers 3. - Yeah, okay. I mean, this is the first year that was hard for me between Final Fantasy and Mario 3. - Yeah, I did. - But I did think Mario 3. - Oh, Final Fantasy. - Yeah. - I mean, I love Final Fantasy 2. - Also. (laughing) - No one likes Final Fantasy 2 today. - Yeah, no. - I mean, Mario 3 is a candidate. If someone said it was the best game ever made or their favorite game ever made, no shade did any of the games we've had up to now. But Mario 3 is the warm, where I'm like, yeah. Totally. - I agree. - I agree. Yeah, I don't know what else is there to say about Mario through this point just so whimsical featured in the feature film Well, I featured in a commercial like after that like kind of like what we made a Mario 2 We made a different Mario 2 and blah blah blah then they just like sat down like no we need to make a really really good Super Mario brothers. Yeah. Yeah, it's like the first true, you know sequel that you know developed from the ground up to be a sequel to Mario And to use every bit of the NES's power. Yeah, you know, and it came out in 89 in Japan, which is like absolutely crazy I know, so that gives you an out to use to also have Final Fantasy in here Which I would say like if when I was a kid I probably liked Final Fantasy, you know more than Mario for at least a little Mario 3 for a little while, but then I came back to like Mario 3 more But just because Final Fantasy felt like the biggest Craziest big game ever, you know, like it felt like a solvers movie. They just went so hard on all aspects of this game Like watching this footage is like Mario is doing summer salts when he gets the star and like they went so hard on the music And there's eight worlds and each one has a different theme and a different soundtrack and there's airships and there's warp whistles Like it's just like it's unbelievable Yeah, he wants like the ghost ship stuff. Yeah, it's just like it's such a weird trigger that like when you didn't know what it was Yeah, you'll see a ghost ship, you know once in your entire childhood Exactly But it's like it's so big and massive. That's why it's crazy that Mario World came just the next year Mario World was 91 that's my pick for 91 like were they developing these games at the same time? They're just two different teams working on these games. I don't if it was 89 to 91 Then that gives you a little bit more time because they just waited and put it down. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess they did Yeah, if you look at the EGM reading a bunch of EGMs from 1989 They're talking about how the Sega Genesis and the topographies are coming but Nintendo is kind of just like they For them there was no sense of urgency because the NES was the still the biggest thing in the world They didn't need to rush a new console out for the U.S. They could buy their time Yeah, I picked Super Mario World for 1991 Nice. Yeah, this is this is the first year. Well, we could talk about Mario World first because I have a different pick Okay, and it's the first year that I mentioned me picking the game that was like you know formative for me at that point in my life Is different than like the game I would pick now as an actor as an adult I pick Mario World for sure. Yeah, I Did not you didn't pick Mario World. Okay. What do you think I didn't what do you pick? I picked Sonic the Hedgehog You said you weren't gonna do any troll picks Sonic the Hedgehog met the world to me. It was like the it was the coolest like I guess was the moment Which I was like this this Mario game looks like a baby game The marketing a thousand percent worked on me I was like I need to sell my NES and all my games and get a Genesis and I regretted it Yeah, so hard however, I did really like the first Sonic a lot and I played this like crazy at friends houses And then had to get a super Nintendo to eventually, but yeah, this this song. I mean just look how good it's it's a beautiful I have a vivid memory of like you know got a Sega Genesis or Christmas hooked it up playing Mario and like showing my dad I'm like look at this shit. I mean, that's not the word that it looks like Sonic Like look at how fast he is and look at how like you know and then my dad being like yeah I don't know it looks like Mario to me and then me getting all agitated that he couldn't like tell I was like so much faster and better You know, but the speed like you know we goof on Sonic a lot on the show But like like the speed back then in Mario one like was a real thing Like it was crazy like he's so fast incredible music too. I Agree in the music and I agree. It's a great looking game But there's never been a day of my life that I'd rather play Sonic than Mario world. I concur Those days for me we're all in 1991 since then I didn't feel that way But I would have rather played this in 1991 and also there is a little bit of thing happening things happening like where If you had a friend group where somebody already had a super Nintendo Then like you it was really great to like fill in the blank by getting a genesis And I was the genesis household I wake him up over my house play genesis games I go over there is to play the other stuff So I thought that was kind of a fun little results of the 80s. Yeah 90s. I mean Mario world. I love the overworld. I love the color palette of the game to me If I have any criticism of Mario about this three, I think it there's just it gets passed down and kind of brown I know that they're trying to like you know do as much as I can with the NES but the color palette On Super Mario world. It's just so it's clear greens blue. It's great. It's just a good looking game Um, I remember like reading in EGM before the game release about how it was using this mode 7 graphics and Mario on offense can spin around and he there's appeared to be a transparent fog in front of him So all this stuff was just completely captivating to me and I rented it I rented a super Famicom from video library in lenexa and you know played through all of Super Mario world Probably six months before the super Nintendo was even released in the US. That's how like Cool obsessed I was with playing this way. How how does she get it? I just uh and import system this video rental store They just they bought a super Famicom and you could rent it. That's incredible. Yeah, it was great And I filmed when I beat it. I filmed the ending on our camcorder I filmed the ending is fantastic too. I've never even seen the ending of song the Hedgehog. It's impossible to get there. Yeah Um, let it go and get all the Chaos Emeralds. I think it's not a fun game by the time you get to the end of it I'm beating Mario one, but I've never I don't know that I've beaten it with the Chaos Emeralds I'm not sure about that. You have to endure those three levels Those rotating levels. I mean they do vomit city Yeah, all those things you mentioned that Mario could do Sonic couldn't do any of those. It just had a really good marketing department. Yep But this is nuts Yeah, this doesn't look crazy. I played the Sega Ages version of this to finally like finish the game and man They do a lot of quality of life things, but they don't make it easy to get the real ending of the game The time Okay, 1992. We can start hearing from Nick. I'm here. What do you want to pick? I made it baby My my pick. It's probably gonna be a ubiquitous one. I think link to the past link to the past This game is one that again. This is I played this one. I was like five So this is me at zero retroactively or in the future thinking about it But uh, this is I didn't know how to read so every time I played the game I would just pick new game and I just remember being so obsessed with this little boy and You know, his dad leaves him and goes on an adventure and his dad dies in the dungeon I was like whoa like that can happen in a game like that's crazy And it's like my job now to do what my dad couldn't like that really stuck with me and I I think this game is just so magical from beginning and so many secrets So many optional things to find and I just love the idea that there's things that you could discover Yeah Zelda two had been such a departure And like I still liked it and played it, but you know, it was it did not have quite the same magic as as Zelda one So yeah kind of returning to a Zelda one style game really worked for me and seeing it on the beautiful super Nintendo graphics Gorgeous game. This is great. Well, well you guys are running around as a fat little baby with a sword It looks like you know a butter knife. I was playing sewer shark. Yeah Yeah, I almost picked sewer shark - yeah I didn't think this game was very fun I rented it and I and I liked it and I just didn't like Zelda by this point I didn't play I didn't like the original Zelda. I thought Zelda - was terrible And now all those games I like a whole lot. I mean obviously sewer sharks my favorite game of all time They'll never miss it now. It's just I didn't I didn't like the Zelda games I didn't I didn't feel it but I played this and I got to the point with a grappling hook and I was like that's really cool But then I had to put it back give it back to the rental store and I went back to not understanding a god damn thing About what's going on in sewer shark Yeah, I never played sewer shark, but it was kind of an infamous game You'd read about it and yeah in magazines and stuff like Is it mean is this three six nine? Yep. Yep. This is it's amazing This is like they actually filmed you know these wrap tube segments. It was relatively like Star Wars, right? I like how this looks looks really cool, but basically what you're doing is you're The actual game is that thing at the top. That's like a dragon's layer thing So see at the top there. It has the directional thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It'll tell you you need to turn Three six nine or which means right down left yeah, and that's the next couple turns you need to make and while you're doing that you're You're shooting wall sprouts and mega skin. Yep Yeah, the FMV cutscenes blew my mind as a as a young boy You would have played this one. It's really like that one. This is Sega CD. Sega CD. Yeah. Yeah And that's I was all in I got a Sega CD You know like nothing else was really out for it that I liked very much But you know again, we had rent every single Sega CD game We could and go through them all because they were really fun and they were targeted at me Who was what year was this? 11. Yeah, you know, I mean how great was that for an 11-year-old? It is cool I like the overlay in like your cockpit and how you can see through the windows on the sides That's like the footage is still scrolling past you that's that's cool. Yeah, I appreciate it on the CRT I mean those look at those lit up like tubes. They look awesome. Yeah, they are pretty cool. I mean, it looks it looks really cool It looks like Kalenwald city or like dead the Death Star or something like it's just cool. Yeah So I'll stop I'll stop caveatting it modern me would pick link to the past, but seven-year-old rolled me in 92, picked Mortal Kombat. That was the game that made the mark on me as a kid growing up, unbelievable ultra violent. I mean, I don't actually have too much to say about it. Like it's just the violence, right? Like the gameplay in Mortal Kombat games wouldn't become actually good until, I mean, you know, someone argue maybe never, but like, you know, it's Mortal Kombat 3. Yeah, but like Mortal Kombat 3 is when they kind of figured out, like, oh, we need to actually have like a good fighting game on top of this, but the digitized actors and, you know, kind of the ultra violence and the fatalities and the rumors around the fatalities and the toasty, which that may have only been Mortal Kombat 2. But like all of that was just, you know, like, never seen anything like it before. - So I can segue into the next year 'cause I chose Mortal Kombat 2 because they are just a complete, complete same gambler when they came out. 'Cause Mortal Kombat 2, you know, kind of solved all the problems and Mortal Kombat 1 on console, which was that you didn't have blood and you were in Nintendo, which looked so much better than the Genesis, right? Like, that was the big deal. But for both those games, they were also that time where arcades came back for different reasons for Street Fighter, but Mortal Kombat and NBA Jams have kept our arcade going for a little bit in the early '90s and like, I would go to the arcade and like, everybody was trying to figure out just like it in the documentary and watch Mortal Kombat. Like, I absolutely had people with, and I had done this too, printed out, ASCII, or not, you know, or in early internet printouts with the fatalities that people knew, the secret moves that people knew, and it was hard to pull them off on a joystick and buttons and, you know, we're like little kids doing this. It was really fun. Of course, there's big kids, smoking cigarettes, and it's all scary. - Yeah. I've never been much of a fighting game guy, but I love the aesthetic of Mortal Kombat. I always just want to see everything that it can do, everything that can happen, all the different ways to really die. It's great. So for '93, Sam, you pick Mortal Kombat 2. - Yeah. - I pick Doom for '93. - Nice. - Yeah. - Oh, I'm obsessed with Doom. - This is one of those games. It's still really fun and playable today. I love the look of it. I love the feel and the sound of it. It's the great, I could play this game any day and have a blast. - Yeah, it's so good. - I wish I knew what I knew back then was all the secrets, 'cause I used to be able to go to all the secret rooms and find them all. And I'd have to look that all up now, but I'm surprised like it's not like writing a bike for me. It's all gone when I play it now. - Mm-hmm, yeah. I love it. We never had a computer. My next-door neighbor had a computer and we'd play PC games like this, but I never had one. So I never really fully experienced this game until they released it on Xbox Live Arcade. - Oh, I love it. - The first time I played through the whole game. - Yeah. - I had me to box Doom collection. That was from maybe '94 or something, '95. - Yeah, they used to make, I was sorry. Yeah, but they used to do this thing where it would be like unauthorized. You'd buy something from the bookstore and the mall that would be like 800 Doom levels. And then like, they're all just mods. Yeah, like it's just mods and unauthorized things and packs like that. And like that was like the way that I played Doom and then I didn't sort of experience the canonical game that much until the XBLA version as well. - And hindsight, I feel very lucky that my parents like they knew about what movies I should be watching and what games I should be playing, but never talked to me about them. Just monitored from a distance. And I never, they never said a damn thing. And my dad would help me get games like this running on the, you know, that's cool. - That's very cute, yeah. - It's another game that is an early example of really strong environmental storytelling of like you descend into hell as you're fighting these demons. And it gets, you know, you leave the facility and like go into their kind of like hellscape. And it's also another example. Sort of like the original Mario of like, the Doom guy rips around these stages. Like he's so fast. And like just the character movement is just like, it just has a great game feel, but I don't think necessarily gets enough kind of like credit when people talk about it. - If a game before this used exploding barrels, I can't, I couldn't tell you what it was. It might be the first appearance of that. And so smart to show the Doom guy is damn it. Take your damage on his face, it's so good. - Yeah, the outside, when you go outside on Mars, it's like the coolest thing in the world. How could video games be this big? It's like really amazing. And then also the monsters later on are super cool. Like the big brain with the legs. - Yes. - Oh great. - The double barrel shotgun, one of the finest shooting and reloading animations I've ever seen and experienced in a game. - Yeah, it feels good. All right, Nick for 1993. - '93, this is a recent addition, just because I didn't really have anything good to pick when I looked at all the games it released. I played this for the first time when they released. I believe it's called Castlevania Requiem, but Castlevania, Rondo of Blood, one of the finest action platformers ever made. Incredible music, incredible sprites, incredible anime cutscenes, so brutally difficult. You can do cool, he didn't move. If you know how to push the buttons, secret levels, alternate endings, alternate characters. Just, again, also I think Richter Belmont is one of the coolest looking video game sprites I've ever seen. This game rules so hard. - Yeah. - It's a turbo graphics game. - PC Engine. - PC Engine. - PC Engine. - But it would be released in the US for the Super Nintendo, right? In kind of like a bastard. - Yeah, like a bastard. - A bastard. - Yeah, wait, yeah. - It is unplayably bad. - But this is why-- - It's not playable. - This is one of those games we need to read EGM, and they talk about Japanese games they've checked out. They would sing this game's praises. They'd be like, I hope they bring it out over here. I want to play this game so bad. - Look at the intro of the where we'll boss battle. So bad ass, like it's so cool. This game just oozes style, huh? - Yeah, it's awesome. That's a good pick, that's a really good pick. Justin, do you have something different for 93? - I picked Doom. - Doom, okay, cool. All right, well, Justin, I think I know what you picked for 94. - Yeah, no, yeah. - Super Metroid. - Yeah, Super Metroid. That's my pick to you, by the way. - Yeah, favorite game of all time, and yet another example of very, very strong environmental storytelling. I mean, no, look, it's a perfect video game of like a perfect marriage of exploration and platforming and combat and gunplay and level ups and secrets and puzzles. And you know, it's this stuff that sort of become a little bit kind of like trite or expected now, but was a lot bigger deal when this came out of like you would get a power up and then it would recontextualize areas that you'd been to before and could revisit. Like all of that was like such a big deal back then. And it just felt so moody and like, you know, oppressive the just the environments that you were going through. Man, what a great, what a game. I play through it once a year, you know. I like, it's just that feeling of like I wish I could go back and play it for the first time, but I can't like now I can get through it and like, you know, and I'm not a speed runner. So like, you know, two, three hours, yeah. - Even from the title screen, the title screen is so moody. And they showed you're these dead scientists allowing on the floor and the music like Nintendo. - Family friendly Nintendo had never done anything like that before. - I played on a CRT TV and imagine how mind blown I was when I played the game later. And I'm like, oh, those are all dead bodies on the screen because I did not clock that when I was playing in fuzzy SD resolution. - Yeah, yeah. - Because I'm a big dork. My Instagram feed like real algorithm is people experiencing different retro games for the first time. And I always stop and watch people trying to discover the wall bounce for the first time in this. And how the game shows you what you can do, but it's up to you to kind of put the two and two together to actually wall bounce. And it's so, so exciting to see people discover it. - Yeah, the super Metroid was my pick for this year, but I think this year would have a lot of different, this is the year that Final Fantasy 6 came out. - Which is my pick. - Yeah, I knew other people would pick that. - Yeah, although the game was called Final Fantasy 3. - Correct. - That's for Super Nintendo. And that's what we all knew it as until just last year, I think weird people started bringing that in like their, yeah, exactly. Yeah, I picked that one. I didn't play Metroid at the time. I only played the software I played. My friends all had it. I played it at their house or I watched them play it, but I didn't play it all the way through until I played Metroid Prime. So, Final Fantasy 6/3 is definitely my pick for this year. - I could almost go either way. That's also a completely valid. - 6 is incredible. The first time I ever experienced it again, I still couldn't read at this point. So just constantly doing new game over and over. And I always get to the bit in Narsh where you have to split the party and there's like mobs that you can send down different pathways to encounter bosses. And that was just like, like the discovery of Narsh is just like, well, this is like a snowy setting. There's like magic and technology. Like this is pretty weird. Like I didn't know you could make a world like this. And I just remember being so obsessed with the title screen music, like when the credit opening crawl and you hear the do do do do do do do do do do do. Just like, whoa, the presentation on this just blew me away as a kid. And again, this is a game that I probably revisit once every two years at this point is, I think I would argue this is actually the best Final Fantasy even though it's not my favorite. - A lot of people would agree with you. - See how many of you wanna add about it? - Well, yeah, that intro music when the max are walking. Have you seen how they've like discovered where the clip art is for the cliffs in the background of that? - No. - Cool, just like all that stuff's kind of being discovered now and it's really neat. - That's awesome. - Yeah, so this game, the anecdote that I always remember, the most fondly is that EGM2 probably had game genie codes whereas like, you know, this game is not what you think of for a game genie game, but they've made it so crazy. And I would, I could start a save and you could start it like 999998 or whatever. You get the Atma weapon and just go through the game like on a speed run. That was really fun. But I liked how this game had things like you could chain the Genji glove and something else and get like 8x attacks and like, you know, there was all the optional characters and optional fights. And then I just have the best memories of Final Fantasy 1 and 3 playing through the print strategy guide. And it really got me into strategy guides. Like that's what I loved about it. And real quick, just revisiting this in a modern context, you know, as an adult with a big brain now, at least allegedly, is that every, the way the game is kind of designed its entire single players, choreographed and done in a way where it's forcing you to think about every single encounter in a way that I never really thought about in Final Fantasy. There is typically a gimmick to every boss battle and I really appreciate that. Okay, well, speaking of Square, so I stopped at the time for 95 I went with Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger here as well. My favorite game of all time. Wow, that's cool. This is why I haven't played a long time, but yeah, I played this in my in the dorm room at the University of Kansas and hashing your halls, him. This is where I played all of the credit sugar. Yeah, that's so cool. I know it well. Yeah, so cool like visiting all the different time periods, like incredible music. Really feeling invested in the story and the characters. I mean, I think this is the first time that I became aware of the presence of a country Japan, you know, like the idea that was like, wait a second. Chrono kind of looks like Goku from Dragonball. My brother would show me episodes of Dragonball, like what's going on here? And then, you know, low and behold, it's all kind of interconnected. It was like, what do you mean the Final Fantasy guy? One of the Final Fantasy guys designed this game. Like, this is incredible. What's happening here? This is just incredible sprites. One of the most beautiful pixelated games I think I've ever seen. Incredible music. And I think it's the perfect length for a JRPG. It's like 20 hours. Yeah, 30 hours. If you want a hundred percent, it's pretty short. I think it's much smaller than Final Fantasy III. Yeah, yeah. A lot of endings, though, which I'll also kick ass because they're all like, what do you mean? There's 18 13 endings. HD2D remaster, please. Oh, yeah. That'd be an ordeal. That'd be interesting. I'm surprised. Like, Damon, you're probably the only person I know in my entire life that played this when it came out. I didn't know anybody that knew this Square Enix games before Final Fantasy VII were pretty obscure for Square Enix games. And then, like, this one was obscure because it wasn't a Final Fantasy, right? My friends played Secret of Mana. That is very true. There's been some, like, I don't want to say revisionist history. I don't know the phrase for it. But like, kids these days don't necessarily know that like, Chrono Trigger was not like, this was a game that built over like a decade of like, you can find old message or person like, you know what, a role-playing game is actually pretty good. There was this game on the Super Nintendo, called Chrono Trigger. Like, it wasn't the game until like, until later. Yeah. That's exactly right. The editors of EGM at the time knew that it was a great game and they were spreading the word. And so I'm sure that's where I learned about it. Yeah, I never bought games at that age. My brothers are the ones who chose the games. And I just, I think inherited their taste as a result. But the editors in Nintendo Power were squarely focused on the console launch of this year, which was the virtual boy. So my favorite Mario's tennis for the virtual play, which I love. I still love it. It's really playable and awful for 10 minutes. Both things can be true at once. And I was, I played tennis as a kid growing up. Like, I love the idea of, you know, a Mario tennis game. This was the first one I ever played and they did a good job with it. And it was all red and black. And I was fully in. Just like with Sewer Shark. Is it is it the best that I wanted to play this Christmas? Is it the best virtual boy game? Well, the model of the virtual boy games ended up coming out right after the Christmas holiday. And so this was the 1995 game. But also it launched with Mario Clash, which is a pretty good, just Mario brothers vanilla clone with 3D. No, the best virtual boy game is either Nestor's funky bowl and water. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for getting to the correct answer. Justin, would you pick for 95? Warcraft 2. Oh, cool. That's great. You know, it was another case of I've shared a couple like, I was 10 years old when this game came out. I think I've shared this story before of like, we were at some party, some adults party. And I was the only kid there. And I got sent down to the basement and I'm on their family computer. But they just had, it was just covered in video games all over the desktop. And I didn't know what any of them were. I didn't know what was going on. I was 10 and I fired up Warcraft 2. And like, I just never, I didn't know real-time strategy was a thing. I didn't know that there was strategy games. I didn't know, you know, anything about anything. And like, that game is another one that's still, I mean, this FMV cut seems funny. But like, the actual gameplay is still really playable and really funny and just clicking on the units. And I remember being really fascinated that, you know, you gather gold in that game and you gather wood as your resources. And the wood you chop down from trees that go away. Like, there's a finite amount of them. And so, you know, like, you would, you would have to, you would clear out the whole forest and then have to gather wood somewhere else. And just like, just a great, just really formative core memory for me of like, oh, like strategy games were a thing. And I think I liked them. And then I discovered, Command and Cocker came out that year too. And I think I was on that shortly after as well. I can't believe it's already Warcraft 2 by this point. The original Warcraft is not fun in a modern context. And Warcraft 2 still is, like, it still holds up. Yeah. I've never seen those cut scenes. Those were like from a CD-ROM version or something. I don't know. Yeah. I guess. That's great. Yeah. A few years later, when I did get my first computer, I would play Warcraft 2 and 3 and love them. I don't know why these strategy parts of this series had to disappear. That's a bummer. Yeah. Seriously. It should be yearly, right? Yeah. Okay. I would hope we all have the same game for 96. Yeah. Yeah. I picked Mario 64. Mario 64. I see. I knew everyone was going to pick that. So I went with another one. Okay. Well, we'll talk to Mario 64. Mario 64. I was tempted. I was tempted to pick Suikoden, but I did not. This is just one of those times in my life when I've played a video game and everything blew my mind. Change. I first played it at that same video running store that I rented the Super Famicom on a kiosk and just controlling Mario in 3D. Nothing would be ever be the same after that. And like, they got so much right for the first 30 platform. I can plane about the camera today that you don't, you can't control the camera, but they got so much right with their first try. It's crazy. Yeah. Analog sticks solved all the problems. It also told me what I love to do in most 3D videos. I love to explore. That's what I want to do in my 3D videos. Yeah. Exactly. And I think that kiosk thing brings back so many memories from me. I remember playing this so much at a Toys RS kiosk. And then thinking like, well, I don't really want it in 10 to 64. But my best friend had one. So played it at his house all night long. Some nights. Yeah. Yeah. Like as soon as like Friday would come along, I just remember being a kid staying up all night. Just wait. You're allowed to do that. You know, it's crazy. I mean, this is a game that taught me at a very young age. The really the only thing a video game needs is a long jump and shmovement. And you're good to go. If it feels good to move around your game, I'm in. Maybe, yeah. Maybe throwing a buttstop in there. Do you remember there's a puzzle you have to solve by looking at the ceiling and you see the sun. Yeah. Yeah. You transported to another level. Yeah. Is that for like unlocking metal Mario or something? That's for the sky cap. But to be fair, there's a god ray. So you kind of are it's this hint that you're supposed to. Sure. Yeah. But it's a pretty weekend. Yeah. And I remember like, you know, like being, I don't know, like a way for a day or something and coming back and my friend was like, I just, I just discovered this and just explained it to me. Yeah. You know, just like, this is I looked up at the sky and I did all these things and I was like, that's insane. I also really like the justification for the 3D as being you are watching Mario from the perspective of a lack of two. And when you enter a room that has one of the done levels has a mirror. You can see the lack of two behind you when you're looking in the mirror. And it's so cute. It's such a clever photo. You know, like he shows up in the board room one day and everybody's like, we got the camera working and he's like, yes, but who is holding everybody's like, this was the game. This was the game. This was the game that set me on the path. This came out and I said, I am going to do video games for a living and it set me on my path. I'm on still to this day. But what did Nick pick? So I, because it was also very special to me, my family owned a fairly good like IBM computer and my brother owned. And this is what I would have to play with my parents weren't watching. It was the share with the first shareware episode of Quake Quake. And I just, I played Quake non-stop. I was not very good at it. And I played whatever I could in the level before I could like, I would get motion sick playing that game. So I would play as far as my stomach would allow me. But it was the first time I was like, I physically can't play this game. But I want to more. And I once they did the remaster on like the the game past thing. I revisited that game and destroyed it. It is so fun. It still holds up. And at Quake on this year, they just announced a brand new campaign for the original Quake with music from a nine inch nail still. What? Yeah. It's nuts. And it's made by machine, and it's made by machine games. I heard that part. Yeah. That's really cool. In this engine. Yeah. Yeah. It's a Quake one, new Quake one chapter made by the best people making first person and shooters on the planet. I thought it was insane. I thought it was a big deal. the Witcher 3. Good trend though. Yeah, that is a good trend. Make new stuff for old games since a new video games and new hardware is too expensive. So just makes new stuff for old games, makes a new perfect dark levels. Is something happening here? What is what is supposed to be happening? Is it a boss fight? Yeah, he's shocking the demon. Okay, by stepping on the Oh, so you got him. He got him. All right, I've made a game time decision that we're going to call this part one and we're going to cut it off at 99 so we can get three more years. We're like, oh my gosh, we're going to be forever. Yeah, we are. This is just part one of this, you know, this is a big project. 1997, I picked Castlevania Symphony of the Night. If this was a difficult one for me, but ultimately in my heart, I knew that it was this was one of the ones that hurt my heart to pick. Oh my gosh. Okay, well, that's I think I think symphony is a top 10 game for me. I can play it. I like to play it every year. I never get never gets old in the midst when everything was going 3D. This is just the best looking 2D game that had ever been made. And I think it's probably my favorite game on the entire PlayStation. But what did you pick? I mean, it's Final Fantasy 7. Okay. It's got to be finally the single most important game to me in my entire life. Yeah, it shaped so much of who I am and what I enjoy and I I mean, there's been volumes written about Final Fantasy 7. Yeah. But Castlevania was also in the short list, but I was like in my heart, I got to choose Final Fantasy 7. There's about to wrap up an entire huge remake of Final Fantasy 7. Fun fact, though. Well, I would rent Castlevania Symphony and I never owned it. My cousin and I rented it and he stayed over at my house for the weekend and we played the game, but we played the opening bit where you fight Dracula and then you beat Dracula and then there's a title crawl. Again, we weren't great at reading at this point. I was like five and I was just like, well, I guess that's the end of the game because the titles go and there's like a bunch of texts and I was like, well, that's the end of the game. And then my cousin was this point and he goes, well, that sucked whatever. And he left. And then I was like, well, let me see what happens when the text finishes. And then I was like, why? There's a whole other game here. Yeah. Very, very similar situation with my buddy and I. Okay. Yeah. Uh, Sam, did you pick Symphony the Night? No. I think I thought I only had one chance to kind of break into this other theme here. And I chose medieval madness because it's the best pinball machine of all time. Oh, well, that was 97. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And like, I like Castlevania games a little bit more and a little bit less than this Castlevania and I like a lot of games a little more less, but they are both contenders for me as well. Cool. And Justin, I picked goldmine. There you go. This was there was there was a few years that really hurt my heart to pick. And like Castlevania Symphony the Night. Now is my second favorite game of all time at Super Metroid. And Final Fantasy 7 was probably the first JRPG I played contemporarily. Oh, no, no. I played Final Fantasy, but like I was not like it was it opened my eyes to the world of JRPGs than it caused me to go back and revisit all the 16 bit ones I'd missed. But Goldnye, I wonder, like sometimes I think about when I die, I want to get stats on my life, like how much did I do this or that. And like, there was a chance that Goldnye hour for hour might be the video game I played most of my life, because this is all me and my friends did. This is all we did for years. This play, Goldnye, you know, I guess we did eventually maybe graduate to Perfect Dark. So it's like it's hard for me to separate the two out in my mind. But, you know, obviously the multiplayer, right? Like, you know, it's incredible for its time. It's not really very playable today. No, it's like 12 FPS. Not very fun. But like, but also the campaign, you know, that it had as the difficulty level went up, it did more than just scale enemy health and damage. But like, you actually it made the levels more complex and you had more objectives and more things you had to do in the levels on hard mode compared to easy mode. Like, that was a really big deal. And all the different weapons was a really big deal. The digitized faces was a really big deal. This guy is struggling to hit that head shot. But this is it, like they had ported doomed to consoles. But this was the first FPS on consoles. Like, that really like took off and they made it work. They figured out the way to make that work. When I was in the dorms at KU, this was the biggest thing that everyone was playing in the dorms. This was it for like a three-year stretch every Christmas Eve. It's like, okay, who's bringing the N64? I'll bring my two controllers. You bring your one controller and you bring your one controller and just hours with my family playing this game. I do remember Perfect Dark being a, you know, just as big. Yeah. I think it's a little bit weird that people keep talking about 007, but they just bled blurred right together at the time. Yeah. It obviously got Perfect Dark and loved it. Yeah. In my opinion, Perfect Dark was an improvement in every way, but yeah, the golden I was a bigger, it was just a bigger cultural touchstone. All right, for 98, I picked Ocarina of Time. Yep. YouTube. Yep. Which we just revisited last year, Sam, and yep, still holds up. Still super fun today. It will be really interesting to see how they handle this remake that they supposed to be out soon, but they haven't shown us anything of it except for that little teaser. And we apparently a controller leak today. Yeah, controller. console. Since that virtual boy Christmas, I had basically stopped playing video games because I was so burned by the virtual boy and by the 32x before that. But as I said, I'd played Mario 64, friends, houses and stuff like that. But this was like after playing this, this, whatever. I guess it would came out November. And I remember being home from college in 1999, I think, and finally deciding to go back and purchase a 64 by that point because I'd for a year when wanting this game. Yeah. I mean, after this game, it was for years, it was just taken as a given that this was the best game ever made. No one ever questioned it. That's another thing that like if you're a younger listener, like sharing some context of what it was like back in the gig day, like this game was on a pedestal, like, you know, could not be surpassed as like undeniably, undisputably the greatest video game of all time. And then I actually think that like breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom being so good, kind of like retroactively sort of made it easier to sort of knock Makau Kareena off that pedestal. I think Majora's mask kind of heard it's reputational. Yeah, you might be right about that in a modern, you know, you start, you started hearing it like, I actually like Majora's mask more was something that it's very common that more than Majora's mask was so weird and felt a little bit retro when it came out that it kind of made it seem like both those games are kind of old school suddenly. Yeah. I mean, the restraint, it's hard to sort of think about playing this game for the first time because we all know it so well now. We know the dungeons and we know the flow of the game. But like you play like it, you're in the game for like a while, like quite a while before you get a high rule field. And then when you do go, you're kind of rushing to the castle. You don't really get a chance to explore like it just, it just really feels really special in the way that it's all paced out and there's strength that it sort of has is really, I mean, it's a really, really special game. And I know what Nick's going to say, he couldn't read at the time. So he was really surprised when he found out that you got the three gyms and then there were six more dungeons after that. This is, that was a twist. This is 98, this is 98. And I could read at the age of six. That was good. I think Chrono, Trigger and Final Fantasy and Pokemon helped teach me how to read. jokes on you. There's no words in this game. No, I mean, I just love that there was optional items that you could find in this game. Like a dins fire and stuff like that. And also the different tunics. I was obsessed with like blue tunic link. I was like, that's the coolest dude ever. Or sometimes you'd be like, I could have solved all of this with these bomb chews from the start of the game. Did anyone know? This was not actually, yeah, I did not, but I did not pick this one. I chose a game that, again, I will not deny the greatness of a green of time, but it is, to me, there was a one game that just is more ingrained in my DNA. And it's Square Enix's Parasite Eve. As you could tell in that 10-year window, I was very square soft-pilled. Parasite Eve was I think, still, I think one of the coolest games ever. It's a horror turn base. Well, actually, no, it's a horror like action RPG with fantastic music from Yokoshima Morah, who would go on to do kingdom hearts and stuff like that. And I love the character of Iabreya. I think that the game is scary. And it has, I would argue, the single coolest police track, like police department music track of all time. It's hyper funky, so good. Oh, man, what a game. Also, another short RPG, maybe about 10 to 15 hours. Yeah, yeah. I still understand what this game is. It's like 3D rendered acts like Final Fantasy VII kind of. Yeah, but it's not quite, all right. It's like, look at these shots. So weird. Yeah, I guess it's a pre-rendered background. Pre-rendered backgrounds with 3D graphics. This was actually originally the concept for Final Fantasy VII that was going to be set in New York with Detective Joe, but they've quickly adapted a Japanese novel called Parasite Eve. And they did this instead. What's the best way to play this today? Probably through the PlayStation store. I would assume that it's available there. I played this on, I still have my PS1, so I still play this every now and then. This is the game I was hyper aware of at the time, but just never played for whatever reason. It's, it's really good. And Jesse, you picked something different? I did. This is another one that was really, really hard because Banger. Kazooie came out this year. Yeah, it came out this year. 98 is a credible candidate for like best video game year of all time, but I picked Starcraft. There you go. It's another one like this is when I was, you know, I was 13 and so I was kind of unleashed. to just be on the computer and had unfettered access to the internet. And so, you know, StarCraft 2, every single day after school, not StarCraft 2. But like StarCraft, you know, play on big game hunters was the map that's all anybody played on. And it was it was 8V8 and then you would turn up and then just carry your rush the other player and like, I don't know that I actually have too much to add to this StarCraft discourse. But like, that's my enduring memory of like that entire year was coming home and playing StarCraft after school, basically every single day. But also and Ocarina of Time and Banjo Kazooie, what a time to be alive. What a time to be, you know, to be a teenager. Yeah. If Ocarina of Time hadn't come out that year, Banjo would totally be my pick. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And, you know, what we're looking at here if you're watching the show is the single player campaign and like, that was also really good. Like, you know, better, like way better and way more to it than they're, than they really needed to or like, like the campaign goes really hard and the storyline is like 30 missions. Do you play 10 missions as each race and like, you know, there's a lot of twists and turns and it's like, you know, they didn't, they just went really, really hard with this game in a way that like, they didn't necessarily need to. But yeah, I got like the multiplayer, the latter used like an ELO system like it ranked you like you didn't chess and like, I got really, really, really good at the StarCraft do ladder and, you know, never, never that close to like the pro level, but like, I played that game at a very, very high level, probably the highest level multiplayer of any game in my life. Mm-hmm. This is another game that I would play later when I finally had a computer. I like, what, what makes these graphics so different than console the time is the resolution of the monitor? Because like, it just looks so cool and different. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it. Yeah. It's just, yeah. It's just so sharp and different looking all the shadowing. Well, I also don't think we're looking at like a remastered StarCraft 2, but I don't know that I can separate out the remastered, so yeah, I think it looked like this is the original. Cool. For the last year of this part one, 1999, I picked Tony Hawk's Pro skater. Yeah. That's tough because Tip 2 was kind of the big one. Yeah, that's exactly. I was going to pick one and then I, yeah, except two came out in a year on another game. I would have to pick. I like one better than two. And I played both of these to death. Like, at the time I worked for the mail department at KU, like the campus mail, yeah. And I worked there with my friend and we would load up a truck, a pickup truck, and drive the mail around campus. And when we'd done with our deliveries, we'd go back to the mail room and we had a play station hooked up with Tony Hawk and just played this over and over and taking turns trying to complete challenges and unlock stuff. These games are so awesome. They also help shape my musical taste at the time. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. I mean, I played a lot of Tony Hawk 1 over this Christmas break and I had kind of forgotten that the entire game, the entirety of Tony Hawk 1 is just the two-minute time attack. And like, you know, later games would add a little bit more, you know, secrets and collectibles. And obviously they got much more story based later on. But like, even by Tony Hawk 2 or 3, you had a few more objectives. But the original was way more kind of like just a hardcore arcade experience than I remembered. And, you know, finding the optimal line. Great game. Let's just Tony Hawk and his positivity and bring skate culture to the masses. I was just great. Everything about that was a positive part of the '90s. I mean, we were all doomsday prepping this year, right? Yep. This is the last rock. Nice rock. It was around the corner. Nick, would you pick for 99? 99. This is at the height of my Pokemon fever. So Pokemon Gold was the one to me that was like nuts. I mean, I think this 99 marks like-- That's the Japanese release date for Pokemon Gold. Yeah. No, I think this is the American release. I believe 98. It came out in-- Well, it's over 2,000, right? Oh, is it? Oh, then I might be mistaken then. But regardless. Yellow is 99. Oh, wow. Then I take it all back. My life is alive. But in that case, it'd be Pokemon Snap. But again, just-- I'm not too wrong. Just indicative of the Pokemon fever. While we're talking Pokemon Gold, I just-- I love the berry mechanic. This is the first game that had a night and day cycle. And it also had-- You would have to tune the time when you started a new game because the time reflected what time of day you were playing. And you could plant berries. And they would grow into trees after a day. And you could start to min-max these different berries to get your different attributes and things like that. I believe this is also where they added Pokemon breeding for the first time. So you could start to create perfect Pokemon and things like that. And just, again, beating the game and being allowed by being able to explore the original game inside of the sequel was nuts to me. And it also-- one of the finest secret last bosses in a game. What's up? The post game added in the first game? Yeah, exactly. That's the one. It has been debugged since that Satori Wada basically optimized the game. But he did optimize the game enough to help them put this secret game, but that was always the plan from the beginning, which is like a new revelation. But the secret boss being the trainer from the first game who's, like, level 70 blast-oice, level 70 charge are so cool. Yeah, and the first game is so tiny that, in hindsight, when you see a map of it, you're like, oh, that makes sense. Yeah. I actually chose Pokemon Yellow because I love the first one hit 151 Pokemon. I think they're all the coolest designs. I think it's called Silver Ruin Pokemon. It's never made more Pokemon. No, I really love the 151. I love Chonky Pikachu, that's my own game at the time. And I actually think Red Blue Yellow is pretty bad as a game. But it introduced Pokemon. And it was just anime, which I watched all the time in college as a joke. And it was so funny and goofy. And it was for little kids, but it was Nintendo. So it was like, this is crazy that this is the biggest pop culture moment on Earth. And my friends were freshman in college. And it was fun to kind of just be involved in the people that really like this. And I'd be like, you guys are way too into this. And then I ended up knowing everything about it. I just love that. It was a good time. Good time. Great game. Good day, man. This was the biggest thing in my dorm, which is really weird to say. Really? Because I thought it was for little kids. But people were-- I was playing whatever wing commander on my PC or something. And then you have to have everybody who's playing Pokemon on campus. Weird. Yeah, that's weird. Even though I wouldn't become a Pokemon guy, I had read, read, played that one, and was into it for a while. We played the card game. And we went to see the movie and theaters. There was a moment where I was-- Because it was new from the Nintendo movies there, yeah. That's exactly what my proximity was like. About of Poké Fever. Yeah, yeah. All right, Justin. And let me just be frank here, too. Girls were really into Pokemon, all right? And so I didn't hurt to know about Pokemon if you were interested in hanging out with girls, because they weren't playing wing commander. All right, Justin, what was your pick? Yeah, I have to give a special shout out to Grandia, which is-- Yeah. --one year in gear to my heart. They came out in '99. But it's not my pick. I also have to give a second shout out to Planescape Torment. Yeah. Until Disco Elysium came out, there's a credible argument that Planescape Torment might have been the best written video game of all time. Just like every single character. Yeah, but every character you meet is just so interesting. And you can get into arguments with them, and they can kind of be like, would have you considered this point of view? And I'm like, I hadn't. And I just had never played a game like that. But again, in the spirit of I'm picking the game that made an impact on me, at that time in my life, it is Mario Party in 1999. There you go, nice. I picked a Mario Party, but it wasn't for this year. Yeah, the original Mario Party is just infamous, rightly so, for just having absolutely hand-destroying mini games in it. Several where you have to twirl the analog stick as fast as you can. And then people figured out the way to do it was to do it with a palm of your hand. And then you would end up with these, like, on your finger. Yeah, because the stick has this concentric grip circles on it. And it was just perfectly designed to grind into your hand. Yeah, we played it a lot in my friend group. And, you know, I just, I still remember. I mean, many of the mini games, it's in '99. So it's like well over 20 years ago, are still-- like, they're still appearing in Mario Party games to this day, like, the one where you're all on top of the balls. And you have to try to bounce them off. Yeah, I see. It's a very good one. Yeah, it's great. Great game. Have a lot of fond memories of the Mario Party franchise. And this is the one that started it all. I think Smash Brothers might have come out this year, too, but I think I picked it. I have a later smash on my list. All right, well, that wraps up part one of games of our lives. 78 to 99. And, like I said, I think we talked about a lot of good video games. A lot of them. We'll continue and conclude in the future. It might take a couple of weeks, because next week Nick is going to be-- you're all ready to be in the UK. On your way to Germany for games come. All four of us will be in games come. And we'll do a gamescube, but I think Justin will have headed home already by the time we're recording. But at least-- What day do we record on Saturday? I think it's Saturday. Saturday. OK. I was a TBD on that, but yeah. Regardless, we will have a gamescube from gamescom. And there should be a gamescube next week as well. But part two of games of our lives will come probably sometime after gamescom. Please be excited for that. For now, though, that's all the scoops we have for you this week. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you to Joe and everyone working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is hygiene gamescube. in route.