Just hanging out in front of my island's Starbucks (with Brewster) in Animal Crossing New Horizons
While I started putting some other posts together about some life events that had enough of an impact (memory-wise) to make me want to write about them, I started to have some concerns about referencing other people within my recounting of these events. The last thing I want to do at this point is offend.
While I intend to wrestle with this issue tomorrow while sitting in The Chair, I have decided to write about some of my favorite games / franchises & game-playing memories. I am excluding games / franchises that I had anything to do with. I just wanted to send a shout-out to all of the talented people who made these games / franchises. You had a real impact on my life, and my enjoyment of it.
These aren't in any particular order (other than that of the way my brain decided to pull them to the fore-front)...
This one came in a zip-lock bag!
Ultima I - Lord British / Richard Garriott
Due to some wonderful luck at the time, my family had a loaner Apple //e (from Apple themselves)! Once you have the "razor", you gotta go and get some "blades" for it...
I saw Ultima in its zip-lock baggie, and just had to have it! I went home to my apartment and started playing. Two days later I realized that the weekend was over and I had to get cleaned up so that I could go to work. I was beyond hooked on this game!
I then introduced it to many of my friends. This was both a good thing and a bad thing:
- Good - Since I played D&D with these folks, they all immediately appreciated what kind of game Ultima was
- Bad - They all wanted to roll-up their own characters so that they could play too
I couldn't deny my friends, so we started using a kitchen timer to regulate play - when the timer went "DING!", your hour was up, and it was time to let the next person play. We all had a blast playing (although it slowed my progress through the game horrifically)!
I have other Ultima stories, but I will save them for some other time(s). Just let me say - Mr. Garriott you got me hooked on computer gaming for good!
Thank you Dan / Dani!!!
M.U.L.E. - Dan / Dani Bunten (Ozark Softscape)
After Electronic Arts ran magazine ads introducing their initial software lineup, and the Artists responsible for creating them, I begged my boss at The Video Adventure to take a flyer on this new software company's wares, and order copies for our store. She eventually relented to my (constant) pestering, and ordered copies of all of their launch games - M.U.L.E. was one of those games (to be honest, she probably would have ordered EA's wares without my nagging).
Although it wasn't as easily accessible as some of the other early games from EA, this was the one that we found ourselves playing deep into the night, long after the store had closed, with four joysticks plugged into the store's Atari 800, and four of us swearing at one another multiple times when the RNG didn't come up our way (or our other colonist "friends" didn't cooperate during the auction).
As with Ultima, there are some other stories involving Dan / Dani, but they will have to wait... This game taught me that multi-player games for computers could work and be very entertaining.
I think I would like to come back as a Lombax...
Ratchet & Clank Franchise - Insomniac Games
I loved Insomniac ever since they created the original Spyro games, but I enjoyed Ratchet & Clank even more than I liked Spyro. When I saw the first trailer for R&C, it was immediately interesting to me, but when I realized that Insomniac were creating it, the game immediately went into the "must buy" category.
Yes, there are better platformers. Yes, there are better third-person shooters...but I love the stories, characters and gameplay. I think the R&C games are the best combination of platforming, shooting, and story.
Since I never had access to a PS4 or PS5, there are games in the franchise that I never got to play (sniff!). I also missed out on Spider-Man (double sniff!).
Thank you Ted Price! You founded a studio that has created some absolutely stellar entertainment over the years!!!
I do miss my island (but it was so wonderful to have it when I did)
Animal Crossing New Horizons - Katsuya Eguchi / Nintendo
During the recent past, when I was avoiding everything and everyone, this little pandemic hit the globe and my deepest of deep Bipolar depressions got even worse. Lo and behold, a new Animal Crossing game came into the world and, for a few hours a day, I could lift my spirits a little bit by interacting with my villagers, my island, and even some human visitors.
I had played other AC games, but this was the right game at the exact right time...(judging by their sales figures, I wasn't the only one feeling this)...
This game helped keep me going during a time where there wasn't much else around to do so.
Sadly, my Switch got stolen awhile back, and there is no way that I am going to spend what limited resources I now have on a replacement.
If you are an ACNH player, I think my "dream" is still out there for you to take a tour of...
Hades - Supergiant Games
In my opinion, this is the best Roguelike ever created. It was also one of the last games I ever got to play on my Switch.
The graphics, gameplay, music, sound, voice acting, and (especially) the story are just so great that you owe it to yourself to play it...right now...I'll wait...
While it did take me a good long time to defeat - redacted - , what I discovered was that defeating - redacted - wasn't what I was really craving - revealing more of the incredibly layered narrative was. I was so pleasantly surprised when, after I bitch-slapped - redacted - for the first time, that my time with the wonderful story & characters wasn't over (not even a little bit).
The admiration I have for all of the talented people at Supergiant games, especially after seeing what they went through to develop it in the multi-part NoClip documentary, cannot be measured.
I would still be playing Hades, but I think that - redacted - is the one who stole my Switch...
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These certainly aren't the only games I have more than a little bit of love for, but these were the ones that escaped today...if enough people read this entry, maybe I will write another one...
[interesting that there aren't any sports games on this list...eh?]