One of the best games EVER as far as I'm concerned. It all started with a coworker showing me a scene from
Final Fantasy Advent Children - one of the latest in the Final Fantasy series of movies. It does look amazing, as far as graphics go, by the way.
Now, I had seen the first Final Fantasy movie. I remember being disappointed in that it was only okay because I had been very excited about it coming to theaters. The reason for my excitement was because I was completely hooked for a time on
Final Fantasy IV for Super Nintendo. Now, when I say hooked...I was completely and utterly absorbed and fascinated by this game. I spent hours, weeks, etc. in front of my televison playing this game until I beat it. And, then I wanted more. If the next one had been out, I would have been off and playing Final Fantasy V and so on...but it wasn't, so I fell out of playing it. There was something about the adventure and being on a quest that I totally and absolutely loved about that game. It was like being part of a story in progress - very cool.
Now, thinking of Final Fantasy IV - one of those great games of my teenage years, immediately made me think about other video games that have fascinated me. As a note, I have not played a video game since...well, since I was in my early twenties. And, it's not that I haven't wanted to - heck, I had a cousin email me a couple months ago telling me that she was playing the new
Zelda game for the wii. At that moment, I had a very deep urge to leave my job without a word, go to Best Buy, hold it hostage to obtain a wii and a copy of Zelda, lock myself in my apartment and start playing until I beat it. Yes, it is insane, but anybody who has played a good game can tell you that, that was a completely understandable thought. I loved the Zelda games that much.
Zelda (for Nintendo) was the first video game that really grabbed me because unlike Mario Brothers - it had a freaking awesome story and it let you explore a world and figure things out for yourself. It was the first of an obsession for me in that line of games - ones where you were a part of the story and not just shoot em up, beat the boss sort of games that were otherwise all the rage.
From a snap-second thought of Zelda, my mind immediately jumped to thinking about
Monkey Island - it's a Lucasfilm game that I played on the computer in the early 1990s. The basic story is this: Guybrush Threepwood.... I have to stop here and say: how much more awesome of a character name can you get?!?!? Again, the premise is this: Guybbrush Threepwood wants to be a pirate. That's it. He has to drink some grog, learn how to sword fight and give good insult, and get a ship. It's a hilarious, fun filled, drive you crazy, and all the while you're laughing and having the best time of your life sort of game. Think I liked it much? It's a phenomenal game. Anyway, I beat it and subsequently made all of my friends play it until they won. I had slumber parties where the whole slumber party was sitting in front of the computer trying to figure out this game. By the way, by slumber parties, I mean a group of at least ten girls and no boys. So, it must have been a good game. Yes, I was that much of a geek, but ask any of those girls what they thought of that game and I'd bet you hands down that it's one of their good memories from childhood. My sleepovers were legendarily awesome.
And, funny enough - back to
Monkey Island now - my coworkers response to my mentioning that game was literally - "I know that game! ANYONE who played computer games when they were a kid knows that game." Cool - I was part of a hot geeky trend. And, it was an awesome game. I'm just thrilled people played it - that's how much I enjoyed it. I want people to share in that awesomeness. Yes, I sound like I've reverted to age fourteen, but it's just how I feel about these video games.
After finding we had Monkey Island in common, my coworker mentioned that his favorite game from that time of his life was
Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis. How weird?!??! I had played that game too! Who doesn't love Indiana Jones?!?!?!! And, the video game was actually good! I attempted to beat it for a long time up until and I vividly remember this - this area where you're in a hot air balloon and for the life of me I couldn't fly the stupid thing. I spent hours on this, until I gave up. I passed that one along to people too. I love Indy - he's a great character. Gawd, I hope they're making that new film they've been talking about and that Harrison isn't too old.
And, back to topic...
Now my mind was racing to the other games that were a part of my life at that time - like
Maniac Mansion and it's sequel
Day of The Tentacle . Maniac Mansion, the original and the one that I spent the most time on, was about a guy named Dave whose girlfriend Sandy was kidnapped by a mad scientist. Dave and his friends set out to save her from the "Maniac Mansion." Let me tell you there are a lot of weird things in that house - like tentacles, crazy nurses, a super secret lab... They were both so, so funny and fun and I never ever beat them, but they were great all the same. I would STILL love to know the ending on Maniac Mansion. I feel like I spent years playing that game only to never beat it. Why!?!?! Why!?!?!? And, they say video games don't affect you. Hah.
Wow, I feel exhausted, kind of like I've just spent some time playing some of these games. And, yet, I want to go and dig up my old video game systems, dust them off and give some of these games another play. They may never have been real, but they sure have given me some fantastic memories.
NOTES:
Whikipedia is a fantastic resource for looking up all of these games, by the way!
