Blogger Archive: NESman93 
On August 13, 1991, 4 years before the discontinuation of the NES, Nintendo released the new 16-bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System, in North America. The system was already widely available in Japan under the name Super Famicom, when it was released there on November 21, 1990. This system promised to further Nintendo's domination and popularity in the video game market.
Because the system came after the NES, it was launched with the sequel to Super Mario Bros. 3. Of course, that game was Super Mario World. The game itself practically sold the system. The SNES also offered continuations of NES favorites such as The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, Double Dragon, Battletoads, etc. Also, some sets of the SNES came packaged with Super Mario All-Stars, which was a compilation cartridge that had the NES games Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Lost Levels in better 16-bit graphics and sound.
The console itself is pretty plain-jane. It was very boxy, with a standard Power, and Reset button. The console does, however, have an eject lever on it allowing the player to simply press down on the lever to pop the cartridge out of the console, as it is a top loading system. That is good because the games get firmly seated onto the pins and would just about always boot right up. On the front of the console, there are the standard 2 controller ports. The bottom has an expansion port on it, but was very rarely used, and the back, of course, has the AC, RF, and AV ports.
The controllers, are a huge step op from the NES controllers. They have rounded sides, a d-pad, 4 face buttons, and 2 shoulder buttons. The shoulder buttons were a new thing back then, but are now a standard on video game controllers. The 4 face buttons were arranged in a fashion like this:
X
Y A
B
The controllers are very comfortable, and very responsive. The buttons are arrange perfectly for games like Mortal Kombat.
In 1994, Nintendo release a new SNES game that kicked the Super Nintendo's popularity into overdrive. That game was Donkey Kong Country. This game had some of the greatest graphics and gameplay of any SNES game. The game sold more consoles and millions of cartridges. In the last 45 days of 1994, the game sold 6.1 million copies, making it the fastest selling video game to date. There were even 2,500 competition cartridges released. The game was followed up with Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble.
As with the NES, in October 1997, Nintendo released the SNES 2, a smaller and lighter version of the SNES, with Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island packed in with the system for only $100. The things removed were the expansion port, RF port, and eject button. The power and reset buttons were confined to the left side of the system. Finally, on November 27, 1997, the last first-party SNES game, Kirby's Dreamland 3 was released and the SNES was discontinued in 1999.
Games from the SNES library continue to live on through different systems. Many of the games, such as Super Mario World, and Donkey Kong Country, were ported to the Game Boy Advance, and many of the Super Nintendo's games are available for download on the Wii's Virtual Console. The SNES also has a huge emulation scene, as virtually every game is available for download to be used on an emulator.
As you have seen, this console was a favorite of 1990s era gamers, and was the first game console that i ever played. I can remember the countless hours that I spent playing Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, and Donkey Kong Country. Many gamers probably have those fond memories, too. Well, again, this one deserves a 10/10.
Ahh, what can be said about the original Game Boy, that hasn't been said a million times before? This one handheld, released in 1989, completely revolutionized the handheld video game market. Before the Game Boy was released, there were literally hundreds of different kinds of handhelds, but they were the cheap, lcd screened systems that you would find in small discount stores.
At first glance, the Game Boy does not seem like much, but when you pop in that Game Pak and boot on the system, you know that it is more than you expected. The Game Boy is vastly more powerful than lcd handhelds, and will probably last longer (which is true, seeing as how there are some from '89 that are still working flawlessly). The system is instantly easy to use for any gamer who grew up playing the NES, as the controls are exactly the same as those on the NES controllers. Another thing, the system has a screen, but is green for some reason. This was also the first handheld that was able to link up to multiple Game Boys to play multiplayer games.
Nintendo made the perfect choice to secure the rights to Tetris as the system's pack in game. This meant that anyone that bought a Game Boy had a game that they could play right away. Tetris was obviously not the only game on the system, as Nintendo made sure that all of the NES favorites were available to be in your pocket (game such as Super Mario,
Donkey Kong, Metroid, Tetris, Mega Man, TMNT, and newcomers such as Kirby).
As you can see, this is only a brief overview/review of the game boy. It may seem very old and very outdated by today's standards, but will always live on in the hearts of classic gamers as one of their favorite systems of all time. This one gets a perfect 10/10
Well, any classic Nintendo NES fan will know that, like other consoles, the NES has its own number of sports games, such as Slalom, and 10 - Yard Fight by Nintendo. There are even games from third parties such as Tecmo's Tecmo Bowl and Super Bowl. One in particular, Ice Hockey, is the one that I will be reviewing here. Starting off, you will notice the cartridge and box art are different than most Nintendo sports titles. Most come in the black boxes that we've all seen at one time or another. Strangely, Ice Hockey comes in a bright blue box with a picture of some random ice hockey player. This is the only Nintendo sports title that hasn't had the cartoony style characters on the box and cart.
Now, as you first boot up the game, you are treated to some quite cheerful music and some small hockey players on the screen. Like most NES games, Ice Hockey has the option of either 1 or 2 players. As you press start on the controller, you get a screen of several options. On this screen, you get to choose your team (USA, Canada, Russia, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and Poland), your opponent's team, the speed of the game, and the length of the game, ranging from 7, 10, and 15 minutes. The last thing that you will set up before the game begins, is the setup of your team. You choose which type of players will be on your team. Once all of the options are selected, the match can begin.
As the game begins, you will start out at center ice to battle for the puck. The gameplay mostly relies on being able to pass the puck, shoot, and how you selected your team. From the get-go, none of the teams have a statistical advantage over the others. Before the game, each team has five players (a stocky player, 2 average players, and a skinny player). The stocky players are the best at shooting and bowling over other players (which is pretty entertaining), the average players are average all around, and finally, the skinny ones are the fastest but tend to be the ones that get bowled over the most often. Also, each team has a goaltender as well. The controller only controls the player that is selected, but it will also control the goaltender no matter which one is selected. Fights can also ensue, and will continue until the ref stops it and sends the starter to the penalty box. Goals can be kind of hard to achieve at times, but when you do score one, it is damn satisfying! One other thing to note is that, when the game is paused, the pause sound is the same pause sound from Super Mario Bros.!
As you can see, this is one of the greatest sports titles to be released on the NES, and is personally one of my favorite nes games of all time. I'll give this game a 9/10
|
|
