I'm one of the few who actually beat Bionic Commando on the NES. You know, the game that was intensely impossible to get through on certain levels? The one with no save feature? The one that took nearly six hours to play through? Yeah, that one.

But at that time, games like The Legend of Zelda, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, and Contra, were the fun games. Before that time, for computer games, was ones like Empire, Wing Commander, Space Quest, and even Zork. And before those games: Pong. While the graphics of games have improved tremdously, the game play has remained a constant.

Castlevania 2, Rescue the Embassy, Russian Attack, Jackal, JAWS, and others, were enjoyable games for their day. COD, WoW, EQ, and others, that are popular now, will soon be retired in favoror of newer, more graphic intensive games in 5-10 years.

^ I like the big Nintendo IP's (Mario, Zelda, and Metroid). I'm just disappointed that it's the same trio today that it was nearly 20 years ago. I would love to see an M-rated game from the same creative people. In theory the new Metroid is supposed to satisfy that demand, but I loved the Prime series, and would rather have Nintendo create a new IP if they want a first-party M-rated IP. I don't want Samus to become a brutal slayer-vixen.

I'm interested in the new Castlevania game they announced (because they say Kojima is part of the dev team!), but that will be for 360 and PS3, and not on Wii at all.

Castlevania is a 3rd party (Konami) IP anways.

I guess I'm the only one in here excited about Wii Sports Resort. Sure, Sony had a motion controller that may or may not be better, and Microsoft had Natal, but those accessories are both late to the game and still in development. The Wii Motion Plus is here now (launches this month in the U.S.) and that should mean an awesome Zelda title and hopefully a kick ass Star Wars title.

Speaking of Zelda, I guess that falls into the "safe and formulaic" category, but I don't see why that kind of game gets such a bad rap. I love new and innovative ideas and games; it's why I play indie titles and follow Atlus so closely. However, some of the successful franchises are successful because their games are consistently good. If I buy a Zelda title or a Mario title, chances are it's going to be executed well and will be a lot of fun to play. That's why I pick up just about every Castlevania title that comes out -- Even if it's a bad Castlevania title, it's still likely better than 90-95% of the system's library.

Could this actually be a decent 3D Castlevania? In association with Kojima? My heart is all atwitter!

>> ^mintbbb:
A few years ago (forgot when..) me and hubby went to see the 'Videogames Live' concert .. or whatever it was called. Music from games, played by the symphony, a choir.. I remember Martin Leung playing 'Castlevania' on a huge organ! THIS theme, something from WOW, Baba Yetu from Civ IV.. it was just amazing!!
The (theme) songs are just wonderful.. I had never played most of these games, and I was in awe for hearing them for the first time.. I never thought how important the music really is, and how wonderful it is!
BIG upvote!


Yep, VGL is awesome. http://aqfl.net/?q=node/5439 for my visit.

A few years ago (forgot when..) me and hubby went to see the 'Videogames Live' concert .. or whatever it was called. Music from games, played by the symphony, a choir.. I remember Martin Leung playing 'Castlevania' on a huge organ! THIS theme, something from WOW, Baba Yetu from Civ IV.. it was just amazing!!

The (theme) songs are just wonderful.. I had never played most of these games, and I was in awe for hearing them for the first time.. I never thought how important the music really is, and how wonderful it is!

BIG upvote!

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Black Nerd Comedy Konami Code Video Games Contra Castlevania Music Video' to 'Black Nerd, Konami Code, Video Games, Contra, Castlevania, Music Video' - edited by gourmetemu

>> ^spawnflagger:
can someone give the whole list, along with what game the character is from?


Solid Snake - Metal Gear Solid series
Mushroom - Mario series
Alucard - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Goombah - Mario series
Sonic
Yoshi - Mario series
Mega Man
Pikachu - Pokemon series
Kratos - God of War series
Link - Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker / Phantom Hourglass
Cloud - Final Fantasy VII & spinoffs
can't make this one out
Samus Aran - Metroid series
Kirby - Kirby series
Donkey Kong
Big Daddy - BioShock
Master Chief - Halo series
Triforce - mystical object from Zelda games
Dante - Devil May Cry series
Sackboy - Little Big Planet

1997 was definitely the pinnacle year in portraying what video games could become. Like someone said, GLQuake was a breakthrough in 3D graphics card support (obviously meaning that before it - the 3d engines were rendered in SOFTWARE mode), Quake II came out, Fallout was one of the most intelligent, dark and humorous games ever released - even to this day AND - the original Grand Theft Auto came out - so obviously 1997 should be 1.


There were so many great games from 1997 - here's an incomplete list of games from 1997 via Wikipedia:

* February 10 - Mario Kart 64 (N64)
* February 28 - Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (N64)
* March 20 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS) (Sega Saturn)
* April 30 - Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (PC)
* May 31 - MDK: (PC) (PS)
* June 26 - Dungeon Keeper (PC)
* July 1 - Star Fox 64 (N64)
* July 30 - Carmageddon (PC)
* August 25 - GoldenEye 007 (N64)
* August 31 - HeXen II (PC)
* September 7 - Final Fantasy VII (PS), (PC)
* September 19 - Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (PS), (PC)
* September 30 - Fallout (PC)
* September 30 - Total Annihilation (PC)
* October - Grand Theft Auto (PC)
* October 9 - Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC)
* October 26 - Age of Empires (PC)
* October 29 - Riven (PC) (Mac)
* October 31 - The Curse of Monkey Island (PC)
* November 14 - Postal (PC)
* December 6 - Quake II (PC)
* December 19 - Wing Commander: Prophecy (PC)
* December 23 - Gran Turismo (PS1)

I can wax nostalgic about video games for hours every day. My personal best years in gaming:

1983 - We got Intellivion for Xmas 82.. Played a lot of Lock & Chase, Astrosmash, Night Stalker, Sea Battle, etc.
1989 - The year I bought myself a NES.. Played Bionic Commando, Contra, Castlevania.. First job mowing lawns gave me income in addition to my allowance which went up to $10/wk. to blow on gaming magazines and the occasional game, as well as a decent budget for arcade games which were in their heyday... Golden Axe, Robocop, Narc, Hard Drivin, Stider, that was 1989 for me. Probably the single best year.
1992 - Now working one full-time and one part-time job for the summer, as soon as I wrote my final exams I I bought myself Genesis, then SNES the next day. Played a lot of Super Contra, Street Fighter 2, Castlevania 4, Super Battletank (first game with photo-real graphics on home systems imho), Populous, Strider, etc.
1994 - The year I bought my first PC.. played a lot of Doom 2, Alone in the Dark 2, Ecstatica, Tie Fighter, and countless demos from PC Gamer and other magazine pack-in discs
1998 - The year I got into multiplayer... played insane amounts of Quake 2
2000 - The year I bought my first true custom-built gaming PC.. played Quake 3, Deus Ex, Aliens Vs Predator, and in 2001 played tons of Tribes 2
2002 - At end of 2001 I bought another even better gaming box... played tons of RTCW, Medal of Honor, and ended the year playing BF1942 about four hours per day
2006 - The year I bought my first bleeding-edge custom-built gaming PC (dual GPUs, 30 inch 4 megapixel monitor, $150 mouse, etc.)... played BF2, Quake 4, Call of Duty 2, Prey, HL2: Ep1

2007 was a decent year, might look like a stand-out once I get some distance and perspective.

>> ^budzos:
1. Contra 3 - best shooter of all time
2. Street Fighter 2 - the first perfect arcade conversion
3. Castlevania 4
4. Super Mario World
5. Zelda III
6. Starfox
7. Out of This World
8. Super Metroid
9. F-Zero
10. Mario Kart


I find it awesome that almost all of the ones you listed made the top twenty. The problem with making this list was surely that there were just so many amazing games for the SNES.

SNES was my favourite, and the last system I bought before becoming a dedicated PC gamer. I don't consider myself above console games I just don't have time for them between PC gaming and all my other nerdy hobbies. My personal top 10 on the SNES:

1. Contra 3 - best shooter of all time
2. Street Fighter 2 - the first perfect arcade conversion
3. Castlevania 4
4. Super Mario World
5. Zelda III
6. Starfox
7. Out of This World
8. Super Metroid
9. F-Zero
10. Mario Kart

Man, what a classic system. I made a dumb call and gave my SNES and all my games to my nephews when I was 19 and they were around ten years old. It was 1995, the Playstation had already come out so they were thoroughly unimpressed. Meanwhile I have many hours since then playing with an SNES emulator.

i agree that this was one of the most tedious games ever, but i really liked it. castlevania 3 and symphony of the night for ps are my favs though.

From YT:

I couldn't find any NES remixes I liked so I used C64 remixes instead for the music.

Here are the tunes used in this video, all by Instant Remedy -

Game On (Issue 0989)
Last Ninja - The Palace
Ghosts 'n Goblins (Trance Version)

Full list of games in the video (might be some errors) -

1. Super Mario Brothers
2. Contra
3. Dragon warrior 1
4. Dr. Mario
5. Excite Bike
6. Lola 3
7. Ice Climber
8. Gradius
9. Ice Hockey
10. Kiwi Craze
11. Little Nemo
12. Scheherazade
13. Abradox
14. Addams Family
15. Adventure Island 1
16. Basewars
17. Marble Madness
18. Kirby
19. Batman 1
20. Battle Chess
21. Mappy Land
22. Maniac Mansion
23. Kid Icarus
24. Silius
25. Duck Hunt
26. Treasure Island 2
27. Goonies 2
28. Castlevania 1
29. Bugs Bunny Birthday
30. Bomberman 1
31. Battletoads
32. Bionic Commando
33. Blades of Steel
34. Blaster Master
35. Castlevania 2
36. Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle
37. Casino Kid
38. Caveman Games
39. Crystalis
40. Deja Vu
41. Double Dribble
42. Duck Tales
43. Double Dragon 2
44. Golgo 13
45. Hogans Alley
46. Jackie Chan
47. Castlevania 3
48. Double Dragon 1
49. Ninja Gaiden 1
50. North & South
51. Prince Of Persia
52. Metroid
53. Metal Gear
54. Pirates
55. Mega Man 2
56. Micro Machines
57. Paper Boy
58. Punch Out
59. Super Mario Brothers 2
60. Ultima IV
61. The Three Stooges
62. The Guardian Legend
63. Bucky O'Hare
64. Wizards & Warriors 2
65. Zelda
66. Turtles 1
67. Tiny Toons Adventures
68. Wrath of the Black Ninja
69. Super Mario Brothers 3
70. Tecmo Super Bowl
71. Tombs & Treasures
72. Snakes Revenge
73. Super Contra
74. Snake Rattle n Roll
75. Talespin
76. Star Tropics 1
77. Spy Hunter
78. Zelda 2
79. Yo! Noid
80. Turtles 2
81. Silver Surfer
82. Robin Hood
83. R.C. Pro Am
84. River City Ransom
85. Shadowgate
86. Robocop
87. Rygar
88. Tetris
89. Supercars
90. Rampage
91. Willow
92. Final Fantasy
93. Mario Brothers
94. Ghosts & Goblins
95. Joe & Mac
96. Donkey Kong
97. Chip & Dale
98. Legendary Wings
99. Bubble Bobble
100. Faxandu

1972 Pong (Atari, Arcade)
1980 Space Invaders (Atari, Atari 2600)
1980 Defender (Williams, Arcade)
1980 Adventure (Atari, Atari 2600)
1981 Pac-Man (Namco, Arcade)
1981 Ultima (California Pacific, Apple II)
1981 Frogger (Konami, Atari 2600)
1982 Pitfall (Atari, Atari 2600)
1983 Centipede (Atari, Atari 2600)
1983 Pole Position (Atari, Atari 2600)
1983 Microsoft Flight Simulator (Microsoft, PC)
1984 Donkey Kong (Nintendo, NES)
1984 King's Quest (Sierra, PC)
1985 Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, NES)
1985 Duck Hunt (Nintendo, NES)
1986 Bubble Bobble (Taito, Arcade)
1986 The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo, NES)
1986 Space Quest (Sierra, PC)
1986 Metroid (Nintendo, NES)
1987 Leisure Suit Larry (Sierra, PC)
1987 Final Fantasy (Nintendo, NES)
1987 Afterburner (Sega, Arcade)
1987 Castlevania (Konami, NES)
1987 Maniac Mansion (LucasArts, PC)
1987 Mega Man (Capcom, NES)
1988 Double Dragon (Tradewest, NES)
1988 Battle Chess (Interplay, PC)
1989 Prince of Persia (Broderbund, PC)
1989 Tetris (Nintendo, Nintendo Gameboy)
1989 SimCity (Maxis, PC)
1989 Golden Axe (Sega, Arcade)
1990 Commander Keen (ID Software, PC)
1990 Secret of Monkey Island (LucasArts, PC)
1991 Civilization (Microprose, PC)
1991 Micro Machines (NES, Codemasters)
1991 Lemmings (Psygnosis, PC)
1991 Out of this World (Delphine Software, PC)
1991 Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega, Sega Genesis)
1991 Zelda: A Link to the Past (Nintendo, SNES)
1992 Sensible Soccer (Sensible Software, PC)
1992 Dune II (Westwood Studios, PC)
1992 Wolfenstein 3D (ID Software, PC)
1992 Flashback (Delphine Software, PC)
1992 Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis (LucasArts, PC)
1992 Super Mario Kart (Nintendo, SNES)
1992 Alone in the Dark (Infogrames, PC)
1992 Street Fighter II (Capcom, SNES)
1992 Mortal Kombat (Midway, Sega Genesis)
1992 Minesweeper (Windows Desktop Game)
1993 Sam & Max Hit the Road (LucasArts, PC)
1993 Doom (ID Software, PC)
1993 Myst (Broderbund, PC)
1993 FIFA Soccer '94 (Electronic Arts, Sega Genesis)
1993 SimCity 2000 (Maxis, PC)
1994 The Settlers (Blue Byte Software, PC)
1994 Earthworm Jim (Shiny Entertainment, Sega Genesis)
1994 Need for Speed (Electronic Arts, 3DO)
1994 Donkey Kong Country (Nintendo, SNES)
1994 Worms (Ocean, PC)
1995 Command & Conquer (Westwood Studios, PC)
1995 Rayman (Ubisoft, Atari Jaguar)
1995 Daytona USA (Sega, Sega Saturn)
1995 Virtua Fighter (Sega, Sega Saturn)
1995 Ridge Racer (Namco, Playstation)
1995 Tekken (Namco, Sony Playstation)
1996 Tomb Raider (Eidos Interactive, Sony Playstation)
1996 Quake (ID Software, PC)
1996 Super Mario 64 (Nintendo, Nintendo 64)
1996 Resident Evil (Capcom, Playstation)
1996 Dead or Alive (Tecmo, Arcade)
1997 Ultima Online (Origin, PC)
1997 Age of Empires (Microsoft, PC)
1998 Unreal (Epic Games, PC)
1998 Half-Life (Sierra, PC)
1998 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo, Nintendo Gamecube)
2000 The Sims (Maxis, PC)
2000 Crazy Taxi (Sega, Sega Dreamcast)
2001 Halo (Bungie Studios, Xbox)
2001 Grand Theft Auto III (Rockstar Games, Playstation 2)
2002 WarCraft III (Blizzard, PC)
2003 Call of Duty (Activision, PC)
2004 Wario Ware Inc. (Nintendo, Nintendo Gamecube)
2004 Rome Total War (Sega, PC)
2005 World of Warcraft (Blizzard, PC)
2005 God of War (SCEA, Playstation)
2005 Guitar Hero (Red Octane, Playstation 2)
2006 Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix, Playstation 2)
2006 FIFA Soccer '07 (Electronic Arts, Xbox 360)
2007 Gears of War (Microsoft, Xbox 360)
2006 Wii Sports (Nintendo, Nintendo Wii)
2006 Viva Pinata (Microsoft, Xbox 360)
2007 MotorStorm (Sony, Sony Playstation 3)