As a kid, I had a beat up looking 3rd party controller that rattled when you shook it, and allowed left and right to be pressed at the same time. In Tiny Toons Adventures, it would do a similar glitch, where they would zoom through the stage in their "stop/turn" animation frame. So if anyone grabs this item, that's another game you can try out.
Certain other games would react in weird ways, but that was by far the most useful. Had no idea this worked in Zelda II. I struggled to beat this game without the use of a Game Genie, and would have l9ved this little trick.
This is neat and all, but for me was totally eclipsed by the Solomom's Key 2 mentioned at the bottom of the article.
Fire n' Ice was one of my favorite games I had as a kid, and to this day I feel that it was way ahead of its time. I can't think of any other NES games that had a custom stage builder feature. The prototype for this game would be interesting to take a peek at.
This was the only way I was able to see the ending of certain videoganes as a kid (I was stuck on the last level of Star Tropics for years until this came along)
There were downsides though. I remember using a cheat in Zelda II that replaced my shield spell with the Thunder spell. Except, it wouldn't let me get the actual Thunder spell later on, and it would never let me through the barrier at the end. But at least it helped me get a decent trial run in before I went back without cheats to beat it without assistance. Definitely one of my proudest accomplishments in my early gaming days.
I remember stumbling across Zero Wing for the first time because the title sounded interesting, and thinking "OMG! I found the game that the meme is from!! This is hilarious!"
And then I didn't put the controller down for hours, because its actually an enjoyable game, much to my surprise. The article image had me hoping this was a Switch release, honestly.
I'm interested in the level of 3rd party support they've attained, and the concept itself isn't bad. But I have no idea if a handheld console as niche as this can thrive in the current gaming market, or if it will just end up being a nextgen Ouya.
Even as a kid with a limited selection of games to choose from, I always thought Karate Champ was hot trash. And yet, I would still play this with my sister since it was the only fighting game we had (at least until we got TMNT Tournament Fighter for the NES)
While none of these individual games are really jumping out to me as "must haves" the full collections as a whole are pretty interesting at this price point.
@mystman12 The pinball boom that we've seen take place in the last decade is entirely due to classic machines reaching then end of their natural lifespan. Brittle plastic and broken rubber bands lead to owners selling off their tables instead of paying for repairs. Suddenly there's an influx of refurbished pinball tables, and as they begin popping up in more places, the pinball scene is reignited. Now we're getting brand new state-of-the-art tables that wouldn't have been profitable enough to produce just 10 years back. (I'm most excited for the upcoming Black Knight 2000 sequel coming out this year)
Sadly, I don't see the same kind of 'boom' happening to retro consoles. But at least we have alternative ways of playing these games now days.
The scariest thought that keeps me up at night is disc rot. Due to the adhesive used on CD labels, the lifespan of CDs was greatly overestimated, and now we're seeing everything from videogames, DVDs, and data storage become unreadable, with no real way to fix.
I was about as obsessed with pokemon as most of the other kids at school. Watched the anime, had some cards, and obsessively bred for perfect IVs and countless hours of hatching eggs. I never played after Crystal version, so my knowledge was pretty limited to the first 251.
Even so, I'm a good 20-25 years older than my nephews, and I can tell that they're about at the same level of interest that I was at as a kid. I can help them with type advantage and moveset building, but of course they know about an extra 600 new pokemon that I am clueless about, and they're far more into the TCG than I ever was.
Pokemon Go has really given us something to bond over now that he's entering his angsty pre-teen phase, whether it's sending presents, doing raid battles together, or trading him my shiny/rare pokemon for him to show off at school. Of course there's a lot of other franchises from MY childhood we can nerd out about like Power Rangers, Batman, Ninja Turtles, etc... but nothing goes quite as in depth as Pokemon.
I was the exact perfect age to be swept up in all the hype. I can even remember when my friends older brother came in without saying a word, took the controller from us and put in the blood code. My little prepubescent mind was blown. Eventually we came across (in a game magazine of course) an even weirder cheat that let you access the debug menu and alter the clouds on the pit stage and other various tricks, like access the Reptile fight. As much of a Nintendo nerd as I was then (and clearly, still am) as soon as I found out that you couldn't get blood to show in the SNES version I was team Sega all the way.
I also remember being worried that we would never play MKII because of all the politics that were way over my head. Then one day, the same "friend's older brother" from the last story, came home with a copy and blew all our minds once more. But this time it felt like we're were braking the law. Kids who were clearly not in the appropriate age range playing a game that was SO VIOLENT only adults were allowed to play. The ESRB basically added a giant "Forbidden Fruit" stamp on the box, and it definitely shaped the way I approached the game.
Comments 10
Re: This New NES Accessory Makes Cheating At Zelda Easier Than Ever
As a kid, I had a beat up looking 3rd party controller that rattled when you shook it, and allowed left and right to be pressed at the same time. In Tiny Toons Adventures, it would do a similar glitch, where they would zoom through the stage in their "stop/turn" animation frame. So if anyone grabs this item, that's another game you can try out.
Certain other games would react in weird ways, but that was by far the most useful. Had no idea this worked in Zelda II. I struggled to beat this game without the use of a Game Genie, and would have l9ved this little trick.
Re: Ghostbusters II NES Prototype Sells For Over $1,000 At Auction
This is neat and all, but for me was totally eclipsed by the Solomom's Key 2 mentioned at the bottom of the article.
Fire n' Ice was one of my favorite games I had as a kid, and to this day I feel that it was way ahead of its time. I can't think of any other NES games that had a custom stage builder feature. The prototype for this game would be interesting to take a peek at.
Re: Welcome To Time Extension
As a Nintendo Life regular, its going to be weird bumping shoulders with the PushSquare/Pure Xbox crowd in the comment section.
I am looking forward to forming cliques and having West Side Story-esque dance battles with everyone else here.
Re: Feature: The Story Of The Game Genie, The Cheat Device Nintendo Tried (And Failed) To Kill
This was the only way I was able to see the ending of certain videoganes as a kid (I was stuck on the last level of Star Tropics for years until this came along)
There were downsides though. I remember using a cheat in Zelda II that replaced my shield spell with the Thunder spell. Except, it wouldn't let me get the actual Thunder spell later on, and it would never let me through the barrier at the end. But at least it helped me get a decent trial run in before I went back without cheats to beat it without assistance. Definitely one of my proudest accomplishments in my early gaming days.
Re: Retro-Bit Is Republishing Some Of Toaplan's Best Console Shooters In Physical Form
I remember stumbling across Zero Wing for the first time because the title sounded interesting, and thinking "OMG! I found the game that the meme is from!! This is hilarious!"
And then I didn't put the controller down for hours, because its actually an enjoyable game, much to my surprise. The article image had me hoping this was a Switch release, honestly.
Re: Pre-Orders Go Live For The Evercade Retro Handheld System
I'm interested in the level of 3rd party support they've attained, and the concept itself isn't bad. But I have no idea if a handheld console as niche as this can thrive in the current gaming market, or if it will just end up being a nextgen Ouya.
Re: Exclusive: The Evercade Handheld Is Getting Earthworm Jim, Clayfigher And Midnight Resistance
Even as a kid with a limited selection of games to choose from, I always thought Karate Champ was hot trash. And yet, I would still play this with my sister since it was the only fighting game we had (at least until we got TMNT Tournament Fighter for the NES)
While none of these individual games are really jumping out to me as "must haves" the full collections as a whole are pretty interesting at this price point.
Re: Feature: Your Beloved Games Console Is Slowly But Surely Dying
@mystman12 The pinball boom that we've seen take place in the last decade is entirely due to classic machines reaching then end of their natural lifespan. Brittle plastic and broken rubber bands lead to owners selling off their tables instead of paying for repairs. Suddenly there's an influx of refurbished pinball tables, and as they begin popping up in more places, the pinball scene is reignited. Now we're getting brand new state-of-the-art tables that wouldn't have been profitable enough to produce just 10 years back. (I'm most excited for the upcoming Black Knight 2000 sequel coming out this year)
Sadly, I don't see the same kind of 'boom' happening to retro consoles. But at least we have alternative ways of playing these games now days.
The scariest thought that keeps me up at night is disc rot. Due to the adhesive used on CD labels, the lifespan of CDs was greatly overestimated, and now we're seeing everything from videogames, DVDs, and data storage become unreadable, with no real way to fix.
Re: Feature: How One Magazine Told The World About Pokémon
I was about as obsessed with pokemon as most of the other kids at school. Watched the anime, had some cards, and obsessively bred for perfect IVs and countless hours of hatching eggs. I never played after Crystal version, so my knowledge was pretty limited to the first 251.
Even so, I'm a good 20-25 years older than my nephews, and I can tell that they're about at the same level of interest that I was at as a kid. I can help them with type advantage and moveset building, but of course they know about an extra 600 new pokemon that I am clueless about, and they're far more into the TCG than I ever was.
Pokemon Go has really given us something to bond over now that he's entering his angsty pre-teen phase, whether it's sending presents, doing raid battles together, or trading him my shiny/rare pokemon for him to show off at school. Of course there's a lot of other franchises from MY childhood we can nerd out about like Power Rangers, Batman, Ninja Turtles, etc... but nothing goes quite as in depth as Pokemon.
Re: Feature: How Mortal Kombat Defined The Console War Between Sega And Nintendo
I was the exact perfect age to be swept up in all the hype. I can even remember when my friends older brother came in without saying a word, took the controller from us and put in the blood code. My little prepubescent mind was blown. Eventually we came across (in a game magazine of course) an even weirder cheat that let you access the debug menu and alter the clouds on the pit stage and other various tricks, like access the Reptile fight. As much of a Nintendo nerd as I was then (and clearly, still am) as soon as I found out that you couldn't get blood to show in the SNES version I was team Sega all the way.
I also remember being worried that we would never play MKII because of all the politics that were way over my head. Then one day, the same "friend's older brother" from the last story, came home with a copy and blew all our minds once more. But this time it felt like we're were braking the law. Kids who were clearly not in the appropriate age range playing a game that was SO VIOLENT only adults were allowed to play. The ESRB basically added a giant "Forbidden Fruit" stamp on the box, and it definitely shaped the way I approached the game.