Philosophical question. If you beat a video game a long time ago, and have absolutely - and I mean absolutely - no recollection of having done so, did you ever really beat it at all? I ask this because I started playing Wario Land II only an hour or so ago only to find myself continuing from a save point just before the final boss. I remember playing the game before, but barely. I was positive that I had made it no more than a few levels into the game at best. Yet here I was, continuing my game just before the final boss. Strange. I've had this game since 2000. That's a long time, but it still puts me at twelve years old when I first played it. In other words, if I did beat it - or even if I played it most of the way through - I should have remembered doing so. But I don't. At all. And I have a pretty good memory, especially when it comes to movies an video games and such. Weird. Like, I am convinced I personally did not put in all of the legwork to allow myself to start playing, one hour ago, just before the final boss. But then, who did? My younger sisters would be a long shot; though both occasionally dabbled with video games in my childhood, neither ever played my Game Boy. At least not that I can remember. (But then, said memory is what I'm starting to question anyway.) Was it a friend? If so, who? And why? The best explanation - I did get the game used - is that the previous owner had put in all of that "work." But that seems impossible because the one part of the game I do definitively remember is the beginning, and in order to start a new game you need to clear the data. Bizarre. Regardless, I just beat the final boss, and thus, the game, even if I can't remember playing - hell, swear I didn't play - the first 99% of it. Strange. At any rate, the very small amount of Wario Land II that I do recall (most of which just occurred) was fun enough to merit an overall thumbs up for the game, but as far as must-play classics are concerned, this one falls way short. It's just one of the better 2D platform games I've seen. Not one of the best, but one of the better ones. The nicest part about beating it is that I've now finished off the Game Boy portion of my backlog. No guarantees that I'll never touch another Game Boy game. Some old relics out there still pique my interest - most notably, Metroid II. But my goal isn't, and never has been, never to try any new things. It's just been to finish off all the games, books, and movies (and TV seasons) I already own. And I'm one small step closer to that goal thanks largely to the surprise "99% done" situation. That will always remain a mystery to me.
I'll raise you one further on this. Should it be acceptable to post any items that we enjoyed when we were kids, then eons later we're try to complete them again? I think it could add some interesting perspective to see how child-you compares to adult-you. I just downloaded Sonic Adventures (originally for Dreamcast) and have started playing it. I can already tell you that I remember it being so much more mind-blowing than the glitchy animation leads me to believe now.
ReplyDeletePoint is, it could be an interesting to do a little trek down memory lane.
Post what you want to post. The idea of "I have owned this game/book/movie for a while but had not played it until today" was kind of the original idea of the blog, but in the years since its inception it's clearly gone toward all sorts of Netflix streams, borrowed games, and free downloadable books. Have at it!
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