Sonic 2
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9f/Sonic2_European_Box.jpg&hash=82ea25c05de04df653345c7dbd3b5baa
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1b/Aquatic_Ruins_from_Sonic_2_for_Mega_Drive.png/220px-Aquatic_Ruins_from_Sonic_2_for_Mega_Drive.png&hash=c8129076a79e39e7f61c88f73f305b10
So I realised I had made mistake buying a Sega Game Gear, and looked at what I could get in its place. To my surprise I got myself a full on Sega Mega Drive 2 for £150 from Argos with Sonic 2, Columns, World Cup 90, and Super Hang On. I sold the Game Gear for near that price to a friend as it had about 10 games. Thus I went and got my first home games console. Sonic 2 was the game I played on the most I think out of all my Mega Drive games. After playing the Game Gear version this was a totally different experience, the graphics were far better as was the music and the level design was in a different league. Everyone knows what Sonic is, its lets leg it as fast as we can to the end of the stage. Some how Sonic 2 was just the best version of that, I think Sega was at the top of its game here and the series was never to reach these highs again on any system (Sonic Mania is close though). Completed this game many times and had great fun in the 2 player mode running down the tube/bonus levels trying to get the most coins.
Street Fighter 2 Special Champion Edition
/proxy.php?image=http://synystergraves.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/sf2_megadrive.jpg&hash=1794b650ab789a2d56a9ab75c6a8e976
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/be/Street_Fighter_II_Dash_screenshot.png/220px-Street_Fighter_II_Dash_screenshot.png&hash=3154144dde59d4933096c7c3c48e543c
Now I had been a fan of Street Fighter 2 for a long time, my friend had a SNES with the first Street Fighter 2 and enjoyed many days round at his house playing on it. But it wasn't on the Mega Drive until a year later. I was most happy to get this for Xmas with a six button controller. Having loved the game and knowing most of the moves I really got my Street Fighter moves down when I got this version, I played in constantly for months. The game is a simple beat em up idea, kick the crap out of the other person but this was the first beat up em in my view to take it to the next level with complex special moves, combos, and very different fighting styles and skills for most of the characters that you had to master. This made the game very re-playable, once you had mastered one characters moves and specials you moved onto another. Also the two player mode was and still is an endless joy to play with mates. This was my first Street Fighter game but it wasn't the last. I still think this had the best box cover art of any Street Fighter game before and after. And on another note I do remember this game costing about £50 when it first came out, that was a lot of money back in the early 90s and it wasn't the last of the games I had to cost that much, thank god CD came and cut the price of games for good.
Mortal Kombat
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/33/Mortal_Kombat_cover.JPG&hash=eb18e5299c17e2e44e9c036b65023138
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3d/Fatality_%28Mortal_Kombat_screenshot%29.png/220px-Fatality_%28Mortal_Kombat_screenshot%29.png&hash=bf976268449eaf6be27a02fafd09d195
After having to wait for Street Fighter to be released on the Mega Drive I was most please to have a Mega Drive when Mortal Monday came round as Mortal Kombat on the Mega Drive was very much the better port of the Arcade than the SNES version. As a 12 or 13 year old boy at the time Mortal Kombat was all about the gory and Fatality and the SNES version had none of these but the Mega Drive did with the cheat code. Do you remember cheat codes you don't get them much these days but it was fun going into the Options menu and doing the button sequence to get the gore modes. At the time it was totally new to have real looking graphics in a game and this was the first to do it (or maybe Pit Fighter). The game itself isn't as good a game as Street Fighter 2, it wasn't well made and tested and there are bugs everywhere, but that wasn't the point, this game changed all the rules as to what games could do in terms of targeting an adult market and the content you could put in a game. Yes kids had it and loved it to but in my mind this was the first time the games industry had gone after teenagers and twenty something's with a game. I played this game a lot but I think it makes the list more as what it did for the games industry and opening games and their content out to a wider audience. All I have to say is "Finish Him"
The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e9/Links_Awakening_box.jpg/250px-Links_Awakening_box.jpg&hash=f0cb151eabe935006bffdf326bf83cf8
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c8/ZeldaLA-DX_comparison.png&hash=1e666e2d7c54983d9704a8a36e65d545
Now I missed my old Game Boy so I went and got myself a new one and got most of the old games I used to have second hand for a very cheap price. My friend had this game called Zelda that I had seen but never played. He lent it to me and a week later I went and got the game for myself. What an experience it was. Never had a game sucked me into such a deep world of story and characters like this had before. The game had everything great level design, music, story, characters, weapons. And this was one of the great things you didn't rush a game like this you enjoyed every part of it, this meant serious game play time to find everything. What I liked about this and all other Zelda games is you start with nothing but build your skills as the game goes on, I had never seen anything like this before, in other games the skills you started with was what you had for the whole game. I have to admit that I never have completed this game, I got to the second to last dungeon, but for some reason I got stuck and never got round to finishing it and the main reason is because I got my next game on the list which took up all my time.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/21/The_Legend_of_Zelda_A_Link_to_the_Past_SNES_Game_Cover.jpg/250px-The_Legend_of_Zelda_A_Link_to_the_Past_SNES_Game_Cover.jpg&hash=152cd8439781f1ff53fcab05b7edf8ef
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/62/Legend_of_Zelda_a_Link_to_the_Past_Screen02.png/170px-Legend_of_Zelda_a_Link_to_the_Past_Screen02.png&hash=fbfe2ccfe1d66b88ad31a95d437cf2ca
At this time our house was broken into and my Mega Drive and about 20 games were stolen. Now with the insurance money I decided instead of buying the same thing again I would change and buy a SNES. There were games on the SNES I really wanted to play and felt the system had matured at that time and was starting to take over from the Mega Drive as the best on the market. I got a second hand one for the bargain price of £50. Zelda was the first game I got. After loving the Game Boy game I wanted to play the big brother version. And I loved it. It completely sucked me in and after two weeks of solid play I completed it for the first time. This isn't to say it was an easy game, yes it was easier than the Game Boy version which is strange. But I just loved playing it and couldn't stop. There has been loads said about how great this game is so I won't go on anymore. This still ranks in my top 5 games of all time and every couple of years I revisit it and play through it again, it never looses its charm, this is from an age of computer games where not just graphics and set pieces made a game but smart story and great game play were top of the list. And just as a side note I don't think Nintendo have made a better version of Zelda since, which is against popular opinion, but this is Zelda at its best!!!!!!
Super Mario Kart
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/38/Supermariokart_box.JPG/250px-Supermariokart_box.JPG&hash=43fa3e34e8d25d1cbd4bceee92f44d88
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8e/Super_Mario_Kart_screen_shot.jpg/220px-Super_Mario_Kart_screen_shot.jpg&hash=9ef0a9018c4b3ef83d12c4f64e588642
This was the start of a lifetime love affair with Nintendo hardware and games. After the great single player of Zelda I wanted some multiplayer fun for my SENS and got this little beauty of a game. I can't put my finger on why this game is so good, for a racing game the tracks aren't that great and you don't go very fast and there is no driving skills involved. But this isn't really a racing game, it's a battle between players with racing as the medium used to set it up. I had played racing games before with weapons but they were usually just rockets on normal cars, which never really worked. This was were Mario Kart struck gold, they had a great list of weapons that could turn the race on its head with the hit of a shell. The simple tracks added to this mayhem of getting weapons and fighting to the front. It meant that people who were crap at racing games could win the race, throwing open the doors to the whole family playing the game. Add in the battle mode for good measure and you have a great all round multi player game that kept us going for years and to this day still gets played in our house with the new kids in the family. None of the sequels to Super Mario Kart have come close to been as good, they all have the basics set down here but with the later releases they made the tracks way too long, which makes the races boring.
Super Mario World
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/32/Super_Mario_World_Coverart.png/250px-Super_Mario_World_Coverart.png&hash=4f87b5954d36238cac619396900f2729
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f4/Supermarioworld.jpg/220px-Supermarioworld.jpg&hash=990e92a5836a7d7c56ee2d86d2811ab0
Having got my SNES second hand in didn't come with Super Mario World like most peoples did. I was never that bothered to be honest as I had never really played any of the Super Mario Bros games before, and having played a Mario game on my Gameboy I didn't think there would be anything for this version to give. One day in the local fleapit games store, I noticed they had Super Mario World going for £15 second hand. At this time second hand games were never under £20 and that was for crap third party games, good Nintendo games were £25 and up. So I took a chance and it was the best gamble I have ever played in my life. Super Mario World is still my favourite game of all time. I have completed the game more times than I can remember and got all 96 roads which I think is the highest. Having never played a console Mario game before I didn't know what to expect but it was just such a joy to play, I never get bored of riding on Yoshi and the sounds he makes or fling with the cape. The level design is a joy and never has a platform game felt so good to control. The music and sound effects are also top class. In terms of where games are now it looks very dated and to a lot of people very childish, however it has dated better than others, Mario 64 for example looks awful. If you have never played this game before I urge you to go and download it from the Virtual Console on the Wii or Wii U or get a second hand SNES or the upcoming SNES Mini and enjoy a simple time when games were so much better and proves you don't have to go around shooting people for a game to be great. This was 2D side scrolling platform games at the top of their game everybody should play and enjoy.
Super Star Wars
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/17/Super_Star_Wars_box_art.jpg/250px-Super_Star_Wars_box_art.jpg&hash=0bd04d90990f3ab03e00cb22c714163a
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/da/Super_Star_Wars_gameplay.png/220px-Super_Star_Wars_gameplay.png&hash=93dcd94e66827e66563f6462012bfbd4
Now been a huge Star Wars fan all my life I had never really played a Star Wars game that was any good and took in all the worlds and characters from the films. Also in the early 90's Star Wars was a little bit of a forgot gem with no word of new films or the series been sold from everything from bog paper to clothes any new Star Wars product was very exciting. Then came Super Star Wars. It had everything a Star Wars fan wanted, all the worlds, characters, sound fx, music and you could finally be Luke with a Lightsaber and run around on the Death Star. And at the time the graphics in this game were amazing. But to be honest the game play wasn't that great and it was one of the hardest games on the SNES with no save points or passwords (until Super Empire Strikes Back), I think to complete it I had to use a cheat code. One of the nice touches I liked about the game was how wipes from the films when changing scenes were used when moving from menus to start of levels. Great game even if it hasn't aged that well.
Mortal Kombat II
/proxy.php?image=https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/box/1/5/8/20158_front.jpg&hash=dfcf9668190c4c4e071c7a51e67a5094
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/19/Mortal_Kombat_II_select_screen.png/220px-Mortal_Kombat_II_select_screen.png&hash=b6ad0c2c8255b709a8f32eee9c6afdb9
I was still a young teen when this game was released so as a kid I loved the blood and guts this game had on offer and was very excited as the SNES version had blood and was a good port of the arcade. Also I was happy that the game play had been improved a hell of a lot from the first one with smoother controls and not as many glitches in play. It seemed that the development team had toned down the blood and made more of an effort to make a great game. And by god me and my mates played this game to death. As with all Beat em ups multi player is were its at, with a few mates the days just used to fly by playing Mortal Kombat 2. I don't think this game broke any new ground but it was and still is a fun game to play, just love the Fatalities.
Super Street Fighter 2: The New Challengers
/proxy.php?image=http://img.gamefaqs.net/box/2/9/3/24293_front.jpg&hash=a854c3d29e6569a8eee58a17f3ae5396
/proxy.php?image=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5a/Super_Street_Fighter_II_screenshot.png/220px-Super_Street_Fighter_II_screenshot.png&hash=79d83bdfcde16712eddd28afd15423ad
Been a fan of Street Fighter 2 since its first release I played this in an arcade around 93 and couldn't wait for it to hit the consoles. Now there was no internet then so you never knew when a game was to be released, you just had to wait till it turned up in the local games shop. Since I used to live in a small town near Manchester we had one local games shop, Dixons, Woolworths and WH Smiths. So as you can guess we didn't get new releases on time or there wasn't many in the shops and they sold fast. So on a shopping trip to another local town and another local games shop I spotted this game. My eyes lit up until I got closer and noticed it was a USA import and I would need a converter to play it. The game was priced about £25 plus about £25 for the converter to play it, this was way to much money. I was gutted and left the shop to continue my day of shopping. But it ate at me for the rest of the day and I knew I really wanted the game and would find it hard to come by again, so got the money out the bank and headed back to the shop. Went straight to the game only to see another kid with it in his hands. He stood thinking about wheather to buy it or not and in the end put the game down. This was my chance and I was in and paying at the counter before he had chance to turn around and pick the game back up. I was the envy of all my mates and they came round all the time to play it, which I didn't mind as this game was at its best in multiplayer mode. As for the game it wasn't a huge difference from other Street Fighter games, however the graphics were improved and with new moves and the added 4 new characters. For me it was the best version of the Street Fighter 2 series and I missed having a Street Fighter game after my Mega Drive version was stolen. The Street Fighter series has never been better than this with only Street Fighter 4 coming close to the great gameplay.