Nintendo, oh Nintendo

Nintendo, my old favorite company

Today, I would call my younger self a fanboy. I had my Nintendo machines and those were the ones I played a lot and was any good at.

The competitors were Sega and Play Station during different points in time.

At first there was the old Nintendo NES. 8-bit of wonderful graphics. 

Super Mario jumping around, playing golf and driving boats. In todays standards, it would basically just look like a screen full of blocks. But the lack of graphics was no problem, my imagination fixed everything. So it actually felt like I could handle Mario in a way that those few keys should make possible.

There was a small store that sold and repaired these consols in the city where I grew up. Since there was no Internet available, the only way to actually know what games existed, was to check in from time to time to see which games the store had.

One of the things that made the technology feel unreal was the fact that you could use a gun and point it at your TV and kill ducks. 

Duck Hunt was the game that I used the pistol for. And it was science fiction, in my home!

Then the new times came. A new generation of consols. Nintendo 64! The thing stuck in my mind at the time was the fact that it was 64 bit, not 32 like the Play Station. And it was all about the Play Station vs Nintendo 64 at that time.

The controller was really unique for the Nintendo 64, I could not handle a Play Station controller at all, even for the easiest of games. Which made me be even more pro-Nintendo.


The Goldeneye 64 was, is and will always be legendary. It was something brand new. I had just seen the movie Goldeneye and I was not the best at the english language. Soooo I played the game, just managing to complete the different missions by following the memory I had from the movie. 

After a few years noone would ever play me in that multiplayer anymore. Luckily for me there was a new game being released. It was actually a game that had a lot of bonus content that they brought in from the Goldeneye 64. But this was Perfect Dark, a game that took everything that was Goldeneye and took it one step further. 
Into the world of science fiction, even more than James Bond with Qs crazy gadgets.

And lets just wait a second. What about The Legend of Zelda! Oh man. I had never really been into the entire Zelda before the Nintendo 64 came out with Ocarina of Time. 
It was christmas eve and I can feel the room where we sat, hear the music from Kokiri Forest playing while Link runs around gathering rupees.

Then there was Wii and in between a whole lot of handheld devices. But that is another story and not my Nintendo memories

History Time - Super Mario Bros

History Time - Super Mario Bros

It was one of the first video games that I ever played. In my generation, one that we can truthfully call the "Nintendo Generation", this was the big thing in the living rooms. 

There were a few machines made for video games before the Nintendo 8-bit came along but I never saw any of those. 

It was the Nintendo that ruined me for life. All those hours playing Super Mario. The blip-blop music, the square graphics and the controller with 4 buttons plus directional buttons. When the new consols came. I was bound to buy them just to be able to see how the new graphics were. 

Compared to todays games, this might be close to the graphics of Minecraft. Although here it is just 2D and in Minecraft there is an entire world that you can change in 3D. 

It was the most amazing experience back then. And that controller with just a button for running fast, one for jumping and that cross to move your character (and Pause and Select). It did not matter at all, because I learned how to time the jumps and stuff perfectly that it felt like I had the same control that I have with these new controllers with like 13 buttons, a directional cross and two sticks. 

The amount of games that features Mario and Luigi over the years are plenty. It all started with these games and the big influence it had over us, the "Nintendo Generation". As we grew up, Mario followed us. The games became more challenging as they moved to the new generation of consols. But we, the biggest fans were growing up and needed a bigger challenge as well. 
Come to think about it. That really is the case with a lot of stuff that was really child friendly back in the days. 
Take Batman for example. Or in the gaming world, Tomb Raider. The people making these games/movies know that the kids nowadays won't bother about these characters. What they do know, is that the people growing up with them will most likely keep purchasing products. 
So now Batman is some great action movies and the games are hard and with the age recommendations of 18+. 

Enough of being side tracked. Super Mario was full with hidden stuff that always made you popular among your friends if you knew some cool ones. 

Not sure about all glitches in this particular video though. But there was a lot of invisible boxes with extra lives, mushrooms that makes you grow and stuff like that.

Luckily for me there are emulators that allows me to visit the world of Super Mario NES once again. And actually controllers that is USB and is an exact copy of the old classic ones. 

Army of TWO

Army of TWO

This is the game series that I have probably spent the most time playing on my Play Station 3. At least in the last 3 years. It is three different games with a story that is connected.

This is the first game. It was released back in 2008.

This is the second game. Released in 2009. Not too long time between these games.

And the third game and the ending to this trilogy.

So why do I write about these games?

I FUCKING LOVE THEM! As co-op games they are fantastic. The characters are humoristic as well. I like Lethal Weapon, the movies. And the jokes between those guys is quite similar to this.
It is not something that perhaps two really good gamers would play for a long period of time though. I played these with my wife actually. So it is a really nice game for people that aren't hardcore gamers. Gamers can appreciate a lot in this too, don't think this is just too easy. Some parts requires some tactics and skill. And the humor makes it relaxing and fun compared to a lot of other games that are more hardcore. 
But it is really enjoyable when playing with someone not used to these kinds of games or the controllers. Since it is co-op you can use each others strengths and be successful.

Lets say that you are facing a big ass machine gun. He is protected while he fires at you. Which means one has to draw his attention while the other sneaks up around to fire at his back. Needless to say, I told my wife to wait here and while she got mad and yelled that she got fired upon I sneaked around killing the dude. Nah just kidding. But that would have been fun though. The games can probably be finished without fancy tactics, although the gaming experience is so good when you try to use different strategies to kill the enemies.

The weapons and stuff is not something that you have from the beginning. You earn money from your missions and then you can unlock weapons. And the cool thing with this game is that you can make many changes to your weapon. You can get a soda can to make your gun more silent, get many different sights and you can even paint your gun in gold to feel real gangsta!
I spend a lot of time browsing the different possibilities to get the gear I prefer. I really love rifles that allows me to kill enemies from a distance. And I don't know why but I always go for the Desert Eagle. No matter what game I play. I love that shit!

The story in these games are not the best I guess. But it is definitely entertaining in a Roman kind of way. I really enjoy it. There are a lot of typical military, tough guy humor. And the plot twists are good as well.
During some missions you get to make choices and after you make the choice you get to see what happends next. Was it a mistake? Most of it is just hilarious though.

If you do it like I did, and play them after one another you might feel like I did. Fucking pissed when you make mistakes just because some controls are changed between the games or that the feature in the options menu that you liked have disappeared. But you will get used to it quite fast though and you are enjoying it full time again!

I remember Counter Strike

Counter Strike Global Offensive is so user friendly 

And the people that have not played the previous versions over the years do not understand how amazing their game is!

Competitive matches in Counter Strike Global Offensive is a huge factor in the success of the game to the main audience I'd say. 
When I talk about back in the days I am referring to the days in 1.3 & 1.6 where you had to find a server yourself. 

So the game client looked like this back then. Not quite the big community that the client is today.

These public servers were hosted by companies or private people that just enjoyed having a server where they could play with friends. I became a part of one of those communitys where I could always enter a server and I knew the other players. 
That was very nice in some ways. But that was only for casual play since it was a public server where anyone could enter at any time.

You could rent a server, paying by the hour or in some cases you could get them for free. That was the way to go if you wanted to play a competitive match. But where did you find the opponents?

There were communitys for that as well. Where you could compete in teams fighting other teams on that community. 
However, there were also the "community" on iRC (an old non-graphic chat system). There were certain channels where you knew that you could find other people looking for matches. So you would basically write in the channel "5v5 medium skill our server", describing what level of skill you wanted to play against and if you had a server for the match.

It could take a while to find the proper opponents since not everyone was that serious and maybe the last player on the team was AFK or something like that. So there you sat with a rented server, you thought you had finally found 5 opponents and all of a sudden their last player fails to show up on the server.
If you did not play during that time, it must seem like I am stupid or something for going through all of that to find a match. But that was it, that was the way you HAD to do it back then. 

Coming back from a long break from the game now, coming straight into Global Offensive. I am just amazed with the system. How easy it is to find games. Of course you will be matched together with some annoying people sometimes, but if you were not a full team back in the days, you had to deal with those people as well. 
But now if you are a full team, you can find good competitive matches by just a click. It is amazing!

So final note on this. Enjoy this fantastic game! I love all memories I have from the previous versions but I am so pleased with the way this game have improved over the years.

Old style menus, there will always be a place in my heart for these memories.

I remember Goldeneye 64

The FPS-genre on consoles changed with Goldeneye 64. Free-roaming 3D levels in a single player campaign and the multiplayer deathmatch mode in the same game.
It was released back in 1997 on Nintendo 64. Which makes it a legendary memory for some people like myself. To some though, that was barely born when that was released, it is just a piece of history like when your dad talks about the time before the Internet.

I watched the Goldeneye movie first and then the next day I started to play the game. I did not read the instructions and objectives on the different missions. I just played straight from my memory, what did he do in the movie?
Sometimes it got a bit confusing. Of course the game were similar to the movie but some missions were really not like the movie. I remember the third mission. I was supposed to escape from the russian facility where the movie starts.
In the movie he just runs, uses a motorcycle and then dives after a plane. In the game however the runway is filled with enemies and I can use a tank!

The multiplayer part of the game was so damn fun to play with friends. It was in a splitscreen so you could always see where your opponents were hiding. But in some weird way you got so focused on your part of the screen that you could actually play against each other without "cheating". But hey, since all players can see each other it is the same for everyone.

This is from the second mission where you infiltrate the facility together with 006. 

I remember World of Warcraft

I remember World of Warcraft

There was a lot of stuff to think about, a lot of stuff to do... and then there was this game. I ended up spending all my time online in Azeroth. 

Honestly, this was back when I would spend a lot of time with the games instead of learning the games properly through guides. It was back when trying stuff was fun and I had all the time I needed.

I took a long time to get to level 60. Most of the time I just ran around exploring and killing monsters in the forest. Felwood was a place where I spent most of the last seven levels killing monsters. My druid was sneaking through the land in the shape of a panther. 

I spent a lot of time near the Irontree Woods.

Fighting near the caves where the "special" herbs grew. I believe it was Artha's Tears and maybe some mushrooms inside the caves. And in the pools of green water there were elementals to kill. Fantastic times!

The community was not crowded with goldfarmers who were spamming for selling their gold. I remember it as the perfect times. I am however aware that my mind might forget the bad stuff. (Like a mother giving birth to a second child is not likely to remember the pain she went through the first time. The happiness that follows just removes the bad stuff from their memory.)

I don´t know if there was many addons to get early in WoW, I did not use any however. That made questing tough. In the early days I don´t think there were much more help besides from the text itself on the quests. If I had not yet discovered a location on the map I could not know where I had to go. There could be a hint like to the north or something like that.

One of the things that defines my start in WoW is this. I went to Molten Core before I discovered that I HAD FORGOTTEN TO BUY THE LEVEL 60 SKILLS!

Just the skill alone improved my healing etc. That was something I did not tell too many people at the time, especially not the ones who wiped due to crappy healing at Ragnaros. 

Felwood would end up being the best memories I have from the game before the end game content started, with the instances and the raids. That is another story!

Epic Gaming Memories - FIFA 99

Nintendo 64 – FIFA 99

Even though I have spent an insane amount of time with Goldeneye 64 and Maricart 64 this game is probably the game that I have played the most on that consol.

If I would start the game today, the graphics would probably feel like Minecraft. But back then it was the most realistic football game I had ever seen. The game was easy to play to win in some ways. If you for example played a pass sideways and then shot directly it was a goal. But here is the beautiful thing about playing video games. I can play the game how I want to play it. Which meant that to make it more exciting, more fun I would perhaps not use the easiest way to win the games. And the challenge to score in new ways made the game last much longer. It was really the only FIFA-game I would purchase and play a lot.

When I started to play more on a PC I found games that allowed me to see the bigger picture and build the teams rather than playing them. The manager games. But there will be other posts that will go deeper into those games later on.

However I played this particular game over several years. That meant that the squads were outdated and many world class players were barely even talents in my FIFA -99. My imagination fixed all of that though in some weird way. And Roberto Baggio were still playing for Inter Milan. That was one of the best things about the game being a bit old.

I did not challenge the game for the hardest possible challenges when it comes to difficulty level in the game. Much due to the fact that I would not want to try and use the same ways to score and win games over and over again. I do not really remember if the UEFA CUP and the Champions League were put into the game or if I just simply created the cups myself.

That was however a great way to play the game. And the one big thing I knew was in the new FIFA that I missed in this one. The possibility to play a season with the league AND the cups with the same squad.

Afterwards, looking back on it, it may have been a waste of a good holiday in the sunny parts of Europe. I was literally passing through all of Europe in a caravan with the curtains covering the window so that I could see the monitor better when I played FIFA.

”Hey buddy, how was Europe?”

”It was great, scored a fantastic goal with Dennis Bergkamp from the right flank halfway through Spain.”

But hey, I had the time of my life. In between sessions of gaming I could enjoy the sunny weather and warm oceans.