Bionic Commando

Game Four

Bionic Commando

Capcom's traditional horrible boxart

Wow. I have to say, this game is freaking awesome.  I posted the other day, I found this store that sells old games and I figured I would stop by. I looked around the store for like an hour, and while they didn’t have much of a collection of pre-playstation games, they did have a few, most notably were NBA JAM for the SNES and UN Squadron which is an amazing shmup that I’m kind of regretting not picking up (having to pay bills sucks). Well instead of getting those two games I looked over towards the door as I was about to leave and I saw this game’s catch screen on a TV. I thought to myself, “Hmm…I’ve heard a lot about Bionic Commando in the past, and I love Capcom…I will pick this up instead.” So I put down my original two games and scoped out this classic. I was not disappointed.

So as many people are aware, Capcom makes amazing games. I’m a huge fan of Capcom, and while I haven’t played every amazing title they’ve put out…I have played a number of them (I LOVE Street fighter). So A quick cleaning of the game, (Which I guess I should just do for all of them because that seems like the only thing that makes these games work…also I love the smell of rubbing alcohol) and Baboom I’m playing some Bionic Commando.

Bionic Commando's Soundtrack (give it a listen)

There’s a lot to cover here, so I want to get some of the other stuff out of the way first, the music is awesome. Junko Tamiya, who also did the music for Gun.Smoke and Strider did a fantastic job, but it’s a Capcom game so…duh. I wish there were more to some of the songs, because they loop, but they’re all awesome. The same goes for the graphics, it’s really detailed and colourful and just everything pops, I just wish there were more variety in the soldiers, but I guess that makes sense that they all look like grunts. The story is…uh…pretty good…for an NES game. You have to save a commando named “Super Joe” Who is equally a bad ass off this island while also thwarting the Nazis, more on that later. The story is told mostly through an opening cut scene and also through com screens (similar to Metal Gear Solid’s codecs), some of which are pretty funny, mostly because of the poor translation, but they’re well detailed.

Now the gimmick of this game is that you can’t jump…more on that in a bit…but instead you have this hella rad arm that shoots out and latches onto things and you can swing like a one armed Spider-man…or rather a two armed Spider-Man, but in the other hand he has a huge ass gun…and he can’t jump…and has rad shades. 

A Radd Ladd

You’re this guy, and his name is Ladd (not as awesome as Scorpion…or even Mad Dog…) which is kind of a huge disappointment because they were so close to naming him Rad…or Radd which would have been perfect. You’ve got the arm (rad), and the aforementioned shades (note said radness). Fuck it…I’m renaming him Radd.

So like I said, Radd has this really cool arm, and with your arm you can do a few things. Awesome things. Things like, grab ledges and swing from them (with a really smooth swing animation). You can grab ledges and climb up them, but one thing you can't do is jump. Or climb down, and taking these two basic ideas of platforming away from you is what really takes some getting used to. Oh I forgot there is another thing you can do with your grapple arm and that is that you can miss ledges and fall to your death repeatedly because your grapple arm is a piece of shit. Just kidding it’s actually you that’s shit.

 This game has a really interesting learning curve. The first time you turn it on you’re like “Woah look at that logo, I’m gonna kick some Nazi ass!”(Oh…uh more on the Nazis in a little bit) you hit start and some dudes tell you your mission and you get put on a map screen. You can only go one way so you get to the first part and I guess you might land. This is where the fun starts.

It's the Map.

So to get into the levels you have to parachute in, which is always fucking cool. It’s cool when Big Boss does it in MGS3, it’s cool when James Bond does it, it’s cool I guess in Balloon fight though that’s with Balloons and not a parachute…it’s cool in GTA. You get it, it’s rad…Radd…Bionic ComRadndo…yeah.

Look we’re talking about games from the 80’s, Rad is going to be used as frequently as possible.

Anyway this game...it’s hard. Really hard. Like Nintendo Hard.  Well...at least until you know what you’re doing. See, the mechanic of swinging was so cool, and Capcom knew it was fucking cool, so the entire game is based around how well you can use your brain and reflexes to swing around the map. They through in guns and Nazis (I’m getting to it I swear.) to appease you, but unless you know what’s up and how to actually play the game, you’re going to get fucked. Hard.

When you start the game, you have one hit before you die. You have three lives and then it’s game over. Which is fucking nuts, like, how can someone even think that was fair (oh well it is an arcade port).  But to help your little pansy ass out, Capcom was like, “chill out wee bitch, if you kill these dudes here, they drop shit, and you’ll get health if you pick up these…things.” I guess they’re called bullets? I dunno they look like…a lego or something I dunno they're too small to see. Anyway, if you get like 5 you get a little green box up top and now you can take two hits (still only three lives). The more you collect the more little boxes you get, I think up to 8…I only got 5 by the end of the game. So again, if you stick to it and learn the first level you can get out with like one or two boxes of heath and the item you get at the end of the level is like a free heath kit that you can use once per level.

This is a lot of information that I’m throwing out at you, and this isn’t a walkthrough (trust me I looked one up.) But I guess I could tell you about the items now. When you beat a level on the map, you get an item. It might be a gun, it might be a little helpful item like boots that can kill enemies when you swing at them (which is fucking cool), a bulletproof vest, or the aforementioned health kit…etc. So you pick your load out at the start of a level (which is also fucking cool and cutting edge, way to go Capcom) and certain items make each level easier or harder.

The items....the "bullet" is the top left

This is all well and good except Capcom was like “Who gives a fuck about shooting, this game is about this rad swinging

concept,  here have this epic fucking rocket launcher that wrecks shit on like the third level. Go swing.” So you really get the only load out you need after like three or four levels, which really helps the combat part of the game.

Speaking of parts of the game, the game isn’t all just a Mega Man esque platformer/shooter. There are these little trucks on the map (you might have noticed them in that picture) but when you run into them you’re forced into this top down shooter stage. This is actually a good thing because they’re short, not too difficult (if you know what you’re doing/have the right weapon), and you can pick up the super valuable continues here.

 There is another type of stage that doesn’t involve any combat at all. In fact in these town-like “Neutral Zones” if you fire your weapon, everyone important will leave and a bunch of guards will come attack you forever and ever. Until you leave and come back. 

This game doesn’t have any ridiculously brain tickling puzzles, and you can pretty much just go through and play every level, but you don’t have to if you listen to what the characters say, which is awesome.

Yeah turns out swinging on things is a fucking blast

Once you understand what all the three different stages are and how to get continues, the game really levels off in difficulty, except in the swinging department. Now, like I said Capcom knew that this is what people would remember and what people would find entertaining, so they really made some clever swinging puzzles that make you feel awesome for not only figuring it out, but actually having the dexterity to accomplish them. It isn’t like this is just a mechanic that isn’t only used in one level, but a mechanic that this game that is built around.

There is no denying this, the swinging is the main part of the game, and is truly why this game is remembered. It’s so much fun, so much so that as soon as I had beaten it, I hit reset and beat it again. That’s the sign of a really good game, one that as soon as you put down, you pick up to play it some more. While writing this I want to go back and play it again. Everything about it is great and has that Capcom style, the graphics, the music, the control tightness, the fun factor, it’s all there. It’s been re-released on XBLA and PSN and while I usually love reboots there’s something magical about NES Capcom games, so if you have a working NES I would suggest picking it up for it before your Xbox, but if you don’t you should absolutely pick it up however you can (preferably with a robot arm). Just make sure you get Bionic Commando: Re Armed (there’s also a sequel to this called Rearmed 2) and not the shitty 2009 version…that is not Radd.

Tl;Dr

+Great Music and Graphics

+Rad as shit story and hero

+Bionic Swinging Arm

+Fight Nazis

+Capcom

-Hard as shit when starting out

-Really didn’t know what I was doing to start

-A couple bullshit swinging puzzles

Great fucking game/10

Go get it, seriously. This is one you should play, especially if you like Capcom or Megaman or fun…

On to the Next one,

Nick

Oh right the Nazis…

(Spoilers!) I’m about to spoil a twenty-five year old game! (also Hitler's head exploding)

The games villains are an evil army known as the Badds (but in Japan known as the Nazz). And they’re trying to revive “Master-D” (Hitler in Japan and come on…it’s a buff Hitler) to build the albatross which is a flying ship that has a giant frikkin laser. 

Hitler got buff while being dead I guess.

You end up blowing up the albatross and when Hitler tries to escape you grab a super bazooka, jump off a ledge and blow the fuck out of him and his helicopter in arguably the most epic final sequence this side of Metroid.

And the most brutal killing of Hitler this side of Inglorious Basterds

Anyway, Nintendo didn’t want any references to Nazism so they changed the names around and the symbols to avoid anything like that. I guess I can’t really blame them, but come on…it’s Hitler. Fucking "Master-D” bullshit.

Game Update!

Woah! So I got sidetracked looking for a Master System yesterday and found out there was a store that sells old games nearby...so I went...I was looking for systems and ended up with two new games that I need to add to the list.  But I do have a really cool idea for second play through that might be pretty neat, so make sure you read (or at least scroll past the pictures) the whole post. (spoiler: I'm writing a story)

The first game I picked up is Bionic Commando for the NES. This game came out in '87 and did alright for Capcom, but was never as big as Mega Man was, and though it's similar, the big gimmick was that instead of a jump, you had a robot arm and you had to grapple things. This mechanic(al arm) is actually pretty fun and though it takes a few tries to get the rhythm down, it's not too hard to be flying around at the speed of robot arm. Speaking of robot arm, this game did have an unfortunate sequel in 2009, but instead of talking about that, I'm going to mention that it was Re-armed...er booted for the XBLA and PSN before that horrible game in 2008. (it was called Bionic Commando Re-armed...obviously.) I managed to get it for cheap and it just so happened to fall perfectly into the game queue, saving me from the actually really frustrating Super Mario 2 for another game so that'll be next on the playthrough.

The second I managed to find was XIII for the original Xbox. This game came out in 2003 and made some waves because it was based off a comic book of the same name and also cel shaded which people seemed to rave about (though they hated Zelda...interesting). I still need to do some more research on this game, but it seemed to do decently well and I had heard that it was a really interesting story (though I've never read the comic it's based off of). I'm pretty excited to play this, hopefully I'll actually get to it...(only 16 years worth of games left!).

So the real big announcement is that I'm going to be adding to the idea of 2nd Play-Through. I like the idea of reviewing these old games, but that's not really that interesting or that different...so I figured, in addition to a standard review I'm also going to write a little story with each game that I complete, where this will take me, I have no idea...I'm not saying it will be good, but hey I could use the practice...I don't know if it will be continuous or just a single story involving my experience with the game or what. Who knows. Anyway, that's all the news for today. I think Bionic Commando might take me a couple days, so keep on the look out for new posts (or you could follow me on twitter where I send out like one tweet about my new post when I post it eh? @ThatdamnnickR ? eh?? follow?)

A big thank you to the few people that have checked the site and read this dumb stuff. I really truly appreciate it and seeing that I've had visitors from around the world makes me very, very excited to keep doing this.  (Though I wish Dave would stop by some more and give his opinions on some things...the wank)

One to the Next of things,
Nick

Contra

Game Three

Oh boy this game. I’m sure you may have heard of Contra before, notoriously known for being a super fun, super bad ass, super tough shooter. And this game was super popular when it came out in 1988 for the NES (’87 in arcades).

 You play as Blue pants Mc Mad Dog or Sir Scorpion Redlegs, actually Bill Rizer and Lance Bean who are two soldiers bad enough and shirtless enough to take on the Red Falcon, either a terrorist group or an alien race in either South America in the 70’s or Neo New Zealand in 2633 depending on if you play this game in America or the rest of the world.

See, when writing about these games, I feel like everyone will already know what I’m talking about and all the cool stuff they feature. Like the Konami code (up up down down left right left right select start). While not the first game to use it, (that honour goes to Gradius in 1986)  Contra is the first game that made it popular in America. But if you don’t know about the code, it gives you 30 lives (normally you only have three).

You might think that this game with 30 lives makes it a piece of cake, well you’d be wrong. It’s still pretty challenging, but it does make it significantly easier. Playing it with only 3 lives and 2 continues, (like a real bad ass) takes patience, skill, and the spreader gun. But you already know all this.

You start out with a puny pea shooter that requires you to mash B and hope for the best, but to aid you in your fight, powerups can be found occasionally that will help boost your gun into a rad killing machine. They include: a machine gun (which is useful, but not if you have a turbo controller), a cluster shot (which I never found), A Laser (which sounds awesome but is actually that upgrade that you hate to get), A flamethrower (again cool, but not as useful as it could be), a barrier that makes you invincible for a short time, and the spread gun, with which you will kick the most ass and is arguably my favourite powerup ever. But again, I’m sure you know all this.

The graphics in this are awesome and colourful and even though no one has a face, or shirt, you don’t really have time to look at them anyway. But if you do, it all looks crisp and neat, Bill and Lance all sweaty in the jungle, muscles...bulging...uh Sorry, where was I? 

The music is some of the best on the NES and super memorable, and sticks with you as the day goes on.  The Japanese version has animated backgrounds and like added kind of cutscenes, but you aren’t really missing anything except McMadog’s shirtless figure and 80‘s cell phone(you could just look them up on youtube).  

The control of this game is near perfect. There really isn’t much to complain about, it’s responsive and fits the pace of the game. You can shoot in 8 directions, jump AND shoot, and duck. Ducking is the only real problem I have with the game, but that just might be because my controller isn’t that great. It’s a little sensitive and I kept dying because I would move forward and look down when I would mean to duck.

Coming into this I thought it was going to take forever to learn and beat, but with the code I got a good feel of the level and then managed to beat it with only three lives so it really wasn’t that bad. This game is so good and fun and everyone should play it, find a copy, get the new ones, get it on virtual console, whatever. Get it, play it, become a bad ass.

9/10

+Fun, fast, awesome

+great gameplay, great music, just great, amazing go play it

-A little short and not much of a story (but do you really need one?)

-“fucking duck asshole” –Nick Ricotta 2013

TL;DR – go fucking play Contra, it’s badass

On to the Next one.

-Nick

Bubble Bobble

Game Two

In 1986 Bubble Bobble was released as an arcade game by Taito and was eventually ported to various different home computers and entertainment systems, the Nintendo being one of them. Even though it was pretty popular, I had never played Bubble Bobble much before today. I have had it for a couple years, but it never worked right…it wasn’t until I cleaned it and my system for this project that I really understood what Bubble Bobble is.

Let’s say you and a buddy think to play this game. You might have seen Bub before, he’s that really cute dino in the picture up there (if you play two player the other dino is Bob, they’re both adorable).  When you switch the game on you hear some really cheery music and a bubbling title screen…so you hit a button and you’re on the main menu. There are a few options but you just hit 2 player story because that’s what you’re there for.

The game starts with Bub and Bob trapped in some sort of  bubble (bobble) and are thrust towards the ground while a mysterious voice calls out to you, “Now it is the beginning of a fantastic story.. Let us make a journey to the Cave of Monsters…Good Luck” and you truly will need all the luck the universe can give you. With that, Bub and Bob are slammed into the ground their bubbles (bobbles) literally burst and before they know what truly is going on a wave of monsters is upon them. There is only one thing they know for certain, their girlfriends have been taken and it’s up to them to save their lives. Though agile, their only defense is imprisoning their foes in a slimy, mucus like membrane which when popped changes the molecular structure of the body captured inside into a plant or vegetable. (Bub and Bob are Herbivores who have evolved to be able to manipulate any substance they coat with their saliva into edible, digestible food.) As soon as the two manage to defeat or eat these foul monsters, the floor opens up and swallows them further underground. Eventually they fall upon a chasm of skulls, in the distance their girlfriends can be seen hopelessly trapped. The last obstacle Bub and Bob have to face, is a massive monster easily 5 times their size.

Bubble Bobble looks pretty good. It’s nice and simple, but pleasing to the eye, and all the levels have a cool design. The music however, is a major, major issue. There’s pretty much one song. Throughout the 99+ levels you get one song that plays over and over and over. I guess because the levels are pretty short and take like under a minute to beat, it’s understandable, but it’s like being in the celadon city game corner in Pokemon for hours. It’s great at first, you whistle it and sing a long, but it will always get to you. Unless you can blow through these levels no problem. Which you can’t because this game is hard…It’s really hard.This game is fucking. Hard. OK?! There’s also something right before the title comes down and something for the game over and a final boss song. That’s it.

If you haven’t played it, good luck. I don’t think it’s possible to beat this without continuing…if you have a video of it, please show me, because I want to congratulate you on being a fucking savant at this fucking game.

I think part of why this game is so difficult is because I don’t know what the hell is going on. It’s pretty and cute and looks nice, but sometimes I fall through the floor, sometimes the enemies turn into ice cream. Sometimes the enemies just get exploded by how sexy Bub is feeling on that particular level…I just don’t get it. There’s so much shit going on and so many bubbles and powerups and items that I have no idea what the hell is happening. I just want to keep playing it though because it’s so quick and fun you just want to play a few more levels…and then you’re at level 57 and you’re like “damn I’m like halfway  done I should just finish it.” But then the game makes you cry like a little baby when you die over and over and over again with no idea of what the fuck you’re supposed to do. Partly because the way the levels are made in a ridiculous manner.

The level design all over the place, one level will be extremely easy and I’ll blow through it in one go, and some may take some intense focus but feel really good when you just manage to complete them, but some of them are just cheap and annoying…or completely rage enducing (57). While there are rehashes of some levels…most of them are different and there are over a hundred. Yeah, over 100 levels on this NES game…but here’s the catch, you only have 3 lives. Also unlimited continues and a password system but still. Damn…three…and it’s one hit kills too. And there are enemies fucking EVERYWHERE.

For what it’s worth I played through it all the way…so I mean I guess it’s addicting and fun at some parts, but others are just so. Damn. Frustrating. (lvl 57). This game is also really good at making you feel smart, because you have to learn all the tricks yourself. There’s no help, no hints, and only jumps and bubbles (bobbles). Eventually you get enough of a hang of it to make progress and completing a bunch of levels or getting mad gems or fruit or whatever falls from enemies feels so super satisfying, but if you miss some because you take too long at the end it hurts the feels a little because you’re like “I’m not done…I wanted that pepper.”. Also it has this annoying gimmick where if you take too long, a ghost will show up and chase you to death, and right before it shows up, “Hurry!!” will pop up on the screen and every time I was like “Game, calm the fuck down, I already killed all the enemies”.  It’s a fun game, but it’s hard as nails.

I wrote that last paragraph at around level 70…After getting to the final boss…I can honestly say

“FUCK.”

Ok, to be fair,  it goes in a pattern and if you learn it, it’s not that bad…but until you do, you’re just going to be asking god why he or she would allow such a monstrosity be allowed to spoil a children’s game. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s fucking hard. Like Meat Boy hard, like...I feel that this game might be a reason why Ed McMillen made Super Meat Boy so difficult, he wanted to put the new generation through the torture he went through with fucking Bubble Bobble.

This game is infuriating! But it’s not all bad. It’s a challenge, but  it has passwords and unlimited continues and you respawn pretty quickly with enough time in between each continue that you don’t get too frustrated…or at least if you’re me you get so far you just have to keep playing…but you’re just going to need a lot of patience to actually beat the game. This game has a second play through which is cool. If you’re man enough you should totally give it that second play through. I have too many games and don’t want to give myself an ulcer from raging so hard, so I’m not going to play it.

 If you can find a copy of it and have a Nintendo I’d say pick it up. I think it’s also on the Wii jawn perhaps.

7/ 10

+cute

+fun

+super tough

-can be a little repetitive

-can be a lot frustrating

-I’m not going to do the second playthrough sorry. (not actually sorry)

+/--WHY IS THIS GAME SO FUCKING HARD (It’s because it’s an arcade port)

+/- have fun getting the song out of your head.

Alright, on to the next one.

-Nick 

Super Mario Bros.

Game One

It starts.

   

This journey into years past, a collection of games spanning my entire life…of course it would start with this. Super Mario Bros. What hasn’t been said about this game? There shouldn’t be a person out there who has played a video game who hasn’t played this one. It’s where everyone should start.

Release in Japan, 13 September 1985 and in America…we aren’t sure and will never know….but sometime in ’85 or ’86 some say as early as October 18^th or November 17^th but regardless, this simple platformer game in which you are a plumber named Mario Mario or his brother Luigi Mario must travel across the Mushroom Kingdom and fight off Bowser’s evil army to rescue the Princess Toadstool.

Now while this tried and true formula of save the girl, save the world has recently caused some up roar, there isn’t really a much more simple way to engage the player. He took her, go rescue. The misdirection of the Toads after every Bowser…(clone? Robot? Is it actually Bowser?) fight keeps pushing you to continue, knowing that eventually you will find the princess. It’s simple, it’s to the point, and it keeps you playing. And this is a great thing because playing this game is still remarkably fun even 25+ years later. And hard. God damn this game is a challenge. Luckily this game isn’t cheap when it comes to difficulty, and that’s because of two reasons. The levels, and the controls.

Each of these levels are laid out pretty damn close to perfectly, keeping a sense of flow that other platformers strive for. This game doesn’t try to slow you down or trick you , it expects you to go as fast as you can through it, and instead of intense memorization of the levels, you can trust your sense of reaction to get you through. This is all thanks to the near perfect controls, which are about as clean and crisp as you can make them. Mario moves quickly and jumps high and fast enough so that once you know the levels you can blow through them and feel like a champ when you hit the top of that flagpole. I put emphasis on the “once you know the levels” part because this game also doesn’t really let you make mistakes. Seriously, go pop in whatever copy you have of this and play 1-1 see if you die…I’ll wait…

See? You fucking forgot about Mario and then a turtle bit the shit out of your ass. It’s cool I know how it feels. After about an hour of playing , I made it to world 4-2 before I game over’d on day one…In which I would have played more, but I spent all day getting everything set up so by the time I started to play it was already like 11:45pm….I had work in the morning…I’m a busy man…leave me alone. Day two fared better but I fucked up and died on 8-3...

The Next Day

I beat it fucking! yes! I actually destroyed it…didn’t use any shortcuts, but I did have to restart a bunch of times because world 5-3 and 8-all are total bullshit…(fucking hammer bros) that’s one down and like another hundred to get through…but hopefully they’ll be quick.

So I’m not going to rate this or whatever because it doesn’t matter. If you don’t have a copy of this game, go get one. If you have never played this game or haven’t in a while go do it. Seriously, this is arguably the most important game ever made. Maybe next to pong or fucking …I dunno Pac-Man. Just go play it for like 20 minutes. 

On to the next one,

Nick

Day Zero

Day Zero

So yesterday was awesome. I got a lot of cool things and had Chick-Fil-A so I’m pretty sure this day will end up on like my top 10 of my life…maybe. Anyway one of the things I managed to find was a VCR. Now while this might not sound like any special find, this is actually the most crucial component to the entire 2^nd Play-through project. This is because my CRT TV is garbo.

For whatever reason, the model of TV can’t switch to video mode without the original remote that came with it. I didn’t know this when I purchased it from a thrift store a few years ago…so I needed to get a VCR so I could switch to video mode and play my fucking games. I found it, bought it, brought it home, and hooked it up. Unfortunately it wasn’t working properly. So I went and tested out all my components on another TV. The cables were fine, the systems were fine, hell the VCR actually even played VHSs properly…So I figured it was the TV, the piece of shit that it is. Well it turns out I’m just dumb and didn’t notice the little switch for either Channel 3 or Channel 4 (I wonder why those two were picked…) Anyway, I figured it out and managed to set up the TV. Hooray.

I decided to celebrate with Pad Thai (it was delicious).

Now I can finally start my journey…barring any other technical issues that come up. The first game up is a classic that I’m sure many of you can see coming from  a mile away.

But first, I'm going to fix my Nintendo. Which I will do. Hooray.

Wish me luck

-Nick

Tl;Dr – VCRs, Setting up and Chick – Fil- A

Oh! If you guys wanted to follow me on social media and make me feel like super important and stuff that would be awesome. I haven’t made any videos yet so I don’t have a YouTube set up, but still at least if you follow me elsewhere you can get pestered with my hilarious tweets and wonderful pictures and vines. Also cats. Also info on this dumb thing too I guess.

Twitter: @ThatdamnnickR

Instagram: The_un_Ricotta

Vine: I think it’s just “Nicholas Ricotta”

2nd Play-through

     We're back. Well...I'm back...maybe? To everyone (Dave and myself) who reads this...I'm starting a new project where I play through my library of games, many of which I haven't beaten. I'm calling this project the 2nd Play-through...you see, I moved recently, and while moving I found myself looking at all of my old games and wondering how I've never beaten most of them. I have so many!

   This summer (the other day) I figured it was time to organize my game library. I sat down, pulled out all of my games and started to put together a list of every game I had. After about four games in (none of which I had beaten) I thought "Damn, I have so many of these games, and if I had to guess...I think I've beaten only about 40% of them...perhaps I should play through these. Some of them even deserve a...2nd Play-through." 

     And so I added a column to the list for if I had beaten the game or not. Looking at this I thought to myself  "Dang, this list is looking pretty legit...I wonder how I should go about beating these games...Some of these are classics that I never got around to...perhaps I should beat the older ones and then catch up to the newer ones...so hopefully by the end of the year I could finally get a new game guilt free." So I added another column to the list. I went and looked up the year each of my games were released and I'm now on a quest to beat all of the games I own...hopefully before I add too many more to the list. 

     When I finished the list I took a second and looked through it. I have 153 different titles, and I've beaten about 62 of them. which if you do some calculations is 40.5% (called it). It certainly looks like I have some work to do.

     Now I figured this might be an awesome project to share with people (mostly myself and Dave), so what I wanted to do was do a video blog/review column/ lets play/ commentary about the games that I play while I play them. Now, I know what you're saying,

"This idea is great! There are no foreseeable problems that will arise during the undertaking of this project."

     And you would be correct...except for two things...One of which, is that I don't have a Sega Master System, or a Genesis....Also my N64, PS2 and PS3 aren't here with me, along with a lot of my games for my newer systems...I also don't really have a way to capture any footage of me playing...yet. Eventually I hope to get a capture card or something that would enable me to do that, but for now I think it would be cool to perhaps just write about the games and maybe do a short video about whatever too. Also I don't know I'll be able to beat all these games before I go back to school...or get systems...hopefully that wont be an issue (alternatively if you know anyone that has and is trying to get rid of / sell a Sega Master System or a Sega Genesis (or if you could let me borrow it for a while) that could be a really big help). 

    So this is the future of 2P-erspective, at least  for now (at least for me)...because I want to beat these games of the past...either again or for the first time...but mostly because I can't afford new games.

 
 If you're curious about the games I have and the list I made (It is pretty awesome) I can try to link up some links for that shit. Also Dave, I would encourage you to take a look at your library and perhaps let me know what kinds of games you have and haven't beaten. I still have a few things left to sort out, but if all goes well I should be starting my journey with Super Mario Bros. for the NES very soon. 

Wish me luck,

Nick

Oh! You should also follow me on some media sites because why not, I'll keep you updated (I'm also hilarious and take good pictures)

Twitter: @ThatdamnnickR

Instagram: The_un_Ricotta

Vine: the same as twitter? Look up Nicholas Ricotta, it's the one with a dorky picture I guess...idunno

Youtube: Uh....I haven't decided yet...I think it will be.....somewhere...I'll let you know when I figure it out.

Tl;Dr - I'ma beat some old games and talk about them.