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TMCNet: The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Will Smith column: Blasts from the past

[November 30, 2008]

The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Will Smith column: Blasts from the past

Nov 30, 2008 (The Hawk Eye - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Of course, picking an era that could be best described at "the golden age of video games" is a matter of opinion relative to your age. Those who cut their teeth on the impossible to beat arcade games of the early 1980s ("Defender" and "Asteroids" to name a couple) would argue no purer or more challenging form of video games have been produced since -- and to a large degree, they would be right.

Unfortunately, most hardcore gamers who were blasting aliens in "Robotron 2084" gave up the hobby just as I was learning to read. And since the next gaming generation (guys like me in their late 20s and early 30s) refused to give up their digital toys so easily, our golden age of gaming came about during our impressionable pre-teen years when Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis were king.

This week, I take a look at two revamped re-releases which are considered the absolute pinnacle of gaming during the mid 1990s. Not surprisingly, they're just as fun today as they were over a decade ago.

"Chrono Trigger" for the Nintendo DS. Rated "E" for Everyone. $39.99. Originally released for the Super Nintendo in 1995.

The gaming landscape has changed a lot since I fell love in with "Chrono Trigger" during my junior high days. Long before purchasing a game meant a quick trip to "GameStop," (the closest video game store back then was in Iowa City), small town gamers were forced to search the shelves of big box retail stores with only a glimmer of hope they could find lesser known games they read about in magazines.

My weekend-long search for "Chrono Trigger" ended on a late Sunday afternoon at the Jacks (now Shopko) retail store -- a last ditch effort for a dejected boy who had visited every other store in town. The game sported a hefty $75 price tag thanks to the highly escalating price of game cartridges (a practice that soon ended with the advent of CD-ROM), but I've never been known as a frugal video game spender.

I played seven straight hours before being forced to bed that night, declaring it the best game I had every played. If it had been a Saturday, I would have played another seven hours.

Players take on the role of a young boy named Crono in this traditional role-playing game, who ends up bouncing through history after his friend accidentally invents a time machine that goes a little haywire.

After a depressing visit to the future where mankind is on the verge of extinction due to lack of food, Chrono and his friends learn the cause of the global calamity. A mysterious beast named Lavos, who destroys the world with one fell swoop a thousand years in the future.

The silly-but-engaging-plot was eons ahead of its time for the genre (no pun intended), which still relies of the tired cliches of swords and sorcery epics. The game play also was revolutionary for an RPG, ditching random encounters for enemies who appeared on screen and fought where they stood. The combo system that required characters to join up in combo attacks was just as fun.

But where the game truly stood out was in the graphics and presentation, which elicited "oohs" and "ahhs" from anyone in the room watching. The fact the graphics still looking stunning on the Nintendo DS screen is a testament to the game artists.

This re-release doesn't offer much in the way of enhancements -- the game is essentially the same other than two extra dungeons, enhanced menu screens that utilize the stylus and forgettable monster raising mini-game.

But for those who grew up on "Chrono Trigger," extra features aren't that important. Nintendo has convinced us to drop $40 on a game we probably already own, just so we can take it on the road.

Four out of Four Stars
"Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix" available for download for Microsoft's Xbox Live Service and Sony's PSN Network for $15. Rated "T" for Teen.

Not only did the competitive one-on-one fighting in "Street Fighter II" single-handily kick-start a brief arcade revival in the 1990s, but the game has stayed popular long enough to be remade, re-released, prequeled and sequeled dozens of times since it's initial release in 1991.

The concept was novel yet simple enough to become instantly addicting -- players chose one of a dozen hand-to-hand fighters in a tournament to decide the ultimate street fighter. This meant endless hours of head-to-head gaming sessions with friends that chanted "come on dude, just one more match" as though it were a mantra.

Instead of simply re-releasing the game one more time, the developer Capcom has spent the past couple of years redrawing every frame of animation as though it were a living cartoon. The results, which are meant to be viewed on a high definition display, is the best looking 2-D art you can see in a video game.

Even better, the game plays exactly as it did when you were a kid -- Chun Li's deceptive heel stomps, Ken's crazy fire balls and E. Honda's hilarious 100-hand slap control precisely the same.

The fact that I received this game as a Christmas present in 1992 shouldn't stop you from making this an online Christmas purchase for that special hardcore gamer in 2008. I remember many a night where friends would force me to stay up until 4 a.m. just so they could win the final match and declare themselves world champion (despite a string of 15 losses before that), and the game is as addicting now as it was then.

At a mere $15, there's no reason any "Street Fighter II" shouldn't immediate trust their credit card to the Internet.

Four out of Four Stars
To see more of The Hawk Eye or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.thehawkeye.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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