Video Games: A Retrospective Artist Date

I have not played video games since school started. This has been quite a record for me. I normally play online video games such as Team Fortress 2 to pass time. I enjoy it because it's social, challenging, and a lot of my friends from my undergrad play it so it allows us to interact together and have a conversation over voice chat.

Since school has started I quit playing. Most of my friends are in the same boat as well, and we'll play again over the break. Today however I am breaking my rule. It's the worst day outside. So dreary, and cold. I will play a video game... but not just any video game, an old one! I have a list of games from my childhood that I have been wanting to replay for a while now. Among them there are Super Mario World, Mega Man X, Final Fantasy 7, and Chrono Trigger. For times sake, and difficulty I decided to play Mega Man X. I may be able to beat that one in an afternoon. What follows is a journal of events and screenshots from the game.

Right off the bat I am greeted with old school 16bit music, and the Capcom logo.

So you're Mega Man... A robot boy. You have a gun for an arm and you shoot robots. I like this because you shoot robots. Anyway, you run through a city for a little while. All the while you're establishing the story. Not bad. It's something about Renegade robots not being very neighborly, and Mega Man has to stop them. Rather than get all Gandhi and fight passively, Mega Man takes the Bruce Willis route shooting the hell out of the bad guys. But then he bits off more than he can chew when he encounters a robot in an even bigger freaking robot!

He's two robots!

 Wow, really? Can they do that? Capcom I think you're just blowing steam on this one --but for the sake of amusement I'm letting it slide. As it turns out this is one of those fights you can't win. This type of story development killed myself esteem as a kid. No matter how good I was, I was never good enough to change the plot! Anyway, a more flamboyantly dressed robot boy who sorta looks like a robot girl comes along and saves me. Then tells me I am not as strong as him, but if I work hard I can maybe surpass him. Once again I am not good enough for this game. I think that is the message so far.

After this drama is established and it is clear that I've gotta go stop these robots from doing whatever it is they are doing I am greeted with a selection screen. From here I can choose who I am going to chase after. I like this. It gives you the sense that you ultimately have control over your experience. This is typical of Mega Man games. The trick is to figure out which character to go after first. Every enemy has a different weakness. If you kill them you take their weapon to use on the next guy you chase down. If you're lucky that guy is weak to its effects. Generally just use common sense like fire melts ice, but once in a while you might need a weapon to fight a guy that you normally wouldn't consider.

 The gopher is cute.

I'm going to start with the gopher looking guy, and go through the entire game this afternoon. I will post an update as to my overall opinion.

Okay, so I never actually beat the game. I got about three levels in before I realized I had to get other stuff done. Overall though, I would say this game is really addictive. It stacks up against a lot of the games that I have played recently, but you cant judge it by the same criteria.

Games now are more about storytelling and visual art. In some cases they are just interactive movies. Back when they first started making them, up until the early 2000's game makers had to rely on a sense of urgency. The music in this game helps that, as well as the constant presence of enemies in each stage.

I really enjoyed playing through this --as far as I got. It was a nice trip down memory lane, and reminded me of why i liked video games in the first place: they're fun.