Strictly for the game Nerds.

The people that get it are already laughing. The ones that don't never will.

Final Fantasy 6

Well i figured today was as good a day as any to drop a retro review of my favorite game of all time. Final Fantasy 6, or as it was known for so long in the states Final Fantasy 3.

I have such great memories of this game. I remember the first time i saw a friend of mine playing it at his house. I watched him play through about the first hour of the game with wide eyes, internally plotting how i could get the money to buy my own copy. 

I think the first thing that i got caught up in with this game was the graphics. For the time it was probably one of the most colorful and beautiful SNES games on the market. From the environments, to the characters, the spells, everything looked amazing on that 26 inch tube television. 

The story, as i would find out through playing the game, was very inviting and easy to keep up with, yet never boring. Of course this was before the cliche' of stories that had a main character that couldn't remember their past, but needed to save the future. I don't remember the exact count but, along the way you would meet and be able to use a very wide cast of characters. Ninjas, Fighters, Mages, even Gamblers and a feral human/animal thing would all join your party. Each bringing their own special abilities and weapon types.

The Music, well the music from most games sticks with me years after the game has gone. Nobou Uematsu composed some of the most memorable music of the series (at least for me) for this game. Once again, like River City Ransom, I took some of the music and made a ring tone for my cell phone. It's hard to describe music from a game like this and do it justice, the easiest thing to do would be go and find it and give it a listen. I am sure that you can find most if not all of the important songs on imeem.

Gameplay... well as far as RPG's go or the Final Fantasy series goes, it wasn't really revolutionary. However it did introduce a couple of new gameplay mechanics to the series. Sabin (the monk/fighter) had different special moves that he could pull off so long as you entered them in SFII style on the controller. There were also a couple times when your party would be forced to split up and you had to control each independently of the other. These situations usually happened at key plot points in the story. 

There isn't room enough for all the good things that i could say about this game. Like i said before it is probably my all time favorite game. I own it for about three different systems. I play though the bulk of the story regularly about once every 2 years. Sure i know how the story will end, and nothing surprises me anymore in the game but that doesn't matter. From the first time i played it years ago to the last time i played it a couple months ago it still entertains me. 

If you have never played the game before and are a fan of RPGs from the later era of the SNES days, you owe it to yourself to play this one. Other than the original SNES cart, you can also find it on the GBA, and on the PSX as part of the "Final Fantasy Anthology".

Super Metroid (SNES)

As far as games for my  Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) goes, this one sits very high on the charts. The first time i played the game was at a friends house, and on his SNES, not my own. 

I owned the first Metroid for the regular NES. For whatever reason, possibly b/c it was the first NES game that i purchased on my own, i always loved the game, even with all of it's back tracking and confusing world layout. I had to wait a very long time before it would see a sequel, and even though some say the sequel came in "Metroid II" for the GameBoy, i don't (and didn't) buy it. That was a game i borrowed from a friend, beat, and immediately gave back. 

Flash forward to some time in 1994 i believe, and there was Super Metroid. Like i said, at first i didn't own the game, but i knew it was out there. I think my initial reason was that "Metroid II" wasn't very good, and that is why i didn't purchase it day one. After playing several hours of the game at a friends house i was hooked. Purchased it at the first chance i had after that, and have been hooked ever since. 

The story is the usual stuff as far as Metroid games go. You are a Samus Aran, bounty hunter extraordinaire. You deliver the "Last Metroid in captivity" to a group of scientist and take off. Naturally the planet then is attacked and the metroid is taken by "Space Pirates" for their own nefarious plans. You then go around the planet collecting bits and bobs for your suit and your weapon. Thus unlocking sections of the planet that were previously inaccessible. The usual back tracking and scouring the planet for items takes place. At the end of the story you face "Mother Brain" (again) and take her down with (spoiler... wait really?) the help of your little Metroid buddy that thinks your its mother. 

This game introduced many of the items that have been present in Metroid games after it. Like the "Super Missile" and the "Grappling Hook". Most all of the other game mechanics and items were polished versions of the previous games items and/or weapons. 

Probably what hooked me the most with this game was the way it looked on screen. Now this is back in the day when a really well done 2-D, go right, game was king. The different environments were all complex and looked drastically different. From the overgrown plant level, to the lava of Norfair, even the Ghost Ship, all felt really well thought out and executed. Also in this version of the game were Mini-Bosses. Besides the usual Ridley, Kraid and Mother Brian, there were other LARGE enemies to take down. Most of which you needed to use a certain item or weapon to exploit a weakness, and pretty much all of them would reward you with another/better item or weapon. Also the music in the game is wonderful. Many of the songs have been taken and remixed by actual bands and are amazing (look up Stemage/Metroid Metal). 

All in all this game still to this day is in my top 10 games of all time. I regularly play through the story and enjoy it every time. As recent as this past summer fell back into the game (on Wii Virtual Console) and went through it for probably the 10th time. 

If you have never played the game and are a fan of the action adventure side scrolling game, i would highly suggest you check it out. You can probably find a copy on ebay cheap or if you own a Wii i think you can pick it up for about $8 (play with the classic controller though).