Retrogaming

I want to start off by saying that I didn't even know that "Retrogaming" has become a verb. I was trying to make "Retro Gaming" the title of this post and Googled it for spelling errors. Lo and behold I had spelled it correctly, but upon confirming it I noticed the the first response Google returned was a Wikipedia article called Retrogaming. I clicked through and began reading. It turns out that what I was planning on writing about is more common than I thought!

Shortly after I bought our Wii in 2007 I bought two Virtual Console games mostly for the pure novelty of it. I bought Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Both of these games were originally released for the Super Nintendo in the early 90's. I logged countless hours on both of these game during my childhood. I didn't, however, finish the games. I played bits of both after repurchasing these for the Wii and then they sat dormant for the most part. With the announcement last year of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii I became eager to play another Zelda game in the meantime. I decided to fire up A Link to the Past and try to complete it. And complete it I did. It's a fantastic game and playing it lead to a desire to play more games that are generally considered classic. This lead me to a SNES game called Chrono Trigger.

I have never liked Role Playing Games (RPGs). Even as a kid I was annoyed by the random nature of the battles and menu driven combat system.While visiting with my cousin this summer he mentioned that he had recently played through a Final Fantasy game and really enjoyed it. This got me thinking that maybe I should give the genre another chance. Maybe my tastes have changed as I have grown up. Around the time I finished a Link to the Past there was a lot of hubbub on the internet about Chrono Trigger finally being released on the Virtual Console. The game has a reputation as one of the best RPGs of all time. So I put two and two together and decided I would give Chrono Trigger a try. I'm currently about 5 hours into the game and I can say at this point that I like it, but I don't love it. The story is fantastic and I am really enjoying the story mechanics and how the game is developing. On the flip side though, I am still struggling to enjoy the gameplay. I like the idea of leveling up a character through the course of the game, but what I'm still wrestling with is the menu driven combat system. It's fun to try something new though and I'm looking forward to trying out many more old, but new to me, games. On my wishlist to play is Final Fantasy III (SNES), Secret of Mana (SNES), Pikmin (GameCube), and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64). That's a lot of  hours of gameplay, but I'm hoping our kids will join me on some of these quests.

One last thing. I have been hoping for a while now to get my hands on the controller pictured above. It's essentially an exact replica of a Super Nintendo controller that connects to the Wii remote to play Virtual Console games. Will it make the games any better? Will it make much of a different while playing the games versus playing the the current Classic Controller Pro? The answer to both of these is of course no, but it's still really fun and it doesn't make me want one any less. Nintendo of Japan, Europe, and Australia have all released this as a Club Nintendo reward. Nintendo of America has not made any mention of it whatsoever. I was hoping they were saving it to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the SNES, but that date has come and gone. Hopefully it gets released in the US soon!