Key

Banjo Kazooie



We're moving on into 1998 and before I go through all the games I want to talk about, I instead want to start this off by talking about one specifically - Banjo Kazooie.

You wanna talk about platformers that have kept a staple in the video game world? Of course you do. And that's what we're going to do.

Banjo Kazooie if you're for some reason unaware, is one of Rare's finest pieces of work. Everything from the story to the gameplay to the graphics style. It's all got its own charm that really separates it from other platformers. It is a collectathon as well however the genius behind the level design makes it possible to progress through the levels while collecting anything. Never really feels like a chore because the whole game is set up in a way that is pretty interesting and fun. And yeah, of course the level design is quite good as well. Though that should be obvious. Every level has its own theme and the enemies etc revolve around it, to an extent. There's also always something to do in the levels which allows you to explore all of them. A lot in the same vein as Super Mario 64.

I remember back in the day when this first came out, it was definitely harder than it should have been, but that's not really a bad thing. I mean, Click Clock Wood deserves the spot for my favorite level for that reason. The difficult in general does rise quite a bit as you progress but the power ups you get make that just a bit easier.

Talking a bit about the HUB world. Banjo Kazooie sort of took a different route and made it so Gruntilda's Castle acted as the hub world. Again, a lot in the same vein as Super Mario 64. Though instead of paintings, you're filling in puzzles that you collect. They definitely opened the game up more when Banjo Toole came out but this was still pretty cool when playing through Banjo Kazooie for the first time.

There are boss fights as well. I like all of them honestly but I absolutely have more love for the Gruntys Furnace Fun before the final fight. It's such a neat way to kind of wind down after beating all the levels while simultaneously having to be methodical and smart to get to the end of the board. All leading up to that final fight wit Gruntilda which is just a stellar boss fight. I remember being blown away by the final Jinjo when it hits Grunty over and over again. Many fond memories.

I'll of course be talking about Banjo Toole as well in time but I want to briefly mention that it's been a long time since we've had a set of sequels like the Banjo games. Banjo Toole single handedly improved on everything Banjo Kazooie already did. So yeah, I highly recommend both.

We don't mention Nuts and Bolts around here. Just fyi.

Key

1998

Man, I've been looking forward to talking about 1998 because a ton of my favorite games came out for that year. Seriously was an amazing year for gaming and this was back when I was really getting into gaming as a hobby. So let's start.

Banjo Kazooie



I realize I've already done a more in depth look of this game so if you'd like my thoughts on that, feel free to check that out. But yeah great game.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time



I mean honestly, what is there to say. This game on its own is definitely one of the best games ever made. And for it to come out on the N64 really shows how much effort they put into the console to make it work in full effect. You're just a lone hero trying to figure out the mysteries of Hyrule. Great gameplay and a great story. 10/10 material for sure.

Glover



I don't know how many people actually played this game but I beat it several times. If you aren't aware, you play as a glove humanlike thing that rolls a ball around. The point of the game is to figure out how to get through each level without breaking your ball. You can turn it into a glass ball, a bouncy ball, etc. They also help you figure out certain ways to beat the levels. Kind of a neat and novel game mechanic that I wish would make a revival. Hell, if play the **** out a new Glover. I eventually ended up beating it and it is such an awesome game.

Vigilante 8



Again, I'm not too sure how many people played this game but I love everything about it. I remember just having a good time with friends playing this. Total chaos and carnage and definitely something I wish I wish would have a revival as well as that'd be really dope.

Spyro The Dragon



Yes, I am very much looking forward to the remaster because I feel like it could be really amazing if it's done right. I have played through this one as well. Many times. I have so so so many fond memories of playing this game. It was essential to at least play this one back in the day. I mean, you're a ****ing dragon saving other dragons and collecting gems. Plus, running around with Spyro is just pure fun. Yeah, great game for sure.

Key

1999:

We're already at the last year before we get into the 2000's. Kind of excited to get into the later part of this series. Happy to see how the 90's were for gaming. Lots of great games released etc. 2000 and up is going to be even crazier I think. But hey, let's end this on a high note before we move into 2000's.

Counter-Strike



There's a lot of things I could talk about when it comes to Counter Strike. The type of game that it is, the way it's played. It was a humongous deal back in the day because we didn't really have many good multiplayer FPS games. It was sort of in the same effect as Rainbow Six Siege where people were looking for a more involved FPS game, and Counter Strike definitely fit the bill. Though I prefer CS:GO over any iteration of Counter Strike, the original is still a **** ton of fun to play even today.

Unreal Tournament



Kind of like Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament came out in a time where people were really craving a good FPS game, and Unreal Tournament as well as CS, fit that bill. The big difference with Unreal Tournament is just how chaotic it could get. It felt like an FPS from the future almost. I used to spend a lot of time at friends houses playing both Counter Strike and Unreal Tournament, and it was always a lot of fun. The movement and gun design in Unreal Tournament is dareisay...unreal? See for yourself:



I imagine you can still find a copy of this somewhere and have a blast with some friends. I know I certainly would be all over that.

SoulCalibur



Well I don't know about you, but I love the SoulCalibur series. especially when it got into the later games with SoulCalibur IV and even SoulCalibur V. The series only got better from the start in my opinion. But it had to start somewhere, and why not start somewhere great. SoulCalibur was originally released in 1999, and it brought a lot to the table to regards to fighting games. In my experience, SoulCalibur to me feels like one of the more accessible fighting games out there. And like I said, when it gets to the later games, that becomes much more evident. Granted my memory is fuzzy on this particular game, I know I had a lot of fun playing it. Graphically, obviously the series got better, but I can't deny that the game looked good even back then.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater



The soundtrack. The gameplay. The missions. The levels. Man, I ****ing love Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. It seems like 1999 was the year for a **** ton of series firsts. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater to me feels like a skateboarding game done in the best way possible. Granted, I understand that the game is aged and easily not as fun as it once was. With that, I think it's pretty amazing that on the very first level, it requires you to do a full on jump over the halfpipe into a little room floating above it. The amount of tricks you can do in this game is also really impressive, especially if you don't count the special moves. Which again, ****ing awesome. You've got several missions to do on each level, and honestly, the levels vary enough that it feels like an entirely original game with original level design etc. Definitely set the stage for Tony Hawk games to come. I like a lot of the later games, but obviously not all of them.

Pokemon Pinball



Woo! Pokemon Pinball is great! It's a simple idea with an added benefit of throwing Pokemon into it. You can catch other Pokemon like in the other games but in a different fashion. And there's just something special about hitting objects on the board and having them be Pokemon. I mean, Voltorbs as the circular bumpers at the top? Genius. I probably didn't spend as much time with this game as I did with the main story Pokemon games, but when I wanted something Pokemon oriented but a little bit different than the other games, I turned to Pokemon Pinball. It's genuinely a good game and I don't think it needs to be anymore than that.

And that wraps up the 90's. We'll be moving into the 2000's in a day or so. Things might start getting extensive as I feel like some years I can talk about 10 games. Maybe more. So i'll probably change it up a bit. We'll see. Still got plenty of time.

The Batlord

Counter Strike took the barracks by storm for a few months at military school and half the school was playing each other on the network. You wouldn't think a bunch of knuckle-dragging delinquents and rich boy pricks would get that into a PC game but we were that desperate for anything to do (t.A.T.u. had a similar effect when they came out). I'm sad I didn't have a computer.

__________________

Key

Looking Back...At The 90's



Weird to think that I'm done discussing the 90's in video games. For me personally, the 90's were some of the best times to grow up in if you were just trying to find good games to play. As you've noticed throughout this month so far, a **** ton of great games released during that time. I was born in 91, so granted I may have been way too young to truly experience the games that were coming out back then, but luckily some of those games followed the community to the current time with emulation etc. I know people still play a **** ton of Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, and the likes. Unfortunately for the most obscure titles, they sort of just...well stayed in obscurity. Not implying the games were bad or anything. But evidently as time moved on, games improved, developers got better at what they do, and the games that fell through the cracks sort of just...stayed there.

My experience as a gamer growing up was probably the same experience that a lot of people had. I had an original NES and SNES because my parents were cool and bought the family both of them even tho money was scarce. When the Nintendo 64 came out, same thing. Christmas rolled around and we all opened a brand new Nintendo 64, and thus the journey truly began. I remember playing through Super Mario 64 for the first time and just being amazed. Happened with a lot of games honestly. It didn't take long for my brothers and I to also realize how ****ing awesome Banjo Kazooie is because that's a game we also played through during the lifespan of the Nintendo 64. Other games include Wipeout 64, Goldeneye 007, we were playing them all. Eventually as the years went on, only my younger brother and I stuck to the whole gaming thing. From the early 2000's all the way to now, I sort of became super infatuated with the concept of gaming, and in early 2000 again, I decided to give Runescape a try.

While this may have been a horrible idea, I created my first account and eventually played Runescape for a solid 15 years. I recently quit the game actually. Well, I say recently but it was almost a year ago now. That game took over my life. As it did most people. But it was one of the first games, well...maybe the first for me, where I was able to truly see what it was like to play a game with a community of people who also wanted to succeed at the game. Online gaming nowadays is fantastic, don't get me wrong. I love it. I love playing with friends online and all that. Back in the Runescape days, you would just meet up with random people and explore the world together. You have to remember, back when this game was in its classic days, there wasn't a whole lot discovered yet. Everybody was trying to figure out how the armor system worked, or how skills played a role in the game. It was the sense of discovery and the hugeness of the world that made Runescape so addicting back in the day. Now it's sort of a grindfest and if you aren't maxed, you're pretty much a laughing stock of the community. Fair enough. All games have elitist *******s that think they're better than everybody. It's just a shame to see one of the strongest part of the games, the community, take a nosedive for the worst. But, I believe Runescape was my true and blue first real taste of what it meant to be a gamer. I even went to summer school because of it so.

After that, I sort of just stuck to PC gaming, and eventually got my own and off I went into another world. Back in the 90's, you'd be surprised to find that not everybody owned a computer to play games. People weren't even thinking that PC gaming would get popular and match up against next gen consoles, but hey, it does. I own both a PC and a next gen console and I can tell you that the only real difference is the fact that my PS4 has a bigger TV. Otherwise both play extremely well for what they do.

I cherish how I grew up with games because I feel like it had an enormous impact on me as a gamer today. Going through the hardships of the older consoles and trying to beat the games that were built to fight back, it made me come to respect video games as a whole, and appreciate what they good ones do. It also made me realize that the developers behind the games always deserve credit where credit is due. There's certainly a lot to be said about a good developers, but we won't get too far into that.

It's funny, because the games that I played back then and the experience I had with games back then with friends are some of the only memories I can truly vividly remember from my childhood. Other things just sort of blend together, but when it comes to remembering games, I can remember it like it happened yesterday. I remember playing Neverwinter Nights at my friends house on his Alienware PC. I remember sitting with my cousin and his friend in Virginia and playing Unreal Tournament. I even remember taking a nap while Super Mario Bros was still on the TV. I was in the basement at the time. I think I was...maybe 6? Idk.

90's were great. I look forward to talking about the 2000's though.

Key

Counter Strike was just a humongous step forward for FPS games in general, but yeah I remember watching friends try to play CS in middle school and stuff. "Counter Terrorists Win"

The Batlord

If only.

__________________

Key

Good times. Goooood times.

Key

As we move forward into the 2000's, the format is going to change a little bit. I like to keep things looking interesting and while the format for the 90's entries were great, I didn't quite like the outcome. It works. I'm proud of it regardless.
Instead of having fancy pictures and all that, i'm just going to focus on posting pictures that further a point. It'll make it easier to read and it'll make it look nicer. At least for me. So yeah.

With the 2000's, there's going to be so many games that I won't have a chance to talk about. I'll probably miss hundreds even. I can't talk about them all, but I can certainly try. So let's start.

Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
North America Release Date: June 26th, 2000
Publisher: Nintendo

First game on the list goes to Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. You basically play as Kirby, and the game is set up sort of like a 3D-esque sidescroller platformer. The neat mechanic about it is that you play as Kirby who has the ability to suck up monsters who have powers, and steal the powers for himself. You can power up with things like bombs, fire, lightning. The even cooler part is that you can combine two powers to create a super power. It makes the game really interesting because you want to try every combination you can. I don't think I've ever used all the powerups, but I've seen a lot of them, and they are all really cool.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
North America Release Date: October 26th, 2000
Publisher: Nintendo

Yet another staple in The Legend of Zelda history and gaming history in general. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask takes the method of using a style of gameplay we are already familiar with i.e. Ocarina of Time, and puts it to the ultimate test of bringing it to a depressing setting, and testing out the waters of what it means to have a creepy Zelda game. And man, it hits all the right notes. Majora's Mask is notorious for being the more depressing side of the series, and for good reason. It brings a story of dread and disaster while you the character, succumb to some pretty bizaree and mind boggling situations. Turning into a Deku scrub for one. Or meeting the mask trader. There's a lot going on in this game, and if you've experienced it for yourself, you will agree that the story is just so ****ing good. They really went all out in making sure you felt dread throughout the story. And plus, can we just talk about this moon for a second?



Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Release Date: September 20th, 2000
Publisher: Activision

It's funny that this comes up literally right after I was talking about its predecessor, but yeah, remember Tony Hawk's Pro Skater? Well, it got a sequel, and god damn it's a good one. It does what a lot of sequels do correctly. Takes a known style, and just improves upon it. I legitimately loved Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 because it simply felt like an extension of the first game, and back in the day of no skateboarding games of this kind, it was a nice thing to see them progressing with the game. Not a whole lot more to say about it other than if you liked the first one, you'll love this one.

Banjo-Tooie
North America Release Date: November 20th, 2000
Publisher: Nintendo

I'm throwing this out there right now: To date, the best example of what it means to make a sequel to an already amazing game in a series. Banjo Kazooie brought a lot to the table when it came to 3D platformers. When there were rumors of a sequel, people were excited, and for good reason. Once Banjo Tooie released, everybody was struck at how amazing this game truly was. When I played through Banjo Tooie for the first time, I actually went through it with the mindset that I'm going to completely 100% it. And I did. And it was amazing. The huge world, the level designs, the new powerups. Everything about Banjo Tooie shows that Rare knew exactly what it meant to make a sequel. But again, that didn't last past Banjo Tooie when Nuts & Bolts was released *cringe*. But Banjo Tooie will forever hold a special place in my heart for showing me what it meant to play an actual great Banjo Kazooie sequel.

Star Wars Episode 1: Racer
Release Date: 1999-2000
Publisher: LucasArts

I'm including this one in 2000 and not 1999 because I already had enough for 1999. Seeing as the Dreamcast version of this game came out in 2000, I feel like it's a fair compromise. I've talked about Star Wars Episode 1: Racer many times in this journal so I'll try to keep this short. I loved the **** out of this game when it was popular back in the day. Something about feeling the speed of a podracer and being able to control was truly amazing, especially for its time. I'd easily play through this game again if it were ever remastered.

The Batlord

Neva Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

__________________