Quarantine has driven me mad. As in mad enough to go around looking for old relics in my room to pass the time, because you can only laugh at memes for so long before it becomes stale.
It's in this search of old forgotten items that I find some old games that I used to play as a kid. Most of them GBA games which I got as gifts back then.
When I was born these were already considered "old" games and most people where playing Xbox or Playstation games, but even though back then the economy in venezuela wasn't as terrible as it is today we just didn't have enough to get me a "proper console", so the only thing I had to play games with was my Nintendo DS which allowed my mom to buy me either Gameboy stuff or DS games.
It wasn't only my mother who gave me these games, most of them were gifts from family members (who gave me stuff because I was the youngest child).
Today, I shall ramble on about these old items of my past because I'm running out of ideas because quarantine has me looking for old stuff I used to play with.
"Red Robo-Man goes woosh the Game" is one of my favorite games ever.
Let's start with some Megaman games.
My first experience with Megaman was the "Battle Network" anime, so my child brain imploded when I was informed that there's 7 different versions of the blue bomber.
So imagine my surprise when I asked my beautiful family for a Megaman game (which I expected to be the one I saw on TV) and instead got this game about a guy in red named Zero.
I wasn't angry (because a game is a game), I was just confused because my childish mind couldn't comprehend why this thing shared the name of Megaman when the guy I saw on TV was nowhere to be seen here.
I ended up liking this game and the series as a whole, and eventually ended up playing all of them. I sucked at playing these games though, in the end I only could finish Megaman Zero 4, because that one has an easy mode.
I could only find the cartridges for two of them tough, the first and third, of which only 3 had my old save data on it.
Even though I did suck at these when I was young, eventually I started learning how to properly play these, to the point I "got good" at it. In the end 3 ended up being my favorite and I'm pretty sure I unlocked everything in it.
SPIN TO WIN BABY.
Later on I did fulfill my wish to play the incarnation of Megaman that appeared on my cartoons. I believe it was with "Megaman Battle Network 5" for the DS (which was a remake of two games made for the GBA but now in one cartridge.
While this one was an RPG, as opposed to Megaman Zero which were sidescrollers, this one was in Spanish so it wasn't as difficult to understand what I was supposed to do I still sucked at it tho.
I really enjoyed playing it and once I finished it, it was only a matter of time until I would find out about Battle Network 6
I do not know what a Cybeast is but it sure looks cool!
Battle Network was a series released for the Gameboy and the 5th installment (the one I played) got a remake on the DS, while 6 remains a Gameboy game to this day. Little me was confused by this fact.
This one was unfortunately on English, so I was basically running around talking to everyone until I got to the first boss and was killed because I suck at vidya because I didn't know what to do. Eventually I did manage to progress, eventually.
Here we can see my childhood hero seconds before blowing up an innocent computer virus.
Despite my love for this incarnation of Megaman I kinda ended up enjoying the Megaman Zero series more than these ones, I think it's because of how fast paced the Zero series are.
In addition to these games I also had some Pokemon ones too, which I sucked at too but for different reasons don't let him fool you he's just bad at everything.
Sadly the save files on these guys did not survive the passage of time, which means all of my Gameboy era pokemon have died.
...This has to be karma from that one time I stole my cousin's Pokemon Diamond cartridge and deleted his data. Yeah, I was somewhat of an "evil child" back then, but I gave it back!
Then there's also Fire Emblem. Which I had as a kid. For some reason...?
I... I'm sure I didn't get far on this one? I don't even remember this game. This one is all about tactics so I must have definitely sucked at this and given up real quick.
It's just not the type of thing I would have played as a child. It's pretty enjoyable right now, but my point is that I don't see myself learning how to play this thing properly as a kid.
Then we move on to the Nintendo DS games I have (or at least the ones I found, not counting Pokemon Black which I've talked about in a previous post...)
I found two of them, so let's start with Custom Robo Arena.
...How do you approach this game?
It's a weird one, all you need to know is that it's about little robots fighting one another to death with weapons that can definitely harm humans but that never do because reasons.
Custom Robo was a weird game for me, mostly because it's different from what I usually play, but that's also why it felt good to play it as the game was "new" and fresh for me.
The game looks like this:
Moooom why does my game look like a Gameboy game?
But then pulls a switcheroo and ends up like this:
Jesus, why are there so many pixels now?
And then you have to clean up your little robot dude so that he doesn't get rust:
Then there's also a mode where you can make your little dude pose and stuff...
Then there's also lootboxes.
...It's weird. But it has a lot of heart and that's part of the reason why I like it so much. The other reason is because I love mechas and this is pretty much a game about mechas (that are named Custom Robos in this setting)which revolves entirely around children fighting with these toy sized mechas.
I never realized how they never stopped talking about them Custom Robos, it's all this game is about and every character is heavily addicted to Custom Robo. They never get tired of them, believe me, I played this.
And finally, to end this post, my favorite game in the world Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Darkness!
...Is what I would say if I still had that, I gave that cartridge to one of my cousins who had just bought themselves a DS, biggest regret of my life.
Instead, I got a different version of the same game, because this is pokemon and every pokemon game has a billion different versions with small changes.
The game I'll talk about today is Explorers of Darkness. However I will be playing with Explorers of the Sky since they're the same thing.
I'm not kidding when I say that this game is my favorite game in the world, it's pretty much the first game my mom bought for my DS. Yes, even before the Gameboy ones. Funnily enough, this one was in English and even though I didn't understand most of what was going on (and got stuck in several places because I didn't know what to do to proceed) it's still my favorite game ever.
The love I have for this thing is huuuge, when I turned on this thing and the quiz that determines which Pokemon you are started I had goosebumps, when I ran around the same guild I spent all of those days in as a kid I was happy, ohh the memories...
When I first played this game I was a Charmander, I didn't get to play as Charmander again though...
Dude just seeing these two "beds" here makes me nostalgic. I think I need a minute...
Of all the games I've talked about here, no one makes me as happy as this one here. I have a lot of love for this one, not because it's pokemon, but because I struggled with it and because my victories (however small they may have been) felt good.
It's not a difficult game, but it was hard for me because I didn't speak English and because I didn't understand all of the mechanics in it. But even though it was difficult for little ol' me, I still fought and won (after a lot of losses that is) and I grew stronger from it, this game even taught me some English as well.
This line happens every in game day... and it makes me really happy every time it does.
I never got to finish this game. Eventually it got to the point where it was too difficult for me and other things started to pop up in my life and I had less and less time to play it. My biggest regret is not finishing, but giving it away even after all the good times I had with it.
Playing this again after feels like a new experience, because this time I actually understand what is going on, I also can't help but smile whenever something happens and I remember it even after all these years.
This one just... holds so many memories for me.
Thanks for joining me today in my rambles and for reading all of this.
It's a sad thing that this pandemic is the reason I ended up looking for these things. I'm still happy that I got to remember all of these things after all this time.
Remember to dig around your old stuff as well, you might find something worthwhile in there...
As always thank you so much for reading, stay safe and always remember that...
...Smiles go for miles.