Retro Gaming

Retro Gaming

Hindsight is 20/20. That is what I think about with my SNES games. Back in the 90's my parents dismissed our gaming and largely regulated it. Do all the chores, homework and church and we could squeeze in a few hours of gaming. It was worth every minute. In my household, it was an escape my brother and I cherished. Took us away from everything around us, and submersed us in a world of imagination, magic, power and responsibility. It was a valuable escape too, and helped us through tough times.

My parents got into the beanie baby phenomenon of the 90's. Purchasing hundreds and hundreds of beanie babies, hoping to make tons of money selling them in the next decade for thousands. Well, you know the story as well as I do. It was a ridiculous fad consisting of crappie made Chinese stuffed toys. What they should have been doing is investing in our games. While they drove across the state for a McDonalds Beanie Baby, we sat in our rooms playing our old SNES games. If they only new that Earthbound, a splurge of $50 dollars at the time would be worth upwards of $4000 dollars mint and boxed today, maybe they would have paid more attention to our gaming instead of a weird obsession with plastic beaded stuffed animals.

I would love to have a mint box of Secret of Mana, Legend of Zelda, Earthbound and Donkey Kong Country. Just so I could display it on my shelf and give credit to these for getting me through my childhood. But spend 4k? I don't think so!! So for now, I just put some ebay offers on the table for a shot at playing Chrono Trigger and getting my long lost Earthbound players guide back. Remember the scratch and sniff stickers?? Those were incredible.

Although I wish my collection was greater, I took a picture of my games.

Some list prices now (factory sealed and mint):

Secret of Mana: $4,900
Earthbound: $3,800
Chrono Trigger: $1,500
Super Mario RPG: $1,500
Final Fantasy 3: $2,000

Just a few examples above, tons more of course.

Oh and let's not even get started with a mint copy of the original Mario Brothers on NES... Mint copy lists for $17,000!!!

I would love to get my hands on a used Harvest Moon, Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy III, just for playing purposes. I'll be keeping an eye out for these, would love to play them on my Supaboy!!

Why would a girl be so obsessed with gaming you ask? Because at one time it was all she had.

My #1 ranked SNES game- Earthbound

Ah, the year was 1995. My brother and I aged 7 and 12 woke early Christmas morning to the vast array of colorful presents under the tree. There was nothing quite like Christmas to us, a free day of sorts to just eat and play the day away. We could usually get away without doing any chores. We always scoped out the video games, in there rectangular box, but this year something was different. Our mom (santa) initially gone to get a different game, one we had asked for. They were all sold out. But the hundreds of untouched large Earthbound boxes sat neatly lined up awaiting someone to pick them up. She did, in place of the other game. We unwrapped Earthbound in it's very large box, unusual for an SNES game and quickly rolled our eyes thinking it was another dud game. That night we gave it a try, we were hooked. The manual it came with was my bible, I carried it everywhere, and read it over and over planning the next days strategy. We quickly wore out the scratch and sniff stickers that smelled of awful things that I can't quite remember. We must have died about 300 times when we were that age playing this game, but the ending brought a tear to our eye and still does today.

If you know of Earthbound, you could probably tell by my blog background I am a fan. Now choosing Earthbound as my favorite SNES game was a tough choice, a close call next to Zelda: Link to the Past, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG and Breath of Fire. So how did I come to this conclusion? Earthbound is one of the most creative and randomly insane games I've ever played, it's pure childhood silliness while still keeping an adult player challenged and begging for more is hard to do. This game is now a rarity, a used copy will put you back $200 and find a rare mint game with the manual and you're talking $600-$1000. This game is becoming a rare gem, virtual console and Nintendo DS won't release it due to what I heard is "copyright infringements" because the Runaway Five somehow resemble the Beatles and other weird accusations.

What is Earthbound? Earthbound is an RPG cult classic, staring a young boy named Ness. Ness joins up with three other young kids Paula, Jeff and Poo as the chosen four to fight a war against the Giygas, or aliens. They travel to all sorts of locations from towns to cities, vast deserts to snow covered Stonehenge and meet many friends on the way. Ness also travels in a few dream like states and fights alone. The gameplay is straight forward RPG and pretty easy, some strategy is definitely involved, even after my 20th time playing I still die in battles. Ness must travel to his Sanctuary locations and record them on his Soundstone to become more powerful. You will encounter strange enemies like New Age Retro Hippie, Master Barf, Annoying Old Party Man and the all awesome Kraken (RELEASE THE KRAKEN!!). The enemies in this game are so original and fun, and you can fight enemies with strange objects like a toothbrush, dirty pair of socks or Monkey Love.

Hail Earthbound!

Score: 10
Replayability: 10