Category: Retro Video Games

Konami – legends of 8-bit gaming

Konami was one of the best known video game developers of the 8-bit era. Take away Top Gun they made for the NES, and their library is near perfect. Konami was known for the difficulty of their games and kick ass music. Add normally well done graphics, Konami made some of the best NES games out there. They also gave us the most famous cheat code in history. We all know it – Up, up, down, down, left, right, left right, B, A, start.

(Contra, what more needs to be said? This is a video game.)

A friend that lived across the alley from me introduced me to my first Konami game. That game was called Contra. Contra is a military vs alien platforming action game. The game starts with you with three lives and is known for dozens of enemies on screen at once, awesome stage designs and some of the coolest boss battles on the NES. Like most, we somehow heard from a friend who heard it from a friend about the Konami cheat I mentioned before, which gave you 30 lives. Even today, Contra holds up well due to spot on controls and awesome weapons.

Almost around this same time-frame, my now brother-in-law and sister were actually living about six houses down from my parents and me. My brother-in-law was in college at the time and I thought he was one of the coolest guys out there. So when he wasn’t busy, we played video games. He had a Konami game called Jackal. The game was a lot like Contra. Instead of controlling a person however, you controlled a jeep which shot grenades, which could be upgraded for missiles. Like Contra, this game had excellent controls, diverse levels and kick ass boss fights.

Two games I borrowed from friends and rented were Lifeforce and Gradius. Both are space flying fighters. Like Contra, these games are known for their difficulty. But once again, these games have kick ass music, kick ass weapons and level designs. While they fell short for me when compared to Contra, both were fun and enjoyable games I highly recommend for any new retro gamer out there.

Blades of Steel was a game I rented and loved. While not a hockey fan back then or now, Blades of Steel was fun because it was more about fighting than the actual hockey game. Many NES Sports Games top ten lists has this game on it. The game had good graphics, simple but good play control and comical game play. We all spent a few hours beating the hell out of the other team. The score of the game came second to the fighting.

(Castlevania. Masterpiece.)

Castlevania. My God, what more needs to be said? Part one and three are classics. Near perfection in video gaming history. Part two has gotten more popular in recent years. Even if you still hate it just remember the old Meatloaf song states “Two out of three ain’t bad” and Konami made two of the greatest 8-bit masterpieces ever made. Cool graphics. Legendary boss fights. Some of the greatest video game music ever composed. And us kids yelling and tossing our controllers due to the difficulty of these games. I can’t say enough great things about Castlevania. Just talking about it has my nipples hard.

(Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, The Arcade Game. One of the best “beat em ups” on the NES and another Konami masterpiece.)

Last but not least, let’s talk about the three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games. The first one for years was hated for odd enemies never seen in the cartoon and its difficulty. While the game took heat early on, with thanks to online gamers and speed-runners, the game is now seen as somewhat of a classic. While less popular than the other two, this game had awesome music and cool power-ups. TMNT2 the Arcade Game was awesome. The game was a “beat em up” and I would argue one of the best, if not the best on the NES. TMNT3 the Manhattan Project won Nintendo Power Magazine game of the year in 1992. The game is either loved or hated by TMNT fans. I think TMNT3 while not as fun as TMNT2, is still a very good game.

I could go on and on. Konami were masters of the 8-bit. They made other underrated titles such as Goonies 2, which has gained popularity over the past few years. Rush N’ Attack while no Contra, was still a decent game. Double Dribble is a sports classic. Base Wars is an underrated sports title that me and a childhood friend wasted hours on. If you are new to retro gaming, just stay away from the two Top Gun games. I am not sure what Konami was doing during the process of making those two games.

In recent years Konami has taken a lot of shit. Some blame them for ruining the Silent Hill games. Others mock their attempts as they take on FIFA at making soccer games. We can debate this all day long. One thing is carved in stone. Konami were masters during the 8-bit era. If you say you don’t like a Konami game during this era, you are clearly lying or know nothing about video gaming.

Best selling video games of all-time

Taken from here with complete list of sources –

Minecraft180,000,000[b]Multi-platformNovember 18, 2011[c]MojangXbox Game StudiosGreen tick[3]
Tetris170,000,000[b]Multi-platformJune 6, 1984ElektronorgtechnicaVarious[d]Green tick[5][e]
Grand Theft Auto V115,000,000Multi-platformSeptember 17, 2013Rockstar NorthRockstar GamesGreen tick[9]
Wii Sports82,880,000WiiNovember 19, 2006Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[10]
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds50,000,000Multi-platformDecember 20, 2017PUBG CorporationPUBG CorporationGreen tick[11]
Super Mario Bros.48,240,000Multi-platformSeptember 13, 1985NintendoNintendoGreen tick[f]
Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow47,520,000Multi-platformFebruary 27, 1996Game FreakNintendoGreen tick[g]
Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus43,800,000WiiDecember 1, 2007Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[10]
Mario Kart Wii37,240,000WiiApril 10, 2008Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[10]
Wii Sports Resort33,110,000WiiJune 25, 2009Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[10]
New Super Mario Bros.30,800,000Nintendo DSMay 15, 2006Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[18]
New Super Mario Bros. Wii30,280,000WiiNovember 11, 2009Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[10]
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim [19]30,000,000Multi-platformNovember 11, 2011Bethesda Game StudiosBethesda SoftworksGreen tick[20]
Diablo III and Reaper of Souls30,000,000Multi-platformMay 16, 2012Blizzard EntertainmentBlizzard EntertainmentGreen tick[21]
Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal29,490,000Game Boy ColorNovember 21, 1999Game FreakNintendoGreen tick[h]
Duck Hunt28,300,000NESApril 21, 1984Nintendo R&D1NintendoGreen tick[23]
Wii Play28,020,000WiiDecember 2, 2006Nintendo EADNintendo☒[10]
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas27,500,000Multi-platformOctober 26, 2004Rockstar NorthRockstar Games☒[24]
Mario Kart 8/Deluxe27,450,000Multi-platformMay 29, 2014Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[i]
Terraria27,000,000[b]Multi-platformMay 16, 2011Re-LogicRe-LogicGreen tick[27]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 326,500,000Multi-platformNovember 8, 2011Infinity Ward
Sledgehammer Games		ActivisionGreen tick[28]
Red Dead Redemption 226,500,000Multi-platformOctober 26, 2018Rockstar StudiosRockstar GamesGreen tick[9]
Call of Duty: Black Ops26,200,000Multi-platformNovember 9, 2010TreyarchActivisionGreen tick[28]
Grand Theft Auto IV25,000,000Multi-platformApril 29, 2008Rockstar NorthRockstar GamesGreen tick[29]
Pokémon Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon24,740,000Nintendo 3DSNovember 18, 2016Game FreakNintendo / The Pokémon CompanyGreen tick[j]
Pokémon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum24,730,000Nintendo DSSeptember 28, 2006Game FreakNintendo / The Pokémon CompanyGreen tick[k]
Call of Duty: Black Ops II24,200,000Multi-platformNovember 12, 2012TreyarchActivisionGreen tick[28]
FIFA 1824,000,000Multi-platformSeptember 29, 2017EA CanadaElectronic ArtsGreen tick[32]
Kinect Adventures!24,000,000Xbox 360November 4, 2010Good Science StudioXbox Game StudiosGreen tick[33]
Sonic the Hedgehog23,982,960[b]Multi-platformJune 23, 1991Sonic TeamSegaGreen tick[l]
Nintendogs23,960,000Nintendo DSApril 21, 2005Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[18]
Mario Kart DS23,600,000Nintendo DSNovember 14, 2005Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[18]
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 222,700,000Multi-platformNovember 10, 2009Infinity WardActivisionGreen tick[28]
Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald22,540,000Game Boy AdvanceNovember 21, 2002Game FreakNintendo / The Pokémon CompanyGreen tick[m]
Borderlands 222,000,000Multi-platformSeptember 18, 2012Gearbox Software2K GamesGreen tick[40]
Super Mario World20,972,500Multi-platformNovember 21, 1990Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[n]
Frogger20,000,000Multi-platformJune 5, 1981KonamiSega☒[41][42]
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City20,000,000Multi-platformOctober 27, 2002Rockstar NorthRockstar Games☒[43]
Lemmings20,000,000Multi-platformFebruary 14, 1991DMA DesignPsygnosis☒[44]
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt20,000,000Multi-platformMay 19, 2015CD Projekt RedCD ProjektGreen tick[45]
Brain Age19,010,000Nintendo DSMay 19, 2005Nintendo SPDNintendoGreen tick[18]
Super Mario Bros. 319,000,000Multi-platformOctober 23, 1988NintendoNintendoGreen tick[o]
Call of Duty: Ghosts19,000,000Multi-platformNovember 5, 2013Infinity WardActivisionGreen tick[47]
Mario Kart 718,470,000Nintendo 3DSDecember 1, 2011Nintendo EADNintendoGreen tick[30]
Super Mario Land18,370,500Multi-platformApril 21, 1989Nintendo R&D1NintendoGreen tick[p]
Grand Theft Auto III17,500,000Multi-platformOctober 22, 2001DMA DesignRockstar Games☒[43]
The Last of Us17,000,000Multi-platformJune 14, 2013Naughty DogSony Computer EntertainmentGreen tick[50]
Pokémon X and Y16,420,000Nintendo 3DSOctober 12, 2013Game FreakNintendo / The Pokémon CompanyGreen tick[30]
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild16,040,000Multi-platformMarch 3, 2017Nintendo EPDNintendo☒[q]
The Sims16,000,000Multi-platformJanuary 31, 2000MaxisElectronic Arts☒[52]
Need for Speed: Most Wanted16,000,000Multi-platformNovember 11, 2005EA Black BoxElectronic Arts☒[53]

My top 10 favorite bad guys in video gaming history

10. Dr. Eggman from Sonic the Hedgehog – A cool boss with a wide range of attacks, weapons and vehicles. Arguably the most famous bad guy of the Sega Genesis.

9. Bowser from Super Mario Brothers – I almost left him off my list, but how can anyone not place the most recognized bad guy in video gaming history in their top 10? You can’t. While I have lost interest in Super Mario games for at least a decade, Bowser is very nostalgic for me.
8. Ganon from the Legend of Zelda – The Legend of Zelda is my favorite 8-bit video game. I love Zelda, a Link to the Past and I believe Zelda 2 Link’s Adventure is underrated. Hard to leave Ganon off my list as I was once a giant Zelda fanboy.
7. Micah Bell from Red Dead Redemption 2 – RDR2 quickly became a favorite game of mine. Micah is a pure asshole. Mean to children. Pervert. Dog killer (99% chance). Liar. Traitor. A racist. Dude sucks, but makes one hell of a great bad guy.

6. Dr. Wily from Mega Man – I am a NES Mega Man fanboy. I love part two and believe the other five NES versions are underrated games. Easy for me to add Dr. Wily to the list. Each game saw him with new technology and weapons. Always a fun boss to battle!

5. Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon 1 – he shocked millions of gamers when you found out that he was the brother of the character you played as and leader of the Black Warriors. What a prick.
4. Albert Wesker from Resident Evil – Throughout the game, this douche pretends to help you. After hours of gameplay you find out this ass was a double agent and bad guy, making you hate him twice as much.
3 . Mike Tyson from Mike Tyson’s Punch Out – Without Mike Tyson, Punch Out is not the real Punch Out. Tyson was my favorite boxer growing up. Having to beat him as a child made it that much more fun, as I truly believed I was defeating Tyson.
2. Mark Jefferson from Life is Strange – To begin with, I don’t like hipsters. Meaning I disliked Jefferson from the first time I saw him. Learning he has a history of kidnapping females, drugging them and even murder, made me hate him even more. Oh yeah, the dude shot Chloe Price.  
1.Dutch van der Linde from Red Dead Redemption – Playing part two made me hate him even more. You see how he lies and uses people around him to his advantage and own self-interest. He leaves friends to die. Doubles crosses people such as Native Americans he pretends to help. How can you not hate Dutch? Add his charm, how quick witted he is and intelligence, you have one of the greatest bad guys of all-time.

The Sega Master System – underrated and easily forgotten

My first video gaming system was the Sega Master System. To this day it’s one of the least talked about retro video gaming systems out there. We all know Atari. Before Nintendo, Atari was on top of the video gaming world before the infamous “Video Game Crash” of 1983. In 1985, Nintendo released Super Mario Brothers and dominated the video game industry for years to come.

(The Sega Master System. One of the most underrated systems in video game history.)

Forgotten in this mess is the Sega Master System. As a child I went to two flea markets with my dad. Both had arcades. A few of the machines were Sega games. When I asked my mom for a video game system at age 5 she asked “Do you want a Nintendo, Atari or Sega?” Now, remember, Nintendo was just taking off around this time. I knew Sega from the arcades. I said “Sega” and I only regret not loving this system more when I owned it as a child.

The Sega Master System was amazing. Believe it or not, it actually had superior graphics 9 out of 10 times when compared to the Nintendo. Unfortunately Nintendo basically had a monopoly on third party games. This meant for every game Sega made, the Nintendo could make five. Sega missed out on a lot of Konami, Sunsoft and Capcom classics to name a few. Less great titles meant less popularity and sells.

Sega also suffered from not having a mascot that could compete with Mario. Super Mario Brothers 1 was huge. While part two didn’t do as well, Super Mario Brothers 3 became one of the greatest and well-known video games in history. Before Sega made Sonic the Hedgehog famous, their mascot was Alex the Kidd. While many of his games were great, they were nowhere near the near perfection of Super Mario Brothers’ games.

Sad that so many people in the United States never owned a Sega Master System. They had some great games. I will even argue that some of their titles that Nintendo had also were better on the Master System. Take Alien Syndrome for instance. The Master System’s version had better graphics by far. The Master System’s Ninja Gaiden was more like the arcade and a completely different game than the NES version. The Master System’s Shinobi was a masterpiece. The NES Shinobi, not so much. I also preferred the gun games. The NES had Duck Hunt and Wild Gunmen. The rest of their gun games pretty much sucked. Safari Hunt on the Master System had better levels, more targets and looked better than Duck Hunt. Gangster Town was as fun as Wild Gunmen. Rescue Mission was way better than Gotcha on the NES.

(Safari Hunt. More colors and way more targets than Duck Hunt. Personally, I think it’s way better than Duck Hunt.)

In the long run, the Nintendo destroyed the Sega Master System. The original NES was a hit in North America and Japan, as well as most of the world. The original NES currently has sales of 61.5 million worldwide. The Sega Master System sales stand at 13 million. While widely popular in most of Western Europe and parts of South America, it failed in the United States and Japan.

(One of the best 8-bit platforming games nobody talks about, Kung Fu Kid.)

I love the NES. I understand why it killed the Master System in sales. It had way more great games due to third-party developers. Even I prefer and love the NES more. With that said, the Sega Master System holds a dear place in my heart. I loved games like the Kung Fu Kid, Shinobi and Alex Kidd in Miracle World. I am very lucky to have been one of the few Americans that got to experience the underrated greatness of the Sega Master System.

LJN – worse than hell

When you hear Rock Star Games, you think fun. Grand Theft Auto and Red Redemption games come to mind. Rock Star has made some of the best-selling and critically acclaimed games in history. If you grew up during the 8 and 16 bit eras, you know and love Capcom. They gave us classics like the Mega Man series, Ducktales and the Street Fighter games. Maybe you were a Konami fanboy. They made the hard games we love such as Contra, Lifeforce and Jackal. Or maybe you loved Sunsoft which gave us the awesome NES Batman game, the arcade classic Spy Hunter and the underrated Gremlins 2.

Then there is LJN. They were the exact opposite of the video game companies I named above. They made disaster after disaster. Failure after failure. And it’s not like they did this with one genre of games. They ruined platforming games, side scrolling games and sports. When you see a LJN logo, you would be better off using meth than playing these games.

Look, every company makes a bad game. Companies have low points during their history. Konami made Top Gun for the NES. It sucks worse than a Pauly Shore movie. You can’t knock them all out of the park. But it’s not like Konami kept making more Top Guns. They made classics with a fuck up there and there. LJN kept dumping out turd after turd. If I ever become an enemy of the state, the FBI or military would not need torture. Just put me in a room and force me to play LJN games. I would find the body of Jimmy Hoffa.

(X-Men for the NES. Your parents might as well bought dog shit with their hard earned money than wasted it on this crap.)
(The infamous LJN Logo. Also known as the video game face of Satan himself.)

I could name a bad game that Rock Star, Capcom and Sunsoft all made like I did with Konami. But their overall body of work outweighs the bad. LJN has a never ending list of shit. Back to the Future, sucks. Beetlejuice, horse shit. MLB (baseball) a broken mess. X-Men, basically unplayable. Who Framed Roger Rabbit, some of the worst video game controls in history. Nightmare on Elm Street, a real life nightmare. Bill and Ted, a disgrace to humanity. You see a pattern here?

We all should be thankful that LJN is no more. Sadly, us children of the 1980’s and much of the 1990’s had to suffer through their games. Our hard-working parents wasted money on these games that we stopped playing within the first hour of owning them. Many of us wasted a weekend renting these terrible games. We broke controllers over these worthless games. I still drink heavily when I hear someone utter the words “LJN”. I picture hell itself being nothing but NES systems with nothing but LJN games to play.

Watch, donate and support AGDQ 2020!!!!!

The older I have gotten the more I suck at video games. My reflexes are off. I die a lot. I throw a lot of controllers and yell at the TV as if the fake video game characters can hear me. You know who doesn’t suck at video games? The speed runners currently playing at Awesome Games Done Quickly 2020 (AGDQ 2020).

These gamers aren’t playing for fame or to simply show off their awesome skills. They are playing for charity. This year’s charity is The Prevent Cancer Foundation. My mom has beat cancer for 18 years. Her mother was not so lucky. Cancer took her life at age 51. Many people out there have lost or seen a loved one suffer due to cancer.

Cancer blows. But these awesome gamers kick cancer right in the ass! If you have never seen a speed run, you are missing out on tons of fun. These gamers make the hardest games look easy. Some of the glitches are as comical as they are amazing to watch. And all of this for a good cause.

You can tune into the runs on Twitch here and watch live! Please donate for this great cause. To add, I am not paid or endorsed by Twitch or anyone from AGDQ. If anything, you would donate to not watch me play games.

The Legend of Zelda – 9.7 out 10

(The now famous Gold video game.)

What can I say about the Legend of Zelda that hasn’t already been said? The game is a classic. A masterpiece. The story and plot is perfect. The simple controls are spot on. The music is legendary. I can’t even say enough good things about the game. It changed a lot of Americans’ mindset on what a video game is, and should be.

Before the Legend of Zelda, most video games were like this. You control a character. Your goal was to get from point A to point B without dying. Repeat again and again until you beat the game. Of course this concept worked well. Super Mario Brothers’ games and Donkey Kong are prime examples of this. But this method got old to a lot of gamers.

The Legend of Zelda changed that. Besides simply beating levels, the game was an open world to explore. Secrets to be found. You even came across bad guys that would tell you secrets once you bribed them. The diversity of enemies was awesome. Certain areas contained different enemies. Deserts had enemies that would differ from enemies in the woods or dungeons. Certain weapons only worked on certain enemies. Very few games did that before the Legend of Zelda.

Now, I never rate games a perfect 10. You can always find things wrong or not perfect with anything. While the Legend of Zelda changed gaming in America, there are some weaknesses. The graphics are inferior when compared to games like the Super Mario Brothers, Mega Man and even Contra games. Before the internet and Nintendo Power, this game would have been difficult for younger gamers. I first beat this game around age 10 in 1991 with the use of a Nintendo Power that included maps of the entire game. Not sure how far I would have got without it back then.

(Ganon, the asshole bad guy from the Legend of Zelda.)

It’s crazy to think this game originally got reviews in the high 70’s out of a 100. Now this game is universally praised as a classic. Link and Zelda are as well-known as Mario and Donkey Kong. Later Zelda games are also considered classics. That little gold cartridge changed the video game world forever. I give the Legend of Zelda a 9.7 out of 10. To me, no 8-bit game is better.