My Gaming Life Part 1

In my most humble of opinions, the greatest games console of all time is the Sega MegaDrive. The console wars of the early to mid-nineties were all too real on my estate as a kid. Half the boys had Super Nintendo's, half the boys had Sega MegaDrives, a select few had NES Systems or Master Systems, but those kids make me sad in my face so I won't be focussing on them. Oh you have Alex Kidd? Really? Your Master System has a pre-loaded game? Why does it look so shit? Because it's a pre-loaded game, I'm not impressed. My MegaDrive came with an EA Hockey and EA American Football double cartridge. I don't even like American Football and I know it's better than your pre-loaded maze game! I'm not staying at your house until you upgrade. This is ridiculous. The MegaDrive was the dark-side, the non-conformist, the edge; SNES was cartoon characters, neon colours and a seriously uncomfortable control pad. As a true estate kid I had access to both consoles, rather than the modern generation of Xbox360 and PS3 fan-boys I definitely knew the strengths of both formats. Super Mario Kart could easily be the best driving game of all time; Super Mario 3 could be the second greatest platformer of all time. Second? What's first? Simples. Sonic 2. Not only the greatest platform game of all time but possibly the greatest game period.



Sonic 2

Sonic The Hedgehog represented a break-through in single player gaming, exhilaration in it's purest form, a game played with pace and skill, an awesome stand alone graphic universe, mini-games, developed level design and the coolest looking character you'll ever see in any game, cartoon or comic. By the time Sonic 2 hit the streets in 1992/93 a whole generation's expectations couldn't have been higher. Used to sequels being nothing more than new level designs, a slight step-up in graphics and a new soundtrack [see Golden Axe], Sonic 2 revolutionised how we looked at video game sequels. Every aspect of the game seemed to develop, from the graphics, to the level design, to the music through to the new slightly effeminate sidekick Tails [whose real name was Miles? But why? What was Sonic's real name?] . The most addictive game I'd come across as a 6/7 year old on the Stockwell Park Estate [Championship Manager wouldn't rear it's ugly GCSE hope destroying head for another 5 years], it has to be said Mario and his communist comrade Luigi didn't get much of a look-in over the next 24 months. Emerald chasing, Golden Super Sonic fantasies filled my dreams and Dr Robotnic's egg inspired weapons of mass destruction filled my nightmares. The addition of Sonic's greatest asset; the ‘down spin' which meant we could charge our hero's forward roll by pressing down and C repeatedly, then letting go in a flurry of robot-Ladybird exploding madness provided unparalleled frustration relief and does to this day [I challenge you to download a Sonic 2 emulator, get the first level open, down spin your way through and not feel your ills float away, it's impossible].



Sonic 3

Sonic 3 suffered where Sonic 2 couldn't; having made the jump between the first two titles the way they did, our expectations were way too high, there's now way Sonic 3 could have made the leaps Sonic 2 did, the MegaDrive wouldn't physically allow it. I can accept that now. The fact of the matter is that Sonic 3 is a superior game in almost every way, the introduction of Sonic's effeminately coloured nemesis [brother?] Knuckles was a fantastic twist, although a little easier to complete than the previous two, Sonic 3 represented development in pretty much every way, but that wasn't enough to hold our attentions. By 1994/95 we had Micro Machines with the two extra control ports in the cartridge [Micro Machines is really a whole other article, I'll get into that next], we had Cannon Fodder [which is still a powerfully underrated title] and most importantly we had FIFA. Despite England failing to make the '94 World Cup in the US, the tournament itself had a life changing effect on 90% of the kids on my estate [me included], for a whole summer the names in the park were Hristo Stoichkov, Roberto Baggio and Gheorghe Hagi. We were all experts, we were all strikers and we were all going to play in the Premier League. The impact of that World Cup should not be underestimated, as pre-teens we knew the names of every Bulgarian international, every Columbian substitute and every Nigerian superstar. The Premier League was in it's earliest phase and we were the target audience.



FIFA 94

Sensible Soccer probably represented a better gaming experience overall and pre-dated FIFA in its original form by two years [although the MegaDrive re-release dropped at around the same time]. Sensible's editing option was way ahead of its time and suffered a great degree less bugs than EA's officially licensed title. But that official license had us, we couldn't resist the David Platt cover and the FIFA logo we'd all grown so accustomed to during the '94 World Cup through our Sticker Books, Shoot Magazines and televisions. Probably the greatest example of brand association selling a game, I feel like in 2009 the kids are too savvy to be sold on logo alone, we weren't, we were innocent. That's not to say that FIFA was a poor game because it certainly wasn't! It reviewed fantastically in all of the neutral publications [Sega and Nintendo official magazines loved everything of course] and despite fatal flaws in game play [the person with the greatest trigger finger could tap C for the entirety of the game and invariably win, it hooked us all. We'd pick Brazil and play friendlies against Egypt set to 90 minutes actual gameplay and clock up as many goals as we could. FIFA's most influential impact came with the introduction of the EA 4-Way-Play which meant that four people could play at the same time. With control pads pooled, we'd all set off for the youth-club on Friday nights to test ourselves against each other, using the previous 6 days practice into action. With an ambience of abrasive Jungle music played by the older boys in one corner and smelly younger boys jumping off the climbing frame in the other, I can't think of a greater game playing environment. I try to replicate it with Spotify and the children of friends but it will never be the same. Panda Pops just don't taste as great as they did back then. Something in the flavourings; must be.

To be continued…