Blame Joey

Well, I was all done with my last post...and then Joey got to talking about the good ol' Dreamcast. If you've never touched a Dreamcast, then in my opinion, you are unclean and will spend an eternity writhing in the flames of damnation. But that's just my opinion. This reminds me of a story...it goes a little something like this...

Once upon a time, there was the NES and the Gameboy. There were others, but shut up - this is my story. Sure there were floods of crappy third-party games and multitudes of painful games based on movie licenses. But amidst all the dung, there were diamonds. The true classics which I don't even have to name because they're so well known. Yes, I remember wanting to find a pipe that would let me travel across the world...I wanted to ride alongside Jason in the SOPHIA...and yes, I too tried to inhale so much air that I could puff up and fly around by waving my arms. Unfortunately, it just made me pass out. And those were just a few of the memories made by the ol' grey boxes. They've never left me, and if you were to see the way I think, you'd see videogames everywhere in life.

I'd consider the next era of games the Sega Genesis and the SNES. This was my own Golden Age of gaming that consisted of RPGs (SMRPG, FFVI, Earthbound, Chrono Trigger), blue hedgehogs, and those amazing Mode 7 graphics. Cutesy characters ruled the gaming world. Just take a look at the marvel that is Rocket Knight Adventures...a possum in a suit of armor and a jet-pack? Oh yes... I still get a tingly feeling when I hear the opening chimes of Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic's a character I really need to talk about soon...for as most of you know, I am a HUGE Sonic fan. Like, it's sick how much I like Sonic. The little blue guy is actually one of main drives to get a Saturn. Anyway, back to the systems...those were the days. Yeah, that's about it for that bit.

Then we had the Nintendo 64 and the Sony Playstation...for some reason, I could not bring myself to want a Playstation. Why would I, when I had access to Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, Super Mario 64, Turok, and Star Fox? Can't forget Pilotwings 64...a classic sequel to a classic. Yes, I loved the Nintendo 64 and all of it's sans-CD glory. We don' need no steenkeeng CDs. Cartridges are where it's AT, man! Okay, so Nintendo screwed up there...but the 64 is still okay in my book. I finally caved in and got a Playstation which turned out to be one of the best decisions ever. Final Fantasy VII was what drove me to get a Playstation...Tactics, Tenchu, Ape Escape, and Spyro kept me there. However, I couldn't help but feel a slight tinge of evil emanating from the little PSX everytime it booted up...all the while 3DO's got up and slapped their owners across the face for buying such a system. And the Saturn reigned...but far away from me.

BUT THEN!!!! From the evil came glory. Sega released the Jesus of videogame consoles....THE DREAMCAST. Sure, it's not as impressive spec-wise as today's systems. The game library wasn't enormous. But gosh darn it, the little box of love had spunk. It didn't grind when it loaded...it chirped, happy to provide you enjoyment. I swear the lit triangle winked at me a few times, letting me know how much it loved me. When I first layed eyes on Sonic Adventure at Toys R Us, I knew this was an amazing little box. All those gadgets...online capabilities...and VMUs! How amazing is it to have a memory card with a screen? And you could download mini-games and all sorts of treasures! Oh Dreamcast...I love you. I even love having to use a boot disc to play the imported version of Shenmue II. I don't care because I love you and all of your Power Stone glory. Oh, Dreamcast...though the games have stopped coming, I'll keep a little bit of you in the VMU of my heart.

And thus ends my tale...for now...basically I don't want to talk about the Gamecube, PS2, or Xbox because this is where my feelings get complicated. Also, I'm kind of tired of typing for the moment. So that shall be a tale for another day...

BAMF!