My birthday seems to sneak up on me at the same time every year, but this time around we found ourselves in one of my favourite video game stores perusing the wares for a gift for me! I was pleasantly surprised to see that the stock in that store had just recently been replenished from a collection sale, so off I went to find some games that spoke to me.
Speaking of games speaking to me, I couldn’t resist picking up the NES version of Ultima IV. I’m not sure how many of you may have had an experience where playing a game changed your outlook not only on other games but also on yourself and the world around you, but Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar for the Sega Master System provided me with that experience a few years ago. The NES port is something I’ve been interested in trying out since I absolutely love the visual aesthetic in that one as it’s very much like Final Fantasy. The second game I got was Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Of the few movies I’ve seen, this one has always been one of my favourites. I watched a friend play through it a few months ago and it had some interesting gameplay that I thought might be fun to try out sometime for myself.
I also found one Sega Genesis game, Cadash! As a perpetual Faxanadu lover, this game spoke to me when I first found out about it. It’s a sidescrolling action game with RPG elements, and one of my favourite parts about it is that you can play with multiple players. Now if only I could get my boyfriend on board to play this one with me…
Finally, I picked out two games for the Game Boy: Sneaky Snakes and Kid Dracula. Sneaky Snakes is the sequel to Snake, Rattle ‘n Roll for NES, a game that’s very nostalgic for me. I’m curious to see how well the ideas of the first game fit into a sidescroller. Next is Kid Dracula, a game I first discovered while looking into rarer Game Boy games. After seeing the price of this version of Kid Dracula, I’d picked up the Famicom game a few years ago thinking I’d dodged a bullet, but I later discovered that the two games are different. Although this one was a little more than what I wanted to pay, I dove in anyway. It was my birthday, and I could spend what I wanted to!
There are seemingly some great adventures around the next corner with the purchase of these games. I was glad to welcome in 33 with one of my favourite hobbies.
Thank you very much for reading!
-GG