I didn't really plan to start writing the follow-up so soon, but I'm feeling particularly perky today, so I decided, what the heck? Let's do it.
This is 'Playing with Power', part 2: 1994: The SNES Years.
Okay, so yeah, the Super Nintendo dropped in 1991. A year later, I became aware, so to speak, of video games. Still too young to even care about the concept of generational leaps, I paid no attention to the existence of the device. Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers had come along in 1993, and being the age I was for each of these major occurrences, I was whisked away in the hype of it all.
My brother received an SNES console for Christmas in 1992, along with Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Two games that would go on to become all-time classics in their respective series and genres. But I'd not paid either one much mind, having received a plethora of toys, including a giant stuffed dinosaur and a blue trunk, the latter of which I still have to this very day.
Two years later, I would slowly began to see the Super Nintendo slip into my hands as I started using it more and more while my older brother worked his full-time job. Adding Zelda and the then-freshly released Super Metroid to the list of games in my rota. I'd like to give both of them a ReCollection of their very own in the future, so I won't be diving into my history there too much.
As far as the Search-Action genre goes, Super Metroid, to this day, has not been topped in its charm or atmosphere. Hollow Knight has been the only actual true contender coming close to checking all of the boxes that Super Metroid filled in with a permanent marker. The late nights spent just roaming Zebes' deepest trenches trying to make my way, the thrill of discovery when I'd reach a new area or find a hidden path in the wall or floor that led me to weapon enhancements(and disappointment that it wasn't a way forward.
I'd watched my brother beat the game at least once, being enthralled by the escape sequence at the end that climaxed with the explosion of an entire planet, something I'd only seen previously in the Star Wars films. This has prompted me to stuff a Pringles tube on my right arm at one point and run around the front yard, pretending the Earth was going to explode and that I had to return to my ship(home) before it was too late.
I even remember begging my parents for the Super Metroid players guide that Wal-Mart had one day, but being shot down instantly. Went home and watched Army of Darkness that day.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was technically my first Zelda game, but not the first one I owned directly, as it had just kind of become mine over time as my brother gradually lost interest in the device. But it, too, as a kid in the early to mid-90s with no internet and parents unwilling to spring for strategy guides, led to hours upon hours of exploration and figuring things out on my lonesome, something that nowadays is absolutely impossible with how readily available info on the internet is. It's a shame really, because kids today simply just aren't going to have those Aha! moments anymore.
Zelda had instilled in me a sense of adventure and homeliness. Seeing a kid(or what I had assumed was at the time) wake up in the middle of the night and start out on a journey in the middle of a thunderstorm was new to me. Fighting monsters, scaling mountains, and plunging into the depths of deep dank dungeons. It was exciting and new, and it was likely what spurred me into trying RPGs.
One random memory I have for Zelda is, during one of my attempted playthroughs of the game, I was scaling Death Mountain and marveling at the forest and clouds below. The sense of height was delightful. One day, while my grandmother was babysitting us, I vividly remember grabbing a small couch pillow and one of the many plastic swords I had sitting around the house and just climbing across the couches, pretending that I was scaling the mountain. Only to get yelled at by Gram for jumping on the furniture.
The Gameboy
What I've talked about before was just barely scratching the surface of my overall SNES history, as there is a lot more to come, if just for 1994 alone. But next, I want to discuss two big entries in my history with the company's products: The advent of the Gameboy.
Scene: The den, Christmas Eve 1994. The family would always gather for dinner and open presents from each other as sort of a pre-show for the big Santa visit the next day. Thinking back nowadays, it feels like it was more for my grandmother to steal some attention away from my parents with her own gifts to the kids. Still, I've no real evidence as to where the particular tradition began beyond her always encouraging it.
But anywho. It was Christmas Eve, just before sundown. The Christmas tree was standing right where my PC is now, the very spot I am writing this entry. My grandmother was here with a basket of gifts, along with her friend, whom we'd not been super comfortable with, myself, especially being as shy as I was back then. I hid in the living room, hoping they'd leave so that I wouldn't have to feel the embarrassment of opening gifts in front of a stranger.
Eventually, my parents brought my gift from my grandmother into the living room, where I hid beside the couch and end table. In the darkening afternoon light, I ripped the paper away, revealing one heck of a surprise that, to this day, I've no idea how she knew I'd wanted one as I hadn't even told my parents(I'd put a Super Gameboy on my list to Santa instead). What had laid beneath that bright, cheerful holiday paper was the OG Gameboy+Zelda: Link's Awakening bundle.
That Christmas was a 1-2 punch as far as cementing me as a "gamer" at the age of seven.
To be continued...
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