Kickin' it old school

Last night I had a friend over to hang out and play some video games. It was a grand ol' time. Mainly due to the awesome games that we played. The video games in question were: Mario Kart 64 and Jet Grind Radio.

We started off with Mario Kart, because it had been ages since either of us had played it, so we decided to take a trip down memory lane. However, memory lane was a bit more rough than we remembered and it was paved with curse words. It's kind of funny how many swears you discover while playing Mario Kart now days. Even though we ended up losing to the computer, we still had fun. Mario Kart 64 has, and always will be my favorite Mario Kart game. It holds a special place in my heart and it's a pretty darn good game to boot. The controls may not be super tight, and the AI may be able to rubber band like nobody's business, but there is still loads of fun to be had with it. Maybe it's the rose colored shades of nostalgia talking, but I still love Mario Kart 64.

After our crushing defeat by the karts of Mario, we decided it was time to move on to something else. With the question of "What's your favorite video game?" I immediately pulled out Jet Grind Radio. The funkiest, coolest, hippest, most radical game there ever was.

The entire time I watched my friend play, I was explaining to her every mechanic and facet of the game. I know everything there is about this game. It was so much fun to see the same sense of awe and wonder on my friends face that I had those many years ago when I first played Jet Grind Radio. The sights, the sounds, the colors, the absurd amount of law enforcement and that music. Oh that music. Never in your life will you ever hear anything like the soundtrack to Jet Grind Radio. The coolest blend of the funkiest beats that you ever did see. This game makes me want to get up and dance every time that I hear it's glorious soundtrack, and it makes me want to be in the streets of Tokyo-to throwing one big dance party with everyone there. I could go on and on about how amazing the soundtrack is, and why it makes the game complete. It gives Jet Grind Radio so much soul on top of what it already has, and just adds to the experience and makes it something unlike anything you've ever played.

Games back in the day for the older generations were different, but in such a good way. Game design was still a new thing, and the emerging technologies that were being used allowed for new ways to make games. Games during the 1990s and early 2000s were creative, and they tried something different nearly every time. It is the height of console gaming in my mind, and it always will be. Again, it could be the nostalgia talking again, and the fact that I grew up with these games, but come on. You will not find another game like Jet Grind Radio, or even Mario Kart 64 anywhere else. That's what made gaming in that generation so great. The graphics may not be photo-realistic, and the game might not have been funded with millions of dollars, but damn,k were they the most fun you could have on a console.