My Title as a Gamer is a Farce

I'm one of the few gamers of my generation that managed to skip over the Super Nintendo. It's rather unlikely considering the time that I was born, but it's just the way that it is. My Dad had a Super Nintendo, and he had some pretty important games for it. Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country, F-Zero, and a few others were among the games that he had to play. I would prefer to stay in and play Super Nintendo, as opposed to being out in the deadly heat of the Oregon Sun in The Dalles. My time on the Super Nintendo was limited, and I could only play for a half hour. I never beat A Link to the Past, or Super Mario World, or even F-Zero. Future experiences with the Super Nintendo consisted of going to Family Video and renting the console and a couple of games with intriguing box art, but nothing major. My memories of the Super Nintendo are that of being home sick and a couple of quirky games that only lasted for two days. I missed out.

The other night while discussing emulators with my best friend, I came to the decision that I would download a Super Nintendo emulator. I've been craving something new in my gaming life, and figured why not. I knew that there were quite a lot of monumental games for the SNES. I had to get Chrono Trigger, that's one of the best. I also got Final Fantasy III, or was it VI, I don't know it's the one with Terra's Theme. I also got Super Mario RPG, because I remember a friend back in college raving about how awesome that game was.. These games are pretty important for the system, though it doesn't even scratch the surface of what the gaming system did for the industry on the whole.

A majority of game reviewers on Youtube often refer to the Super Nintendo as their source of inspiration and love of video games. As one who never had the system, I couldn't say that I can relate, and I still can't. I just have an emulator. There's nothing quite like holding that controller in your hand. The people that played the Super Nintendo growing up, reflect upon it with glistening eyes and wondrous tales of adventure. These gamers experienced something that I never did. Thanks to modern technology and innovative minds, I can with my emulator, and OH MY GOODNESS WHERE THEY RIGHT!

I've been playing Chrono Trigger a lot, and it has absolutely blown my mind on how an RPG should be designed. Mostly I look to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, as it is based on Dungeons and Dragons 3.0, and has an amazing moral, and dialogue choice system that I think that all modern RPGs should adhere to. However, Chrono Trigger, developed by Square Soft, takes what we know about the classic RPG and improves upon it ten fold. I've complained about Final Fantasy and the active battle system, and how it doesn't make any sense, Chrono Trigger makes sense of it all. The active battle system, where characters have a gauge that needs to fill up before making an action, is used in Chrono Trigger, but it can be modified. At the start of the game the player is asked how they would like the battles to play out. "Active" or "Wait" are the two options that are presented and each is explained. I chose wait, because I don't think that there's anything wrong with turn-based combat. While I still haven't got a firm grasp on the battle system, as it seems that enemies still attack on my turn, I've grown accustomed to use it. The ingenious thing that Chrono Trigger does which employs the active battle system, is that it uses combination attacks. Often times when in battle, two characters will be able to attack with filled gauges. The game has an option to use both of these characters to attack at the same time, or at least use a special attack at the cost of both of their magic points, respectively. Different characters have different abilities naturally, and you'll want to use one over the other. That being said, the combat moves so smoothly that players never have to wait long before the character is ready to attack. Chrono Trigger earns its title as one of the greatest games of all time, and I'm only five hours into it.

I love video games, and it's been a while since I've honestly wanted to play something for a while. This emulator gig has rejuvenated my love of video games, as opposed to wasting time on the internet. Long live video games.