Trying to get back on track now that I am in the home stretch.
Our list so far:
-Day 16: Super Mario Bros. 3
-Day 17: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
-Day 18: Super Metroid
Day 19:
Chrono Trigger
Super Nintendo (later Playstation 1 and Nintendo DS) March 11, 1995
A game that was the perfect storm. Take the game designer of the Final Fantasy series Hironobu Sakaguchi, the game designer of the Dragon Quest series Yuji Horri, and the artist of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Quest Akira Toriyama and have them collaborate with other talented creators on a game in their respective primes, the result is just tremendous.
As far as I can recall, this game was the first and probably only game to properly work in a time travel mechanic that worked and where your actions affected each of the time periods. Add in the fact that because it was a new intellectual property, the designers took game and story risks that they would not have normally taken in a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest title at the time. These risks paid off big time as they built a world that was easy to immerse yourself into great character design, beautiful music and an epic time-spanning story. A new battle system where your party could cooperate in team attacks that were spectacular and destructive. Each character had a memorable personality and story that touched you emotionally all in beautifully simple 16-bit sprites. The music still continues to randomly pop up in my head, just because it was that damn good.
One of the best features of the game was the "New Game +" where after you completed the game, you were able to start the game over, but retain all the experience and abilities you had gained the first time through. Some of you wonder, "why the hell do you want to do that?" Several reasons: first, the game is so damn good you WANT to play it again. Secondly, there are many choices and arcs in the game that affect the ending. Hell, there are at least 8 different endings (my personal favorite is where you break the "4th wall" in game and visit all the game developers who congratulate you and tell you about the game). Third, there are some very rare items and even and extra character you can find, but sometimes you need to level up to a crazy degree so the least boring way to grind is to experience the entire game again AND FLY THROUGH IT in fast forward because your characters are so UBER-strong on the subsequent play-throughs. Finally, the game was designed to be played multiple times over and over, hence the "New Game +"
Sadly for the blog, I do not have a cute anecdote or story to go along with my experience of playing the game. The only "story" I have is that this game was a part of my "training" in the RPG realm that a buddy in high school put me through. He lent me his SNES and had me play this, then Final Fantasy 6 and then Earthbound (easily one of the hardest games I have ever tried to play and requires a separate entry on its own once this top 25 business is over) all through senior year of high school. This was all in an effort to get me to appreciate and understand the greatness of Role Playing Games, a goal in which he succeeded in as I moved on to the Playstation 1 and played WAY too many RPGS during college.
All that is left to say is that I have played this game several times and enjoyed it EVERY SINGLE TIME and thanks to the Nintendo DS version that was released a couple of years ago, I have it in my bag ready to play if the whim ever strikes me which I know for a fact it will. I place this game in the "Top 10" in place of Final Fantasy 6 with great heartache, but this game is slightly better just due to the fact it was so revolutionary at the time, has even more replay value than FF6, and hit my emotional buttons a bit more in its wonderful story. One of the finest RPG experiences I could ever recommend. Download it on your Wii, go to Best Buy and find it for 20 bucks on the Nintendo DS in their value section. Just play it, even if you have never played an RPG in your life.
Tomorrow we move forward a couple of years to a game that will be my first "shocking" entry to my gamer friends after these first 4 "easy" decisions.
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