Half a world away

I find a fascination with gaming in the Eighties. History will declare that the decade was defined by the Great Gaming Crash that took Atari under and created an opening for Nintendo to storm in with the NES. Nintendo becomes a big deal and Mario, Link, Samus, Mega Man and Simon Belmont all become icons beyond reproach.

But this scenario, which has been told many times before, is viewed from the perspective of the U.S. - and as they say, history is only told by the winners. Coming from the perspective of someone outside the U.S., a different story is told and the contrast between within the U.S. and without the U.S. is astonishing to say the least.

To begin with, being in Australia, places one riding off the coattails of what was happening in the U.K. and Europe (as is often the case in Australia). If there was anything happening in the U.S. it had little to do with us - which is surprising considering the geographical location of Australia places in between U.S. and Europe. But I digress.

So yes, the choices of we Australians made was a replication of what was happening half a world away. Thus, whilst having a NES was commonplace in the U.S., that wasn't the case in Australia. Indeed, at the time, I remember more people I knew at school had a Master System than a NES and I noticed at the local toy store that the Master System had a more prominent place than the NES (indeed, that's a funny thing to look back on when one considers how things turned out for both Nintendo and Sega). So when the SNES finally showed it's face, there was indeed a sensation comparable to descending down from atop Mount Sinai and a sign that Nintendo suddenly was a big deal. Hard to imagine I know, right?

But the true victor in the Eighties gaming arms race in Australia was neither Sega or Nintendo. Nope: It was Commodore. I've lost count on how many people had a Commodore 64 when they were young and/or knew what one was. They were more commonplace than a NES or a Master System and many people point to it as being a starting point towards their interest in computers. And, much like the U.K., the Commodore 64 had a long and fruitful life in Australia that lasted well into the 16bit era.

This, in turn, would seem strange to the those in the U.S. as we in Australia (and the U.K.) had our own gaming culture develop separately. Whereas they had a rivalry between Sega and Nintendo, we Commodore 64 users had our own mortal enemies with the Spectrum users. When they were exchanging password codes, we were applying cheat codes. When they had Mario, Link and Samus, we had Armakuni, Turrican and Rockford.

Funny thing how cultures develop independent of each other. Naturally you wouldn't have that now when everyone and everything is linked online but looking at the same era from two different perspectives is an eye-opener to say the least.

What foul sorcery is this?!

 Here's something i came across during my travels on Youtube: A complete playthrough of the Commodore 64 game Sorcery:

 Original video located here. Accessed 22nd August 2016

You hear people of today describe the 8-bit era (or the 3rd console generation if you prefer) of gaming as being populated by games that are of brutal difficulty. People talk of the Mega Man games and the original Castlevania as being really tough, much like how Dark Souls is described today.
Mind you, that kinda does make sense from a designer's perspective because whatever the game may lack from a technical standpoint, it makes up for in offering a challenge. Make the game too easy and people won't have any reason to play it beyond the first successful completion.

Which now brings me to Sorcery. I played a lot of games on my C64 as a kid and this was indeed among the hardest I've played. This down to two factors: Firstly, this game was nothing short of vague in exactly what is trying to convey. Looking at the video over two decades later however and it seems clear: The player is required to pick up certain objects and use them in a particular combination. And, naturally, there are numerous red herrings abound which makes success in the game more a case of trial and error.
Secondly, there is a time limit that is nothing less than punishing: As established above, the player would need to apply trial and error to find the successful path to victory but the time limit does not allow for such experimentation. Thus it would seem multiple attempts would be required to find the successful path.
Make no mistake: there is little room for error. As indicated by the video ab0ve, the player would need to rush through the game and have their health drained with the dangers lurking at every turn. There are potions that can restore the player's health but they are more a hindrance when the greatest enemy is the clock. If anything I'm surprised someone actually managed to beat this game.

Mind you, when I originally played this, I figured that the vial of poison would be the item that would secure victory. I tried to persuade my brother but he was unconvinced.
Now, years later, it seem that I was right :)

Mega Drive

And we're back. Welcome to 2014 folks. And what better way to kick off the new year than with the announcement of another game struck down from my Hall of Shame!
And who's the lucky candidate this time? Why, Mega Man 2!

(yeah the PAL box art isn't that crash hot but its lameness is still worth a chuckle)

I never played any of the Mega Man games during the 8bit era. That still didn't stop me admiring it from afar. And as far as I was concerned controlling a robot guy with a cannon for an arm sounded pretty sweet to me. 

This in turn placed me in a unique position when I finally got around to play it on the Virtual Console: I've never played this game and I don't have any memories playing it to influence my opinion  So what did I think?

Well first off the bat, this would have to be one of, if not the most technically impressive game I've seen on an 8-bit system. Having grown up in the Commodore 64 era I was thoroughly impressed with this quality of the graphics: the sprites have loads of personality that I wouldn't have previously thought possible.
I also enjoyed the use of weapon upgrades and the level selection: As I've come into Mega Man blind (like all games should be approached), I was thought this was quite a neat feature and surprised that this type of thing was being implemented in it's day - particularly when player-determined paths are commonplace in games of today.
But then there is the difficulty: My God, is this game a challenge and a half. I hate how games offer cheap deaths (yes Burnout 3, I am looking at you) and I do feel that mega Man 2 belongs in this category. I've lost count how many times I yelled at the TV screen, ground my teeth in frustration and faced my will being broken.
If anything Mega Man 2 comes across as more a battle of wits between the player and the game itself with neither willing to back down to the other. And that's the thing: A game should be fun to play. And if a game is making me frustrated, angry and anything but having fun, then something has gone seriously wrong. Thus to hear people laud Mega Man 2 as one of the greatest games ever made is confusing to me.
Okay true Mega Man 2 is a product of a bygone era when games were allowed to be as nasty as they choose and anyone will go along with it. And I will admit that games of today being much easier may allow for complacency in gamers, but if a game leaves me yelling "BULLSHIT!" on several occasions then perhaps it may be better to move onto something else.

Ultimately I did find a lot to be impressed with Mega Man 2 but it hasn't really sold me on the rest of the series. I do respect Mega Man 2 for both it;s own merits and being the best in the series but I'm not in any rush to go and explore some more.

Oh well, easy come easy go I guess....