On
episode
167 the Needless Things Podcast
we talked about the pop culture of 1987. We recorded a
similar episode last year about 1986
(and will do another one next year about 1988 – see the pattern?)
and I accompanied
it with posts
about the toys,
music,
television,
and movies
of the year.
It
all started out as one post, but as I poked around my memory (and the
internet) I realized that there was simply too much great stuff to
include it all in one post. At first glance 1987 seemed a bit leaner
in terms of pop culture awesomeness, but then I started poking around
and discovered that roughly 8,000 absolutely incredible movies came
out in 1987, so that was one
huge on its own.
Naturally
posts on television
and toys
followed. Today I’m looking at the middle ground between the two
that has become such a staple of pop culture, but that back in 1987
was essentially still in its infancy – video gaming.
I’ve
written about the Nintendo
Entertainment System
before, but I could probably write a post a week about the NES for
the next decade and still not convey how much I loved that thing. The
main thing that you need to know is that my parents absolutely would
not spend money on an NES for me, so I had to save up and buy it
myself. I can’t find exact figures, but I know that I bought the
light gun set that included the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridge
and the light gun. I believe
it was
$150.
That
translates to roughly $340 in 2017 money. I know I did chores around
the house and saved Christmas and birthday money, but I do not know
how long I saved. I do know that $150 would have bought a
lot of
GI Joes.
This
video game system was very important to me, is what I’m saying.
Pro
Wrestling
– I never truly loved this game because I wanted it to be WWF guys.
However, the gameplay was far superior to any licensed WWF game that
would be released for years.
In hindsight, I feel stupid for thinking that any game featuring a
fish man devouring his opponents’ faces in a shower of gore was
anything less than top notch.
I
don’t know that I ever played this game alone. It was always one to
play with friends. I’m pretty sure this is where I developed my
shit-talking skills. I’m also pretty sure they haven’t evolved
since then.
Slalom
– I recall playing this at a friend’s house and thinking that his
parents must not like him very much to have bought this turd.
Rush'n
Attack
– I sucked at this game, but I sure did like it. I would pretend
the character was Flint from GI Joe and that he was infiltrating a
COBRA base. With a knife.
BurgerTime
– I’m cheating here. I don’t think I played this on the NES
back in 1987, but BurgerTime
is one of my favorite arcade games. I prefer it to Donkey
Kong or
Mario
Bros.
or any of the other “climb shit and avoid enemies” games. I love
the giant burgers and the evil anthropomorphic foods and I think chef
Peter Pepper is criminally underrecognized in the annals of video
game history.
Castlevania
– At the age of eleven I was just hitting the prime age for getting
into horror. I loved Dracula and castles and medieval warriors that
used a whip for some stupid reason. A friend of mine had this game
before I did and I bugged the crap
out of him to play it any time I was at his house. I think I might
have even been content just to watch him play it because at the time
the graphics were pretty advanced and there was an amount of suspense
involved in exploring.
This
kid’s parents clearly loved him more than Slalom
guys’ parents did.
Ikari
Warriors
– I never actually owned Contra
for whatever reason, but I did own Ikari
Warriors.
As such, I have spent the last thirty years claiming that I preferred
Ikari
Warriors.
I think it’s time to finally come clean and admit that Ikari
Warriors,
while a fun 2 player game and not at all a bad entry from SNK, is
nowhere near as good as Contra.
I’m
sorry, Vince and Paul. I feel like I’ve betrayed a couple of old
friends.
Kid
Icarus
– If I were to make a list of my top ten favorite video games
(coming soon to a slow Wednesday on Needless Things), this one might
be on it. It would certainly make a Top Ten NES games list. Being a
huge Greek mythology nerd, I was obsessed with this one, though I
never understood why the kid’s name was “Pit”.
This
one is usually recognized for being incredibly difficult, but to be
honest I didn’t find it to be any harder than most other NES games.
Of course, I wasn’t very good at any of them, so I was starting
from a different base, I guess.
Rygar
– Another top ten entry. While it was unusual for the home console
version of a game to be better than the arcade version, this was
absolutely the case with Rygar.
A relative bought me the game at some point and I was hooked, big
time. The leveling up was satisfying and it was the first game I
played that alternated so successfully between a top-down view and
side-scrolling.
Years
later I would play the arcade version and was massively disappointed
at its simplicity and lack of innovation.
In
2002 a modern version was released for the PlayStation 2 and it was
awesome.
It’s one of the few game releases that I got genuinely invested in
at the time because I was working at GameStop and pretty cynical. But
I still loved the NES Rygar
and was nervous about how it would be updated. As far as I’m
concerned, Tecmo nailed it. I would love to see a new PlayStation 4
version.
Section
Z –
I generally hate side-scrolling shooters, but I remember enjoying
this one. Maybe because it was a little dude instead of a spaceship.
My little dudes were important. Still are, really. To this day I
don’t like games where you don’t see a little dude running around
on the screen.
The
Legend of Kage
– And, oh man, no little dudes ran like Kage! This one felt
straight out of the Kung-Fu movies I was starting to discover at the
time via the magic of Kung-Fu
Theater
on the USA network. For the time, the bamboo forest visuals were
quite beautiful.
Metroid
– One of the greatest video games of all time and definitely a top
franchise. I am, however, ashamed to say that I didn’t appreciate
Samus’ adventures until I played Super
Metroid.
The first time I saw Metroid
in action I thought that the graphics were boring and ugly and I
wasn’t interested after about ten minutes of play. It wasn’t
until 1994 when I became obsessed with the sequel that I decided I
had to go back and play the original.
The
Legend of Zelda
– Oh, man, this isn’t going to make me popular with Beth.
I
thought The
Legend of Zelda
was so lame the first time I saw it. I thought Link looked stupid and
it seemed like just a bunch of wandering around, getting attacked by
dumb-looking creatures. Not even the funky fresh TV commercial could
sell me on this one:
I
wouldn’t truly sit down to play Zelda
until 1995, when I was managing a Video Game Exchange and playing
basically every NES game ever released because we were encouraged to
play games on shift so we’d know about them.
Spy
Hunter
– In general I don’t care for driving games, but Spy
Hunter
added in little James Bond-esque gimmicks like missiles,
smokescreens, and oil slicks. It also had a killer soundtrack –
Henry Mancini’s Baby
Elephant Walk.
No,
wait – Henry Mancini’s Peter
Gunn
theme.
Mike
Tyson's Punch-Out!!
– The only reason I mention this title is because it is one of the
most popular and best-known video games of all time. I didn’t like
it then and I still don’t. Not my cup of tea.
Mega
Man
– I think this was the first video game franchise that I was truly
devoted to, due both to the excellent gameplay and the frequency with
which Capcom released them. Aside from 1989, they were annual for
years following this one.
The
platforming alone, while challenging, would have been enough to
guarantee mild success. But on top of the tight gameplay Mega
Man
featured the great gimmick of obtaining your defeated enemies’
powers and
the top notch graphics that Capcom was known for.
This
first entry into the legendary franchise was a game-changer for many
of us, as it showed a new level of quality in a market full of
generic and not-great action platform titles.
Wizards
& Warriors
– I always used to get this game mixed up with Ghosts
N’ Goblins.
Even right now I can’t remember which one I preferred or which one
had the annoying “sliding” effect when your ran around.
Otherwise,
I just remember this being incredibly difficult and one of those
games that I’d pull out and struggle through the first level and
then quit.
Did
I miss anything? What was your favorite video game from 1987? Let us
know in the Needless
Things Podcast Facebook Group!
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