Now You're Playing With Power #4-Super Nintendo

My fourth entry in my Facebook blog posts was themed after the SNES. This was when I finally settled on the name "Now You're Playing With Power," a name I would keep until I gave up on writing. It was the 20th anniversary of one of the best consoles of all time and nothing I wrote really could do the system justice, but I sure did try. Seeing my old room when I was living with my parents and seeing my very small collection brings back a lot of memories. Not only that, but the SNES brings a lot of memories as well. Like I mention, this was the first console I ever owned (I still have it after 15 years or so and it still works!) and my childhood rushes back to my face every time I plug it back in and play a game. But before that, here is a commercial for the SNES and Super Mario World. Rarely does a commercial sum up a game well, but this one did. 

In honor of another anniversary this week's topic is the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).

My SNES with 3 of the launch games: Super Mario World, PilotWings, and the Mode 7-alicious F-Zero.

History

In the late '80s Nintendo's first home console the NES continued to dominate the video game market. To counter this, companies like Sega and NEC launched their 16-bit Genesis and TurboGraphx-16 respectively to compete with the 8-bit NES. Even though the Genesis was more powerful than the NES, Sega didn't start seeing success until years after their 16-bit console was released. Once Nintendo saw that the Genesis was becoming popular they decided to step up their game and release their own Super Nintendo on August 23rd, 1991. The Super Nintendo became instantly popular and it and the Genesis were in steady competition to win over fans. This began what is now known as the Console Wars. Eventually the SNES won the competition, but that is a story for another day.

Now You're Playing With Power, Super Power

So what did it take for a console to be 'super'? Was it an incredible library of games? Was it new technology? Prettier graphics and sound? Whatever the answer was the Super Nintendo had it. At the time, people were used to games only looking as good as the NES could make them. Then came along the SNES and blew everyone away. The SNES had the capacity to show more colors, more detailed sprites could be on the screen at once, the sound was better, games could be bigger, etc. It was an incredible step-up from its predecessor and what many people consider one of the greatest if not THE greatest console ever released.

A Bit More of What You Want

Of course you can't have a great console without great games. Luckily, SNES had them. Right at the start SNES had games that presented what this new console was all about. Super Mario World and Gradius III showed games what their old NES favorites could look like. F-Zero and PilotWings displayed one of the biggest technical step-ups from previous consoles: "Mode 7". "Mode 7" refers to a graphic-rendering technique that made games look more realistic by letting developers rotate and pan environments and sprites. At the time this was groundbreaking and incredibly innovative.

Over the SNES' life cycle many great games were released that still show up in top games of all time lists today. The SNES brought new franchises that would eventually become fan favorites like the aforementioned F-Zero and PilotWings, Donkey Kong Country, Star Fox and many more. It also upgraded classic NES franchises like Super Mario, Metroid and The Legend of Zelda. 

My pretty small collection of SNES games include some of the best the system had to offer.

Cool Peripherals

 The SNES had a few really cool peripherals like the Super Game Boy, which allowed you to play Game Boy games on your TV, the Mario Paint mouse that let you play...well...Mario Paint. The super gigantic Super Scope let you play games like Super Scope 6 and Yoshi's Safari. Unfortunately, these were only used with a handful of games each and didn't get too much of a chance to shine.

The Super Game Boy (right) let you play your Game Boy games on your TV and the Mario Paint mouse let you play Mario Paint.Playing games with guns is for wimps. Winners play them with ginormous bazookas!Why play Pokemon on a tiny black-and-white screen when you can play them in color on your TV...also comes with custom edges depending on what game you are playing.

FUN FACTS

• Super Mario Kart was the very first racing game with weapons.
• Star Fox was originally just a tech demo to showcase the Super FX chip, but later became a full game.
• The SNES controller was the first to have 4 face buttons-something that is still used today.
• The SNES controller was also the first to have left (L) and right (R) shoulder buttons. Something which is also still used today.
• Mortal Kombat II was released for the SNES and Sega Genesis and it pretty much started the ESRB.
• Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto strongly disliked the 3d-rendered graphics of Donkey Kong Country, but then later went on to make Yoshi's Story with the same kind of graphics.
• The US, Europe and Japan all have different SNES models.
• The SNES plastic is inflammable. The material used to do this causes many SNES consoles to turn yellow.
• The SNES is often considered to be one of the best if not THE best console ever released!
• The SNES was the first console I owned. I've had it for 12 years and it still works like a charm and refused to turn yellow!

Nintendo Wednesdays #3-DK Bongos

I mainly wrote my blog posts because I was starting to gather a pretty good collection of Nintendo games and things and I simply loved taking pictures and showing people things I had that they might have never seen or even heard of before. Starting with this third post, I changed the name to Nintendo Wednesdays because I didn't like the name "Luigi's Nintendo Awesomeness." I thought it sounded childish and really wasn't catchy at all. I was still in the search of a cool, new title, and I guess that is what I came up with for that week's post.

You've played rhythm-based music games standing on a mat, with plastic guitar and drum controllers, and maybe even with no controller at all on Dance Central. Have you though, ever played with these? 

These are the DK Bongos for Nintendo's Game Cube!

A look at music games now.

The market for music games is falling. Activision's Guitar Hero franchise got the axe not too long ago and MTV Games is trying to sell the Rock Band property. This was mostly caused by the over-abundance of these games and the requirement of expensive peripherals. For a while though, these kinds of games were all the rage and lots of people were playing in their homes, at parties, in school, everywhere!

The DK Bongos

 The DK Bongos were released on September 27, 2004. More than an entire year before Activision released their first Guitar Hero and the music game period of games started. This wasn't something new though, as these kind of games had been popular in Japan for years prior.

Over the lifetime of the bongos only 3 games that were compatible with them were made. Its a shame because they are one of the most fun and coolest-looking peripherals Nintendo's ever released. The 3 games released were Donkey Konga, Donkey Konga 2, and Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. There was a third Konga, but it was never released in the US. Also, the Wii game Donkey Kong Barrel Blast was originally supposed to be compatible with the bongos when it was in development for the Game Cube. The Wii arrived and development was shifted to the Wii and bongo controls were scraped completely.

All 3 American DK Bongo games.

Donkey Konga and Donkey Konga 2

Think of these games like Guitar Hero with the bongos and you'll understand how they play. You try to match different colored circles that appear on-screen with an action on the bongos all while staying in rhythm with the music. Simple enough right? Yes, but if you aren't very well coordinated you are probably going to have a hard time playing. There are different difficulty settings to play on starting with 'Chimp' (which is pretty easy) and ending with 'Gorilla' (which, unless you have a lot of practice, will destroy you and your brain).

Each game has about 30 music tracks to play along to. I'm not to familiar with popular music, so I have never heard most of these songs. The ones I have are the Pokemon song from the anime, remixed Mario and Zelda themes, and songs like La Bamba, Louie Louie, We Will Rock You and Oye Como Va. The only reason I know the last 4 are because we played them at one point or another in the stands at football games in band. If it wasn't for that I would only know the songs coming from other games.

The white, spiked circle means clap and the long red 
(top right) and purple (bottom right)
 mean hit your bongo like crazy and make your arms sore!

Hit the left drum on yellow, the right on red.
Purple means to hit both at the same time.

Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Unlike Konga, Jungle beat is a standard platformer. Well, as standard as you can get running and jumping with bongos and not a controller. Jumping and running aren't the only things that you can do in the game though. While on your banana-collecting adventure you will beat up badies, run from snowballs, ride bull things and much more! You control DK by hitting the left and right drums to move and jump and clap to get beat-gathering combos. While you can finish a level by simply reaching the end, the main goal is to collect as many beats as possible by grabbing bananas and defeating foes. The only other thing I can think of to say for this game is that you have to try playing it. Its incredibly fun and you won't want to put down your bongos.

At the end of a level you hit the bongos as fast as possible to get extra bananas. Warning: Your arms will yell at you if you do it too fast!

Monkey swinging, banana-collecting, platforming fun.

FUN FACTS

• In Japan the bongos are known as TaruConga
• 'Taru' is the Japanese word for barrel and 'Con' is a suffix used by Namco when naming their peripherals.
• The games are compatible with the regular Game Cube controller, but are a lot more fun with the bongos.
• Donkey Kong Jungle beat got an updated remake for the Wii. New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is cheaply available if you don't want to hunt down a copy of the Game Cube game.
• Donkey Kong Barrel Blast was originally a DK Bongo game, but that got scraped when development of the game was transferred to Wii from Game Cube
• A 3th Donkey Konga was released in Japan, but never in the US.
• These bongos and Donkey Konga (shown in above pictures) were given to me by Corey Cruz! Thanks!
• There is a not-so hidden hint at next week's topic in the two first pictures.

Luigi's Nintendo Awesomeness #2-Metroid

I created this one around the time that Metroid had its 25th anniversary. I talked about what I thought made Metroid awesome and, of course, went into the history of the franchise. I stared adding more information and "fun facts" about the topics I was talking about. Apparently, I made new posts every week on Wednesdays, which would influence the title of the blog after this second one.

The Screw Attack (right) is used as the series logo and Samus Aran (left) is the protagonist.

OVERVIEW

The first Metroid, which was a combination of Mario's smooth running and jumping and Link's exploration and upgradable inventory, was released on August 6, 1986 in Japan for the Nintendo Entertainment System and a year later in the US. The Metroid series follows bounty hunter Samus Aran as she (Yes SHE) tries to stop the plans of the Space Pirates and eradicate the deadly species known as Metroids. The game was produced by Gunpei Yokoi, who's other notable works include: Game & Watch series, the Game Boy, and the notorious Virtual Boy (more on those later). The music score was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka who also worked on other Nintendo properties like Kid Icarus, Balloon Fight, Duck Hunt and others.

The main man behind Metroid. R.I.P. 1941-1997Tanaka's score gave Metroid an eerie and creepy atmosphere.

IMPACT IN GAMING

Before Metroid was released females usually got the role of damsel in distress and other weak roles. Metroid was one of the first games to have a female protagonist and its credited with making it possible for females to get leading, non-stereotypical roles in video games. When playing the game, people didn't even know she was a woman as she was in her suit the entire game. It wasn't until the end of the game that you found out who you were playing as. Depending on how fast you reached the end, there were 5 possible endings. At the time the concept of different endings was unheard of, but are pretty common in games now. Nintendo has continued this tradition by awarding players with different endings, but as of Metroid Prime the different ending you see is dependent on the percentage of items you have and not the time it took to complete the game. Trying to find all the endings that Metroid had started a different way to play called speed running. Speed running, which is trying to finish a game as fast as possible, is done competitively today in tournaments. At the time, most games were linear and had the player go in a specific, pre-set path. Metroid and Zelda both had you go whichever path you chose, allowing you to find your own way through the game.

This is the ending you got if you beat the game in under 10 hours.
(Ending 2 of 5)

This is the ending you got if you beat the game in under 5 hours.
(Ending 4 out of 5)

METROID AS A SERIES

Metroid spawned one of the most critically and fanatically acclaimed series that, as of now, has 11 other original games, a remake of the original on the Game Boy Advance (Metroid: Zero Mission) and a compilation of the Prime series (Metroid Prime Trilogy). The sense of exploration, being alone in a massive world, its music, the characters and the design make it a popular and my 3rd personal favorite video game series. Collectively, the series has won numerous awards from many print and online publications like IGN, Game Informer, EGM, Nintendo Power and others.  

This is my complete collection of every Metroid game that has ever been released. At the bottom left is the game that started it all.

METROID FUN FACTS

• Typing "Justin Bailey 000000 000000" in the password entry screen lets you play as an armor-less Samus.
• The feature mentioned above is not in the Japanese game since it had battery-backed save data and no passwords.
• If you didn't already know, and you didn't ready any of the above...Samus is a girl.
• Samus transforms into the Morph Ball because the programmers couldn't draw her on all fours when going into small spaces because of the limitations of the NES.
• Metroid takes inspiration from the "Aliens" movie.
• In return, a lot of more recent Aliens movies, games, etc. take inspiration from Metroid.
• The sci-fi setting of Metroid inspired games like Contra, which eventually inspired games like Halo.
• Mother Brain (the main villain in Metroid and Super Metroid) was also the main villain in the cartoon series Captain N: The Game Master, where Samus also makes some appearances.
• Metroid Prime for the Nintendo GameCube started a new genre of games. First person adventures.
• Team Ninja (the people responsible for another great game franchise, Ninja Gaiden) collaborated with Nintendo and Metroid's current director Yoshio Sakamoto to make the 2010 game, Metroid: Other M
• Even though Metroid is just as important to Nintendo as Mario and Zelda, they apparently aren't doing anything for the 25th anniversary. This year is Zelda's 25th anniversary too and Nintendo is having re-releases of games, special offers and concerts for the series, but nothing for Metroid.

History of Video Games by Luigi

Back in high school, the English teaches gave us an assignment to create a short, 3-minute video on anything we were interested in. It was supposed to teach us how to use a website called Animoto.com, but I decided to go further and make a 10-minute history lesson. My subject, of course, was video games and so I got to work. It took me a while to do all the research and to make the video, but I was satisfied with the result in the end. Looking at it now, I can see that it was not very good at all! The facts and things are all correct, but I had limited technology and it shows. Using Microsoft's Movie Maker on my old desktop (R.I.P), I made my video using images that I found on Google Images and I recorded my audio using a crappy microphone I found at Radio Shack. The audio is way too soft at times and then suddenly it gets loud. My voice is kind of irritating, at least to me, and I'm not very good at reading my scripts. I tried to incorporate humor in it, but I don't think I am very funny at all. Nevertheless, though, when I showed it to my class everyone seemed to enjoy it, but they could have been faking it. Anyway, here it is…The History of Video Games by Luis "Luigi" Bencomo.

Luigi's Nintendo Awesomeness #1-Tingle's Balloon Fight

This is directly taken from my Facebook notes blog when I started writing. It started as "Luigi's Nintendo Awesomeness" and this was the first one. It was pretty short compared with the ones that came after. Notice the dumb "jokes" and the angry rants! Here we go!

Chinkuru no Baruun Faito DS

Tingle's Balloon Fight was released on April 12, 2007 for the Nintendo DS and was only available to Club Nintendo members in Japan. This game is a remake of the 1986 NES game, Balloon Fight. You are Tingle! That weirdo, 35-year-old, map-loving, fairy wannabe who was first introduced in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for the Nintendo 64. Over the years, Tingle has become the character most gamers love to hate. He has been named the weirdest Zelda character ever before by pretty much everyone. Why did Nintendo chose to make a Balloon Fight remake with Tingle in it? I have no idea! There are tons and tons of other not-so-important Nintendo characters that they could have used for this game and they went with him. How about Toad's Balloon Fight? King Dedede's Balloon Fight? Heck, even an Octorok deserves a game more than Tingle. Nevertheless though, all the way from Japan comes Tingle's Balloon Fight.

The Original Balloon Fight

The manual is full of text I can't read!

Remembering "Now You're Playing With Power"

After writing my first blog I went on Facebook and tracked down my old Now You're Playing With Power. Apparently, I didn't come up with the title NYPWP immediately. My first few posts were called Luigi's Nintendo Awesomeness, Nintendo Wednesdays, and other not cool titles such as those two. The third post was when I found the title NYPWP because I guess I found it catchy. Also, it turns out I wrote those in 2011 after I graduated from high school. I didn't go to college immediately and I suppose I had nothing better to do with my time than write about Nintendo. This is a short blog, but my next one will be directly taken from one that I wrote 3 years ago!

-Luigi

First Blog

As you can see, this is my first blog. I have tried before to make a sort of blog on Facebook, but not many people on my friends list were interested in what I had to say mostly because it was about nerdy history. This blog was about Nintendo and I detailed some of the company's history and then the history of some of their franchises. I loved writing about Nintendo and their franchises, but my love was not shared by the people that are on my list. I even came up with a cool name for it and had pictures and everything! "Now You're Playing With Power" was the name of my blog. That was the slogan that Nintendo used back in the 80's when the NES was around and I thought it was cool, so I "borrowed" it and used it for the name of my unsuccessful blog. Also, I am not a very good writer and my grammar and prose and such are lacking so I can understand why people would not be interested.
I am writing this blog as I listen to a podcast from IGN.com about Nintendo and what they are up to right now. The purpose of me writing this is for my computer class, but I am not seeing this as simply an assignment, but as a way to write down my thoughts as they come to my head. Seriously, the first thing that pops up in my head is being typed. Sounds like I am writing a diary or something, but diaries are for girls! This is a blog!
Anyway, I am not sure what else to include in this first blog, so I am going to finish at that. Peace out! See you around! lol, jk…something internet-sounding.
-Luigi