The Best...Games from my Childhood

There's something so nostalgic about video games. The idea of spending your time in a virtual world doing something that (really) has no relevance to your daily life takes me immediately back to the simple days of childhood.
Of course, unless you're around the same age as me your childhood video games will probably be quite different to mine. For example I grew up way past the days of Space Invaders or Dig Dug.
My childhood took place in the late 90's/early 2000's, in the era where video games where becoming more technologically advanced in terms of graphics and capabilities. Some of the games that followed me through my younger years became the pinnacle for innovation in the gaming community.
Every now and then I love revisiting these old games, and I thought I'd share with you my top picks for games from my childhood.

RollerCoaster Tycoon - PC
This franchised launched in 1999, right on the turn of the century and around the time that I first became invested in video games. It's an easy segue into virtual worlds, as everything is controlled and created by you. Think of The Sims but with less responsibility. (You don't need to tell people to go to the bathroom, you just build the bathroom and the NPCs are smart enough to figure out what to do. Shocking)
This game was great for a few reasons, the first of which is that it tapped into my childhood love of amusement parks. If I couldn't physically go to Disney World you can be sure that I could create a fake Disney world! You could have lands of ice and water rides, a death defying flaming coaster, or a gentle carousel ride. Whatever you could imagine you could create, and then vicariously ride through the little boys and girls on the screen.
Secondly, it was something that I could play for days on end, creating and recreating parks however I wanted. Then I could leave it for weeks, come back, and slip right back into it. This game seriously never grows old, and if I had a copy today you can bet I'd be loading it up right now. Me and my sister used to collaborate on parks, using *couch* cheats *cough* to make sure that we always had enough virtual money to keep ourselves entertained and busy.
One last thing that always stuck with me about RCT was that it rewarded you for creating awesome parks. There were prizes for fastest coaster, nicest decorations, and even cleanest (which you know I always got, since I had the park flooded with janitors!). The game had achievements that made me feel good about spending all my time on fake roller-coasters.
Nostalgia Factor: 7/10

Mario Party 4 - Nintendo Gamecube
I've mentioned before how the Nintendo Gamecube was my first console, and how Super Mario Sunshine was my first console game. Well Mario Party 4 was my second. It came out in 2002 and became a staple for all my sleepovers. Now, I probably wouldn't have liked this game so much if I wasn't good at it, but I was the best. I was guaranteed to get the bonus stars for minigame wins, and most coins, in any given game, and more often than not walked away with the coveted party star for wining the whole game. Competition has always been in my nature, and I feel like this game is partially to blame.

I always played as Luigi (my sister chose Daisy) and made everyone play the maximum of 50 turns per game (as opposed to the minimum of 15). I was cut-throat, not afraid to send Boos after you to steal your stars if you didn't happen to have a protective flashlight. I knew every special space, every event, and every minigame backwards and forwards. I can't tell you the name of my kindergarten teacher but I can recite the opening dialogue for this game perfectly.
Needless to say, it was a big part of my childhood.
Nostalgia Factor: 9/10

Pharaoh - PC
1999 was a good year for video games apparently. Pharaoh was a game that originated with my father, who has a love for all city building type games. He used to play Pharaoh constantly (and has since switched to replaying Civilization for the 80000 time) and I would watch, completely enraptured at how easy it was to build your own city and grow your population. For those unfamiliar, it was basically Sim City set during ancient Egypt. The fun part about this game was how it truly captured the essence of Egypt. From having to appease various Gods with festivals and temples, to hunting game meat and irrigating fields it really made you feel as though you were creating an Egyptian society.
I have to admit that I never got the full effect of this game because I always played on peaceful, and thus never went to war with neighboring cities, but I did pretty much everything else. Watching houses grow from small mud huts to lavish white palaces was my favorite achievement.
It's one of the only city building games that I ever really got into, and it will always remind me of being too young to really understand the economic value of an agrarian society.
Nostalgia Factor: 7/10

Neverwinter Nights - PC
Pardon my french, but this game was the shit. In a good way. Like the previous title my interest in this game stemmed from my dad playing it constantly when I was growing up, until eventually I obviously wanted to play too.
It's an old school style RPG with quite a few expansion packs and sequels, even an online component that came out not too long ago. I'd like to think that Neverwinter Nights was my first interaction with a role-playing game, and my first interaction with a game of this scope, scale, and length. It's quite literally an adventure that captured my young imagination from the get go. If I had to pick a favorite title from this franchise it would be Hordes of the Underdark, but I'm going to stick with the very first title, Neverwinter Nights, for the nostalgia factor. My class of choice was, and will always be, Cleric (so that I can use a sword and cast spells), and my morality was usually, but not always, chaotic good. That's the beauty about RPGs though, is that you can play them over and over with new characters. And as a child with too much time on their hands, that's exactly what I did.
NWN was simple enough for me to understand as a 7 year old, but complex enough to keep me coming back once I hit teenage-hood. It featured beautiful artwork and character profiles (Picking a picture for my character was always the hardest part for me, as they were all so well drawn.).
This is another game that I would definitely still play today if they decide to revamp it for current operating systems.
Nostalgia Factor: 10/10

Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga - Gameboy Advance
Taking a break from PC games, Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga was one of my favorite gameboy games growing up. I loved it so much  that when I lost my gameboy (and this game) on a train to Montreal one year, I immediately went out and bought it again, even though I had beat it multiple times. It came out in 2003, making it the newest game on this list, but don't let the shiny graphics and sleek gameplay fool you, this title is just as nostalgic as the others.
Gameboy games in general remind me of long car trips and late nights staying awake without my parents knowing just so that I could beat one more level. But this game takes the cake, as I obsessed over it for the better part of a year. It's about as open world as a Mario title gets, with a giant kingdom to be explored at will. There are loads of secrets to be found behind walls and trap doors, Easter eggs, and just plain Mario and Luigi shenanigans. There are mini games inside mini games, and some really funny 'dialogue' between Mario and Luigi. It's just a really expansive game with tons of worlds (Screw the Ice World by the way), enemies, and things to do.
If you can track down a copy, I highly recommend that you pop this game into your DS and take a little journey to the Beanbean Kingdom.
Nostalgia Factor: 8/10

With great titles like these, I don't feel so bad about blowing off friends and the outdoors in favor of a good old fashioned video game.

-Jules

How to...Sell Your Games

There comes a time in a girl's life when she needs a few extra bucks. For me, that time came when I decided to study in England for 5 months.
And between my summer job, scholarships, student loans, and my wonderful parents, I had almost enough money to be able to not only live but travel around as well.

But it never hurts to have a little extra right?
So I looked at my (rather large and somewhat outdated) game collection and thought to myself, "Am I really ever going to play Gauntlet: Dark Legacy again?".
The answer was no. (For the record I loved the game, still do. But me and my dad used to play it when I was 11, and it just doesn't tickle my fancy anymore.).
So I did what any sane person does: I tried to sell it.
Easier said than done.
There are just so many ways to sell things nowadays, that it's  hard to know what will give you the best value for your games.

So after days of researching and (successfully) selling my unused games, here's what I learned.

1. Research. The first thing to do when you decide to sell something is to look up all the websites that offer want ads (Kijiji, Craigslist, Ebay). Now, you can go the old fashion route and try to sell things at garage sales or flea markets, but you probably won't get as much money. That's because garage sales are for (usually) pretty useless garbage. Whereas online sites tend to be stalked by collectors and gamers, most of whom know the true value of your product (and who will still try to argue and haggle the price down). For me Ebay was King. It offered me a way to get a fairly decent chunk of change and reach a huge audience of people. Definitely the way to go if you don't mind dealing with the whole shipping process.
   
2. RESEARCH! This time you have to really look at the value of your game. Some games deprecate as time goes by, but some increase in value. Gauntlet: Dark Legacy was 15$ when I bought it. I sold it for 50$ on Ebay (Big surprise, considering I don't know anyone but me who still uses and loves the Gamecube.). Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour, however, was bought for 20$ and only sold for 3$. Not that big of a deal for me, money is money, but if I had put it up for the original price I would have been laughed off the internet. Similarly, if I hadn't charged more for Gauntlet I would have lost out on a lot of money. The easiest way to price, no matter which site you're using (or even if you're doing it the old fashioned face to face way) is to search up your game on google, and to look at items which have sold. This'll tell you what people have actually paid for the game, and not just what people price it at. (Tip: Don't ever use Amazon as a price indicator, because they usually inflate the cost of video games to crazy levels.)
3. Be Patient. Selling your game could take some time, especially if you restrict shipping to a certain area or country. Just keep holding on for that special collector to come by and swipe it up. If no one is biting, maybe you need to research more, or switch up how you're selling.
4. Make sure this is the right decision. I sold Gauntlet because I knew 100% that I wouldn't play the game ever again (unless I'm at the movie theater, where they have the old school arcade version for 50c). The worst thing is having a craving for a game that you no longer have, so make sure you know what you're doing before you put your item up.
5. Decide what to spend the money on! This is the fun part. I knew my money was going into a bank account, to sit until I needed it for travel, but there are so many cooler things out there to buy. Why don't you reinvest that money back into video games and get that new Halo title you've been eyeing?

These tips may seem basic but honestly they helped me out a lot when I first started selling my games. Organization and being prepared is key!

-Jules

The Best...Games to Replay

Whenever I buy video games I'm always interested in how much bang I'm going to get for my buck. Luigi's Mansion is fun and all, but it's not something I'm going to play over and over. I thought I'd share with you guys my top games to replay.

To make this list I looked at games from different platforms and genres, so hopefully my answers seem well rounded.

In no particular order:


Animal Crossing: City Folk
Or any of the franchise games really. There's something therapeutic about building a life for yourself in a fictional town, surrounded by anthropomorphic animal friends. This game literally never ends, but after a certain point I always get bored with my town, the villagers, or my house, and go off and start over. Dealing with Tom Nook and your crippling debt to him isn't all fun, but redesigning my whole life from scratch gives this game a place on the list.

Dragon Age: Inquisition
Truth be told, I liked Dragon Age 2 more than Inquisition, but that didn't stop me from playing DA:I 4 times. This game plays like a cross between my old-school favorite Neverwinter Nights, and Skyrim, with a (mostly) open world game play, and a gripping story to tie everything together. There are multiple races to choose from, three classes, 3 different moral stances, and many romances. These things aside, Dragon Age: Inquisition got its spot on this list for the details. There are millions of decisions to make throughout the game, and a million and one different scenarios based on those decisions. I have a friend who never recruited one of the main companions, and she played a completely different game than I did.
In addition, Bioware stepped up its backstory game, giving players the option to completely customize every element from games 1&2. This means that you can play the game 50 times, and have 50 different backstories. Maybe the current king is a dwarf, maybe it's your OC. Did you side with or against the werewolves? What happened to *insert name here* from the other games? All these things and more are fully customizable within the game's World State function.

p.s. they just announced new DLC for this game!

The Sims 4
Pulling out a classic here. I don't think there's anyone on the planet who hasn't at least heard of this game, or one of its many expansions packs, and for good reason: it's addictive. You become so enraptured with the fake life of whatever family you designed that you can neglect your own!
Anything you've ever wanted to do can be done within this game, and if you don't have time to get it done within the first family you create, created another! From fashion designer to spy, artist to stay-at-home parent, everything is up for grabs.
The best part of The Sims franchise, however, isn't its gameplay, but everything leading up to it. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent carefully designing people and houses, only to get bored and never actually play the game. But therein lies the beauty of the game: the next time you get a hankering to go to Pleasantville, you just start all over. This is a game build on the foundations of replay-ability.
Does anyone even use the same family twice?

Mass Effect 2 & 3
This franchise is unashamedly my absolute favorite. If you haven't played it, I suggest you go out and buy it right now. Go ahead, I'll wait....
Now, I didn't include the first installment, Mass Effect 1, because while it was fun and a great introduction to the world and its characters...it has some faults. (Luckily these faults only become apparent when you've finished 2 and 3 and go back to have another stab at the first one again.) Combat is strange (why are the sniper rifles so goddamn shaky??) and areas confusing (Don't get my started on the Citadel), so I've only played this game twice. Compared to the 4 times I've played ME2 and the 6 times I've played ME3, you can see that it's not the best.
But where ME1 is lacking in replay power, ME2&3 are bursting with potential. The protagonist, Commander Shepard, can be male or female (though I find femShep kicks ass harder), and have three distinct backgrounds. There's a sliding morality scale that opens up new dialogue, changes the way you look, and shapes your interactions within the game. There are multiple branching decision points, some of which are hidden. And, my guilty pleasure within the game, there are so many romance choices. You can romance a character as a renegade and have a completely different experience than if you were paragon. You can chose to date one person and cheat on her/him with another. You can have heterosexual and homosexual relationships, per your fancy.
And while many people balked at the third game's ending choices, I found them intriguing. Depending on how many missions you've done, and how well you've completed them, your morality stance, and how you chose to end the game, you get something different.
It's one of the most detailed and customizable action RPGs out there, so go play it right now.
p.s. I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT GAME

Grand Theft Auto V
Okay, I'll admit that it took me awhile to hop on the GTA train (I never saw myself as a girl who'd like a game about cars) but wow did this game surpass my expectations! It's one of those things that you kick yourself for not playing sooner.
GTA V is fun because it lets you do whatever the hell you want. Want to rob a bank in a pig mask? Go for it! Want to make your money by stealing and reselling cars? That's available. Between driving around and looking for cool ramps to jump off from and pimping my personal vehicle, the campaign on this game seems secondary, especially with the awesome GTA online feature that lets you connect with friends and build your own missions, or simply drive around the city to see who can evade the cops the longest.
This game is replayable for the sheer adrenaline rush it gives you. (Although I will say that the campaign is fun, and worth the time it takes to finish it.) And for the fact that you'll probably always find new things.
BEWARE once you start this game, you probably won't be able to put it down. You'll be trapped in an endless loop of replaying it until your fingers fall off from exhaustion.

Super Mario Sunshine - Nintendo GameCube & Wii
Maybe this choice seems a little weird, but let me explain.
This isn't your average Super Mario side-scroller. This isn't even one of the Mario Sports games. This is Super Mario Sunshine, an action/adventure title that has a special place in my heart for being my first ever video game. It combines the beloved jumping puzzle elements of the traditional Mario games, with the movement capability of a 3D game. It's a unique setting, the Wonderful Isle Del Fino, and features favorites like Peach, Toad, Yoshi, and Bowser who help or hinder you as you race to recapture lost 'Shine Sprites' and bring sunshine back to your vacation.
Do I have you hooked yet?
Well how about when I tell you that this game is so much fun to replay. It's not for the usual reasons of customization, as it's a Mario title and not an RPG, but for the sheer enjoyment that I got from playing this game. There's no linear requirement for completing missions, (you just have to beat 50 of them) which means you can skip the locales that you hate (I.E. Noki Bay) and have fun on the ones you love (I.E. Gelato Beach). There's nothing better than running around, stomping on bad guys and collecting coins. If you want a game that repayable for its actual gameplay, see if you can track down a copy of this game.


So there you have it folks, my list of the best games to replay.

Disagree with something on this list? Have a game you think deserves a spot? Let me know!

-Jules