A short article concerning the Nintendo Wii and classic games from older consoles.

(Part Two of Two)
click here for Part One of the article

A Quick Recap

In Part One of this write-up, I briefly introduced the Wii and its Virtual Console, and then I began listing the top five games I want to see made available. Number five was Final Fantasy IV (or II here in the US) and number four was Comix Zone. Since I’m sure you’re salivating for it, I’ve decided enough with the wait: here comes the top three!

#3-Contra

There are three main types of 2-d scrolling games: shmups (shoot ‘em ups) such as Galaga, platformers such as Super Mario Brothers, and run and guns such as Contra. Super Mario Bros. is the definitive platformer, and still probably one of the most addictive and popular games around. Most think either the first or third version got it exactly right, and it’s hard to argue either way. When it comes to run and guns, though, there’s not even that much of an argument. Gunstar Heroes and Metal Slug were great and did a few new things, but Contra will always be king.

Released in 1988 for the NES, Contra has perfect gameplay, and it’s about time I mentioned one of those. FFIV and Comix Zone are great games, but their primary contribution is, from my point of view, to storytelling on the consoles as much as it is being fun to play. Not so much with Contra. With Contra, the gameplay is the only story.

Originally an arcade game, when it was ported to the NES they decided to change the setting from the future (year 2633) to the then-present 1988. They even changed the setting from an island off the coast of New Zealand to somewhere in South America–and the only way you could possible know this is if you read the instruction manual. After you beat the game, you’re rewarded with an eight-second cut scene of your character being lifted off an island by a helicopter and the island blowing up. Then the following message scrolls up with the credits:

Any other game and this ending would be lame. Not with Contra. With Contra, you really do consider yourself a hero. Anyone who says kids from the video game generation have no sticktoitiveness has never picked up this title: Contra is hella hard. In fact, because of this game the Konami cheat code, which gave you 30 lives instead of 3, is now forever a part of American cultural geek history.

Let me quote the code for you via The Mouldy Peaches’ classic song, “Anyone Else but You:”

So there you have it. Pick number three: the king of the run and guns, filled with hellacious boss fights, fast stages, and tear-out-your-hair difficulty. Make up your own story as you go along and don’t forget the cheat code, and it’s perfect.

#2-Herzog Zwei

Released to the states in early 1990, Herzog Zwei is one of the few truly classic Genesis games. Like a lot of the truly classic Genesis games, maybe five people in North America played it, which is a shame.

Herzog Zwei is one of the first, true real time strategy games: it almost single-handedly created the spirit of the genre that was later made popular by Dune II. Part of what makes Zwei so great is that even though it’s missing a lot of the gameplay we’ve come to expect from RTS games, the RTS feeling is present and spot-on perfect.

Unlike modern RTSs, there is no base building and no manual resource capturing in Zwei. Instead, in concession to the awkward controller that has dominated for so long (and because they were forging new territory in gameplay anyway), Zwei focuses on unit management and expanding your territory. You start the game with a base and a slowly accruing pool of resources, from which you order troops. On the map are other bases, and as you begin to take them over, they add to the money you receive every second. The ultimate goal is to wipe the other player off the map.

Because detailed troop management and selection of options is not possible with a gamepad as it is with a mouse and keyboard, Zwei strips everything down to its basics. You select a type of troop to build in queue and a type of troop AI; then you lead them around the map via your character which, unlike most RTSs, can actually engage the enemy and sometimes turn the tide of battle. The pace may not be quite as fast as modern RTS battles, but there is always something to do, and both the “strategy” and the “real time” part were first perfected here in this landmark title.

Unfortunately, no one really bought it, and to this day Dune II is credited with creating most of the present-day RTS gameplay elements and with popularizing the genre. It may not do well on the Virtual Console, either, but damn it, it should be there because it was–and is–truly great.

In fact, with a few quick changes to allow multiplayer via LAN or internet on different consoles without using the splitscreen that technological limitations of the time dictated, I could easily see this game becoming a lot of people’s brand-new obsession.

#1-Phantasy Star I & II

On the one hand, this was a very difficult choice. On the other hand… no it wasn’t. From the very first moment I heard of Virtual Console, I thought to myself, “Rock on! Phantasy Star on the Wii!”

The Phantasy Star series is the aborted love-child of the RPG genre, or maybe it’s the King’s bastard son, killed by the chancellor in order to to stave off a civil war when the King’s aunt’s brother’s child by his second wife gains the throne–it’s hard to say with a metaphor that overextended. What is very clear, though, is that in 1987 and 1989 respectively, PSI and PSII took console RPGs and revolutionized them. In the process, they expanded what game developers and players could even consider possible.

Whenever I think about it, I become almost angry that Square’s take on the genre is the one that took off and spawned a dozen sequels. Final Fantasy is good and all that jazz, but PSI was better, and PSII gives FFIV a run for its money in most areas–and completely dominates when it comes to the story.

You may call shens on me for putting two games on the top spot, but don’t. It’s not that these two together deserve first place, but alone they would not. It’s more like a tie: they’re both the game I most want to see on the virtual console, just for slightly different reasons.

PSI was released on the Sega Master System, Sega’s answer to the original NES and precursor to the somewhat more familiar Sega Genesis console. If there is any comparison to be had between PSI and any NES game, that game would have to be Legend of Zelda, not the anemic FFI. Whereas the original Legend of Zelda perfected fast-paced action and inventory-based puzzles in a minimalist fantasy world, PSI was its mirror image, forging new ground in the way of storytelling and providing expansive, immersive gameplay in the now-traditional console RPG style.

Through graphical cut scenes and dialog, the story and characters of PSI were developed to epic proportions–at least when compared to the contemporary gaming landscape filled with Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, Dragon Warrior, and FFI. With dungeon crawls way ahead of their time in faux 3-d and with three entire planets to fly to and explore, the idea of what setting could accomplish in a video game was tossed on its head. Technologically, too, it stretched the limits, taking up 16x as much space as its contemporary video games and allowing you to save your game in five slots.

If you ever have the chance to compare PSI to the much lamer first offerings of the Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy franchises, you will know why I weep. The first iterations of those two series were released a year or two after PSI, and their sequels are still going strong. Although better in every way than its early rivals, the Phantasy Star series has all but bit the dust.

#1 Continued

PSII, released in 1989, also shook things up. The game, much like PSI, was much larger (literally, as far as the space it took up) than others at the time. It was once again groundbreaking in scope, and the graphics were some of the best on the early Genesis. More than “just” graphics, though, PSII has style going for it–the game managed to create an entire retro-sci-fi, anime aesthetic way before Shadowrun, Fallout, or Final Fantasy VI (six) made it cool. PSII looks like some crazy mix of Logan’s Run and Akira, and as odd as that sounds, it works.

The gameplay was also a leap forward. The turn-based fights have animated monsters and characters, a magic system, and the first macro system in an RPG (that I’m aware of). There are a dozen or so towns to which you must travel, and while it can’t compare with today’s RPG’s world, there are an impressive number of NPCs to talk with.

Whereas FFIV dumbed down its content for the American audience, PSII kept it real, including the oppressive difficulty of much of the game. Not only were random encounters common and difficult, but most of the dungeons were truly complex affairs, requiring you to map them in order to beat the game. In comparison, the worst of FFIV can be solved with short-term memory and a backpack full of healing items.

Once again, however, the most important part is the story. PSII tells a moving, exciting tale of a Utopia on the verge of collapse. Part of the interest lies in that this wasn’t a bleak future world of hidden violence and mayhem–the world of PSII truly used to be one of calm serenity. As you travel, the populations of Algo, Mota, and Dezo–the three planets of the Algo star system–truly come across as sympathetic. In some ways as naive as children, they are also bright, optimistic, and willing to work hard to protect their society.

As you play, you realize that the main characters are not so much gods among men (as is the feeling one is often given in CRPGS), but instead simply natural extensions of the world that created them. Take for example Rolf, the main character. He works for an equivalent to the army or police (or possibly FBI) in the game world, and it makes sense for him to be tough, strong, and willing to sacrifice to protect his way of life. He is a product of the healthy, vibrant society that once thrived in the Algo star system and now is stumbling.

About one quarter of the way through the story, a main character dies. You see a town reduced to rubble, and a man driven mad by the loss of his daughter. In PSII, you truly have a sense that an entire way of life is falling apart, and even if the society was flawed, the people in it are worth saving. Gripping as that is, the game decides to go one step further (massive spoilers follow; highlight with your mouse to read): it makes us the badguys.

No, not your character. It makes us the badguys–people from Earth. We’re the reason the systems that upheld the Utopian society begin to crumble: we ruined our own planet, rediscovered the Algo star system (which we had colonized long ago), and then decided we should take it for ourselves.

Instead of ending in a happy victory dance, PSII takes the characters to the edge of a truly dire situation–and then it fades to black. The only rational conclusion is that the goodguys failed and likely died in a heroic last stand. Unlike most other games, the final screen is not one of the guy getting the girl and half the kingdom. Instead, for the first time in gaming history, the end of the game was something emotionally gripping, in its clumsy way, and also dramatically poignant.

PSII should be remembered for this if nothing else.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it, my list of what needs to come out for the Virtual Console. ASAP. If they can get these games available, that alone would be reason enough to buy the Wii.

Of course, even though I do have my personal wishlist, I have to admit that Nintendo has done a decent job of picking some of their early titles. And I’d like to note that the only reason The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was not included on my list is because there’s no way in hell they wouldn’t release it for VC, no matter the cost. To tell the truth, FFIV and Contra are also essentially shoe-ins, as far as I can tell (as long as they can get the rights to FF from Square).

Still, any list like this is going to be, at best, an absurd mish-mash of subjectivism and nostalgia. Feel free to disagree in the comments.