The From A to Z series lets our editors go back and take a look at games from past generations that are classics, overlooked gems, or just titles they remember fondly. The idea behind this is to pick five games from each letter of the alphabet, once a week to showcase. This delivers 26 weeks and tons of games to talk about. Hopefully it sparks some conversation, and of course plenty of memories.
The system everyone has been waiting for, the Super Nintendo.
Let’s continue with the letter “M.”
Mario Paint
Mario is quite the renaissance plumber. Aside from his full-time job of saving the princess and beating up Bowser, he has tried his hand at basically everything worthwhile. In the case for Mario Paint, he’s out to teach people how to… paint on a SNES. Sure, this might not technically be a game even though it technically has some “mini-games”, but making stamps pixel by pixel or using soundbytes to recreate some of my favorite tunes, I spent hours messing around in Mario Paint and had a blast.
Mega Man X
The reimagining of Mega Man took the best elements of the original series and pushed the genre forward with faster movement and a more intricite upgrade system where the player not only collected the weapons of the bosses but also armor upgrades which gave X new abilities. From the timeless music to the impeccable level designs, Mega Man X stands as the game I’ve played through more times than any other and remains one of my favorite games of all time. Oh and when I learned about the Hadouken easter egg, it blew my mind.
Mega Man X2
Picking up where X left off with new gameplay elements including fast-paced hoverbike sections and the ability to dash mid-air which changed the way players could approach stage hazards and boss encounters alike. It was also the first time player got to control Zero even though it’s only through certain sections. Also, SHORYUKEN!
Mega Man X3
Now you’re thinking, “did he really have to put all three Mega Man X games on this list?”
Yes, of course I did- these games are all amazing and I played them to death.
In this entry, Zero was added to be playable in most of the stages and the way the armor upgrades worked was shifted where a piece of armor could be enhanced even further orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr if you were crafty and got all the upgrades first, you can get all the upgrades instead of having to choose one. This final X entry on the SNES put a stronger emphasis on storytelling and characters than the previous two entries, cementing a trend for the X games to follow.
Mortal Kombat 2
Following up the game that became the catalyst for the ESRB, Mortal Kombat really turned it up to 11 in this sequel with a much more faithful port to the arcade title with improved visuals/sound and introduced many new characters and mechanics including mini-games as well as multiple fatalities per character. An absolute classic and in my opinion, the pinnacle of the classic MK games.
Tune in next week for the next collection of titles.
YouTube Credits:
World of Longplays
VideoGaming4U
