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 finish with the letters “T-Z.”
Tecmo Super Bowl
Following in the footsteps of the best football game on the NES, Tecmo Super Bowl on the SNES released in 1993 with improvements to the visuals and sound, along with many additional gameplay mechanics. Notably, the new weather conditions brought a much needed variety to the visual style and the in-game editable playbook allowed for a deeper level of customization and strategy. Even though I personally wasn’t that big of a fan of Football (I’m a Basketball man) but I can’t deny how much fun Tecmo Super Bowl was to play even though I would almost never win against my friend who was an absolute beat at the game.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
Turtles in Time is an exceptional beat-em-up and an absolute classic that was ported from the original arcade build with additional content including new enemies and bosses. It also added the iconic throw move where the turtles would toss their enemies straight at the screen into the foreground which was as a mandatory mechanic to take down a specific boss. More important than the quality of the game itself, just as I would credit Nier as the game that became the catalyst for me working here with the ZTGD crew, I would say that Turtles in Time was the impetus for the friendship I have with my best friend. We would play the game whenever we had the chance, constantly trolling each other by grabbing the pizza when the other person needed it more and it’s game that fostered a lot of fond memories and will certainly live on as one of my favorite games of all time.
Tetris Attack
Even though it shares a part of its name with the legendary classic, “Tetris”- Tetris Attack has very little to do with Tetris. Sure it has blocks but the resemblance ends there as the blocks are added from the bottom as the screen slowly scrolls up. The player is tasked with matching the various colors/shapes together in three or more to destroy them there are combo chains and even though now there are hundreds of games in the market(mostly mobile) that have this sort of gameplay, this was fresh and new back in the 90s and add to that tried and true addictive gameplay the visual stylings of Yoshi’s Island and you have a delightful puzzle game that’s easy to pick up and endlessly entertaining.
Wild Guns
So, how do you feel about the wild west? How about steampunk? How about sci-fi and robots? HOW ABOUT WE JUST THROW ALL THAT STUFF INTO ONE GAME?!
Sound good?
Of course it does.
Wild Guns is a shooting gallery where the playable characters are in the foreground and they must move an aiming reticle in the background to shoot at enemies all while dodging bullets and other nasties in the foreground. The character designs for Annie and Clint are classic Western-themed and the fast paced, non-stop action really stole the show in this difficult but thoroughly entertaining game. There’s a remake title “Wild Guns: Reloaded” due out later this year which I’ll be checking out without question.
Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Embracing the various tropes in horror movies by using iconic characters like werewolves, zombies, vampires and the like, Zombies Ate My Neighbors is a colorful exercise in running away from monsters. Even though there were many different types of weapons to use, there was always more things out to kill me than I could take out with the weapons I had which made for a tough game that rewarded learning the level and using the various environmental shortcuts to get around. It also made for a great couch co-op experience but truth be told, even though I liked the game, I never got too far in the game as it was way too difficult for me at the time!
Tune in next time for the next collection of titles.
YouTube Credits:
World of Longplays
bizzaro13
