Hello, duders! It is I, Jearum. It’s an honor to be part of this year’s list. My list is not going to be a GotY because there is only one game that I played the whole year, and that is Shadow of the Erdtree. Instead, I’d like to share the console games that shaped my childhood. Being born in 1983 my formative years of gaming was in the early 90s. Since the Philippines is near Japan, the majority of the home consoles you’ll see in Filipino households that can afford them was the Nintendo Family Computer (Famicom). But, instead of having a Famicom I had a Sega Mega Drive. My late aunt got me the console as a Christmas gift back in 1991. She was working as a consultant in Japan at the time. So, here’s my list of Sega Mega Drive games that influenced my childhood.

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1. The Revenge of the Shinobi

The game that introduced me to the beats of Yuzo Koshiro. I thought the first game was a bit on the slow side because there was no running. One aspect of the game that was truly memorable was the enemies – Rambo, Batman, Spider-Man, Godzilla, some Bruce Lee knock-offs, and the freaking Terminator (it was the first Japanese version). Revenge of Shinobi 2 (aka Shinobi 3 in US) is the same but supercharged.

2. Sonic the Hedgehog

The first Sonic was bundled with the system and played that one hundreds of times. I always associate Sonic 1 with Wayne’s World coz of the TV ad in the movie. I got a bootlegged Sonic 3 at a local mall. It has no save function, that’s why we had to collect all of the emeralds every time we play especially after borrowing Sonic and Knuckles from a friend.

3. Mortal Kombat

Fighting games is the genre that I love the most. Played MK1 and MK3 hundreds of times with my cousins. My aunt bought the MK1 copy from Japan. We never knew the blood code but instead we use the DULLARD code to access the menus. MK3 became our favorite coz of the combos. Even though we only had the three button controllers, we still managed to do the combos. The button mechanics applied to the three buttons were brilliant, really. It was way better than Street Fighter 2 pressing the START button to swap buttons.

4. Desert Strike and Urban Strike

If you can see the pattern most of my games are the first and third in the franchise. I totally missed out on MK2, Sonic 2, Jungle Strike, and Shadow Dancer. The Strike series is one of my favorites. My brother is a fan of anime, mechs and military stuff, particularly vehicles. He introduced me to the Strike series, probably my first strategy/shoot ‘em up game. My cousins and I went nuts when in one of the Urban Strike stages you can go off the chopper and gun some dudes.

5. Bare Knuckle

Another Yuzo Koshiro banger. I liked the third one since I didn’t play the second part at the time. It was also the Japanese version with all the censored parts.

6. Shmups

Arrow Flash, Heavy Duty, Curse, Darwin 4081, Elemental Master, Battle Mania 2, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Fire Mustang, Afterburner II, Airwolf – I played a lot of shoot ‘em ups.

7. Dino Land

The only pinball game that I’ve ever liked and played. These are the most anime dinos as well.

8. Phantasy Star IV

One of the finest JRPGs that came out on the system and the only JRPG that I’ve played on the system. I got the Japanese version so we have no idea what the fuck is going on. My cousins and sister managed to finish the game in a span of a year through trial and error without any guide. We even experienced save-data corruptions. My memory is hazy but I am sure there was cut content from the Japanese version where there was some boob grabbing that was taken out of the English version.

9. Disney

Quackshot, Castle of Illusion, World of Illusion, Aladdin, the infamous Fantasia – Disney games are well made. Solid graphics and gameplay. I am mostly fond of Quackshot. The one that I got was the Japanese version. So, going through it was a challenge itself coz there’s a puzzle that I had to brute force through. All in all it was a fun time.

10. Budokan and Art of Fighting

Budokan was the most technical fighting game that I ever played. Each fighting style has a lot of moveset. The tournament mode has a unique mechanic – you have a counter on how many fighting styles that you can repeatedly use. Once you’ve used up the fighting style you can’t use it again. Art of Fighting was my intro to the bigger SNK/NeoGeo fighting games.

11. Yu Yu Hakusho

YYH Gaiden was a fighting/visual novel game. It has little connection with the anime. The story was set before the Dark Tournament arc of the anime. A short game can be completed in 30 minutes or so. This game also had some boob grabbing! YYH Makyo Toitsusen is a fighting game developed by Treasure. Can have up to 4 players fighting all at once. With solid graphics and a combo system complete with a combo counter. It is set in the Dark Tournament and Black Chapter arc of the anime. A blast to play if you are a fan of the anime.

12. Sports!

Super Monaco GP, NBA Jam, Olympics 1992 – probably the only few sports games that I enjoyed.

That’s my list! Hope you enjoyed this nostalgia trip to my memory lane. Happy Holidays to you all!

Peace out!