Gaming Memories

[10 Pounds 0]

I recently had a discussion with a coworker about how the games of today fare against the games of yesteryear. He mostly plays recent stuff and never looks back when he finished a game. I, on the opposite, don't mind dusting off the old NES once in a while and revisiting old games, and most of the "new" games I play were released two or three years ago. What we talked about is which generation of games had the most "Wow" factor.

 

This thread isn't a discussion about old games vs new games, since everyone has his/her tastes. It's about sharing some of your favorites memories you have of games. I'm sure most of us have been playing video games since a long time, probably that many of us were born in the "NES generation" and began with Super Mario Bros. Since that was 20 years ago, and so much came since these days, I'm sure all of you must have a few interesting stories or thoughts about the games that impressed you the most.

 

 

Here are some of mine :

 

- I didn't understand at all how to play Dragon Warrior. I constantly skipped over the text 'cause I didn't knew who the hell "Thou", or any word of the old English meant. I didn't know how to save and I always tried to finish the game in one sitting. So I always started a new game every time I wanted to play. Most of the time, all I did was killing Goldmen and getting rich, even though I had the strongest weapons and armor at that point in the game. It took me 6 years to beat the damn game.

 

- I remember playing Mario 64 for the first time in a Toys R Us and beating the King Bob-omb. I was so stunned by the graphics and the fact that I beat the boss that my adrenaline rush lasted nearly half an hour after I left the store. I came back the next day.

 

- Playing Doom and experiencing virtual violence for the first time got me and my friends so excited ( in the bad sense ) that our parents hid the game for a week or so. It was the pixilated SNES version, and those were the greatest graphics that I have ever seen at that time.

 

- I used to always play Royal Rumble for the Genesis. Even though matches always lasted under two minutes, I created my own storylines and had a King of the Ring tournament every 20 minutes or so. Then came Raw and WCW World Tour, which were completely off the hook.

 

- I remember going to the arcade and there was always a line for stuff like Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter or X-Men. Nowadays, if you find 5 people or so in an arcade, you're lucky.

 

- The first game I got hyped on was Sonic & Knuckles. I was sold only by an ad in Sega Visions which was the box art for the game. It finally came at my video club and I rented it. The title screen after the "Se-gaaaaaa" part is so awesome, still the best I've seen on a 16-bit cartridge.

 

- Since we weren't rich, we only bought 2 games a year : at my birthday and at Christmas. So we played the same games over and over or we rented one at the video store. One of my favorites was Dragon Warrior IV. I didn't followed the story, just cruising around the world and playing at the casino was all I needed. The first RPG I played in the proper sense was Final Fantasy VI. The story, music and characters were all so memorable. My #1 RPG of all-time.

 

 

I will stop there and post more if my thread is catching on. If not, oh well.

[Insane Bump Machine 0]

- When Mortal Kombat came out on SNES (nobody had a Genesis in Germany) me and some friends played it for hours every day because of the great graphics, the cool sounds and the characters. The thing was: we didn't know that there were fatalities! We always just tried to hit the other guy somewhat spectacularly when the game told us to 'FINISH HIM!'. And then one day another friend came along and brought a move list with him...OMFG!

[devo 0]

- When I played through Shining Force II (which is still my favorite RPG ever) for the first time, I got stuck at a town and didn't know how to progress. The only clue I had was a tree in the center of the town which, when examined, was said to have a square-shaped section missing from the front bark. Now, I had assumed the solution was to stick in a Special Item I had called Wooden Panel in said excavation, but no matter where I tried the Use command, it didn't work. After going over the entire traversable map searching for another way to advance, I finally resorted to ordering a Strategy Guide through the 1-800 number provided in the game's manual. I can't even remember how I convinced my parents to use their credit card to let me do that.

 

The guide takes weeks to get to my house, and in the meantime, I keep on fighting the one battle that I can get to spawn over and over, making my characters much stronger than they should be at that point in the game. Once it finally arrived, the guide proved itself to be nothing but a stack of Xerox paper bound together with binder rings. And guess what it told me to do to advance? You guessed it, place the Wooden Panel into the tree. I guess I wasn't in the exact right spot to do it, since it took me a few minutes to find the correct area, even with the manual telling me explicitly where to execute the command. Of course, I didn't look at the damn thing throughout the rest of the game, 'cause that was the only mildly difficult puzzle within it. Frustrating to say the very least.

[Special K 0]

Tomb Raider was very memorable for the expansiveness of the environment, it was the first game I played that really felt free. That and Jumping Flash. Then Mario 64 came out and completely blew that away.

 

I remember when Resident Evil and Final Fantasy VII came out, I thought games would never look better. My friend popped in FFVII on his big screen after we watched Advent Children, and yikes. Those fights have not aged gracefully. Still like the game, though.

 

Zelda, Metal Storm, Mega Man 2 and Final Fantasy were the games that really wowed me on the Nes. Zelda 2 was memorable in a really bad way. That game was horrible, and no one will convince me otherwise.

 

During the 16 bit area, Sonic the Hedgehog, Final Fantasies IV and VI, Zelda 3, and Super Mario World were extremely impressive. Same with Actraiser.

 

I think the 16-Bit era was really the best. There are a ton of classic games that you can pick up and play, and the graphics have aged so much better than early 3D graphics.

 

Imo, the Snes had the best game lineup ever. It's even more stunning when you play some of the import games available through emulation. It has the two best RPGs ever in FFVI and Chrono Trigger. It has some killer platformers (all from Nintendo) that are more replayable than any 3D platformer I've played. It had great adventure games in Zelda, Metroid, and the Soul Blazer series. It had pretty much every great arcade 2D shooter. Street Fighter 2 is a classic.

 

The only real problem with the system were the games were so goddamn expensive. I remember Yoshi's Island and Chrono Trigger were like $70. That's sick.

 

The 64 could have been even better, if they hadn't stupidly stuck to cartridges.

[jwest27 0]

Yes. This is my kind of thread. Lets see...

 

 

-Lots of Mortal Kombat memories. Like when I first played the Mortal Kombat II arcade machine. Goddamn, that was awesome. Also, completely owning this 20 something guy at the age of 10 on a Mortal Kombat II for SNES display stand at Wal-Mart. I reduced him to a pile of smoldering bones. He was impressed.

 

-Chrono Trigger. My big brother got it for his birthday, and I had to sit and watch him play it, since he never let me play. I remember being SO pissed off when he decided to fight and kill Magus instead of letting him join. I'm pretty sure he only did it because he knew Magus was my favorite character. Fucker. I got to play it eventually, and Magus was always in my party when I got him. And yes, I got the Frog ending. Along with every other ending in the game. Except the one that required you to fight Magus, on general principle.

 

-I never owned Earthbound, but I probably rented it like 20 times untill I beat it. It took so long because I guess someone stole the big ass strategy guide that came with the game. Bunch of savages in this town.

 

-I used to own the game Rocket Knight Adventures for the Sega Genesis. I never really liked that game, but I tried for the longest time to beat it. I remember it being pretty damn hard. My Uncle gave it to me, I think. My relatives were all pretty bad at giving video game gifts. My Aunt gave me Defcon 5 one time. I still dont know wtf that game is about. I just remember running around a space ship-looking place, waiting for something to happen. Then I turned it off.

[Guest wildpegasus]

Playing Atari 2600 at my grandparents house. Remembering how they paid over $200 for the system and over $70 for Defender

 

Falling in love with art box covers.

 

Playing Pac-Man with my deceased uncle. I could do stuff like getting a drink of water and it would still be his turn. That impressed me.

 

Talking with my sister while sitting on the fridge and speculating the Atari 2600 was underneath the tree. There was a rippedd corner of the wrapping paper but that didn't give it away that it was an Atari. We just knew.

 

Our first ever Atari games of Pac-Man and Space Invaders

 

Our uncle setting up the system to the Tv at our trailor

 

Having the high scores listed for Asteroids on the fridge.

 

Reading the official Atari book or catalogue and dreaming about all the games.

 

My 4yr old brother "crying" with Mom because Nexar wouldn't let you get over 99 lives or ships hit or both or somthing like that. He was indeed a video game master.

 

The travesty of having a Pinball game breakdown on us

 

Our grandparents who have an Atari a colour Tv, a VCR and a NES before most other people had about 30 Atari games. I remember playing Circus with the paddles, Adventure, ice hockey, Berzerk, Breakout, Defender, Haunted House, Grand Prix and a lot of others

 

Having to help friends figure out how to play E.T.

 

Going to my cousins to play games on the Commodore 64

 

Getting the furthest anyone had every seen in Hunchback? during school hours and having the whole class realising so and watching me

 

Being scared when my older cousin wanted me to play a poker game with him that had a naked or partly naked girl in it or something. He understood and didn't pressure me or anything.

 

Discovering the awesome graphics of the Colecovision's Smurfs game.

 

Being blown away by the graphics for the NES and I mean BLOWN away.

 

Working so I could save up the money to rent the NES and some games for a day. Daydreaming about it while working my but off in the hot sun.

 

Back than, we didn't have any guides for grading games. The NES was extremely popular at the time with stores everywhere just stacking games for rental and buy but still you could only get the Nintendo Power magazine or something similar if you wanted to know what to buy. And of course that cost money so that option was often times thrown out the window. I would use to look at the graphics and read the game description at the back of boxes. If the game had good graphics which would indicate the developers worked on the game than I would give it a shot. I got Zelda II from my Grandmother who was FANTASTIC for getting great stuff like this at fleamarkets. I wasn't impressed with the graphics at the first so I was hesitant on the game's quality. However, the game would become super engrossing because of its sheer design brilliance. That woke me up for a loop.

 

I was hesitant to play Double Dragon because it was a bad (as in ethical) game. However, it sucked me in and I wound up loving it. I still do to this day and bought it for myself just a few years ago.

 

I became a master at Super Mario Brothers. I think I would stand a chance at the speed records back in the day

 

Dragon Warrior was the first RPG I ever played. Because I was starting to get older I was being a bad boy. At the part of the game where you would walk around the game with the princess in your arms -- Well. I would go the Inn and spend all my money sleeping there night after night. Yeah, the screen didn't show anything at all and I was far from knowledgable about sex but I still had some natural instincts that would guide me. This was about 6 or 7 yrs before the weight bench incident

 

In one of the highlights of my life -- Winning a "big" tournament for SuperMarioBrothers 3. I ended up winning the Startropics game which was great since it's a terrific game. Actually, we had a selection of what we could take for prizes. I chose Startropics.

 

From that, I got my picture taken in the local paper. Months later in school, everybody had gone to the AV room for some kind of meeting. After it was over, I realised I had forgotten something there so I went back and got it. While getting it, 2 people who I didn't know recognized me as the guy who won the Super Mario Brothers 3 tourament. I was flattered but I didn't let it get to my head.

 

Losing my mind beating games like Ninja Gaiden, Battletoads, TMNT, Blaster Master, Castlevania III etc.. My brother and I prided ourselves on beating the toughest and hardest games out there.

 

Years later, I also particiapted in a highschool Super Mario Brothers 1 tournament. I would've won but I choked and got 3rd place.

 

Now to the era of the SNES. We rented that before we bought it as well. My brother and I used our Strawberry picking money to buy the system. $100 each.

 

 

Seeing Final Fantasy II for the first time ever at my cousin's place. The graphics, the battle system, the music, the coolness and everything else was just surreal. I have never been blown away that much my a game since on first appearance. I don't know if I ever will be again.

 

Playing Final Fantasy II and priding myself on beating it with the lowest levels possible.

 

Absolutely losing it on the coolness of Contra III especially when you're doing the climbing up the walls spots. The boss chasing you up the pit at the end on Hard mode was awesome too since it didn't happen on Normal mode.

 

The awesomeness of Super Mario Kart. I remember my brother and I both travelled out of town and played in a big tournament for this game. He was about to give up after a couple tries but I helped convince him to turn around and give it one more shot. My brother who is an excellent video game player ended up winning the tournament.

 

Reading EGM like a fanatic

 

The awesomeness of Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger even though I only went through them once.

 

Having just plain old fun playing the Super Mario RPG game.

 

Seeing and playing Resident Evil for the first time ever. The game that came the closest ever to giving me the Final Fantasy II experience. I remember everyone around me finally getting into the Playstation after this game came out and just loving it. The first time the dogs came out is something I'll never forget.

From this game came the inspiration for a bunch of us to start scaring each other in the dark. Anytime anyone was walking in the pitch dark someone would out jump out from somewhere and scare the living pants off of someone. Since everybody was on edge from playing Resident Evil it worked wonders.

For ex, if someone was walking up the porch steps someone else might hide underneath it and grab their foot as they're walking by while shouting some inchorent nonsense at the same time. A ton of classic moments came to be from the direct result of this.

 

Marking out for figuring out who all the different wrestlers were in WCW vs the World for the Playstation. I loved that game because it was obvious the developers were big fans of Benoit, Eddie and Dean. And the taunts. Oh, how I loved the taunts.

 

Discovering that Yar's Revenge which was one of my favourite childhood games still rules all.

 

 

That's enough stories for now.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Ah, this may make me cry...

 

- Phantasy Star I - The one on Master System. I got this game when I was like 5. I got stuck very early in the game, not realizing I had to buy "secrets" twice from the port store next to Camelit (sp?). I probably spent 50+ hours beating sworms and scorpions, because I was FULLY LEVELED ALREADY. Good God, I was so stupid. Well, maybe not stupid, I was always taught to be a Jew and never buy things you don't need. Anyway, I stopped playing, and gave away my Master System a few years later. Then, when I was 15, I got the Genesis converter thing for Master System, and still had Phantasy Star. Played it again, quickly realized how to go through, and beat the rest of the game with extreme ease with my unstoppable full-stats Alis. Plus, it didn't hurt that PS was WAY WAY ahead of it's time. It's miles better than any US-release Master System game.

 

- Great Golf - Master System. Again, I was little. And had no idea what I was doing. But, I was a dorky little kid then who liked playing putt-putt, so I played this once in a while. I could never finish 18 holes though, because I really sucked. Anyway, we have a family get together, and rich snobby cousin wants to play with me. The jerk enjoys kicking my little ass until we come to the 9th hole. Par 4. I miss the meter like usual with my drive, and bomb the ball in the trees. But, it bounces off the trees... right into the hole. ALBATROSS! Cousin sits in amazement, while I rumoredly go N64 Kid with the Hole-in-One celebration music. I still think I quit a couple holes later as I was a brat who hated losing.

 

Shining Force II - Oh damn, this game sucked away nearly 6 months of my life in 7th grade. The joy I got when I finally beat Zeon after seriously 100+ tries was amazing, and struggling massively with practically every battle near the end of the game. It sucks that I'll probably never feel that way again.

[AndrewTS 0]

"Zelda 2 was memorable in a really bad way. That game was horrible, and no one will convince me otherwise."

 

The sole reason I think it doesn't deserve "best series ever."

 

Did Nintendo make a lot more copies of the NES classics Zelda 2 than LoZ, or does it seem that way because NOBODY WANTS THEM?!

 

Castlevania 2 sucks as well.

[Guest wildpegasus]

"Zelda 2 was memorable in a really bad way. That game was horrible, and no one will convince me otherwise."

 

The sole reason I think it doesn't deserve "best series ever."

 

Did Nintendo make a lot more copies of the NES classics Zelda 2 than LoZ, or does it seem that way because NOBODY WANTS THEM?!

 

Castlevania 2 sucks as well.

 

 

Zelda II is brilliant and is the most underrated game of the series.

[Scroby 0]

Beating Super Mario Bros for the NES when I was 4.

 

Lots of Wrestling game moments, espically in Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy.

[Naked Snake 0]

I'll add more later

 

Seeing the Castlevania III print ad in Amazing Spider-Man comics drove me to become a huge fan of the series. The game was monstrous, and with 4 possible endings, it was something to behold at the time.

 

Playing Super Mario Bros 3 after seeing clips of the game in the movie with Fred Savage, "The Wizard".

 

Mortal Kombat hit me hard. Reading about Mortal Kombat II in Gamepro for months, and finally playing the damn game.

 

Reading about previews for Resident Evil 1, 2, and awaiting those games.

 

Gamepro's hype job for Metal Gear Solid and having the game exceed the hype is probably one of my fondest memories.

[Guest]

To start:

 

I beat some 18 year old guy when I was 6 or 7 at Mortal Kombat in an arcade in Sacramento. That was awesome, especially because that was the first arcade game I played. A few weeks later, my parents got it for me for the Genesis and I beat it with Kano.

 

First time I played RE2 I almost pissed my pants at the beginning of the game.

 

Metal Gear Solid was awesome.

 

Playing Madden 92 on the Genesis was great, especially when I played as the Falcons. End around to Michael Haynes, bitch!

 

I'll think of more later.

[ragingfear79 0]

Playing Mario Brothers on my famicom and being blown away by it (we where too poor to buy a nes and the famicoms clones sold for like 20 bucks)

 

Watching everybody playing SF2 and never wanting to play it cuz it seemed to hard and when i finally did i beat it on one quarter

 

Spending like 5 bucks on Final Fight man i loved that game.

 

Working hard at BK over the summer after i graduated so i could buy a PS1, booting it up and playing WCW vs The world and being amazed by it, Playing Res Evil with the lights off and having to stop cuz i was taking a shit

[Star Ocean 3 0]

I remember finding out that people made hentai based on video game characters. I found a site that had stuff from lots of RPGs, even with the unpopular characters. Xenogears porn is so nice. Sadly, I lost the bookmark. All I remember is that the site was called ironmouse dragon shrine or something like that.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

-I remember when I FINALLY figured out how to do the finishers on the WWF Royal Rumble SNES game after I had played it for years and always wondered how to do them. I remember I was Razor Ramon fighting Ted DiBiase and when DiBiase's energy was low I pressed the R button to give him a backbreaker and suddenly did the Razor's Edge. At first I wasn't sure what buttons I pressed so I just shrugged it off and kept doing stuff until I tried to give him another backbreaker a few moments later and it worked again. After that I had loads of fun doing the finishers except that it took me another few months to figure out how in the hell to do Tatanka's.

 

-I also marked out on the WWF Raw game for SNES when I used Bret Hart against the Undertaker and applied the Sharpshooter at the end of the match and the referee called for the bell for a submission. I thought all of that was really cool at the time.

 

-I remember renting Madden 1995 and it had all of the records in there and I'd always try to break every one of them whether by cheating or just playing. Loads of fun there.

 

-Also had lots of fun playing Saturday Night Slammasters. I bought that game for 2-3 bucks a couple years ago and its still lots of fun to plug in and play when I'm bored.

 

-Lots of great memories from the Goldenye N64 game, especially kick ass multiplayer action.

[Guest Fook]

Getting an original NES for Christmas in 1988 with the 3-in-1 game (SMB, Duck Hunt, and World Class Track Meet) and the POWER PAD! I loved running on that freaking thing.

 

Getting TMNT 2 when it came out on NES. At the time I thought it was the greatest game ever.

 

Mike Tyson's Punch Out. Never owned the game, but my neighbour did. As a kid, I could never get passed Soda Popinski. Now I crush every opponent.

 

Getting a Sega Genesis with Sonic and Sonic 2 and beating those games in under a week due to literally playing 12 hours a day.

 

Having Super Street Fighter 2 tourneys with my friends.

 

Mortal Monday. Nothing more needs to be said.

 

Seeing Ocarina of Time for the first time and being absolutely blown away. At the time I never played the original Zelda or Link to the Past, but I had tried Zelda 2 for the NES and didn't like it. OOT was the first Zelda game I bought.

[LooseCannon25 0]

I remember i was hooked on 10 yard fight for nes. There was this 1 game where I was playing the Pro team and I had just tied it up with a few seconds left. Anyway, I kicked it off to them and they ran it all the way back for a TD and the win. I was so mad that I threw the controller at the tv and started yelling at it and tearing.

 

Me and my friend couldn't get enough of Madden 92 or Tony Larussa Baseball for Genesis.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

I remember the day my dad brought the Atari 2600 home. It wasn't even my birthday or Christmas or anything. My dad (who was always big on technology, was the first in the neighborhood to have a VCR and DVD players too) was late coming home from work. I hear the garage door shut then see him coming through the backdoor with a box on his shoulder. It took me a few seconds to realize what it was. Awesome kid moment.

 

I've never been REAL good at most games, so anytime I beat one of the "big" games (Zelda, Metroid, Contra, Dragon Warrior, etc.). Ninja Gaiden in particular. Man, what a pain that final boss was.

[Guest DRH 502]

Played Royal Rumble for SNES for years. I loved how you could Atomic Drop Bomb someone over the top rope to the floor. I loved when they had RAW on SEGA and SNES and had those mega moves. I remember 1-2-3 Kid did like a ridiculous turnbuckle to turnbuckle springboard senton and doing balled you up and field goal kicked you out of the ring. Good times.

 

I loved this game for SNES called Saturday Night Slam Masters. It was a generic game but it had wrestlers similar to lots of Mexican wrestlers and a few other dudes like Vader all generic though. Very fun game. Probably my second favorite game ever next to Fire Pro Wrestling 2 for GBA (I don't have PS2 or Dreamcast i'm not much on games)

 

Super Mario World was fucking great too. I still play it on GBA. Star worlds and blue yoshi's=fun fun fun.

 

Yep.

[Anya 0]

Slam Masters is good. It's by Capcom and has Mike Haggar which by itself is enough to make it worthy. Andrew likes it too, I think everyone that's heard of it likes it.

[AndrewTS 0]

I have both home versions of Slam Masters. SNES one is boss.

 

The genesis one sucks except for the deathmatch. There's only up to 2P, the sound blows and the a.i. is awful. But the gameplay is really good on both--up there with Wrestlemania TAG as my favorite non-sim wrestling game.

 

While I liked nes zelda and SMB, I never owned an NES back in the day. Genesis was my first console, and my first game that I ever owned was Jurassic Park on Genesis.

[Anya 0]

While I liked nes zelda and SMB, I never owned an NES back in the day. Genesis was my first console, and my first game that I ever owned was Jurassic Park on Genesis.

 

 

I had that. It was impossible. I also used to rent the special edition or whatever it was called that came out a while after, which was the exact opposite...very easy.

[AndrewTS 0]

While I liked nes zelda and SMB, I never owned an NES back in the day. Genesis was my first console, and my first game that I ever owned was Jurassic Park on Genesis.

 

 

I had that. It was impossible. I also used to rent the special edition or whatever it was called that came out a while after, which was the exact opposite...very easy.

 

I didn't think it was very hard--about acceptable, but the controls were kind of stiff.

 

I beat it as the raptor and Grant both. All I had a problem with was figuring out how to beat the final area where you'd fight grant as the raptor.

 

I think you're thinking of Rampage Edition. With the thick annoying lines around the sprites. Ugh.

 

JP2 on SNES--now that was a hard game.

[Anya 0]

I remember the JP on SNES that had the FPS levels.

 

The best JP game is The Lost World arcade.

[Aero 0]

Figuring out how to beat the Wizard in Link to the Past. It's insanely obvious today, but I was young at the time so cut me some slack. Also in LTTP, beating the Ice Palace. For whatever reason, I remember that one always giving me trouble way back.

 

How insanely frustrating the Water Temple was in Ocarina of Time. Even if I played it today, I would still be confused.

 

I remember counting down the days till No Mercy came out. I had reserved it at least two months in advance. Being 14 yrs old at the time, I rode my bike over to the mall to get it right after school, and played it for the rest of the day. Good times.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Dear Lord the Water Temple pissed me off to no end. Then you had one of the more annoying bosses in Zelda until you figured out some sort of timing or (as I did) took out the hammer and beat the crap out of him.

[Black Lushus 0]

Ninja Gaiden in particular. Man, what a pain that final boss was.

 

even with a Game Genie, these games were a bitch.

 

I can remember when I got my first NES...hours upon hours of playing my first games (got them all for Christmas along with the system): Super Mario Bros., Gyromite, Duck Hunt, Gumshoe, Pro Wrestling and Kung Fu...oh the memories...

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Watching my Mom lose to Glass Joe before CCD and leaving feeling ill because of it.

 

Later she would become a Wario's Woods and Tetris GOD.

[jwest27 0]

Oh man, Saturday Night Slam Masters. My team of Scorp and Oni was UNSTOPPABLE. Pyramid Crash ftw.

[AndrewTS 0]

While most of these memories are definitely positive, I think we all went through that stage where we realized most licensed games suck.

 

Sometimes it's a brutal, harsh lesson. People who grew up on NES? Those are often some pissed off folk. Those were some horrible, horrible games, most unplayable by today's standards.

 

16-bit got a lot better. We had Virgin making astoundingly playable games out of licenses--Aladdin, Lion King, Jungle Book fraggin' Cool Spot, Mick n' Mack Global Gladiators (which had the McDonald's license out the BUTT), and Robocop vs. Terminator.

 

Konami gave us some killer cartoon licenses: the Ninja Turtles arcade games, the Tiny Toon games, Animaniacs, the best Batman game ever in Adventures of Batman & Robin on SNES, and more.

 

Capcom gave us like a billion licensed games that were surprisingly good--especially during the NES years, when few licensed games were worth a damn (Ducktales, Darkwing Duck, batman, little nemo, etc.)

 

Acclaim....sure did friggin suck. They sucked hard, they sucked long, they sucked with gusto. They produced some of the worst games of all time and they were run by greedy, irresponsible coke-snorting idiots.

 

But they had Probe. Probe struggled against their incompetent overlords and tried desperately to make things of worth, despite undoubted ridiculous deadlines and bottom-line bean counters egging them to just get something done. Alien 3, The Incredible Hulk, Pagemaster, Stargate, the Genesis ports of MK and MK2 (which, yeah, looked and sounded poor, but they were MK!) and later on Alien Trilogy and Die Hard Trilogy. Pretty much every other development house didn't give a damn at all.