Quackshot: 1HN Underrated Classic

When I was in high school, I remember hanging out with my friend Ed, who owned a Sega Genesis (before I eventually got mine in college). One of his brothers had rented a game called Quackshot, which was a side-scrolling adventure game starring Donald Duck. I remember playing the game and being impressed by the cartoonish graphics, the quirky background music, and, most importantly, the amusing and unique gameplay. Nineteen years later, I decided to buy the game used and include it as a retrogaming Christmas gift for my two sons, along with a Gen-X Dual Station and some other NES and Genesis games. Upon opening the gift, both of my sons were taken by the game and wanted to play it. Needless to say, like I was 19 years ago, they were impressed by the game.

Quackshot is one of those underrated classics that many gamers do not recognize, except for those Genesis gamers that are now active retrogamers. However, in what other game does the protagonist shoot a plunger gun that becomes more versatile as one acquires power-ups? Or, in what other game does a Disney character, vaguely dressed like Indiana Jones, travel from Duckburg to Mexico to Egypt to Transylvania to a haunted Viking ship? Not many other games but Quackshot. The unique gameplay not only involves using your plunger gun to stun foes, climb walls, and hitch rides attached to flying bird, but also involves the ability to slide as well as jump and duck -- most games did not have such versatility of control 19 years ago.

If you can, look for Quackshot on eBay or (if it's available) on Wii's Virtual Console. Because Donald wields a plunger gun and the game has that Saturday Disney cartoon look, it's a relatively innocuous game for young children, and it's a hoot for older kids who aren't averse to a good ol'-fashioned side-scroller that doesn't feature blood, guts, and explosions.

Christian Retrogamer? You Must Be Joking!

Okay.

I was thinking about it today, and it struck me that a "Christian retrogaming" blog is, frankly, an inane concept. Don't followers of Jesus have better things to do than pontificate and/or reminisce about the vagaries of 20-year-old games from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras? Definitely...

But, the reality is that retrogaming is a hobby and we all have hobbies. Christians watch movies, play sports, enjoy eating food, and enjoy other ancillary aspects of the world without idolizing those things; within reason, why not videogames? Sadly, the content of videogame-related blogs and fansites range from civilly amoral to downright profane and disgusting. Really, outside of professional review sites like IGN and GameSpot (which are worldly, as well -- I mean, some of the games they "have to review" are not edifying at all), it's hard to go to a website and read and comment about videogames and NOT have to contend with cursing, nasty talk, and ugly bickering.

My goal is to provide a platform upon which enthusiasts can feel safe to comment on old videogames in a thought-provoking way WITHOUT having to deal with knuckleheads. That's what Retrobeliever is all about. There are Christian movie sites, Christian book sites, and Christian music sites... why can't there be Christian gaming sites?

More than simply talking and sharing about old videogames, I want this blog to provide a platform for encouragement. After all, videogame playing is just a hobby -- Christ should, and must be, the center of our lives.

Super Metroid: 3HN Adventure

Today, I turn my sights on to Super Metroid. Now, there's not much that can be said about this game that hasn't been said on thousands of websites and in thousands of review articles -- it's one of the finest games ever devised for home video game consoles. Having poured a couple of hours into it, I can honestly agree with those reviews, though I imagine I'd be incredibly frustrated if I didn't have access to walkthroughs. With a walkthrough or player's guide, Super Metroid is difficult enough with having to master wall-jumping, mid-air ball morphing, and so on; but, without a guide, this game would take ten times as long to go anywhere. That's what I think...

Anyway, Super Metroid is a fine example of third-hand nostalgia, which is to say that I neither experienced nor knew about the game when it was truly relevant, but am just now playing it and feeling those nostalgic feelings associated with something from the past (i.e. the 90s). Since I swapped the sadly faulty Gen-X for a Retro Duo, I had been reading as much as I could about Super Metroid. But now, I get to play it, albeit only when my family, work, and school schedules allow it.

In almost every way, Super Metroid has lived up to the hype, but I have to ask the question I posed a few months back: how violent is this game? In a nutshell, Super Metroid is a game about exploration and discovery that involves the inevitable shootings and boss battles. On the planet Zebes, almost every creature is either apathetic to your presence or downright hospitable (seeing how some of the baddies are space pirates, after all), so blasting alien creatures is sometimes necessary. However, this is not the primary intent of the game; for the most part, you explore Zebes' extensive underworld to find things, get to other places, and find more things until you find the Metroid hatchling and eventually Mother Brain.

But, is the game violent? Yes, it is. You're shooting aliens, you're blowing up blocks with bombs and missiles, and you fight massive bosses that are ugly and evil. Is it appropriate for kids? Well, I would ask this: is Lord of the Rings appropriate for kids? Are many books of the Old Testament appropriate for kids? Does anyone remember that David actually beheads the felled Goliath with a big sword? Or that Samson kicked one thousand Philistines' butts with the jawbone of an ass? My point is that Super Metroid does not focus on violence, and I do not believe that it promotes violence, but you do have to defend yourself in that game... and you do get nifty upgrades to your arm cannon.

In any case, this is not a game for kids, and the violence must be considered in context: you are Samus Aran on a strange planet with creatures either trying to hurt you or doing nothing to keep themselves from hurting you. Oh, and creatures generally disappear with a PFFT, leaving behind missiles and life orbs to restore lost energy. How do alien creatures die and leave missile refills behind?

Ciao.