What is your favorite “Retro” game? Is it a game you grew up playing? Is it a game you’ve recently discovered? It’s Retro Game Month in September here at Geek Girl Brunch and we wanted to pay homage to the games that started our own obsessions! Whether Retro makes you think of the Atari, SNES, Dreamcast or Gameboy we want to know what games get that gold star!

Keep reading for the GGB founders favorite Retro Games!

Rachel

DinoCity (IREM), 1992. SNES

This is a hard thing for me to narrow down! I grew up playing Nintendo, Sega Game Gear, the Dreamcast. But I probably played the SNES the most. Battle Toads, F-Zero, Mario Kart, Bubble Bobble, Pilotwings – I spent SIGNIFICANT portions of my childhood on those games. Obviously, I also played  Zelda: Link to the Past and what I remember as Final Fantasy II (but was actually IV – thanks American release numbers!).

The game that I might hold dearest is a little known SNES game called DinoCity. A 1 or 2-player scroller in which two kids are sent back through time because they touched their dad’s HUMONGOUS television. That’s what you deserve, punks! Anyways, you ride around on the back of either a T-Rex or a Triceratops (always pick Tops. You get projectiles with Tops!) and try to find your way home while battling evil cave men. (and sometimes riding on roller coasters. True story.) They even made a TERRIBLE live-action movie and yes, I own it.

This game is HARD. There were tons of bugs and impossible levels that would freeze unless you beat them in record time. I vividly remember the time my cousins and I actually made it through the elevator level without the game freezing after days of trying! VICTORY!! In addition to being nearly impossible to beat this game has an AMAZING soundtrack. Every single level has it’s own theme and they are all very ear wormy and awesome. I still love this game. I still play it. I still can never get through the stupid. elevator. level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdvBgleIrSI

Jamila

Saturn Bomberman (Hudson Soft), 1997. Sega Saturn

Like most of you, my childhood was spent with a controller in my hand. I started with NES and remember vividly when SNES came out. I think it was the first moment I realized video games weren’t going anywhere. Most of my nostalgic years were spent playing Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Sega Game Gear and N64. (So much Sega.) Although my life revolved around Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn for a while, I had no idea back then that Saturn wasn’t a popular console.

Part of me wants to say Mario Kart N64 is my favorite retro game (I guess kids now-a-ways would call that retro, I’m getting old) because it was just perfect. But I have such a soft spot for Saturn Bomberman. Some of my favorite video game memories are from Saturn Bomberman. Plus, I need to show some much needed Sega Saturn love in my top choice. Me, my brother and cousin would play battle mode for hours on end. Even my parents would get in on the action!

Unlike some of my other favorite games, Saturn Bomberman could hold up to 10 players, so things got pretty crazy. My favorite part was they had these adorable dinos you could ride that came with different powers. If you found a dino egg, you were the sh*t. AND the best part was you could level up your dinos if you found multiple eggs to create this super powerful mega adorable dino! (That sounds like a Syfy channel movie). I’ve played other Bombermans over the years, but Saturn Bomberman was the very best, and that’s not just nostalgia talking.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFIE8dF-iW4]

Rachel: I’m cutting in to say that obviously, video games in which you ride dinosaurs around was A THING. Possibly THE BEST THING.

Yissel

Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega), 1991. Sega Genesis. 

This is not the story of any one particular game, but of a childhood. All of my earliest memories of videogames involved my brother. I’m 99.9% sure he was the reason my parents even bothered to buy us games and consoles. In fact, our sex determined all our Christmas gifts. I got dollhouse, he got a game console. I got a Furby, he got a game console. I got a my size bride Barbie (why was that even a thing?!), and a robo dog… He got a game console…. And Lego. Guess whose toys I played with more? Our parents thought they were raising a boy and a girl. But really, they were raising two gamers.

We played everything together, Super Mario, Zelda–which we actually never owned and instead played at our cousins’ house every day after school while we waited for our parents to get out of work (I was such a girl, so in love with the gold case.)– and anything we could rent from the video store. Remember those? I especially remember endless sessions of TMNT (I think we had a slight ninja turtles obsession in general) and… Oh dear glob… The Michael Jackson game! Oh, oh… Mike Tyson’s Knockout anyone?!

Once a Sega was acquired, my ninja turtles obsession died down to make room for Sonic. He was everything. I grew up with him. I followed him to the Dreamcast. I’ve collected many a gold ring in my time and his pal Knuckles currently resides in my bedroom. Now that I think about it, the blue hedgehog reminds me of another sexy blue character: Megaman. Now that guy was awesome. I followed him all the way to Megaman Legends 2 for PlayStation. It remained my favorite game for years. I still have a copy of that game on my amazon wishlist because I had such fond memories of it. If anyone’s got leads… I need that game back in my life. Also… a console. Maybe this Christmas….

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJyITGFwlzI?rel=0]