The first video game I felt accomplished and triumphant when I finished it. A true gem and a piece of my childhood I’ll always cherish. My mom knew how much I loved this game that she even threw me an Ocarina of Time themed birthday party. It was such a great time. The game itself feels like you’re playing through a folk tale classic of good and evil, and saving the princess. But I love the aspect of time traveling between child and man. It was a cool concept to experience and figure out with puzzles and monsters with magic weapons. Also while caring for NPCs like they were actual characters, and not just fellow pixels like I was use to at that age. At that time I just saw other characters as other characters, and not characters as companions, until this game. The music is so timeless as well.

Definitely up there as one of my favorites of all time. That final fight made me feel so epic as a kid. It was the first time I felt like I was fighting a real boss. I never got that experience YEARS later until I started playing the Soulsborne games.

A game so inspirational, it even inspired another big hit within the franchise, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, with its very first mission: escaping Hoth. The very first mission you’re flying a Snow Speeder and taking out Imperial Probe Droids and tying up AT-AT’s, and it was a blast. But what makes Shadows of the Empire great is the fact it not only incorporates aerial combat, but also ground combat. You even fight on foot and you’re shooting at things. No force powers or lightsabers, you’re a god damn wanna-be Han Solo type with a blaster and a jet pack (later on). But playing this felt like a cool mini-movie with its narrative. Shadows of the Empire had this whole thing back in the 90’s that was actually a side thing for the franchise, but they wanted to hype it up like a film. Releasing a bunch of a merch, like toys, video games, even a decent soundtrack that was composed. Not by John Williams sadly, but man was it good enough!

And of course, they released a game that went along with the book’s and comics release. Two versions though: one on PC and on the N64. I played the N64 but the PC one has actual cutscenes and real dialogue. The N64 only had some slideshows, but I was ok with it. I was just enjoying the combat and gameplay. And the fact I could play a level where I hunt down Boba Fett himself, or even fight in a huge space battle alongside the Millennium Falcon, was enough for me.

To this day I have yet to see a Star Wars game that makes me feel like I’m not playing a Jedi, or a Sith, or some clone soldier or rebel or imperial. I just wanna be a rogue man. And this so far has felt like the only game to really bring that feeling. I’m hoping Star Wars: Outlaws will fulfill that feeling again.

My sister and I adored this game to the end. I remember we bought this on the off chance of it just looking kind of cool by the commercials? But we were still unsure. But us only being kids at the time, we were just dying of laughter, and having a blast collecting collectibles and honey combs, and exploring a wide variety of different seasoned maps. Banjo-Kazooie put Rare on the field, it was an instant classic. It quite possibly rivaled even Super Mario 64. Hell, I would say it’s actually better than Mario 64. It’s that’s good.

I remember watching my cousin play this in the middle of the day and still being terrified of the zombies and their moans. These days it sounds silly, given the graphics and how the blood and gore looks like pixelated ketchup, but at that time the graphics were insane to what we’ve ever seen. And the feeling of getting lost and isolated in a mansion full of zombies and monsters just creeped me out as a kid. I didn’t need to own or play Resident Evil to know that it was for sure going to be the landmark game that it was. Within a few minutes of watching someone else play it, I was already scared.

Never completed it but I had fun playing it and trying to understand the rules of its kind. Quite possibly my first time playing a turn based combat game. I unfortunately never played the original game boy pokemon games like red or blue, but this was close enough for me.

My favorite part about this game was the little mini-games.

That fucking clefairy memory mini-game would get on my goddamn nerves sometimes though.