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8-Bit Wonders

If you're a hardcore gamer there are lot of boxes that a game must tick to warrant your attention. Graphics, gameplay, Artificial Intelligence, character development, quality cut-scenes and by extensions voice overs and so on. When I was a kid all we cared about was being able to control a character or vehicle on screen. No matter how ridiculous the premise of the game. 8-Bit video games made me the man I am today! Since we at LTGTR are officially in nostalgia mode, I've compiled a list of what my top 10  8-bit games of all time.

10. Spartan X - The character you control is called Keiji Thomas. His girlfriend has been kidnapped by - wait for it - Mr. X! He needs to get her back. What follows is cartoonish mayhem. Thomas can kick and punch high and low and that's all there is to it. Fight your way past a never ending stream of cronies and take on a boss at the end of each floor of Mr. X's building. Endless fun!

9. Bomber Man - The layout is along the same lines as Pac-Man but the grid is of increasing complexity. There are a bunch of aliens you need to finish off. You can plant bombs which will explode after a constant interval of time. Anticipate their movements and place bombs that will blow when the aliens are nearby. Make sure you get out of the way!

8. Excitebike - If this game were to release now it would flop miserably. It's a straight line bike race against a time limit on tarmac/dirt featuring flawed physics and ramps straight from Moto X! This was the SH** in the 80's though. The best part - you get to design your own track with ramps of your choice!

7. Ice Climber - Ok this is embarrassing. I tried so hard but I never did complete this game! Armed with a wooden mallet the objective is to smash the ice floors above you to create and opening for ascent. That's about it really. Avoid the enemies and keep moving up. Thoroughly entertaining. 

6. Metroid - Before Metroid arrived on the scene the most popular games were either shooters or explorations games. Metroid clubbed these two genres and paved the way for next gen gaming. It was among the first games to allow backtracking. Metroid was a case of "Contra meets The Legend of Zelda." Quote like Zelda, Metroid spawned a hugely successful gaming franchise with titles for consoles from every subsequent generation. 

5. Pac-Man - If you don't know what Pac-Man is or why it's famous I really can't help you. 

4. Duck Hunt - This game brought arcade style point and shoot gaming in to living rooms. You had to use a gun instead of a controller. The gun is plugged to the console and your objective is to shoot down clay pigeons or live ducks! Yeah this was when the super annoying PETA had a sense of humour. You could of course cheat by sticking the gun to the tv screen and shooting from point blank range!

3. Contra - This is the anti-Splinter Cell, anti-MGS game that I grew up on. No stealth, no tactics just shoot em' up. Great background score, detailed visuals for its time and a semblance of a plot. That's all it took back then. 

2. Double Dragon - Spinning heel kick. An 8-bit game that allows you to perform a spinning heel kick and several other complex manoeuvres. You start with Jimmy and Billy and you progress through each level fighting off thugs in the process of course. Quite predictably each level ends with a boss. The bosses from levels 2 and 3 however join your team for the next levels. Highly entertaining and a game that never loses appeal.

1.  Rather predictably - Super Mario Brothers. The Rosa Parks of the video game world, Super Mario Bros. was the first game to get everyone in the family playing leading to wider acceptance of video games in society! Ok that's a little too dramatic but i'm trying to hype up my favourite game of all time! You play as Mario - a plumber. In 2 player mode the second player gets to control Luigi - Also a plumber. Simple as you like. Kill the owls (goomba) and turtles (Koopa) and get to the boss at the end of every 4 level - The boss being a fire-breathing giant Koopa. All this to rescue Princess Peach. Plumber, Princess, giant fire-breathing turtles - it's complicated!
You can still find some of these games online and play them on the computer via a simulator! 

Which were your favorite games? Let us know as comments.

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Nishant Boorla
Sarcasm means the world to me. Yeah that's always a good place to start. I watch movies...a lot of movies! Sports nut and a die hard Manchester United fan. Highly opinionated and that shows in my articles.



 

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