For 90s kids, there’s no need for explanation. For others, well, pokemon was a phenomenon. It was everywhere, on TV, in magazines, toys, stickers. You could trade pokemon at the school excursion on the bus.
You felt alive in this world, pokemon gen 1-2 were the pinnacle of pokemon for me. And in gen2, finishing the game, and lo and behold, there’s a whole other region (kanto) waiting for you to explore it. The night cycle in the game blew my mind in ways that I have been chasing ever since.
I know it will never be reached again, but the memory will remain as powerful as it was that evening of the early 00s. What is your greatest gaming high, that you know will never be topped again, and that you have been chasing ever since?
Mech Assault 1 & 2, particularly 2. The two most memorable boss fights for me was the mid game one where you fight some giant robot bull thing in a tiny exosuit while Getting Away with Murder by Papa Roach Plays, and the final fight where you fight a half built giant mech again in the exosuit while Right Now by Korn plays.
Also I really liked Halo 2 for the banshee dogfight with Follow by Incubus in the background and the big Mausoleum fight at the end of Gravemind with Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin plays; the part where the doors open and the bell starts to toll chefs kiss. Oh and the whole level where you drive a tank up the bridge chasing down a Scarab too.
Also, why has there been no remake of Crimson Skies yet? That game was so much damn fun. I miss the dog fighting and crazy guns.
For a very brief moment in time I held the leaderboard for the Bowman in Mech Assault. I think the main contender at the time was a total loudmouth and XBL Forum regular with the gamertag “GeorgeTheGreek.” A certified shit talker, but he was also damned good with that Mech. One of my fondest memories of the game was using the Bowman to stomp someone in an Atlas on the city map (River City?). I hadn’t seen it done before, and most others in the lobby must not have either, because a bunch of them went ape. My team might’ve still gone on to lose, I seem to recall the map meta being “pick a Mad Cat and sit back sniping,” but that moment was worth any outcome.
OG Xbox Live was probably my favorite console experience after Quake 3 Arena on Dreamcast. I wouldn’t own a console after the 360. My next favorite console experience was when a buddy got Mortal Kombat 2 online for his PS3. One regular, whose name I’ve forgotten, would bust out all the old glitches (could’ve been using a macro controller) but it was the first time I’d send Fatality Friendship on the Kombat Tomb stage. Another had a novelty account named “ItsTheToe” that always played as Liu Kang. Anyone familiar with MK2 would know his crouching low kick was this stupid stick-his-toe-out move that was nearly impossible for any of the ninjas to jump kick into. Absolutely hilarious when I first encountered them, then frustrating but rewarding having to relearn my favorite three characters to deal with them.
You just reminded me, I also played the shit out of Unreal Tournament 3 and briefly held a double digit rank in Team Capture the Flag. Loved that game overall and I liked the addition of that hoverboard.
Same friend had UT3 for the PS3. We’d rotate stick on it but I wasn’t great at it. I had the keeb and mouse for my Dreamcast, basically cheat mode against controller players, and that led to my switch to PC for the FPS genre. I faintly remember the PS3 version having cross play and/or mod/map support. I’m pretty sure we all played a bunch of instagib CTF on a map that was like a long hallway.
He eventually bought UT3 again for PC I helped him put together. It was a great looking game on PS3 but we were all blown away when we hooked the PC up to the big screen. Good times.