"Back when Captain Falcon was known more for his racing than his punching."

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

When the Super Nintendo released in North America, it launched with a mere five games. It may not seem like a lot, but these games were no slouches. The lineup consisted of Super Mario World, Pilotwings, Gradius III, Sim City, and F-Zero. Quite a strong launch, I’d say.

F-Zero in particular went on to have numerous sequels, as well as play a very influential role in the racing genre. But before all that, there was the original; a launch game for a system now two decades old.

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“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

When Dracula X: Rondo of Blood first made it on the US Virtual Console, I remained casually interested. The early Castlevania franchise has simply never enthused. Yes, the music is always excellent, and the series art has always had the fun Gothic aesthetic, but I just found the whole classic Castlevania era fairly archaic.

Simon Belmont always felt stilted in his movement, almost gawky. Don’t even get me started on how gimped the throwing weapons were. I naturally presumed Rondo of Blood would simply be more of the three NES games I couldn’t get into.

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"Panel de PokéMon!"

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Long before the sequel to Meteos was themed with Disney characters, a Japanese puzzle game named Panel de Pon came over to North America after being re-branded with characters from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island and renamed Tetris Attack. Jump four years ahead and we find the game now re-re-branded with a paint job of the ever popular PokéMon series.

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"It's like Mario meets Bubble Bobble meets babies."

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa is a 2D platformer where you control a baby named Upa who has been given a magic rattle. Upa must go through seven cheerfully themed worlds to get to a goat demon and rescue a treasure chest full of other babies. Yes, you read that correctly.

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"Easily importable thanks to Virtual Console"

“Friday Old Games” is a series of articles in which we review a game from the older generations of consoles, share why we picked it, and whether or not it holds up with time.

Sin and Punishment is a Treasure developed rail-shooter for the Nintendo 64. When it came out back in 2000, it was exclusive to Japan. Seven years later, it was released on the Wii’s Virtual Console service, finally making its first appearance in North America and Europe. Was it worth finally bringing over?

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