A back-handed (yet loving!) tribute to the defining Game of Squaresoft’s Summer of Adventure.
Games of Summer is a recurring seasonal retrospective highlighting those magical titles that evoke wondrous thoughts of warm weather, carefree days, and discovery. Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll reflect on said titles and analyze why they meant so much to us then – – and just as much now.
2D-X’s Games of Summer retrospective continues with a look back at the Donkey Kong Country series, a game that brought three brothers together during school recess.
Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, the first Game Boy entry of the series, always seemed like Link’s Summer Vacation to me. Not just because I got it for my birthday when it came out – in late June, a traditional time of freedom and celebration with cake and new video games – but the overall lighthearted atmosphere of the game.
Rival Schools packed all the classic school personality types. The jocks, the outsiders, the rich kids; it was easy to find a clique with who you could belong. It was The Breakfast Club of video games.
Kids these days don’t risk a punch in the face with the Xbox Lives and PlayStation Networks providing safe haven for all manner of smack-talkers. But back in the ’90s, mouthing off and Street Fighter II just didn’t mix. Especially during the dog days of summer.
If you haven’t played Psychonauts, I’m only going to say this once. Play it as soon as you possibly can. If you care even a little bit about video games as art or story telling devices, you need to play Psychonauts.
