Did you know that this month, February of 2012 is the 20th anniversary of a very historic film? A film that captured the imaginations of an entire generation with it’s wit and charm. I am, of course talking about Wayne’s World; still considered by most to be the only Saturday Night Live spin-off worth watching. It rose above it’s source material to bring the world an evergreen classic that will delight viewers for generations to come. Schey, right. And monkeys might fly out of my butt.

It also spawned a few video game tie-ins.

Capstone Software was the king of lackluster movie adaptations from 1980 until it closed its doors in 1996 (Note: a business software company now owns the Capstone Software name & their former website). Of the company’s 35 releases, at least 17 were based on previously existing works. Remember L.A. Law: The Game? Surf Ninjas? Terminator 2: Judgment Day – Chess Wars? No? How about our first game this month – Wayne’s World?

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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 the Game Boy hit North America in 1989, it brought with it a new Mario game. The first Mario game that was portable (outside of Game & Watch devices, that is).

Originally, the Game Boy was going to be sold with Super Mario Land. But as the legend goes, Henk Rogers was able to convince Nintendo that packaging the system with Tetris, which he had the license to, would give their new handheld a wider appeal and sell to a larger demographic. With the wild success of the platform, you can’t really argue that he was wrong.

Still, Super Mario Land was available at launch in both Japan and North America. Even though it was a bit of a departure for the series, it sold incredibly well.

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There is something about the launch of a new console that makes me ponder the past. Perhaps it is something to do with seeing how far technology has come that makes me look back at the games I loved in years past.

A console we’ve sadly neglected here on WingDamage, yet nevertheless had some really amazing games, is Nintendo’s original Game Boy. Granted the first model, with its blurry green and puke colored screen, was a tough one to enjoy games on (but we all did nonetheless). Its later iterations, the Game Boy Color, Super Game Boy, and subsequent Game Boy models that were still backwards compatible, let us have those experiences in a mercifully blur-free environment.

With the May release of the Virtual Console on the 3DS, we are hoping to get a good variety of titles from the Game Boy’s back catalog. Here are a few of the games I want, nay, crave to sink my teeth into once again.

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I've been playing this for 20 years?

When I was a young boy growing up in a small town, it was rare for us to get new games for our NES. When the system was new and shiny, my older brothers would pool their money and pick up some great release, like “The Legend of Zelda”, or sometimes a big stinker, like “Tag Team Wrestling” (this was back when we were all really into the WWF).

Then the years passed, and my older brothers started to lose interest in gaming. I ended up renting games pretty frequently (back when it was only $1 for the whole weekend), but owning them was a rare occurrence.

Along came Tetris. It was hyped in magazines and TV ads for months,even making it’s way onto some day time talk show, where they were going on about it being a game that is actually good for kids to play. It promoted quick thinking, hand-eye coordination, etc. Thanks, Nintendo fluff piece! I now had ammo.

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