Changing it up a bit around here.  I'm going to be waxing nostalgic for a minute about a film I hold dear and near to my heart called the Wizard.

It was December 1989 when this film was released.  As a child I didn't understand the concept of a one hundred minute Nintendo commercial.  I remember seeing this movie in the theaters are a child and being baffled as to why Putman would get in trouble because he touched a young Jenny Lewis' breast.  Hell, eight year old Ralphie didn't even understand what breast were, I had to have my Dad tell me they were "Chi Chis."

The film follows a young pair of brothers Jimmy and Corey Woods.  Jimmy is a near mute child that is suffering from PTSD.  And Corey himself is trying to deal with being separated from his brother due to a divorce of his father and step mother.  From the get go we find Jimmy attempting to make his way to California for some unknown reason.  But I guess walking to California on foot is better than being in specialized home for children with mental disabilities.

Meanwhile Corey is still trying to cope with the idea that Jimmy is locked up in a home and whilst thinking to himself, decides to bust Jimmy out and hitch hike their way to California.  Along the way they come across a Hailey.  A rambunctious red head with a taste for the road.  The three of them decide to use Jimmy's un
canny knack for video games to head to California for Video Game Armageddon and the Nintendo Championships  Which for a fact I remember taking place at Universal Studios here in Hollywood, California.  I wanted to attend this so bad as a child but never had a chance.

Once Jimmy and Corey's parents  find out about the two boys heading on the road, Corey's stepmother decides to hire a child bounty hunter to retrieve Jimmy only.  So naturally Corey and Jimy's biological father decides he's going to find the boys first before this grimy bounty hunter gets to Jimmy.

The movie itself introduced the Power Glove and Super Mario Brothers 3.  The aforementioned being the first time I got to see the latest entry into the Super Mario Bros. series.  Baffled at the fact that Jimmy somehow knew where to find the flute.  I mean seriously, who would have known to get up there since the flight mechanic was just introduced into the series with this entry.  But I'm not here to bash this movie.  I love this damn film.

I love it so much, that when New Beverly Cinema announced a showing of the movie with Todd Holland and Luke Edwards being there for a Q and A session I made it a point to not miss this opportunity.  So many great facts and faucets of this movie were discussed.  The original cut of this movie was nearly THREE hours long.  And when asked if we would ever see deleted footage, we were told no.  They were lost during one of the major lot fires that destroyed many great sets and ravaged film vaults.  They even pointed out that Tobey Maguire had un credited cameo appearances as one of Lucas' henchmen.  But I digress, I'm running this review/retrospective into too many directions and need to get back to work.  Time to wrap this up.

As a gamer, the movie is a blast.  It's almost even a little bit more relevant today, with pro gaming and e sports on the rise, back in 1989 this was a pipe dream.  Play video games to win money?  Pro gamers?  Nowadays we have legitimate money in video game tournaments not just in the United States but across the world.

The Final Fantasy Legend

Nintendo Game Boy

Square

September 30, 1990

Don't let the name fool you, the Final Fantasy Legend game is a far stretch to be called a Final Fantasy game, and in Japan this title is part of the SaGa Frontier series lead by lead designer Akitoshi Kawazu and in more akin to the original Final Fantasy II that never saw a US release until the Final Fantasy Origins and Dawn of Souls collections on PlayStation and Game Boy Advance.

Gone is the traditional way of leveling up from most Final Fantasy games.  The way stats work in this varies upon character class that you choose. Your main character having an added stat boost from the get go.

I  used to own this game as a child and never had the insight or patience to give it a solid play through.  The one thing that stuck out the most for me was that amazing intro theme.  Especially if you had headphones plugged in, it would reverberate from one eye to the other.

My first Final Fantasy game was Final Fantasy II for the Super Nintendo, which technically was Final Fantasy IV in Japan.  I feel in love with everything about this game.  From it's gripping storyline of love, loss, and betrayal, to it's epic of soundtracks lead by Nobuo Uematsu.

So naturally when I has a chance to pick out a Game Boy game to play on my younger sister's Game Boy, this was one of the first ones I chose.

I found out the hard way, this was further away from a traditional Final Fantasy, and only as a more patient adult, I finally got to this game to the fullest.

The story is pretty simple and generic.  Explore a large centralized Tower created by none other than the "Creator."  You embark with your generic main hero and then recruit up to three more generic, name as you please, side kicks to embark on this journey with you.  Their classes range from Male and Female variants of Human and Mutant along with Monster.  The human is your average token class which can only level up it's stats by purchasing upgrades in certain shops up to certain levels.  The mutant is a class i still haven't yet fully grasped.  In my play through I picked two female Mutants and by the end of my game had vastly different stats.  Now the Monster class is interesting.  A lot of people say this class may have influenced the original Pokemon games.  Whether or not I can verify this has yet to be seen.  Enemies have a chance of dropping their meat after you defeat them, and by feeding this meat to your Monster class character you can either change to something great, or downgrade to something lousy.  I used a web gidget that helped me determine what monster I was changing too, since I didn't want to downgrade to a weaker monster.

The battle engine in this game is unique.  It's a perfect blend of the original Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games back on the Nintendo Entertainment System.  The difficulty isn't noticeable until the final leg of the Tower on your way to face the Creator.  It took me several attempts and a whole lot of Elixirs to make my way up that final stretch.  Occasionally getting wiped out completely in the dungeon by a completely unfair encounter.

Music wise, the entirety of this sound track is composed by legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu.  It has a total of sixteen tracks that add a unique, yet familiar and enjoy soundtrack to the game.  If anything alone makes this game memorable, it is it's soundtrack.  Bravo Mr. Uematsu.


Overall if you have any way or medium to play this game, I recommend going back and giving it a solid play through.  The game is roughly about eight hours in length, meant to be enjoy on a plane or train ride during a business trip.  The 36 year old in myself enjoys this game a whole lot more than the Nine or Ten year old self ever did.

It's been a long time since I've blogged.  A lot has changed in my life.  I now currently have two children, one dog, and another cat.  After 17 years of service to Starbucks I took a chance working as an outside sales representative for a cleaning chemical and janitorial supply distributor.  And I've added a bunch of more games to my glorious collection.

I'm currently in the process of starting my own webcast/YouTube/Twitch show soon.  Kind of want to brand my own little piece of the Internet as my own.

But there's already a ton of others out there doing the same, and yes, we too shall probably fall in line with those others as well.  But for me, I love the community and culture that is nurtured by video games.

I'm based right out of small suburb of Los Angeles called Whittier in sunny southern California.  We have Anime Expos, Electronic Entertainment Expos, and Comic Cons.  There are countless video game related events in our city ranging from video game art shows to video game cover bands.  I'm going to make it my job to feature as much of this stuff to you and let you see the world of video game culture.

My passion is gaming.  The history of it. The culture of it.  My end goal would be to visit Japan, the motherland of the modern video game.  Not just visit, but creature a featured episode there.  We have a lot of ground to cover before I came make that dream come to fruition.  If anyone is out there reading this, I hope I will not let you down.

Until the next update, leave luck to heaven.

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