5 games to play before bed | GamesYouLoved
I can’t decide what to play sometimes. Sometimes, it seems, the amount games I own is a burden upon my ‘fun’ side of my brain. Whilst I can talk about gaming all day long, the real task is playing them.
Article by Daniel Major – aka GuyFawkesRetro
Once I have set aside the tasks of being a dad, work and other adult but wholesome, worthwhile duties such as washing clothes and standing in the garden calling the cat back from the forest behind the house, I may consider playing a game. Once I have decided to play a game I then have the duty of choosing what I’m going to play and as always, especially with old games I have amounted over the years it’s always hard.
I could stand at the shelves all days looking at boxes, reading the back of a game box for the nine-hundredth time and still not decide what I’m going to play. It’s a burden that’s carried through adult life, as a retro gamer at least, that’s all too often in a hectic, modern lifestyle.
In between deciding what should be played with the free time you have, there’s the added incentive to post what you are playing up on the twitter feed for a hourly long discussion thread.
So after thinking about what games I should be playing and what games I could play for a quick burst of fulfilment for twenty minutes, I came up with a list of retro games that are easy to plug and play the brief spare time I have before bed.
Super Mario Kart.
Easy to get into, you can choose and CC class and choose any cup. Zipping around Donut Plains 1 or Ghost Valley 1 quickly, reminding you how bad and out of practice you are. Set yourself a challenge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fgg1t_pnR4
I have always tried to beat Ghost Valley 1 on 150cc in under 00’ 57’’ 63 – to this day I can’t best it and in my adult life I have only hit under the 1’ 00’’ 00 mark ONCE. Flying around as Bowser trying to finish 150cc Grand Prix Special Cup in the top 3 before hitting the hay is a pretty darn challenge on a Tuesday night.
If all else fails, the spectacle of realising how good Mode 7 can actually be quite soothing for the brain before bed.
Sensible Soccer (Amiga)
I mean, don’t start a league or anything, but possibly try a custom cup for at least half an hour to ease away the stresses of modern day life and forget about the DIY you should be at least thinking about.
There are no challenges here, just try and score goals, as many as you can, before bed time. A looping header into the bottom left of the net with a Zip Stick could be classed as a challenge, but how many times have we all done that?
If anything you’ll be either humming away to the theme tune or screaming out loud that you are a goal scoring superstar hero to the dismay of your partner because they fully well know that you got knocked out by At The Chippy UTD and missed the opportunity to gain revenge on Sad Things FC in the second round.
Any Bomberman game in Multiplayer
If you are going to choose one Bomberman game to waste some time away with, may I suggest Super Bomberman 2 on the SNES.
The fulfilment factor of going to bed as grand champion and Golden Bomber, the master of Battle mode against the CPU will leave you dreaming of nothing but explosions and the bloody outrageous music.
There’s a ton of customisations to choose from and the levels are the best in the series. Especially the one with the water rapids that you can drop bombs into. Also,rubber bouncy bombs. Twenty minutes of bliss.
Forsaken 64
Ok, I know what I’m doing believe it or not. You may think that spinning around in a hover craft in a sewer under the earths core for twenty minutes whilst being shot at by thirty different weapons and almost spewing your guts up because of the motion sickness isn’t a good way to end the day – but, it’s the perfect way to self induce your mind into thinking it’s had enough for one day and now it’s time to call it a night.
As is custom with any fans of this game, try to kill everybody in the same room with a TITAN bomb whilst you make a rapid descent through the narrowest of passageways without dying.
Enjoy.
Transbot
The mighty Master System shooter from 1986 isn’t the easiest games to finish – simply because it has no end. A continuous loop of blasting and enemy waves will come at you in a relentless torrent of 8bit colourful sprites.
If you can abide the soundtrack and avoid tiring from the endless repetition of levels and backgrounds, there’s at least twenty minutes of fun to be had here. Jon A. Rivera is the world recordscore holder with a mighty 502,040 to date, something I have only ever hit a fraction of in three hours, so reaching this milestone in twenty minutes may be a bridge too far.
But, with some planning and thumb dedication, you could set yourself a challenge to over come a previous score you set within the allotted time frame before bed.
If all else fails, you could read a book or just go to bed. Or go on twitter.
Article by Daniel Major – aka GuyFawkesRetro
