A Gaming Marathon

As the year of 2000 was drawing near within months, I wanted to try something original while the days before the new millenium was nigh. This would be known as my "gaming marathon". I would play a different selection of games each day, until it was officially January 1st, 2000. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't want the idea of playing them at the crack of dawn, so my schedule was to start playing games at 8 in the morning, and ending it at 8pm. Alternatively, for the school days, I would start at 4pm, then end it at 7pm since homework got in the way. But it all started at the month of November 21st.

To start off, here were the games that I had at the time, and played through, complete with my experiences through the marathon.


Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee



I was still new to this series at the time, even though I bought my copy the year before. Saving all of the mudokons was the primary task of the game, and surviving the environments as well. I didn't get very far in this one as far as frustration went, but I got close to the mudokon temple.

Marvel vs. Capcom



I didn't have a lot of casual type games in my library, but when it came to 'in your face' gameplay, this one took the cake. Much of the fighting is a fast frenzy of action and excitement, and it really pulled me in for longer than I thought. All in all, it was one of my favorites while going days with the marathon. By the way, my fighters of choice were Gambit, Jin, Spiderman, and Captain Commando.

Twisted Metal 2



I have to admit, Twisted Metal 1 and 2 made for the best forms of early multiplayer entertainment for my family back then. You have a selection of different vehicles that come with machine guns, as well as napalm and missile power ups, and it's a deathmatch between you and other cars in different locations, such as L.A., Moscow, and Antarctica. It annoyed me though when my brother or sister would "camp out" in multiplayer though.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back



Heh, remember when the original cover had that neat-o movement picture? Anywhoo, This was a recurring game that I played from time to time, so I decided to pop this game in. My memory card was chock full of data at the time, but I didn't mind. The game itself could be beaten within at least 3 hours if you can collect every gem without dying too frequently, so you could say it was a great experience for me playing through it in one day.

Megaman X4



I was very entertained by this installment of the X series. The levels were great, the soundtrack rocked, and I enjoyed pulverizing the robot leaders throughout. One small downside was the cheesy voice acting, but the game itself makes it easy to ignore. I never went with Zero though, despite how difficult it was to play as him at the time for me.

Crazy Taxi



"HEY HEY, READY TO MAKE SOME KUH-RAYYYYZEE MONEY?"

This was, by far, the most difficult game that I got around to playing. Truth to be told, my older brother was much better at steering and braking than I was, but that didn't bring me down from playing through it. I got at least maybe 7 to 8 fares through each timed game, but I had a great time with this one.

Point Blank 3



Sure there's fun multiplayer games like Mario Kart 64 and Bomberman, but this really blew me away! This was a lightgun game from Namco that came with a number of great features. But one that I focused on for the marathon was a survival feature, in which you have four chances to go through different shooting stages without failing and making it all the way to the top of a tower. This was my second favorite of the marathon games I played, too.

So, as December 19th came around, I was told to cut down my game hours and hang with the family more... I was sad to see my schedule getting scraped like that, but since my relatives were coming down for Christmas, I had no other choice. I gave Marvel vs. Capcom one last go before the big 2000 ball came down. I didn't make it through midnight though, so I crept to my bed with a huge smile on my face, as I knew my goal was fulfilled, even if I was left extremely drowsy. A new year was dawning, and I was in the perfect mood for it.