As a child of the early 90s, every Friday night in suburbia was a mixed bag of excitement and choice anxiety. My parents would haul me and a friend to Blockbuster Video in our spacious, maroon Toyota Camry to pick out some mindless entertainment for the evening. I was allowed to rent one film and one video game and there were no exceptions.
The film was an obvious choice, as I was quickly becoming a horror connoisseur and I could always find a forgettable, disgustingly bloody cinematic masterpiece to fulfill that quota. Whether it was something from the Children of the Corn, Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Nightmare on Elm Street franchises, it always proved a great accessory to a bag of Doritos and a two liter bottle of Mountain Dew.
However, I faced many a bout of choice anxiety having to pick out the video game. There were too many options and game types available to choose from. SNES was home to quite a few pieces of vaporware as well, so you didn’t want to make your decision too rashly. The consequences could be dire.
I believe it was the giant sword on the cover and the simplicity of the design that made me first delve into the realm of RPG goodness. While some may consider lands full of dungeons, dragons, ninjas, monsters, and magical crystals a geeky endeavor, they’ve obviously never had the masochistic pleasure of playing through Final Fantasy II for the SNES.
