Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Retro Wednesday

Thanks to some feedback I received on the format for this blog, i have come to a daily schedule that people can look forward to based on the day during the week.

Monday - Weekend in gaming
Tuesday - Gaming News
Wednesday - Retro Gaming Day
Thursday - Hype Machine (Taking a look at upcoming games)
Friday - Game review Friday

Hopefully this brings some diversity to the posts and is able to connect with many different readers who can find a day that they enjoy.  So without further ado, the first retro Wednesday for this LS PlayStation blog.

Jersey Devil
There was a time that is starting to fade from memory that kids today will never experience: Rental stores.  It was the best memory I have always had of going on Friday after school to the rental store, whether it was my local grocery store that had a movie department, the mom and pop rental place, or the chain Hollywood video and Blockbuster that opened later on in my small town.  This was back when I didn't have a ton of access to game reviews and information that lead to a lot of blind rentals. Every Friday I would rush to the game section and browse completely based on the game cases.  This is what lead me to my first retro title for this section: Jersey Devil.  
That cover grabbed me that day in the store and made me choose it to take home and enjoy over the weekend.  I don't remember the game itself super well, but after watching some videos on the game memories kept coming back.  As platformers go it wasn't the greatest game, in fact it was a pretty bad game.  Clunky controls and bad camera angles plagued the game at every turn.  I always thought when i was a kid that Jersey Devil was just his name and truly he was a bat ala Batman.  i think this kinda drew me to like the game being a batman fan.  You could punch kick and glide as Jersey Devil to defeat the antagonist Dr. knarf.  you fought some weird mutated things and solved puzzles just like any other platformer.
  

Back then like I had mentioned before there was not easy internet access for me, so games that became difficult almost became impossible due to getting stuck and having no idea how to proceed.  With no guides available I remember getting frustrated and being unable to proceed to finish the game.  Honestly a lot of games in my childhood were not completed due to this fact as well as time that I spent with rental games.  It makes me wonder what I missed in regards to games I didn't finish.
This game popped up in my head recently when I heard it referred to on a gaming website, so i figured it could be a decent start to my retro Wednesday series.  Did you guys play Jersey Devil and have memories of it?

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