Today is the 30th anniversary of the U.S. release of Chrono Trigger! It was my favorite SNES game. When I rented Chrono Trigger in middle school, I assumed it was a two-player action RPG because the box looked like  Secret of Mana . Ironically, Akira Toriyama didn't work on Secret of Mana! However, his work on the Dragon Quest series served as inspiration for Secret of Mana. I saw no similarity between Chrono Trigger and the 8-bit sprites in Dragon Warrior. Anyway, despite the lack of multiplayer, I took to Chrono Trigger immediately. With the money I earned mowing the lawn, I bought the game for about $75, which, adjusted for inflation would be nearly $150 today! Chrono Trigger's main gimmick is time-travel. The appropriately named Crono and his friends (you can choose their names) travel between the present (1000 A.D.), the Middle Ages (600 A.D.), a post-apocalyptic future (2300 A.D.), antiquity (12,000 B.C.), and prehistoric times (65 million B.C.). Changing events in the p...

Wario Land 3 follows its predecessor 's puzzle-platforming formula with two key changes: Wario slowly acquires his abilities (a la Metroid ), and instead of 50 levels there are just 25–but each holds four different chests to unlock for a total of 100 goals. Just as in II, Wario is immortal, but enemies cause him to transform in ways that appear painful but are actually helpful. For example, being flattened by a Thwomp-like enemy puts Wario into a cartoony feather-like state: now he can float into small gaps. One transformation from the previous game, where he became tiny, has been removed. In its place, bats make him a vampire that can turn into a bat! Most transformations last a few seconds, but the vampire remains until he touches water. The vast majority of the game's puzzles are solved by using the appropriate transformation. They aren't overly difficult. Since Wario can't be hurt or killed, the game can only punish you by making you try a segment again. I confess t...

Final Fantasy III, released in Japan in 1990, didn't get a Western NES version. A complete prototype for FF2 was created but scrapped due to the release of the SNES. FF3 never even had a chance, which is a shame, because it's the best of the 8-bit Final Fantasy games! The Japanese Famicom Classic rightfully came with FF3 instead of our NES Classic's FF1 . Famicom cartridge Final Fantasy II changed the formula by scrapping XP and levels in favor of a skill-based system. It didn't work very well, so with Final Fantasy III, Square went back to the source. As in both prior games, four heroes go on various quests, explore sundry dungeons, and interact with diverse NPCs, some of whom even briefly follow the party. The big innovation of FF3 is that, instead of choosing a party of four heroes at the beginning, each of the four elemental crystals bestows new classes! You can switch any hero's class whenever you want by spending "capacity points" earned in battle (...

Kirby's Dream Land 2 is an exemplary sequel, improving upon everything from its predecessor . In addition to being much longer, it includes Kirby's copy ability (from Kirby's Adventure ) and animal friends for Kirby to ride! Kirby has his usual abilities: in addition to walking, ducking, and jumping, he can inhale enemies, fly (via self-inflation), spit out enemies or puffs of air, and copy enemy abilities. This robust move-set makes Kirby games much easier than, say, Super Mario, skewing towards a younger audience. For adult fans, it may qualify as "cozy gaming"! Riding between worlds on a star The game has seven worlds of three to six levels each plus a boss fight. Compare that to the original game, which had just five levels (each containing multiple segments). This game is about three times longer. There are eight abilities Kirby can copy by swallowing certain enemies and then pressing ↓: fire, ice, spark, cutter, sword, parasol, needle, and stone. It's fu...

Fire Emblem, one of the oldest tactical role-playing series, debuted in Japan in the spring of 1990. The series didn't come to the U.S. until 2003. Five years ago, Nintendo belatedly translated into English the first Famicom game, subtitled Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, and released it on the Switch to celebrate its 30th anniversary (though it was soon removed from the eShop). Now it celebrates its 35th anniversary! A tactical RPG is defined as an RPG that uses either grid- or hex-based combat after the style of tabletop wargames like Warhammer, Stratego, or chess. Instead of controlling a party of adventurers exploring dungeons and fighting monsters (a la Dungeons & Dragons), in tactical RPGs you control an army confronting other armies on a battlefield. You array your units strategically based on the terrain and enemy positions. You can't just select "fight" from a menu and then pick a target. Many factors must be accounted for, such as bottlenecks on b...

The popular Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG) came to the United States at the beginning of 1999, a few months after the original Game Boy games and simultaneous with the anime show. One year later, on April 10, 2000, the first digital implementation of the game arrived in the form of a Game Boy Color game. Although it features only the first three sets–just over 200 cards–and a low-resolution interface, it is a complete and faithful reproduction of the card game. I've played Magic: The Gathering, the world's first (and best) TCG, since 1994 but only got into the Pokémon TCG a couple years ago thanks to the free digital version. As a teenager I dismissed Pokémon as too simple, but the game is a lot of fun. I no longer see the simplicity as a drawback. There is plenty of strategy, and tournament-quality decks can do crazy things thanks to powerful deck-searching cards. A skippable tutorial teaches you how to play the Pokémon TCG. Players use their card collection to build decks of...