Sara's Top Ten Games to Take on a Roadtrip (11/22/09)

Today, I'm going a roadtrip up to my mother's in which it will be a four hour drive.  As such, I thought I'd compile a list of the top ten games I've enjoyed on road trips today and some I'll have with me today.  Franchise rule will not be in effect for this list, simply because some of the games I played to death were amongst the same franchise.  However, you will see something similar.



#10 Donkey Kong 64 -

I know what you're thinking, but no, on one roadtrip my father and I decided to quilte literally jerry-rig a set up for the car.  The result was a TV/VCR combo attatched to a converter, with an N64.  Fungi Forest and Crystal Caves gave my eight year old self a lot to work on.  The only reason it ranks so low is feasibility of doing something like this if you don't already have it set up (and yes, I know you could get an emulator and do it with a laptop, but I don't deal with emulators, as I don't do captures).

#9 Mega Man II (GB) -

A port combo of what's considered the two greatest games in the series (II and III) is instant win.  The only reason this ranks so low is because I only had it for one road trip before I traded it back for the #1 game.

#8 Yu-Gi-Oh The Eternal Duelist Soul (GBA) -

I was young and stupid, however, this game got me through quite a few long as hell roadtrips and is still fun to play, as long as you disregard all the still images of the anime characters in between duels.

#7 Donkey Kong Land 3 (GB) -

This was my first ever handheld game, and at the time, it was the most awesome I'd ever owned.  A great platformer much like the rest of the Donkey Kong Country series, one I enjoy to this day.  However, it has been years since I've played this and doubt I will pick up this version again soon.

#6 Pokemon Blue (GB) #5 Pokemon Yellow (GB), #4 Pokemon Silver (GBC) -

Pokemon is a great game for those long drives, and this is where my first psuedo rule comes into play.  Red and Gold were my sister's, so I didn't play them a lot outside of trades with her so we both had the starting sets in our versions.  The later versions neither of us were ever really interested in except for the ability to play as female characters, but even that wasn't enough to draw are interest.

The two of us are very competitive as well and gave us a way to race, where we battled every few hours.  One road trip, we decided to make all new games on Red and Yellow respectively and raced to see which one was the best at leveling her characters and moving through the game.

By the last hour of the trip, putting in our third set of batteries each (this was an eight hour road trip mind you), we were both moving on to Cinnabar Island.  I had the advantage of the four starters, and she knew it, and she planned to use against me.  Her Charmander, Geodude, Gyarados, Pikachu, Haunter, and Bellsprout were going up against my Pikachu, Charmeleon, Wartortle, Ivysaur, Kadabra, and Hitmonchan.  Luck was on my side though, in that I pulled the strongest character to fight her with against her first.  Bellsprout versus Charmeleon.

She and I played Pokemon like we play chess, trying to outthink the other.  Most would have expected her to pull Squirtle, but she expected me to change as well...as such, I ended up with Kadabra and her Haunter in play.  That was going to be a tough fight regardless of play style, and the two were very close in level (I believe it was 48 to 49 in her favor), however, my beserker style won out and gave me an edge as she stopped to heal her ghost pokemon.  He went down. Within the next turn.

She was given the chance to pull her next character and I waited for her Gyarados to pop out.  Both Ivysaur and Pikachu were waiting in the wings, but I had a hunch I could knock out two for the price of one.  I was wrong...but I did a lot of damage, and confused the dragon pokemon into hurting itself enough so that Charmeleon only had to cut to win.

So there we were with me at a huge advantage only having lost one Pokemon to her two and having a Pokemon out that she didn't have one that could fight well against.  Her Pikachu saw to that quickly, paralyzing Charmeleon while taking minimal damage, electrocuting him.  I launched my Pikachu after her.

The battle was over at this point and she I both knew it.  My Pikachu was sitting at level 72 were as hers was just under 50.  Level gaps like thatare incredibly useful in Pokemon, and she knew she was toast.  A single headbutt k.o.'ed her mouse Pokemon.

Then she brought out her Geodude.  Level gaps aside, if you can't really hurt the opponent, there's not a lot you can do.  I quickly switched to Ivysaur, level 45, to try and take down the antropomorphous, floating rock, level 52.  Razor Leaf could hurt it of course, but the one move I hate to use she'd kept, solely for the purpose of killing my Bulbasaur-series pokemon: Self Destruction.

It worked and left me needing a new pokemon.  She had two, Charmander and Bellsprout left, I had Pikachu, Wartortle, and Hitmonchan.  Playing it safe I sent out Hitmonchan, hoping I could get the pokemon in early.  At this point, I knew what she had in her set, and she was about to know the entirety of mine.  She went with Bellsprout, counting on a rock or a squirtle series.  She instead got Hitmonchan, something she was still strong against, but could leave a lasting impression.  Only one fire punch got in before a single razor leaf took Hitmonchan down...however, it left a burn.

Pikachu was brought out and was able to do some damage before stun spore got to it, however the burn still took down the grass type with my cute mouse.  This was it...Charmander versus Wartortle.  My sister knew that there was little she could do to beat me save hope that Wartortle got burned or flinched.  In some cases, it did, but not enough to save her Charmander from two Hydro Pumps.  It was a glorious win for me, and she was pissed the last ten minutes home.

So, that's why I enjoy the Pokemon series...my sister and mine rivalry over it.  It worked for us, there were other games however, that we played together to beat, like the next few.

#3  Super.  Mario.  Brothers.  4...wait what?  Oh, Advance...so Super Mario Brothers 3 on the GBA -

When my sister and I purchased SP's she got hers in a bundle deal, that came with SMB4 and a slieu of other goodies.  We spent one of the trips doing the game together.  It was awesome, and about halfway through the trip we beat the game.  Then we moved on to Mario Bros. Arcade where we actually worked together to get to level 50, it was fun.

#2 The Legend of Zelda:  Oracle of Seasons -

Here's another game set we split between the two of us.  I took the red one and she the blue, unsure of the differences between the two.  I fought the harder bosses, she did the puzzles.  It worked out ok.  During the trip, the two of us both beat our copy, and told each other that the next trip, we'd finish them.  Then her GBC vanished with Ages in it.  I still had the code for seasons though, so we got to finish the game, and take down Ganon the next trip.

#1 The Legend of Zelda:  Link's Awakening -

My sister didn't play this game with me at first, as when I first got it, she was five, and more interested in her stuffed elephant than this game.  When asked what my favorite Zelda game is, it's generally this one, simply because of the hours I logged in playing it.  To me it was just a fun game, that I finally revisited late last year, and beat in a perfect game.  I was happy.  I never got DX...and am still interested in it, but not as much these days.

So that's my list of handhelds, now excuse me while I finish packing for this trip.  Let me know what you think about the list, and what your favorite roadtrip games are.  Do you have any epic stories of gaming between your siblings?

-Sara