The Games That Made My Childhood – 05 Yoshi’s Cookie

One game I owned but did not play as much as others was Yoshi’s cookie. Yoshi’s Cookie was a puzzle game that was on both the NES and the Game Boy, and I had the Game Boy version.

Yoshi’s Cookie was a puzzle game where the player had to match up lines of cookies. It was a simple mix of Tetris and a Rubik’s Cube. There were a few different types of cookies and the player’s goal was to clear out to screen by matching up lines of the same cookie. When the player matched up a line it would be removed from the screen. The player could clear out lines either horizontally or vertically. There was a timer system, every so often more cookies would be added to the screen, so if the player didn’t clear out lines fast enough the screen would overflow and cause a game over.

When I was a kid, there were a lot of simple puzzle games that never technically ended, you just kept playing until you eventually got a game over and a high score. Video Games weren’t normally as complex back then, a lot of them were arcade ports. It was rarer to see the long story-driven action games, although they were starting to come out more and more often. Companies were also trying to shovel out as much as they could, and the simpler the game was and the less they had to do, the higher the profits would be. So, you wound up with games of all levels of quality.

Yoshi’s Cookie is a game that isn’t particularly good or bad. I think it, like many other puzzle games, tried to capture that fame and notoriety that Tetris had and just failed to do so. It’s just one of those simple easy to make games that I don’t know anyone who spent massive hours playing. Yoshi’s Cookie was a good game to play for a bit between other games to break things up a bit, and that was pretty much it. That’s exactly what I did with it, if I was bored with my current game Yoshi’s Cookie was something I would pull out and play until I hit a game over and felt like going back to Super Mario Land or Kirby’s Dream Land.

In a way, I guess Yoshi’s Cookie was a game I used to take a break from the hard games. I didn’t get as mad at constantly losing back then, but who’s to say simple puzzle games didn’t help me refresh when I needed it.

The Games That Made My Childhood – 04 Kirby’s Pinball Land

I really enjoyed pinball games as a kid. One I played a lot was Kirby’s Pinball Land. I used to play my Game Boy a lot because it was portable and because it was mine, my sister had her own so we didn’t have to fight over it all the time like the SNES we had later on. I’m sure at some point Kirby developers were sitting around a table and realized Pinball would be a great spinoff series since Kirby is already pretty much a ball.

Kirby’s Pinball Land was one of my favorite pinball games as a kid. it wasn’t overly difficult and Kirby was a character I already loved. Pinball Land was pretty faithful to the series. A few villains from the main game and some big Kirby’s mainly comprised the bumpers in the game. Enemies would pop up into the middle to hit for some extra points. Items from Dream Land would show up too, they kept you from going down the holes and losing lives.

Kirby’s Pinball Land had three stages to choose from, Whispy Woods, Kracko and Poppy Bros, which means they left out one from Dream Land. Each stage had 3 levels to it and you had to work your way up the levels. Then the top stage would have warps to the stages boss. After beating all three stages bosses, a warp star to King Dedede would show up. Then you could just cycle through the stages forever. The game didn’t have a save (as far as I remember) so you had to do this all in one sitting.

Pinball is simple, there isn’t a lot to it, and it’s pretty easy to theme a bunch of different games to it, especially if the main character is round. Honestly, out of all the series and games that got sequels, I’m kind of surprised Kirby’s Pinball Land never got any sequels on future handheld systems. Unfortunately, most games that made pinball versions just left it at the one and never made a sequel even if there was good reason to come back and make more. It was pretty easy to overdo it on pinball, I only owned Kirby’s Pinball Land and some PC Collection, but Sonic Spinball was a favorite of mine too. I guess I don’t really play pinball games these days, but here’s to all the hours lost on Kirby’s Pinball Land as a kid.

The Games That Made My Childhood – 03 Donkey Kong

Now I know some of you are going to be disappointed. The Donkey Kong I’m talking about is not the famous arcade version everyone knows. The Donkey Kong for the original Game Boy was quite a bit different. I didn’t know the famous version or any Donkey Kong other than this until the Super Nintendo.

This version of Donkey Kong plays somewhat the same as the arcade game, but with some level progression changes and some added difficulty and puzzle elements. While I have never them from what I understand this is the precursor to what would later become the Mario vs Donkey Kong mini’s games of the Game Boy Advance.

What Made the Game Boy version Different you might ask? Well, this version starts off with the first few stages being the original arcade game and then quickly changes into something quite a bit different. First of all, there was level progression and stages. Donkey Kong was comprised of 10 stages with each stage having anywhere from 4 to 16 levels. Every so often in the stages, there would be a small cut scene. Nothing special, just something that would show you how the new stage mechanics worked. Mario had a new and improved move set for this version of Donkey Kong. Aside from picking up objects and throwing them, Mario could crouch, do backflips, and even handstands which he could also jump from. In this game though, you could stand on enemies to get places like over spike floors, no squashing goombas this time Mario.

Which brings me to the next thing they added, you can see some of them in the screenshot above. So, you had your standard enemies and platforming. You would die if you fell too far. There was a key you had to grab on your way through the level and get to the end so you could unlock the exit door. There was a bonus stage for collecting the hat, purse, and umbrella. The bonus stage was a slot machine style way of getting extra lives similar to the American Super Mario Bros 2. The very first stage added the locked doors while other stages added elements such as the telephone lines, which you could use to do gymnastics and spin yourself to fling Mario up high. Another stage added the double-sided arrow icons, which came in both vertical and horizontal versions, could be used to place temporary walkways and ladders anywhere in the current level. There were even other such puzzles including switches, jumping enemies, hammers, cannons, and floating icicles.

I don’t really have a personal story on this one, and I won’t for every game I talk about, but they will be game I owned as a child and actually played. I just want to spend some time reminiscing and talking about what I grew up with to anyone willing to listen. So far these have all been games I spent massive amounts of time playing. Honestly though, as much time as I spent playing it, I never beat this game. Donkey Kong was a long game, something like 97 levels, and I had a major penchant for constantly restarting games in order to play my same favorite levels again.

The Games That Made My Childhood – 02 Kirby’s Dream Land

Kirby’s Dream Land was another Game Boy game I had and one I spent a lot of time on. Everyone’s pick little puffball was one of my favorite childhood games, but I never knew he was pink until the Game Boy Advance games came out.

This early game in his series was before he had all his crazy power-ups. He could do his basic inhale enemies and shoot them as stars, and he could eat curry to have nonstop fire breath for a while, and that was pretty much it.

There were only five levels: Green Greens, the standard forest and plains level. Castle Lololo, as you guessed it was a castle. Float Islands, a tropical paradise with I think they were pirate ships. Bubbly Clouds, where you spent a lot of time flying. Mount Dedede, where you basically had to do a boss rush before fighting Dedede. Each level had a boss with its own large health bar, and after winning three Kirby’s would do a dance to a catchy toon before zipping off to the next level.

Kirby’s Dream Land is pretty much the first game I ever beat. It took me a few years to do so as an 8-year-old kid. I remember I was sitting around at my Oma’s house one summer while we were on vacation. I was getting pretty far into the game; I think I had seen Dedede before. I had seen some other games like Super Mario Land as too hard to beat, wondering if there was ever going to be a game I could win or if I was just horrible at games. Imagine my excitement when that summer I finally beat up Dedede and saw the credits.

This didn’t stop me from playing the game. I kept playing over the years, and there was even an extra mode I learned to unlock somehow. I think they tell you what to do once you beat the game once or something. The extra mode involved some swapped out enemy sprites and the game became quite a bit harder. When you get used to the normal game, the extra mode becomes quite a surprise.

Here’s to you Kirby, your game is the first one I ever beat.