My love for the Shining series

My love for this series stretches back to when I was a solid 3 years old. Still sucking my thumb and carrying my “blankee” around, I was not an obvious choice for becoming a gamer. I would watch my dad play all these bad ass games on Sega Genesis: Chakan, Phantasy Star, Miracle Warriors, Might and Magic, Rastan, etc. I was so fascinated by the concept of a different world at such a young age. My dad would let me play these games but I did not have good enough hand-eye coordination and the thought processes to do well enough at these games.

By about 5 years old, I started getting good enough to play these games I witnessed my dad playing through my young years. Among all the games, one series outshone them all for me: the Shining series. Some people know what this is from personal experience, some know from the high praises that I always seem to mention during every podcast for these games, and some have absolutely zero idea what I am talking about.

What initially struck me as amazing? Why was I so drawn by these video games? Why am I asking myself questions that you fuckers should be asking me? From what I can remember from recollection, what struck me by these games is the vast selection of unique characters. You have the main character, a hero. You have centaurs, mages, healers, a robot, a dragon, a monk, archers, a wolf man, and so many others. It was so exhilarating picking your own “all-star” team and kicking some enemy ass. There were only about 4 or 5 music tracks for the game, but they were all so epic. I loved every single one of the tracks and to this day, I can still hum them. I am actually humming them now, in case you were wondering which I know you were. Another reason was it was something to do with my dad. I loved spending time with my dad and being a bad ass with him, and one way for me to do that was play and watch Genesis with him. So there is huge nostalgia for me there.

There may be other games that have done strategy-based games better. There may have been games that have done this style way before Shining Force. But I quite frankly don’t give a shit. I fell in love with this series, so you are going to sit tight and hopefully enjoy me selling this vast series of over 25 games (28 to be exact) to you, the SPT listener, sympathizer, wondrous citizen of our community. I am not going to divulge into every single Shining game, but rather the ones I played a lot and had much experience with. I eventually want to get my hands on every game in this series, but that will take much money, much time, and much ambition.

I posted this in both my blog AND the dailies because my love for this series is personal, but I will be rating these games. I will give them the SPT treatment  while getting to share with you a very personal love that goes into my heart and soul. It was hard for me to write about this series because I did not want to do it injustice in any way, shape, or form. I am definitely somewhat out of my element because I have not played every game. How could I blindly love a series without playing every installment? To simply put it, when you find that first love, it is truly unexplainable. I will never fall out of this series and I will always feel a pull to it. You as gamers all know exactly what I speak of. So before you scoff at this and blow this off as another douche blowing his load about a sub-par game, please give me the time of day and read my love for this. Give it at least a chance. Read about it. Do research. Hell, if you like what you read, go buy a game. The Sonic Ultimate Genesis Collection runs a whopping $10 at your local pawn shop. How could you honestly lose out?

Enjoy and happy tidings,

Shea Buttuh