I’ve been spending a great deal of time on eBay lately. Video games are a great hobby in terms of something to do with your spare time. But, it can also be a hobby for collectors.

I’ve always had a dream of having a room filled wall to wall with games, and while I don’t foresee that ever happening, I think there may be a middle ground I can live with. So I thought I’d start my quest by beginning to collect at least some of the heavy hitters from each system I grew up with. I started my searching in what is probably one of my most cherished eras of gaming; the days of the NES. Ah, so many great games, so many horrible games, so many lackluster games that I still hold close to my heart. I’ve played so many; it really comes down to making sure I fill my library with games that mean something to me personally for now. Maybe later I can buy stuff just to say I own it. One of the first titles I want to ensure ownership of is Faxanadu.

If you’ve never played the game, it’s pretty simple; Faxanadu is a side scrolling adventure game with some rpg elements to it. Somewhat in the same vein as Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, but with more emphasis put on the rpg elements. In it, you are an unnamed man (who looks like a bum, actually) who wanders back to town one day to find it abandoned. You’re told by a king that in order to make everything hunky dory you must go to the World Tree and defeat “The Evil One.” The World Tree (otherwise known as “DAMN THAT’S A HUGE TREE!”) is where the rest of your adventure takes place.

Once inside the tree of largeness, you work your way up through the beast, using your bum powers (strength) to fight monsters and collect coins and items on the way. Lucky for you, people live in the tree and have conveniently set up churches and shops for you to spend your coin in. I mention churches because they act as the means to save your game. The odd part is, instead of just having a save point, the preacher tells you to, “Remember your Mantra” and gives you a code that you have to write down. Upon returning to the game, you have to enter this code to return to the point where you left off. It’s a super weird system, but it adds on to that bit of nostalgia for me personally.

The combat wasn’t great, and from what I can remember it was not an easy game, partly due to the lackluster means by which you could fight. I really enjoyed the atmosphere though. It was a grittier looking game for the time. The colors weren’t explosive and I enjoyed that it almost had an old tapestry look to it. It was this look and feel, mixed with a game style that I’d never before experienced that makes it rank so high on my list. I was 9 years old when the game came out, and I’d never before played any game which allowed you to use money to buy new pieces of armor, weapons, and magic spells. I sometimes question if I would have turned into the same type of gamer I am today if I had not had the eye opening experience I had with it. Because of Faxanadu, I played similar games like Wanderer’s From Y’s III and Secret of Mana on the Super Nintendo, and games that were further down the RPG rabbit hole like the Final Fantasy series. Like many games on the NES, it was the first domino in a genre that started the chain reaction of games that is still taking place today.

Much like how Food Fight was the first 3rd person shooter.