Wario64, that is awesome, man. This thread fills me with nostalgia. I remember I was so hyped for the N64 that I even laminated the cover of the Nintendo Power issue that had the big reveal info on all the games. I still never played some of the games that I was super-hyped for back then...Body Harvest, Hybrid Heaven (is that right?), and some others I'm forgetting.
Man, I literally ripped apart every newspaper clipping and magazine that had N64 info on it, cut it out, and organized it into a plastic bin with my brother. I had stacks and stacks of ads from Target, Wal-Mart, GameStop, etc., all basically selling the N64 for the same price. For Christmas, my brother and I took all these ads, used a glue-stick and put them on a poster board, comparing driving distances, bundle deals, and prices. I probably worked harder on that board than any project from school that year. I memorized all the specs, the controller...EVERYTHING before it even came out!
This also reminds me...when Rare was the SHIT back in the day, I even worked out some crazy deal with my parents to let me dip into my savings account and pre-order Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, and Jet Force Gemini. I had to get good grades and behave and all that crap. Probably the only time of my youth where I did so.
Wow I'm getting nostalgia overload right now, so I'll just drop this story: So, like I said before, I was super hyped for Mario 64 and fantasized about just touching the controller so bad for months, and then the day came where I hear rumors from friends at school (the old-school way of getting info on video games
) that Toys 'R Us had a couple of consoles to test out Mario 64 that anyone could play. I begged my mom for hours to take me after school, and she agreed, with a condition: I had to mow the lawn immediately. So it started to rain and all we had was an electric lawnmower. I looked up at the sky and was like, "WHYY??!", but then I just plugged that bad boy in and knocked it out in what is still probably a World Record.
We get to Toys 'R Us and I was shaking as my fingers touched the control for the first time. The joy of just running around with Mario in 3D is truly one of my best childhood memories.
Man I'm smiling just as I write this...life was so much better as a kid...