Number 4 [Most Memorable NES Games]

4.  Crystalis

It's pronounced chris • tall • iss.  I didn't realize that until I saw an online review of it a few years ago.  I went most of my life calling it crystal • us.  You live, you learn.

The post-apocalyptic story line intrigued me as a kid.  The characters, and plot kept me playing and playing.  The Zelda-esque action-adventure game mechanics with the RPG leveling system were digital candy to my twelve-year-old brain.  I played the crud out of it with my buddy, Adam.  He was a gaming machine.  Sleep overs at his house were almost always epic all-nighters.  I'm sure this game was center stage for many of those.

But this game gets such a high rating from me because it connected two major parts of my life.  Let me explain.

The Bridge

It was late in the summer of 1992.  The days were still long and the sun was still hot.  My mom, my brother and sister, and I boxed up all the things from our small Kansas apartment in a U-Haul truck and headed out for the great state of Texas.  

I was lost and terrified.  I was twelve and getting more awkward by the minute.  I knew next to nothing about girls thanks to the four student 6th grade class at Sacred Heart Catholic School.  They just combined me and the other three boys in with the 5th grade class.  I've often thought about how much that stunted my social growth.  But, that's another post.

I had just spent one of the best summers of my life (you can read about it here) with the dark cloud of moving constantly looming overhead.  I'd grown so close to my pals, Adam and Laramie.  I didn't know how I was ever going to leave them.  In The Body, Stephen King wrote, "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve... does anybody?"  No, Mr. King.  I never did have friends like that again.  

I still remember saying goodbye to Laramie.  We were at the foot of a hill about a block away from our apartments.  The sun hung low in the late afternoon sky.  We had gone to Butterfield's convenience store like we had done a hundred times before.  I didn't want to say it out loud, but I knew deep down that it was going to be the last trip I'd ever take there with him.  

We made it down the big hill to the sidewalk at the bottom.  He needed to head right, and I needed to go left.  But neither of us moved for a bit.  We both just kind of stared at our shoes in an awkward silence that neither of us were used to.  A lump began to creep up my throat like the mercury in an old thermometer.  Finally, the tears running down my cheeks betrayed me.  I couldn't look at his face.  I just reached over and gave him a hug.  A real hug.  That's a big deal when you're twelve.  

I blubbered out that I would write for sure, and call if my mom would let me.  That's when I realized that he was crying too.  I was wearing my favorite hat- a black baseball cap with with a neon pink outline of the state of Kansas.  I'm terrible with goodbyes.  I didn't know what else to do, so I took it off of my head and gave it to him.  How fitting.  I wouldn't realize the symbolism of giving him that Kansas hat until much later in life.  

We said our goodbyes.  He headed right, and I went left.  After a few steps, we both stopped, turned, and waved one more time.  Then he walked back to his apartment in Kansas, and I walked back to the truck that would take me to Texas.

Well, Crystalis was a piece of that for me.  It was a bridge back home.  I played this game but never beat it before we moved.  Once we got settled in to our new house in Texas, I kept playing it.  The first few weeks in Texas were hard ones.  The inherent awkwardness of 7th grade and the unfamiliarity of a new school only made it worse.  Living a ten minute walk from the library helped some.  But more than anything, this game was a rock for me.  I instantly felt back in Kansas every time I would play it.

After many sweltering Texas weekends, I finally beat it too.  Laramie wasn't the first person I called to tell about it either.  It was my new buddy from Texas, Craig.

Come back tomorrow for my next game.  And be sure to check out all the posts in my Most Memorable NES Games list.

[Box art courtesy of GameFAQs]