all time favorite video game 1

1. The Adventures of Bayou Billy (NES)
I'm prepared to take the flack for this one, but odds are most of you young whippersnappers have never played this gem from Konami. Metal Gear nothing, Bayou Billy had it all. I never owned the game, but my friend Jean-Michel (a French Canadian--no I'm not making this up) did and we both loved it. Half the appeal of this game stemmed from the fact that it was probably copyright infringement. An Australian type bloke loses his girl and has to punch, whip, and fight his way to the lair of an evil crime boss. That's right! 90% Paul Hogan's Crocodile Dundee, 10% Indiana Jones. Beat that!
As a young kid, it was often hard to come to the terms with the emotional response this screen gave you. Such an elaborate way to begin a game, and yet so simple. It was clear that you would be "saving the princess" and that clearly the baddies didn't think you were in control. The dude doesn't even show his eyes! And it looks like she's stoned out of her mind! I don't know that they ever really explained why they took this girl, but it didn't really matter. In doing so you wanted to brand out some kick ass justice--Aussie style. Did I mention the hero looked like Crocodile Dundee?
What made this game so great through? Why of all the games I could have picked did this one trump the Zeldas, the Marios and the Metroids of the world? Variety. See this level here? This was the main type of level that the game held. Side scrolling beat 'em up that made Double Dragon look tame by comparison. See in this picture here Bayou Billy getting his ass handed to him by a boss that looks remarkably like a German Driver *cough* Indiana Jones *cough*. Usually there were two to three enemies on the screen at once and moving around through the swamps of the Bayou provided a fairly tough challenge. Anyone who says that this game was easy is a liar.
But not all the game was side scrolling, oh no. A boring game like Super Mario Bros. might stop there, but this is Bayou Billy we're talking about--the cock of the walk, baby! You see, there were also kick ass driving stages at a time when games didn't feature two vastly different types of play. Sure the graphics for the driving stages weren't great, but the gameplay was. Think of Road Rash with cars instead of motorcycles and you're on the right track. Now add in the violence of a high school reunion and you're where you need to be in terms of pure emotional response. You not only had to reach an assigned checkpoint in a certain amount of time, but you also had to pass or blow up the other vehicles on the road. While they could have been bad guys, its just as likely some of them were nice families out for a Sunday drive who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time..
BUT WAIT! That's not all. With the Adventures of Bayou Billy, you also got light gun stages as well. Playing almost exactly like the NES gem Gotcha! these stages, full of strategy and adrenaline make Halo as extreme as a My Little Pony convention. It wasn't just you and another guy, it was you against a legion of jerks who were standing between you and your woman. They would hide behind trees, duck, jump out of the way, and just when you thought it was all over...you had to fight the helicopter. The helicopter was crazy hard when I was a kid, swerving from one side of the screen to the other, double machine guns blazing down on you. If a game like Metroid Prime is famous for first person shooter and the morph ball stages (two game types), just try to imagine how cool Bayou Billy was as a kid (with three game types).
Though I mentioned it before, this game was ridiculously hard. I believe the only time we actually beat it was with the help of the Game Genie codes. The last stage took place inside the mastermind's mansion. As hard as the game was, it was all worth it for this screen here. How refreshing is it to see a game hero realize his own faults and strive to become a better person in the future. You see Billy, in his recently gained knowledge, knows that the bad guys aren't really to blame for his lady disappearing...he is. If he had been a better man, this would have never happened. The cinematics of this game might have been produced by Peter Jackson, though I can't confirm that. Just a rumor I heard somewhere. Did I mention the hero looks exactly like Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee?

So there you have it! The number one video game of all time! If you don't agree with me I dare you to sit through Crocodile Dundee. Or better yet, Crocodile Dundee...2. I think you'll soon see why a game with copyright infringement attention to detail is possibly the most wonderful game ever made. Combine that with three types of stages, more intensity than you can get in a Resident Evil game, more fun than a Mario Kart game, and more obscurity than the Zelda CD-i games and you have a recipe for success. Adventure of Bayou Billy, you provided me with hours of excitement as a kid and I haven't forgotten about you. Rest in peace.