LJN has earned itself a legendary bad rap, but there are some decent games out there that bare that iconic rainbow logo. I stand by my claim that Friday the 13th is a good game once you figure out the controls. A Nightmare on Elm Street is also a solid platformer, with some interesting mechanics. It’s also one of the only games on the NES that I have played with 4-players. Major League Baseball, Gotcha, The Punisher, and Alien 3 are all LJN games that I really don’t think are that bad. Of course, if the title of this blog post doesn’t give it away, Wolverine is one of my favorites.
When I was a kid, I lived in a small town in Northern California. I think I talked about it a little bit in my post about Kay-Bee Toys. On the weekends, after cartoons were over, I would mow a few lawns around the neighborhood, collect my earnings and head out for the day with my friends. If we weren’t hitting the local flea market, we were at the Circle-K stocking up on candy. After that, we would head next door to Bat Boy, the local card shop, to buy a few packs of Marvel Universe cards. And right next to them was the ultimate stop, a rental store that only had video games. That’s right, a whole store with just about every video game you could ever want, all for rent.
That place was so much fun. The owner always had random junk he would talk us kids into buying. I still have this cheep-o Street Fighter 2 Guile watch he sold me on, which I still love to this day. And I’ll never forget the time he hyped up the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde NES game to all of us, like it was the most amazing thing ever. Man, that was a bummer of a weekend. I remember there was this fake nickel that nailed into the floor that I would always try to pick up when I went there, and the owner would always chuckle. Amidst all the video games I rented, and all random nonsense I had purchased there, the one thing that I have always cherished were the memories attached to the copy of Wolverine I picked up from that place. The box even has the sun fading from where it sat on the shelf all those years ago.
Back then I was a big marvel fan, and was all-in when it came to the X-Men. I’m not sure what it was about them, but I was always captivated by the costumes. Especially the Jim Lee era. I probably have ten binders full of various Marvel card sets, and half a dozen boxes of X-Men and Wolverine comic books. Then there were the toys, and well, I still have all of those too. Wolverine is obviously my favorite character, with his brown and tan John Byrne suit being my favorite. S when the Wolverine game hit the shelves in 1991, I was immediately drawn to it.
I must have rented that game dozens of times. I mean, I got to play as my favorite X-Men character! The music, the platforming, the level design. I loved all of it. And I am well aware that the game is a bit goofy. Wolverine takes crazy damage, can only use his claws for a limited amount of time, the enemies are generic, etc. The game really called to me though. It hit at just the right time, gave me what I wanted, and captivated my little mind. Like I said, LJN gets a bad rap, but I really do think this game is actually pretty solid.
The bad part about rental stores is sometimes things just aren’t available. You can imagine how I felt after wrapping up my Saturday routine, biking all the way down to the game store, only to find the game that I really wanted was already checked out. So that’s when I started pestering the owner to let me buy the game from him. Every time I went there I would ask about it. Every time the owner would say no. Back then I just thought he was being a jerk, but I get it now. He needed to make money on his investment. And he was making a lot of money off me.
Nearly four years went by, but I was persistent. Even though I probably spent enough money renting that game to buy multiple copies, I wanted the game from that store. That was the one I had invested so much time into. We had history together, and it needed to be mine. The summer after 6th grade we were moving, and that move was going to take me 700 miles away. I knew my time was limited, so I started using the move as an excuse for why I should be able to buy the game. Think about it, I’m not going to be there anymore to rent it. I’m probably that game’s biggest customer. It’s just going to sit there and collect dust now, so just let me buy it already.
Well, it worked. After all those years, the owner let me spend my hard earned money on it one last time. And you know what, I have no regrets. 35 years later, I am still playing that game. It still sits proudly on my shelf, and I still love looking at Wolverine in all his brown and tan glory. Albeit, a little sun faded. The nostalgia, the memories, that’s what it’s all about for me. I love that I still have so many things in my life that have followed me through the decades.
So, whatever happened to that little game shop? It seems to be lost to time. Unfortunately, I can’t even remember the name of it now. About 20 years ago I took a drive up to that little town, but the building was gone. I have searched the internet for years looking for anything I can about it, but there is literally nothing. I found a single post on Facebook talking about the card shop that was next door, but that’s about it. No pictures, no details, nothing. Just a fading memory from the pre-internet days. What a magical time those days were.
