North and South (NES)

In the past year, I’ve started to collect games I either used to have as a kid, used to play frequently, or otherwise have fond memories of. North and South wasn’t a game I ever owned, but my brother Justin and I would rent it on a regular basis. Sometimes we’d have it for so long, I wonder now if it would have been cheaper if we’d just asked our parents to buy it for us.

The video store was a place called Entertainment Tonight, in Waterford, MI. “Like the TV show!”, we thought. It wasn’t the biggest store, though I remember it being twice the size of the place we’d previously rented from. And the previous place didn’t rent games. Blockbuster Video would be even bigger, when one eventually opened in our area.

Not too long before North and South was released, there was a mini series on TV by the same name. We thought that the game was based on the show, even if very loosely. I’d only find out, well, today, that the game was actually based off of the Belgian comic series Les Tuniques Bleues.

Playing the game, I want to say we would take turns playing one side or the other. I do know that we’d get a kick out of the south winning, regardless of who was playing. “That’s not how it happened!”

…And that’s all I can really remember about the game. Very little about the game itself, but a few loose, surrounding details. I did watch a play-through video, thinking it might job some memories, but… nothing. Granted, it’s been about 30 years since I played the game, and there’ve been many more games since then, that had a much bigger impact on me.

Still, this is a game I look at now, and wonder if I should add it to my collection. My memories of the game itself may be dim, but it could still serve as a sort of bookmark for that time and place. And seeing that there’s a remake on the Switch, I may have to let my brother know about it, if he has the system or plans on getting it for his son.