Onyanko Town

Ever played Onyanko Town in Famicom? (It's called Animal Town at Edge's CD-ROM, although the only animals in there are dogs and cats, and the occasional fish from the fish vendor.)  

It's fun.  You play the role of a Mother cat who must find her wayward kitten son among the maze of suburban houses while evading killer dogs.

That was what we had for a game of maze back in the days of Nintendo Famicom.  Of course, there's Jim Henson's Labyrinth* game too (based on his 1986 film ), and this is exponentially harder than Onyako Town, because let's face it Onyako Town is just a dogs-chase-cat-around-the-neighborhood gig.

One thing about the mazes in the Famicom days: your game universe had boundaries that you can't get past no matter what, or else had no boundaries at all--in which case you walked into one end of the screen and emerged out of the other.

(Think of Neo, trapped in the eternal loop of the Mobil Ave railroad station in the Matrix--Mobil being an anagram for Limbo.)

* * *

When I first played Grand Theft Auto, I didn't follow the prescribed procedures of gameplay.  

I simply hijacked a nice cool-looking car and drove off as fast as I can and explored the game universe, wondering how far do I have to drive before I hit the artificial boundaries that would stop me on my tracks.  Naturally, I got tired even before I hit any of those boundaries, if there ever were.


Sandbox games, where were you when I was a kid?

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* Jennifer Connelly played the role of Sarah in Labyrinth, while David Bowie with androgynous disheveled hair played the role of the Goblin King.