Growing up in the Dallas area, I rarely had the chance to see snow. In my area of Texas it’s less beautiful, powdery snow and more of a hard, icy snow/sleet mixture that pelts your face and creates the most dangerous “snowballs” man has ever seen. On top of that, it usually melts by the time the afternoon sun hits it. So, I was ecstatic one winter long ago when my parents took me and my brother to visit my uncle in Amarillo, a city in the far north of Texas.

We had hoped to see snow, but we weren't expecting what we got. The snow was so deep you actually couldn’t see your foot; now, anyone living in a state that actually gets snow is probably laughing at me, but it was an exciting first in my young life. This was like the snow we saw on television!

Of course, being as young as we were, we weren’t allowed to venture too far from the house, and most of our time was spent taking trips out into the weather until we couldn’t feel our hands. We would then pile into the house, sit next to the fire, and play The Guardian Legend on the NES my brother brought along with us.

For the uninformed, The Guardian Legend was a mashup of Zelda-esque adventure and Gradius-style space shooting, developed by Compile. It has been fondly remembered in many “NES Cult Classic” lists, but has, unfortunately, never seen a sequel or rerelease.

What struck me most was the music. I’m not a very musical person, and I often play games on mute while watching TV, but the spacey, ambient music in the game had a powerful impact on me as a child. I remember staring at the cover art of two massive red eyes looking out over a desert and listening to the music as my brother played. That image still sends chills down my spine.

In the evenings when we would be winding down from a day of playing bits of the game and scaring our mother with our nearly frostbitten fingers, we would wander the corridors and discover new weapons and enemies around every corner. The bosses were huge monsters that took up a large chunk of the screen, and the wailing siren that went off when you were approaching the end of a level still haunts my dreams.

With such large, vibrant sprites in the shmup sections it was easy to get lost in the game. Some of my favorite memories of growing up are the days we would spend playing and replaying The Guardian Legend, and when I’m feeling nostalgic I’ll still fire it up just to listen to the title screen music.