The new year is upon us and as 2009 withers away and dies like the geriatric old man that our clip art catalogs dictate, let us welcome in 2010 with a nod to babies, that universal symbol of newness and poop!

Dave: Technically, it’s Bonk from Bonk’s Adventure, but he looks like a baby.  I am of course talking about the bald-headed bastard from Saturn Bomberman, the greatest iteration of the greates multiplayer game ever made.   Being the Bomberman savant I was, I found victory in many of the matches I played and there was nothing sweeter than to savor triumph as “the baby” (as he was derogatorily referred to by the plethora of losers that met fiery death at his hands).

"I bring death."

Erich: Well, if Dave doesn’t have to pick an actual baby, then I don’t either. I will, however, pick a character whose baby status is determined by being a child, and not just bald and short. I’m going with Little Nemo from the Capcom classic, Little Nemo the Dream Master. This game was great for lots of reasons—and not just because it was one of the few NES games I owned. Clever and challenging (okay, frustratingly difficult), Little Nemo had fun, varied level design, and animals you could both ride and wear. Say what you will about this game borrowing the suit idea from Super Mario Bros. 3, but as far as I know Mario didn’t actually climb inside a living frog to get his power up. Oh, and how does Nemo subdue his animal assistants? By feeding them candy until they fall asleep and start blowing giant snot bubbles (at least that’s what it looked like to me). Cutesy or not, I can’t think of any other game that uses candy as a weapon. Okay, maybe Hershey Presents Choco Carl and the Fudgeblaster Bunch, but c’mon—that doesn’t count.