The Guardian Legend

"If someone is reading this I must have failed..." is the opening sentence from the computer on Naju. A "star" in a distant galaxy was over run by aliens and the narrator- who left an account of his ordeal on this computer, tells you in vivid detail of the events that have led up to him (or her) planning on activating a self destruct mechanism on Naju to kill the invaders so that it never happens to another civilization.

Pretty noble stuff, and thank goodness the narrator died else there wouldn't be a game to play!

I like The Guardian Legend on the Nintendo for a variety of reasons. First its a shoot 'em up, and second it's an RPG similar to the original Zelda. But unlike the worthless dialog in Zelda this game takes advantage of the dialog and pushes the story in a direction that stays interesting. It also has great music, a huge overworld map, several dungeons that lead to wild bosses that take up a third of the screen. There are several weapons that work differently on the map and in the dungeon flight mode.

But outside of the actual gameplay The Guardian Legend stirs up a pretty profound concept: speaking from the grave. It would be crazy to influence the world after we die but it happens all the time. We quote dead presidents, dead authors, and even dead prophets. But the earth will one day speak from it's grave. The earth will not be around forever. It's eventual demise is a long way off, but our Sun is a star and it will eventually explode taking Earth along with it.

But what does this have to do with The Guardian Legend? Plenty. In 1977 NASA launched the Voyager space crafts. Using gravity assists ( a technique where a planets gravity sucks an object towards it at a slight angle then catapulting it further and faster into space) the space probe was sent to the edge of the solar system. 32 years later the probes are still sending back information! They are the furthest man made objects in history (actually there is another probe launched after Voyager that some how caught up and surpassed the distance of Voyager 2 thus putting it between them). The probes are estimated to remain powered and functional for about 50 years so they have about 18 more to go. And this is where The Guardian Legend becomes relevant. On the Voyager space craft is a gold record with sounds, photos, and other relevant data that an alien species could learn from if they were able to catch the space craft.

In the darkness of space the probe will remain preserved continuing its journey into the heliosphere. Provided it doesn't collide with anything it will continue to drift away even millions of years from now, long after the Earth has been destroyed, whether by the sun or her inhabitants.

So just like Naju, we have our own "If you read this..." statement.