As I sit here reading about enforcement in international law, it occurs to me that I haven’t yet blogged about my first love: video gaming. Ok, so it wasn’t quite the international law part that led me to that thought; it was more the looking longingly across the room at my wii. The blue light is flashing. I have a message. It is probably something about a wicked new game that I will want to get. I don’t get to spend as much time with my wii lately, due to this crapfest that is end of term. But since my rule for today was no wii, and not no blog, I shall dedicate the next few minutes to writing an homage to my love…
I guess it all began for me at Christmas, 1986. My mommy bought my sister and I this hip new thing called the Nintendo Entertainment System. I had seen it on tv for a while, and some lucky lucky friends of mine had one, but I certainly never expected to get it. I still remember opening it, and looking at the Super Mario Bros / Duck Hunt game cartridge, unaware of the hours I would spend playing it over the next few years.
Although the NES was given to both me and my sister, it was only me that would become obessesed. I played some days till my eyes watered and my thumbs hurt. The games that sucked me in the most were the long plays, the ones you could save and go back to. Super Mario Bros 3, Dragon Warrior, and, of course, The Legend of Zelda. Oh man, the hours Link and I spent together were some of the best of my young life. But my favourite NES game was definitely Star Tropics. It was similar to Zelda (some say a straight ripoff) but the combination of the linear game flow – Zelda was a little more free form, and thus sometimes it was agrrevating trying to figure out what to do next – mixed with the greater difficulty of defeating enemies that made Star Tropics my favourite. Easier, yet harder, than Zelda, if that makes any sense. It actually took me about a year to beat Star Tropics the first time. I recently downloaded it for the virutal console. I am stuck on the alien ship.
Back in those days, I had a subscription to Nintendo Power magazine, so when I wasn’t playing – usually because I was grounded from video games, the ultimate punishment – I was reading about them. This was back when Nintendo Power was good. Nay, great! I liked it when they featured a game I had, with detailed game play tips, maps, and secrets. And Nester! I actually loved him. It’s too bad about NP nowadays. When I first got my wii I thought, what the hey, I’ll grab a subscription to Nintendo Power again. Sad disappointment. I mean, it has some good points, like the staff reviews (I like their Miis!), but it just doesn’t have the same feel to it. Maybe it’s because I am over 20 years older than the first time I had a subscription. I think, as well, having instant access online to most of the info I would be looking for in NP takes away from the purpose of the magazine.
Anyway, NES was a big part of my life for a long time… I didn’t end up getting Super Nintendo until I was 15 – which was like 4 years after it came out. Yeah, that long. I had a Game Boy in the meanwhile, but it was nowhere near as cool as SNES. Super Mario World was a trip and a half. And, dear lord, one of the best games of all time was A Link to the Past! I of course had to buy it used by this point, and I accidentally got a French copy, so I had a frustrating time of it at first. Picture sitting there with a French-English dictionary in your lap trying to figure out what everyone is saying. Eventually I got an English copy, and all was well.
Flash forward to Nintendo 64. I seriously thought there was no way video gaming could ever get any better than that. It blew my poor little teenage mind. Mario 64 was insane, with a 3D environment in which you could travel in any direction! Up until 64 I had thought being able to attack enemeies diagonally in Link to the Past was awesome (of course, it was at the time). Goldeneye, however, is the game that I think made 64 what it was. I hadn’t had a lot of expereience in first-person shooters, so I was utter shite at it in the beginning. But the mission aspect and the fact that the characters actually looked like real(ish) people kept me going back for more. Ocarina of Time was a beaut as well.
Then there was the multiplayer factor of 64. I had played games like Bomber Man and Mortal Kombat, which are fun multiplayer games on SNES, but Goldeneye, and then Mario Kart 64, completely redefined the way I looked at gaming in general. What I had previously taken to be a more enjoyable experience solo turned into something that was actually far more fun with more people. And up to four people at once! (I know you could get the 4 player adapter for SNES, but no one I knew had it). I spent many a day getting my butt whooped in both Goldeneye and Mario Kart. I got way better at Mario Kart, but not so much at Bond. I think maybe boys are just better at shooting games? Better than me, anyway.
Moving on. I never had a Game Cube. Weird. For me, at least, it is weird. But I was living on my own, so no parents to buy it for me, and then I moved to the UK about a year after it came out, so there wasn’t a lot of spare cash I was willing to spend on video games over beer. A friend of mine had it though, and I really loved Luigi’s Mansion! I’m kind of hoping it will be one of the titles they remake for use with the wiimote. It is so effing adorable! Easy, but not uninterestingly so.
And now I have wii. A Christmas gift to myself – or, it was supposed to be anyhow; I didn’t end up getting it until spring 2007 because with being back in university I didn’t have the time to invest in hunting it down. I finally lucked out when by chance I happened to call an hmv on the day they got some in. I was there in a flash, and a couple hours later I was rocking wii bowling. It just kept getting better after that.
Super Mario Galaxy is dangerously addictive. It is adorable, and just hard enough to keep me playing for hours at a time. Playing as Luigi still gets me mad sometimes though. Mario Kart wii is everything I loved about the 64 game, plus motorbikes! And I loooove that I can play online, because some of those people are way better than playing 1 player against the computer. I have learned some wild tricks watching them kick my ass. I also love Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, which did not get very good reviews, but it reminds me so much of the old-school strategy-based games that I have played it through several times on all the difficulty settings, and will definitely play it again sometime in the future.
But my newest addiction, and I know I am behind on this one, is Rock Band 2 (or Guitar Hero 3, both very similar experiences). I don’t actually own either game, because the concept just never appealed to me, but after playing it a few times at a friend’s place in recent months, I definitely plan to get it myself. It is just SO FUN! Again, I think this game has changed the multiplayer experience. It takes it up a notch, for sure. I never really got a cooperative vibe off multiplayers, even the ones where you are meant to work together. But Rock Band is like a team building exercise. I want my fellow bandmates to rock out just as well as I do. OK, sometimes I get excited when I make more money than them, but it’s only because I am usually the singer, and apparently the singer gets paid more. Conversely, the drummer gets screwed. But we’re all in it together, and the crowd loves us as a team. I have started trying out the guitar and drums, but they are super hard. I get booed off a lot. FAIL!
As a final note, it was recently brough to my attention that they will be releasing The Beatles Rock Band in September. I fully enjoy The Beatles, so I think I will hold off buying the game until I can get that one. I can’t wait to put my 4th and final year of undergrad in jeopardy because I am spending 6 hours a day learning to play all the instuments on the hard setting for Come Together!!
UberFanGirl
student.
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