I’m not what you would call a video game junkie. I don’t play for hours on end, I don’t buy the most groundbreaking games and I certainly have never bought the most popular system. Yet I think that may have changed when I purchased a Nintendo Wii this past Saturday.
My prime childhood video game years were spent in the gap between Nintendo and Atari. The first system I had was around 1982 and it was an Atari Dirt Bike console. Yes that’s right it was a one game console that featured handle bars for controllers, one for speed and the other to pop a wheelie. There were variations but pretty much the goal of the game was to race what appeared to be a motorcycle across 4 lines on the screen while occasionally jumping squares that I believe represented buses. The system was given to me by a friend/coworker of my father, who was really still a big kid himself and despite the fact that most of my friends had Ataris or Intellvisions, I was so excited to have something that was mine that I could play on the black and white TV in the guest room.
About a year later, I had progressed to the point where I needed a new system of my own and for some reason my parents were willing to humor me. I had read up on what the hot new system was going to be and decided on the Colecovision. The system had the most advanced controls at the time and by far the best graphics. It also had a pair of flagship arcade titles in Donkey Kong and Zaxxon. Best of all, and I think this is why my parents agreed to it for me, there was a computer add on promised called the Adam. Sadly by the time the Adam came out the Smurfs (see above) and my Pole Position games were gathering dust as most kids I knew had already upgraded to games on real computers and a few had even picked up something called a Nintendo Entertainment System.
The next few years really saw my gaming habits become non-existent. My family eventually got a PC and that led to some games like Blades of Steel, and Double Dragon but that was about it until I went off to college. Somehow I had made it through high school playing on the NES only a handful of times, so when I got to college and everyone’s dorm room had either a SuperNintendo, Nintendo or Sega Genesis, it was quite a shock. This was the first real period of video game fandom for me. Between Super Tecmo Bowl and the EA NHL series this sports fanatic soon became a video game fanatic. While I never owned my own system during this time, I always had a roommate that had at least one if not two systems.
After college however, I went right back to being a casual fan. I found that work took up more time then school did so I really only had time for TV and drinking as opposed to the college recreation of TV, drinking and video games. Still my second video game renaissance occurred around 1997 when my favorite fake sport of wrestling finally found its niche on the Nintendo 64. The advent of the 4 player Battle Royal made for the perfect late night weekend party game and I was enthralled. It was also around this time the Madden franchise really improved and being the football fan I am that intrigued me as well. However, when it came time to buy my own video game system I decided to be different and cutting edge, and went with the Sega Dreamcast. The system itself was awesome and the few games that were made were really the best around. Sega’s 2K sports franchises were actually equal if not better then EA’s and Virtua Tennis was one of the best party games ever. However the Dreamcast was the biggest failure of the next gen consoles and the game supply ended sooner rather then later.
Ever since the Dreamcast I’ve had a system but not a thriving video game habit. The Dreamcast was put in storage shortly after I made the poor choice of shacking up with my eventual ex-wife and by the time it came out of mothballs it was obsolete. For a while I went retro and bought a Nintendo 64 but eventually I settled on a Nintendo GameCube even though everybody and their mothers had Playstations or even X-Boxes. For me Nintendo has always had the best games, the best controllers, and the best look so even though it was the lesser system I cubed up. My diet has consisted of Madden, NHL and the occasional soccer or MLB game over the last few years however in the last 10 months I think I played a grand total of 3 times. Around that time I started telling people that this was it for me and video games. No more systems, no more games. Then we saw the Wii.
Considering the buzz on the X-Box 360 and Playstation 3 were deafening, I was surprised when I started reading positive spin on the Wii. Even though I was going to give up gaming once and for all I decided to keep up to date on the development of the system. When I first read about the remote controllers and their motion sensing technology I was intrigued. When I read about the ability to download old games right to the console, I was excited. When I read that it was hands to down the best new system, I was sold. Truthfully I think if the reviews on the Wii had been negative or if the price was equal to that of the PS3 or Xbox, I might have packed it in but instead all these attributes have led to Elliot’s 3rd Age of Gaming.
The 3rd Age started with a whimper. Friday afternoon I got an email from a friend who informed me that he could pick up a Wii for me at his local Target yet I turned him down. It just seemed too frivolous for a guy who really doesn’t play games that often and who doesn’t have a savings account. Yet after turning it down I spent much of Friday night beating myself up. By the time Saturday rolled around I was in a car with 2 friends searching for any remaining systems. I kept thinking positively (SECRET alert) and found one Saturday around noon. Ladies and gentlemen the Wii is the culmination of everything I’ve ever wanted in a video game system. First off the controls are interactive to the point where you actually feel like you’re truly in control. Second it’s the best party system I’ve ever seen, however I might make some friends wear double wrist bands when playing after a few drinks. Third all the games I enjoy are actually being released on the system I own. In coming months they’ll be a karaoke game, Dance Dance Revolution, all the EA sports titles, and even Guitar Hero 3. I spent 5 hours playing on Saturday and another 4 on Sunday. Last night was a night off but today I’m planning on getting a few hours in on the Wii golf course or maybe spending some time in Little Italy roughing up The Godfather’s enemies. I just have to remember to stretch out first because the Wii actually makes you a bit sore in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment