 |
||
| BrendanMcKillip.com brendan mckillip's daily journal |
 |
|
|
||
 |
|
|
daily journal
Re-affirming My Rejuvenile Status A couple of weeks ago Heather and I had brunch at our house and invited my family over to eat and celebrate Ian's and Emma's birthday. My mother, who has been tearing through her house in an effort to de-clutter and simplify, turned to me and asked me if I wanted my Nintendo game system. (Ian's ears perked up from all the way across the crowded and noisy room.)  The game system in question was an original Nintendo Entertainment System from circa 1985 that shipped with Super Mario Brother and Duck Hunt (not the version that also had the crazy robot). I reminded my mom that the NES was actually my brother's, not mine, and that she should talk to him about it.(Ian's ears lay back down at this point) But while visiting my mom over Labor Day weekend I got to thinking. My brother is up in Wisconsin starring in another play. He obviously won't be getting the system any time soon. Plus, if my mom has it now, it means that he isn't too interested in it. Otherwise he would have it with him (the system basically connects to any type of TV in about thirty seconds and is a great way to kill time - something that could be useful in Wisconsin). I've got a son who loves video games, and currently has an infatuation with all things Mario. Why not take the system to our house and let Ian (and Heather and I) play with it until Kevin makes a decision on what he wants to do with it.  So that's what I did last Monday. I gathered the game, the controllers, the gun, and all the games my brother had gotten for the system (more than I remember) and took them over to our house. I set it up in our office with a spare nine-inch TV that we have and we were off.It's been a lot of fun playing these old games this week. Tetris, Duck Hunt, Spy Hunter, RC Racing (I haven't bothered with Teenage Mutant Ninja Heroes or Tiger-Heli - I didn't like the games when I was 16, why would I like it now?) - they're all still fun and take me back to when I was younger and things were simpler. Every night after putting the kids to bed I slip into the office and play a little Super Mario Brothers 2 or Spy Hunter before knuckling down to wash dishes or take out the trash. My memory hadn't served me well in one aspect; I thought my brother only owned Super Mario Brothers. He actually has Super Mario Brothers and Super Mario Brothers 2. I had been combining them together in my mind, but they are very different games in terms of design and functionality. For Ian it's a boon. He gets to play two different Mario games, not just the one that I had told him about. For me, it's rediscovering that I really liked playing SMB 2 a whole lot more, although Super Mario Brothers does have a simple charm to it.  Emma really enjoys Duck Hunt. She gets as much joy out of hitting the ducks as seeing the dog stand up and laugh at her when she misses. She also things it's fun to play as the princess in Super Mario Brothers 2, even though she doesn't make it very far into the game. Heather is also a big Duck Hunt fan.I'm not sure how long we will have the system or whether it will keep Ian's and Emma's interest, but I think we will have some fun with it for awhile. More challenging and graphically advanced games can be found on the web, but there is a simple joy in playing these games exactly as I remember them from my teenage years. It's fun nostalgia. posted by Brendan | 4:18 PM | permanent link |
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|