I want to take this opportunity to share with you why Nintendo is, for me, the best videogames company out there: honest-to-God fun. Whether it is their consoles or their games I always plan to get a Nintendo-developed something to open on Christmas morning, right after midnight mass. And I'm 19 years old.
The story begins during the turn of the century: Christmas 1999. I was only 10 years old back then and still without a videogame system even though I had been begging since 1997 when my friend got his PlayStation! My parents decided that I was mature enough to own one (read: I bore the hell out of them with endless rants on how, if they buy me a PlayStation, my school marks will magically skyrocket...). So long story short, I got my first console then and boy was I happy playing endlessly Crash Team Racing! Then, to coincide with my new console, I bought a videogame magazine and what do I read? That my favourite game of all time (from my limited memory of just 3 back then) was a "cheap imitation of Mario Kart 64" said this magazine. How dare they say that such brilliance in the form of CTR was a copy... a CHEAP one at that... or Mario Kart 64. I mean, Mario was for babies. Us, Sony gamers, had outgrown Mario (even though I hadn't played a Mario game in my life... yet)! I declared war.
Until, that is, March 2000 when I was given a Gameboy Colour - coupled with Pokemon Blue. I loved it. Adored it. Cherished it with all the love I could give it yet all this time feeling that subtle, humble anger that I had been cultivating since Christmas before. I DIDN'T want to love it, yet the simple charm of the handheld and the game made it impossible for me to hate. Anyway my PlayStation-owning friends all had a Gameboy so I wasn't a traitor right?
I bought another magazine. This time it had a list of the best 100 games of all time, of course released until then. And the first three spots where given to:
#3: Super Metroid [SNES];
#2: Super Mario 64 [N64];
#1: The Legend Of Zelda Ocarina of Time [N64];
I was stunned. Plus I also started to wonder whether my Nintendo-is-for-kids mentality was unfounded. After all, I was actually still a kid. Slowly I was being dragged over to the wonderful world of Nintendo but, stubborn as I was, I didn't buy the Nintendo 64. Then news hit that the next generation of consoles where on the horizon and I was psyched! The PlayStation 2 was hyped to astronomical levels while the GameCube, because of Nintendo's honesty, was dubbed as an inferior purple-lunchbox! Everyone was talking about the PS2 and the Nintendo GameCube was completely wiped out of my mind.
In 2003 I took the plunge and bought a PS2. I was in seventh heaven - especially after playing FIFA03. Being quite a football fan myself I was completely blown away by the incredible visuals the PS2 could offer. I mean... I could actually see David Beckham in all his free-kick-kicking(?) glory not a pixelated monster with a head, two arms and two legs! After I got bored of FIFA I wanted to broaden my collection with the PS2 iterations of my PS1 heroes - mainly the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon series. This is when, I believe, was the turning point in my gaming life. Both Naughty Dog and Insoniac, developers of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro respectively, had sold their franchises in order to develop more, ahem, 'mature' titles for the PS2's cool teen audience. In defense of Insomniac, Rachet & Clank was and still is a far better offering than Spyro [PS1] ever was but Naughty Dog's Jak & Daxter left me wanting. Gone were the days of simple platforming and now Jak had a gun and was fighting the system.
Why Naughty Dog? Why? This trend has apparently gripped ND because with the PS3 they have apparently abandoned the J&D series in favour or a Lara Croft-style adventure but instead with a male protagonist - Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Again, why? This is not to say that they're not good. By far J&D is one of PS2's greatest ever games plus Uncharted was voted one of the best games of last year.
Yet the clumsy cheerfulness of the PS1 days, the very x-factor that made me love videogames so much, was missing. I was left empty.
To counter this I bought the Gameboy Advance. The system had incredible graphics coupled with, what I believe, is the very best RPG game(s) of all time: Golden Sun and it's sequel Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Plus Crash Bandicoot's GBA appearances were far better than the PS2 ones and I loved them. Guess what? I was getting my fix from a Nintendo console. Unbelievable.
Still though, something was clearly missing. One day, when visiting IGN.com I didn't click on the IGN-PS2/GBA channel like always. Oh no. I clicked on the GameCube channel. I was sinning!! There was my fresh new copy of Final Fantasy X [PS2] waiting to be played and loved and there was I, stepping onto the world of the enemy. But I didn't care. I downloaded a video of Super Mario Sunshine and I was completely hooked. THIS is what I was searching for. That colourful cheesiness which made me so content during the PS1 days. This is what makes videogames such a beautiful hobby. If I were sad all I had to do, back in 1999, was fire up my PlayStation and play some cheerful Spyro the Dragon. All my sadness was wiped away in an instant! And that was it.
I wanted a GameCube. I wanted a Nintendo console. I wanted fun. Goodbye old friend. I hadn't outgrown the PS2, instead the PS2 had, for purposes I cannot even phantom today, outgrown me.
Yet again, before I bought my first Nintendo console, I bought my third Nintendo handheld: the incredible Nintendo DS. Christmas 2004 was a very bright one. I bought it, coupled with Super Mario 64 DS what a blast it was. For one thing I was played what many regarded as the best game of all time on a new Nintendo handheld. This was proof that I was a dedicated Nintendo fan. Why? I got it before it actually launched in Europe. A trend had started.
Christmas 2005 (yes I know... very late) was a landmark year in me. I bought the Nintendo CameCube, with it The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Strikers and Killer 7. Add to that the Nintendo DS iteration of Mario Kart and I can safely say that it was the best Christmas I ever had. This was my world, this was me.
Christmas 2006 was a bit disappointing. Mainly because I couldn't find a Wii through any online retailer anywhere and eBay prices where sky high. Yet there was still New Super Mario Bros., arguable the best Nintendo DS game ever, and the almighty The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. It wasn't such a bad Christmas after all!
I got the Wii in February of the following year which made Christmas 2007 all the better because I bought the two greatest games I ever played - ever. One of them demolishing anything in it's best-game-ever path: Super Mario Galaxy, the other being Metroid Prime 3. SMG is the best Mario game ever developed, the best Wii game and the best game on all consoles period. The gameplay was so fresh that I couldn't believe my eyes. Plus this game looked magnificent. Metroid Prime 3 is truly the best ending to an incredible trilogy a fan could hope for. Samus truly left with a bang!
So what's for Christmas 2008? Mario Kart Wii. I am a hardcore fan of Mairo Kart having bought all available iterations except the SNES version because it hasn't been released for the Virtual Console yet. I wanted to buy MKWii since its launch in April but I cancelled my order three times because of several reasons, one of them to keep it for Christmas. Even better - my girlfriend is getting it for me!
Seriously, I cannot imagine a Christmas without Mario and co., without Nintendo. Thank you Nintendo, from the bottom of my heart.
Your diehard fan,
Roo
PS: I'm sure many of you guys out there feel like me. Share your experiences in the comments section below. I'll try to make a seperate post with your stories once I get a significat amount of feedback!
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