At some point in 1995 or ‘96, I used my birthday money to purchase myself a ‘Play It Loud’-series Game Boy--the one with the clear case so you could see all the circuitry. I had three games for it: Super Mario Land, Kirby’s Dream Land, and a Star Wars game I could never figure out how to play. Generally speaking, the Game Boy would hold my attention for all of thirty minutes before I would get annoyed at my lack of speedy thumbs and go do something else instead.
You’d think this would have indicated something to me at the time about my level of interest in video games.
It did not.
Not too long after the Game Boy made itself at home on my bedroom shelves, the Nintendo 64 console was released, and everyone I knew was all a-twitter about it. I had indulgent grandparents, who gifted me one for a birthday or Christmas--I can’t remember which. Game play was much the same story as my Game Boy. Half an hour, tops, before I lost interest and went to read a book instead. Fast-forward several years to high school, at which point I traded my N64 to a friend for her 3-CD changer stereo...we’re pretty sure the ol’ 64 is in the storage pit under her parent’s garage floor. Maybe someday it will make a triumphant return.
There had been a Super Nintendo in my life by way of my maternal grandparents. My grandfather had played the PGA Tour golf game at a buddy’s house and decided he needed to own it. I have no idea how much it got played at the time, but I do know that the system basically disappeared for many years and was unearthed when we moved my grandfather to an assisted living facility, at which point the SNES came to live with me. And collect dust. But it’s vintage!
As an adult, I have owned two other games consoles: a Nintendo Wii and a Nintendo 3DS. (Are you sensing some brand loyalty, here?) The Wii was a joint purchase with a boyfriend, and since he already had an X-Box, I got to keep the Wii when we broke up. The 3DS was a present from a different boyfriend. Between the two of them, the Wii got significantly more use, because the very nature of the system was to get the players to interact with each other. I really enjoyed my Wii, but over time it got used less and less for its intended purpose, and the streaming services it supported started to peter out, and eventually I sold it to make room for an all-in-one streaming box and DVD player. I was sad to see it go, but drunken Super Smash Bros. nights had ceased to be a thing, and playing on a Wii by yourself just isn’t as fun.
The 3DS is in a box waiting to be sold to the same place I sold the Wii...someday...when we’re allowed to leave the house again…
In my life, there has been one game, and one game only, that I have played to completion, and that is a little game called Monument Valley.
https://www.ustwo.com/work/monument-valley-mobile-games
It’s a beautiful puzzle game that doesn’t rely on brain-to-button speed, and I LOVE it. I love it so much that every so often I search around to try to find something that’s similar.
Two weeks ago, a friend introduced me to Gris.
https://nomada.studio/
Cue giant awestruck anime eyes.
Courtesy of the same friend, I now have a laptop that will allow me to play, and I fully intend to.
Only this time I’m pretty sure I’ll make it past half an hour.
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