When I was a kid fell in love with video games at an early age. By the time I was 18 I had played more games than I can count. I owned multiple game consoles and dozens of games. In all my years gaming nothing has brought me as much joy as I was delivered when I entered the digital world of Super Nintendo. It was by far the greatest video game experience in my life. I was so happy to finally buy another after being without for over a decade.
The SNES holds a special place in my heart not just because the games were pure magic, that’s a given. The real reason I love the Super Nintendo so much is it was the first game console I ever bought with my own money. I took a job after school delivering newspapers. I worked on weekends in the corn field like most kids in Nebraska did.
I worked my butt off to save the money to buy me a Nintendo 64 on launch day. I would have taken it home that day too if I hadn’t walked into a pawn shop selling a box full of SNES games with a console for $50 bucks total. Needless to say I took that bundle of electronic goodness home, tossed the trusty Genesis aside and was immediately immersed in the wonderful worlds Nintendo characters took me into.
The best game I played at the time remains my absolute favorite video game of all time, the beloved Super Mario World. Oh sure Super Mario Bros. 3 is near and dear to my heart as well but nothing gets my blood flowing like the euphoria of leading Mario, Luigi and Yoshi through Dinosaur Island on a quest to defeat the King Koopa yet again.
I distinctly remember the best days in high school were coming home from school for my free period, sitting in my bedroom (in my dress I hid) and blasting some Quad City DJ’s as I played every level of Super Mario World.
Over the years I have continued to revisit the classics in some form or another. Mostly via emulation be it through Wii or Wii U Virtual console or some other shadier method Nintendo would hardly approve, I never stopped playing the game. In fact I just did another 100 percent run on my laptop a month ago.
Die hard Nintendo loyalists will tell you there is no substitute for playing on physical hardware. I often reply my Laptop IS physical hardware so case closed. I use USB adapters to play using authentic SNES controllers, I always figured that was good enough for me.
A couple of days ago my Super Nintendo I had ordered from ebay arrived in the mail. The moment I fired up that pristine looking system no yellowing in sight a year drop rolled down my cheek. I was instantly transported back in time. I will fight to the death that playing NES on an emulator sans blinking lights, headache inducing blowing and constant cleaning carts is a joy compared to playing on the flawed, but still charming NES. But let me tell you nothing beats firing up an SNES cart plugged into a real SNES machine, oh maybe only if that machine was plugged into an old school tube TV set but I have to take things one step at a time.
The Nostalgia Bug bit me hard this week and once I got over the shock of finally having my favorite gaming system back in my life after all these years, I sorta went on a shopping binge on the ebay buying back all my classic favorites, even shelling out a whopping NEW game priced $60 bucks for a copy of Super Mario RGP: Legend of the Seven Stars. Yeah I had no choice I was buying back my childhood and I will be damned if I don’t get that done before I hit the BIG four zero in the next couple of years.
Right now all I can say is the Super Nintendo will always be my favorite game system and I am so relieved to finally have another one in my life. I have made a promise to myself not to let this out go for nothing.
Stephanie Bri 