Month: April 2023

I was a Nintendo fan from the earliest days of gaming. Even before the NES I had Donkey Kong, Mario Bros and Popeye on my Atari 2600. I have been a Nintendo loyalist all the way through to the Switch. I stood in line to get a Wii on launch day. I stood in line to preoder a Switch. I bought a Wii U at a time when the cool thing to do was get a Playstation 4 or Xbox One. I stuck with them through the hard times.

I wanna talk about each Nintendo generation. Let’s start with the NES. This is the easiest to be nostalgic for because they had a flat monopoly back then. There was no competition. Everybody and their dog played Nintendo. This was the foundation of the modern retro era of Nintendo. All that nostalgia for the NES is what drives their sales to this day. 

I skipped the Super NES. I discovered the Sega Genesis and went whole hog into that eco system. I ended up buying a used Super Nintendo from a pawn shop the very day the N64 launched. I remember this vividly because I returned my brand new in the box N64 to the store to pay for it and a drum set I never played. I discovered a passion for SNES. For the longest time I swore it was the greatest console of all time. I even went so far as write Sega off entirely because I felt SNES surpassed Genesis in every way. I have since changed my mind but that’s an article for another day. 

Then along came the N64 finally. I bought mine in 2000 for my 18th birthday. The very same day I also took home my Playstation game console. In the end I would spend more time playing PS1 than N64 but my Nintendo loyalism had me sell my PS1 to buy more N64 games. Despite the droughts, which were long and painful, I continued to swear by the N64. I told people it wasn’t about quantity of games it was about quality. 

I got my GameCube in 2003 when it came down to $99 and I got it with the Zelda Collectors Disc. I went fully into GameCube. I would argue that only sheep bought a PS2 and only PC master race nerds bothered with the Xbox. I was all in on GameCube. It had some great games and delivered some fantastic experiences. But it was missing features the others had. It was lacking in 3rd party support and there were the ever present droughts. On top of that Nintendo hadn’t figure out how to make their games into the world of 3D yet so many games were lacking. But I swore by it and would get offended by people who talked down about it. 

I stood in line to get a Wii on launch day. Partially because I knew it would play GameCube games. Partially because I was excited for Twilight Princess and wanted to try it with motion controls. And partially because it was the first time I could afford to buy a brand new game console at launch. It didn’t take long before I became jaded with Wii. The first sign I was losing interest was when my parents hijacked my Wii for their own purposes. I determined it just wasn’t for me so I sold it and devoted myself to PC gaming and emulation. I determined I would rather play retro Nintendo games than current gen games. 

Then I bought a Wii U. What pushed me over the edge was the club Nintendo. I had a couple dozen digital purchases on Wii I wanted to transfer over to Wii U for the points. I got sucked into the world of Club Nintendo. I was buying retro games I already had access to just for the bonus points. While I enjoyed the Wii U for what it was I was still angry over the droughts and lack of 3rd party games. I would make excuses for Nintendo. I would get angry at 3rd party companies for not making games for my beloved console. 

Then I bought a Switch. At first I was satisfied with my purchase. Arms was a great fun new game. Mario Odyssey was super fun. But then the Wii U ports became the norm. I already had a Wii U I wasn’t going to pay full price to rebuy games I already played. I tried to get into the 3rd party offerings that were finally coming to the system but they were often lacking features or suffered from performance issues. By this time I had already bought myself both a PS3 and a PS4 so I quickly found myself preferring to buy those 3rd party games for those consoles over the Switch anyways. 

Then I lost interest in the Switch entirely. I sold it to  a used video game store for more money than I paid for it brand new. I was happy to be rid of it. My Wii U was stolen so I let it go in the past. 

By the time I realized Nintendo was jerking me around it was too late. I had already given them thousands of dollars of my hard earned money. I was knee deep into their eco system with no way out. I was a loyalist. I would defend their asinine  decisions while at the same time being angry over their bullshit mistakes. I finally learned my lesson. I went all in on PS4 and I never looked back. Now I am beyond jaded. I can’t look at a Nintendo game or console without disdain. I have nothing but disgust in my heart for every bad decision the company makes. I am over their bullshit. The spell was broken and I see clearly now. Nintendo sucks. 

I remember the first time I tried to play Minecraft. I had no idea what I was doing. I was cutting down trees and then it went dark. Out of no where a skeleton attacked me and I died. I lost my entire inventory and was left in the middle of nowhere unsure what happened. 

I had to watch YouTube how to videos to learn how to play the game. Even then I kept dying multiple times. I was so bad at the game I decided to only play on Peaceful until I learned the mechanics. I played on Peaceful for a full year in survival before I felt comfortable enough to dabble in the normal difficulty. Today I play in Normal to Hard depending on what kind of mood I am in. I prefer normal to hard but I don’t need to use peaceful as a crutch anymore. 

I would have completely lost interest in Minecraft if I hadn’t discovered Creative Mode. I kept dying so much in survival I nearly gave up on the game. Then once I discovered I could play “sim city” in creative mode by building my own cities I finally found my niche in the game. I spent multiple years building a massive city in the game before the 1.18 update destroyed my world with the new world generation. I lost interest in creative after the work I had spent years on was lost. I tried a couple of times to start over but I never got back to the level I was at before and I lost interest. 

Over the years I have grown to appreciate Minecraft even more for the type of game it is. I have learned the ins and outs of survival. I have learned how to get by in Skyblock. I have discovered the different ways to get pleasure out of Creative by just using it as a canvas to build my dream world. There are endless possibilities. This is why I have fallen in love with Minecraft as a game. 

Today I find myself so involved with Minecraft I now watch YouTubers playing the game as my primary source of entertainment. I have come to enjoy live streams, edited worlds, tips and tricks videos and different challenges as well as other sorts of interesting videos. There different ways to play the game has spawned nearly infinite ways to produce Minecraft content online. This has resulted in hours of entertainment on my end. 

I have even tried my hand at streaming Minecraft from time to time. I enjoy playing the game while others watch me and cheer me on as I experiment with the different play mechanics. I even played on a multiplayer server with my girlfriend for a period of time. 

Minecraft is a game with endless possibilities. It provides hours of entertainment in game. It provides countless hours of content online. It provides a fun way to interact with other people online. There are so many ways to enjoy Minecraft it’s unbelievable to me how much reach this game has. It has taken the top spot for my favorite video game of all time. I often find myself bored with non-Minecraft YouTube content. Even the algorithm has learned this about me. It feeds me an endless barrage of Minecraft videos from dozens of creators from all over the world. It’s the best game and I have the greatest time interacting with it in so many different ways. Long live Minecraft.