This year, I’ve praised Mass Effect 2 for the role-playing experience that it provided. I’ve also written about the advances that Heavy Rain has made with story-telling in videogames. And most recently, I’ve realized that I have spent 72 hours playing Conquest in Battlefield: Bad Company 2. These three games — all far from perfect — are the best experiences I’ve had with videogames in 2010, thus far. And that’s just a small fraction of the games I’ve played this year. Sometimes this makes me feel like a locust, callously ripping through stacks of games while finding only a few morsels of goodness here and there. Developers spend years making these games, and gamers get through them relatively quickly (moving on to the next game soon after). One month, you’re hacking through dudes in Bayonetta. A few months later, you flip it over to GameStop for store credit towards God of War 3. One might consider it selfish, but gaming is our hobby. We have a right to be selfish and satiate our gaming needs with new experiences because our down-time is limited and valuable.
As games get more complex, so do the needs of gamers. However, this burden of always demanding more from games sometimes makes me wish for simpler times. And I can’t help but think about how I’ve lost my former self — the gamer I used to be — in this quagmire of greed. But would this person even be relevant today?
My girlfriend recently got me a Wii for graduation. I decided to take home Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros. Wii as my first Wii games. I was surprised to see how much fun I’ve been having using the Wiimote to steer Mario away from danger and towards his objective in both. When my girlfriend and I played New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I had the same kind of fun I remember having when I played the original Super Mario Bros. with my father. I don’t know if it was the feeling of nostaligia that the game was designed to bring about or if it was relaxing and playing a game with someone I care about, but the familiarity was comforting. When I usually play videogames with others, it’s through a headset with strangers, and I often feel like punching a hole through a wall afterwards.
Like most gamers, my first experiences with videogames were with Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda on the NES — two brainchilds of Shigeru Miyamoto. I’m not sure if I would be playing videogames today without his work. When I think of Super Mario Galaxy and the original Super Mario Bros., I think of how simple the control schemes and goals are for both games — regardless of how different they are from one another. The common thread here is Mario — the spirit of what Mario games represent, Miyamoto’s vision. It’s easy for hardcore gamers to dismiss some of his most recent work because it’s aimed at younger and casual gamers. But the man knows what he wants to achieve when he makes a game, and that’s what he puts out. Moreover, I would argue that his overall vision for the Mario franchise has not changed since the day he began designing Super Mario Bros.
It’s the technology and the gamers that have changed.
Gamers have grown up, but that doesn’t mean that the gamers they were aren’t significant. The games you’ve played in the past have all taken some part in carving your identity as a gamer today. Think of the titles and franchises that got you into gaming in the first place. Those games are the reason why you pick up a controller today. It’s sometimes important to revisit them to remind yourself of what gaming was like when it was simple and enjoyable — especially when you find yourself frustrated or striking out with the recent releases. For me, playing Galaxy and NSMBW has been very therapeutic. They represent simple, enjoyable, and truly honest game design in the modern era.
As the release date of Super Mario Galaxy 2 draws near, I realize that I may not play it immediately. But I do know that I’ll be saving it, making sure to play it when I (eventually) need it. Due to my first experiences with videogames, my fate as a gamer will always be intertwined with Mario’s fate as a videogame character. We may lose track of each other once in awhile, but I know his games will always be around for me to enjoy when I need them.
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