HEY!! I figured while this blog was still getting on its feet or whatever I'd do a quick series about, I guess, who I am. Specifically: who I am in relation to the things I love and will be talking about on this blog.
Today, we're starting with something I've loved since I was small!!! Very small. A small child.
Today we're talking about video games.
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| photo by yours truly! |
I started playing video games when I was very young, like, 5-years-old. Maybe a little younger. We only had a Nintendo 64 (pictured above) for the longest time, and for it, just Mario Parties 1-3, Mario Kart, and Tetris. (We'd eventually get more games, but, it would be a while!)
Princess Daisy was my idol. I spent years running around the school playground pretending to be various Nintendo (well, Mario) characters. I don't want to make this sound like some Serious Essay, but, I was really invested in video game characters even at age 5. It's really no wonder I'm where I am today, 13+ years later.
I didn't, like, seriously get into video games until the summer of 2008 though! That summer, a pair of my dad's friends went either on a long vacation or a business trip (or, both??) and they lent us their Gamecube!! With it they had Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi's Mansion, Smash Bros Melee, Mario Kart Double Dash, and Mario Parties 5 and 7! (And, a few others maybe, but, they weren't ones I was interested in! I've been Nintendo trash from a very young age...)
I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I have very fond memories of sitting on the floor each morning, sunlight streaming into the room, as I got more Shine Sprites in Sunshine. I have fond memories of playing through Luigi's Mansion with my dad (and, passing the controller to him when the bosses got too spooky for me!). I unlocked all the karts and characters in Mario Kart for them. I played endless hours of Smash Bros Melee---unlocking a fair amount of stuff there, too, and learning how much I loved Roy!
We had to give the Gamecube back, of course, but later that year I pawned a friend of mine out of her Gamecube (she owned two Wiis by then, and had no need for it) and Super Mario Sunshine.
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| photo again by yours truly! |
Before long we had all the games we'd borrowed, along with more! Many a Saturday morning was spent on Super Mario Sunshine again, and before long I bought Paper Mario: the Thousand Year Door, one of my favorite games to this day.
I loved TTYD for it's humor, for it's charm, for it having the familiar Mario characters I grew up with plus a fantastic and deep story, where all the characters I loved had even more personality than ever! I've beaten it I think six times now, still watch the intro story from start to finish upon booting it up, and Rougeport might as well be something like a second home! Delfino Plaza comes close, real close, but there's nothing like exploring the nooks and crannies of a place like Rogueport all over again, and with a wonderful selection of characters to match!
Mario and Paper Mario humor and writing, in general, probably shaped a lot of who I am today! HONESTLY.
The deal was sealed for sure when I started playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It started at my best friend's house (not that we did much more than fly around Ordon on chickens) and continued not long later when I got a Wii myself, and bought it nearly immediately.
I adored Twilight Princess. I'd spend all day playing it in the summer I got it (2009, if you care), go to bed late, start it back up again the moment I was up the next day. And once I finished? I'd reset and start from the beginning within the hour. I probably couldn't do it blindfolded, and I haven't yet tried doing it in one sitting, but I know it like the back of my hand, and it's another one on my top five video games.
Twilight Princess was the first video game I started writing fics about (even if, none of them got anywhere). I can say, with an extreme amount of confidence, that it, along with Paper Mario TTYD and Super Paper Mario are the biggest influences on my writing style and favorite themes. Well, okay, Kingdom Hearts falls in there somewhere too, but... You get the idea.
I was 13 when I got into Kingdom Hearts (had it thrust into my hands by one of my sister's friends who heard I liked video games) and after devoting another summer to it, per the theme, it started taking over my life. I dropped my Zelda fics in favor of a Kingdom Hearts one -- the first I ever finished. I played other video games, but I can't remember any seriously life changing ones over the past five years. (Well, Mother 3 probably, and Majora's Mask, and UNDERTALE for sure, those really stick out, but none were quite as impacting as TTYD or Twilight Princess or Kingdom Hearts.)
I could talk, forever, about my relationship with Kingdom Hearts, but the point of this post is, more than anything else:
I've played video games since I was very young, I was raised on video games, and they have influenced my life in sooooo many ways. I'm the writer I am today because of them, the person I am because of them, and they're definitely among the most important things in my life.
That top five list, if anyone wants it?
- Paper Mario TTYD
- Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
- UNDERTALE
- the Kingdom Hearts series in general
- and then idk specifically on a fifth, but, Mother 3 / Earthbound / Majora's Mask each come to mind. Oh and I guess Mario Sunshine? Hard to pick between nostalgia and Games I'd Really Call My Fave sometimes. (I'm Leaning a little towards Majora's Mask, though, maybe? It's a good game....)
