It becomes much easier to pick up old, familiar hobbies when you have more free time to enjoy for yourself. It seems my hobbies adapt over the years for many reasons but recently during the past couple of years I have begun to play more video games.
Ever since that glorious Christmas in 1987 when Santa brought us the unfamiliar but quickly lovable Nintendo gaming system, my love for the video game industry grew exponentially every year. Not only was it a past time favorite, it often became an quick obsession. Despite, I did not play video games too seriously until my old friend Dee opened my eyes to his new game called Final Fantasy in 1991. It was then that I realized how much fun the role playing game (RPG) could be. Just a year or two later came the Super Nintendo and then began the REAL obsession and countless hours of gaming with games like Final Fantasy II, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, Zelda, and others. Up to this point, I mostly started games but never finished them to the end. Interestingly, I don’t even think I have defeated Super Mario Bros. to this day.
During high school, my interests began to shift as I became interested in, well, more interesting subject matters such as my girlfriend. And so, the decline of time I spent in front of the television for gaming purposes began and it lasted many of my collegiate years. It’s not that I was sick of video games, it was a combination of realizing that time was almost always of the essence and my tastes in life naturally shifted.
So, while I was schooling for my last years in Denver I brought the Gamecube up with me after Christmas and ever since then progressively played more and more games. First came the new Metriod (my top 5), then Mario Sunshine, and now I just finished Zelda – The Wind Waker. This game was probably one of the most well rounded games I’ve played in a while. The graphics were overly exceptional for a cartoonish feel, the storyline was very easy to remember and usually captivating, and gameplay was simply addictive. You always wanted to go to the next step and find out what happens next.
So, I defeated Ganon and beat the game. In some since I feel some sense of accomplishment from all of my diligence and longevity dedicated to this game. It’s so much easier to get into gaming when you aren’t around many familiar people and areas; such an easy outlet to distract you from life.
I think you need to change your link from being the top 50 games of all time to 50 of the most revolutionizing games or something. Many of those games were the start of change in the video game industry but today would not be considered a great game. Heck, I only looked to #38 or so but I never saw Final Fantasy III which started the RPG boom on super nes. Some great games with really good story lines were overlooked for that list. Yes pong was one of the beginnings to it all but just about any tennis game is actually better now. So I guess you’rte looking forward to Metroid 2? I’m going to start playing halo 2 soon if I get time. Fable is awesome. Still need to get Zelda at some point. Hope your upcomming trips go well. I’m still car shopping.