Out of the ashes of Fanboypocaylpse comes...

me. You may ask yourself “Eric doesn’t seem like a fanboy”, and if you do, you obviously don’t know me. However, let’s go back to the beginning of this story, back through the fogs of time to about…1985.

For those of you who skip in the same meadows of nerd/geekdom, this year brings something special to mind: the American release of the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. Surprisingly, I didn’t ask for one. You may wonder why I didn’t, and my honest reply was “I didn’t want to”. Really. I remember going over to a cousin’s house and watching them play Super Mario Bros. for hours at a time, or when I was living in Germany and helped a friend of mine earn enough money washing cars to buy Castlevania, but I wasn’t interested in playing. I was more interested in watching.

I was always like this with video games up until about 2000, when EverQuest came out. It was a sort of experience I enjoyed, watching people playing the video games and enjoying them. However, when I say “enjoying them”, I mean hunched over in front of a screen with the rare twitch of facial movement. If you can call that enjoyment.
In this manner, I’m glad I didn’t have a video game system around. With the lack of video game systems, my sister and I were forced to entertain ourselves in other manners…like going outside to play or, heaven forbid, read a book! However, this doesn’t mean there wasn’t any exposure to video games in my house. At Christmas in 1989, when I was living in Germany, my dad sent me a GameBoy. It only came with Tetris, but me, my sister, my mom, and my stepdad loved it so much we went through three sets of batteries in a week. Mind you, this was the four color version, so we were just enthralled with the gameplay. However, after the initial excitement, the GameBoy kinda went in the closet, and I sold in 1994 to buy a Nine Inch Nails single. I still somewhat kick myself for that.

My next exposure came in 1993, unintentionally. My stepdad, whom I despise, came home one day and gave me a Sega Genesis. Out of the blue. The conversation went something like this:

SD: Here you go!
Me: What’s this for?
SD: Well, all the kids talk about it. Thought you might like one.
Me: Um, thanks?

I never figured out why he did this, I rarely played it. It did come with Sonic the Hedgehog, which was an OK game. The only time I was excited about it was when I figured out how to record myself playing it on the VCR. That was it. I just gave it to my brother. I didn’t care for it. The next time I had exposure to video games in this manner was when I first met my wife, who was deep into Final Fantasy VII. Yet again, I just remember watching her play and listening to Portishead’s self-titled album that just came out. My brother wanted a PlayStation, so I went halvsies on it with him, since he couldn’t afford it himself. Once again, I tried some games for it, but couldn’t get into it.

It would take Everquest to get me big into playing videogames, but I consider it a sidenote. It was a game that took full advantage of my addiction to things I really end up liking, but became a chore. However, any sort of love for a console or its games wouldn’t come until 2005. And some help from an old game, and a new one.
So which console was it that brought me to the dark side? The Nintendo DS. Why? Two games: Tetris and Brain Age. Tetris was a gimme: I love that game so much. Not to mention the DS version has 6 different ways to play. Brain Age, however, would draw me in and make me realize the proper marketable term for a gamer like me : “The Casual Gamer”. That’s right, I’m one of those gamers the hardcore gamers can’t stand. I don’t feel the need to constantly prove my virtual machismo with FPS games or “Insert sport here” 2009. I get no joy from blowing people or hookers up. I never have. Especially in real life.

So what other games do I enjoy? Animal Crossing:Wild World, Puzzle Quest, Mario Kart, Clubhouse Games, and Planet Puzzle League. That’s right, mainly puzzle games. Man, am I hardcore! What really drew me into the DS was the bit Generation games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dotstream#Dotstream). With simple gameplay and 8-bit style graphics, these games grabbed me immediately. I still own Orbital, Coloris, and Dialhex (my favorite), but I sent my friend James my copy of Dotstream. The aesthetic of the games themselves really drew me in with their minimalism, but the ability to get these games were tough. At one point I spent $30 per game which was frustrating. Even more frustrating: Nintendo could’ve released all seven games on a DS pack, but didn’t because these games weren’t considered “commercially viable” outside of Japan.Here’s a link to the Japanese site for the games that has short videos each. Bow down to the awesome sauce: (http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n08/bit_g/movie/index.html)

So, I was heartbroken over this. I honestly thought I wouldn’t find these types of games again. Mind you, there are some interesting games like this for the PS3 (yes, they have some decent games. Stressing “some”), but what about the Nintendo? Well, the Wii came out about two years ago, which excited me and I still plan on purchasing one of these, preferably before our son Paul is born because after he arrives, we’re going to be at home a lot. What really got me attracted to the Wii was the games you could download via WiiWare or Virtual Console. When looking through the WiiWare games, I found a line of games called Art Style. They are pretty much the bitGenerations games but for the Wii, including some new titles (http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/RiwQdeXXsY5Q88aGghMq654JqM-ljVnd). Maybe I’m just a simpleton, but I love their gameplay and design. I get excited about these games not just because I like them, but I also think my friends and family would get into them as well. It also shows some intelligence put into gaming, along with some minimalism, which I’m a complete sucker for. I don’t need to see the gritty detail of a Nazi getting blown apart in some WW2 shoot-‘em up game (honestly. You more intelligent types should be offended that companies make games reliving wars and selling it as entertainment) or killing aliens or catching touchdowns. Gimme my well designed linework, my puzzles, my imagination. Those simpler games are worth 10 of those blow ‘em up horrorfests and constant advertisements you call sports.