The Videogames of My Childhood

Smash Bros Brawl, PM, Melee

Where to begin? If there’s any game that I have the most history with, it’s Smash Bros. As young kids, we weren’t allowed to play Brawl because our parents feared it would create violent behavior in us. Not a completely unfounded fear, but eventually they compromised and let us play it as long as we picked the non-human characters.

I’ve spent hundreds if not thousands of hours on different Smash Bros titles. It was the game my friends and I all had in common. We took it seriously, getting salty when we’d lose. Went to a few local tournaments.

Characters I’ve mained:

• Sheik (Smash 4)
• Captain Falcon (Brawl, 4, Ultimate, Melee/PM)
• Samus (4, Melee)
• Fox and Falco (Melee/PM)
• Marth (4, Melee/PM)
• Charizard (4, PM)
• Jigglypuff (4)
• Ike (Brawl)

For the last year or two, I’ve been playing a lot of Melee online with Slippi. I like it because it requires minimal setup, it’s free, the game is old (easy to run) and I don’t have to worry about game updates mucking up my characters. Also it’s really easy to run on Linux unlike most PC games.

Pokemon Pearl, Platinum

Pokemon Pearl my beloved. Another early Nintendo game for me. I had Pokemon Pearl and my dad had Diamond. Another game with great mystery. I loved reading the Gamefreak guides at the bookstore and learning all about the map, looking for things I hadn’t found yet.

Eventually I got into Action Replay and R4 so I stopped playing the game for what it is and got into modding, but that’s another story. I did play through the entire game.

The music and vibes are immaculate.

Mario Kart DS, Wii, Doubledash

Mario Kart DS might be the first Nintendo game I ever played. When I was like 12 my dad came home with an old DS “phat” and Mario Kart DS.

What a great game given the time and handheld nature. The unlockable characters had such mystery to them like ROB and Shyguy. I would only see them online as I was too young to Google how to unlock them.

Wii was also a blast, amazing aesthetics and music. I really liked the online even though it was ravaged by hackers. I found gamecube controllers to feel wrong with this title even though they are technically compatible (rare Nintendo W.)

I played double dash around the same time. Another great title with mysterious unlockable characters, fun shortcuts and great mechanics. The most fun way to play was… not with two people on one kart. That way you get full control and can punch people/use items all on your own. It is a good way to play with a younger kid and I’m sure I co-oped with my dad.

Mario 64 DS, Mario Sunshine, Mario Galaxy

As a pre-teen I spent many hours on Mario 64 DS. It felt like a sandbox to me, like there was always more to explore and more easter eggs and hidden areas to find. The surreal nature, though less present in DS compared to the original, still existed and was influential on me. Mario 64 has a cult following so there’s not much I can say that hasn’t been said already.

I played Mario Sunshine when I was a bit older but still young. Different vibes. Mario 64 to Sunshine is a serious culture shock. But much of the same mystery - seeing islands in the distance and wondering if there was some way to get there, underground sewer systems you could run around in, and graffiti everywhere. A standout performance from Bowser Jr.

I really liked Yoshis and the different colors you could get by eating fruit, and the FLUDD nozzles.

Mario Galaxy was the first game I played on the Wii. This was the game that was on display to sell the console. This game feels very different from 64 and Sunshine as it’s much more puzzle heavy and closer aesthetically to modern Mario. You do have series-exclusive enemies and items but it is all polished and accessible.

The crossover of having Rosalina in this and Mario Kart Wii was neat. Nintendo was making a strong effort to push this new princess.

Somehow I have fewer fond memories of Galaxy than 64 or Sunshine but still a must-play game.

Mario Bros Wii, Mario Bros DS

Mario Bros Wii was so much fun. Great music and fun times with friends, avoiding their respawn bubbles and playing on the lava rollercoaster level.

I spent similar amounts of time on Mario Bros DS. The DS download play feature was great. We forget how good we had it - LAN multiplayer and only one person needed to own the game.

Pikmin 1, 2

I spent many hours exploring Pikmin. I did well at the game from a young age, playing through and unlocking the different types of Pikmin. That was my favorite part, the mystery of different Pikmin types.

One time I made the different Pikmin out of clay. This was before Nintendo toys were everywhere. I bet there’s official plastic Pikmin toys now.

My first exposure to it was playing co-op with my cousin. I think co-op or versus came in 2? I don’t remember.

Spore Creatures, Spore

Spore was a large part of my childhood. My friend introduced it to me. The game does not support real co-op but you can find other player’s creatures in the different gameplay stages.

Spore is still playable. There are some bugs with the Sporepedia and online functionality but surprisingly, EA resurrected the servers and they are still online.

Burnout Paradise

I loved Burnout Paradise for its open world. I spent hours driving around the city, going through paint shops and doing tricks on the beach ramps. I did play online once with my cousins and remember exploiting this glitch I found where you could slide sideways into a ramp and the game would teleport you away after a moment. They were flying towards me and then boop I disappear. This game is still available on PC though I doubt I would appreciate it as much.

Commanders: Attack of the Genos

A story and multiplayer game like Advance Wars. I don’t remember much of the story but I did like the characters, especially the androgynous, secretive Raven.

I remember my dad, his brother and father playing this one online. I really like the music, art style and explosions when units are blown up. Still playable on Windows if you download the torrent/repack/crack from Rutorrent, but I wasn’t able to get audio working in WINE.

Viva Pinata

This was an Xbox 360 game which allows you to cultivate a garden. You have to arrange it in a certain way to encourage creatures to come into and stay in the garden. There are a few Pinatas that need to be hunted to unlock other Pinatas which was always a moral dilemma. There are “evil” dark pinata that come out at night and hunt from your garden. If you allowed a certain pinata to be hunted in a certain way, you could tame the evil dark.