Family Fun Time

got this image right off the Nintendo website

Growing up with my Family, I was the undisputed #1 fan of video games.  I'm not sure when this was clear, but I do recall working hard to prove this point, even if no one particularly wanted to compete with me for the title.  I just knew that video games were for me.  When my family bought a new TV, I insisted that the old TG&Y piece of crap TV go into my room.  And even though I had to use a pair of pliers to turn it off and on, I was a rich child- I had what I wanted.  

I moved one game system, and eventually all game systems into my room, whereupon I held dominion over them.  I don't remember asking permission, I simply remember exercising Manifest Destiny over our family's NES and SNES.  After all, hadn't it been *I* who had badgered my parents, non-stop, for what seemed like years-- to buy a Super Nintendo?  And wasn't it me who saved up his own money to buy a Nintendo 64 the day it came out?  I deserved those systems, and that was all there was to it.  My younger sister Samz may have protested. After all, she played the most video games after me, and was a stalwart co-op game ally.  But I was insistent in my role as #1 game player of the household. 

It wasn't always this way.  There was a period when video games were for the whole family.  I can't quite place it, but it was a time before the Super Nintendo, but after the Original Nintendo.  My parents tended to drag their feet about buying me new toys, they didn't seem to understand that Nintendo was the greatest thing there was, and really, the best use of their money, as far as I was concerned.  Our Atari 2600 carried us through the first couple of years after NES was released, and we finally got a Nintendo with the Super Mario/Duck Hunt cart.   I can barely remember when this happened, but I know my age was still in single digits.

Anyhow, during the time before I  took over all matters of video gaming in our house, there was a golden period of the original Nintendo Entertainment System, where we all would play games, sometimes together, as a family.   Except my Mom - my Mom never got into any games at all, and I have a fuzzy memory of her holding a controller with a dumbfounded and annoyed look, like it was something the cat dragged in:  "What am I supposed to do with this thing?"    

My Dad would definitely do the funny move-the-controller-to-make-the-car-turn action that everyone does at some point when they're new to video games.  Action games weren't really his thing.  He and my older sister Emz both showed a preference for RPG and Adventure games.   Dad and Emz didn't play many games but they did play a few pretty seriously.  And when they got involved, then it was on!   

I have to tell you, having my Dad play video games with us was probably the coolest thing in all of gaming.  I had all the enthusiasm for gaming, I wanted to play NES more than anyone, and I dedicated the most time.  But I think fondly of the group effort that resulted whenever my Dad got involved.   I experienced that wonderful balance that many of us know- between playing the game, and watching others play it, and feeling involved all the time.  I miss that.

My Dad brought in other elements of his own.  The one that stands out most in my mind was mapping.  He broke out graph paper and a ruler, and proceeded to map every dungeon in Zelda II,  and also every dungeon in Ultima Exodus.  This allowed those of us who weren't playing to participate in a significant way.  And since I was pretty young at the time, it helped me to work on the new skill of cartography (after a fashion). 


Below, I'm going to say a little bit about the games that stand out to me as Family Games.  
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The Legend of Zelda Becoming Legend

I've been a fan of the Legend of Zelda games since after we first got our Nintendo, which I talked about in one of my first posts.  Something about the simplicity of the game play and the memorableness of the music made for such an amazing gaming experience for a 10 year old.  Over the years I've played through many of the games that make up The Legend of Zelda franchise, with the exceptions of Oracle of Seasons, Oracile of Ages, Four Swords Adventure, Minish Cap and Skyward Sword.  Just for whatever reason, I never got around to playing the LoZ games that came out on the GBC and GBA; Skyward Sword I haven't played because I don't own a Wii.  However, with the two aforementioned games in the series that I haven't finished, because I had stopped playing them, because I began to lose interest, I've felt in recent years, a fading of The Legend of Zelda series.

Some of my views about the games in the series, while not necessarily controversial, I don't feel are common with the rest of the LoZ fan base.  For example, I feel that Majora's Mask is a stronger game and a lot more fun than Ocarina of Time.  I also feel that music MM is more of music that I can listen to by itself and less atmospheric than in OoT.  I also think that Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is a great (albeit pain in the ass) game.  So much so that I can't imagine any of the polygonal Zelda games happening if it weren't for the side scrolling, expansive vision of Hyrule that Zelda II introduced.  I also love the animation and art style in Wind Waker.  No, I didn't mind all the sailing as the end of the game gave a fantastic explanation/reasoning behind the world existing.

And then it was great to see the same style of art/animation again in the two games on the DS, Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks.  Sadly though, this is where our tale ends.  After I finished Phantom Hourglass, I started Spirit Tracks, expecting a somewhat similar experience.  I played ST for a couple of hours before the Left Trigger button on my DS decided to stop, but by that point I had already felt like stopping.  I wasn't feeling engaged with the story and I felt like I had somewhat figured out the basis and arc of the game only after watching the opening cinematic.

I received a similar feeling while playing Twilight Princess.  I had reached a part in the game where I felt I needed more heart containers, which meant I had to forego the main storyline and wander around the beautifully created re-re-re-re-re-re-imagining of Hyrule looking for, what is it now? Five pieces of a heart container to give an extra heart?  I remember being annoyed in A Link to the Past when you had to find four pieces to create a heart container.  I however came to terms with this being another alteration in the series, so I accepted it and got over myself.

True, the LoZ series hasn't had a great deal of original-ness, with the main storylines being that you have to rescue Zelda from Ganon, or some itteration on the save the princess theme, but they've still been fun to play.  Just like the Super Mario Bros., Metroid and Castlevania games, there is not a lot of originality, but still loads of fun to play (except I haven't played through a Super Mario Bros. game since Super Mario World and Super Mario RPG, so maybe that's not the greatest of arguments).

On a similar, but slightly different note, a few months back I came across on Last.fm called ZReO or Zelda: ReOrchestrated, which initally billed themselves as symphonic orchestrations of the music from the Legend of Zelda games.  I was really excited.  I'd heard a number of symphoic orchestrations of music from this series, but the music from all the games not only sounded epic in it's attempt, but amazing in that it came from ALL OF THE GAMES!!  I began typing out an article about this ground a number of months ago but in the information gathering process, I discovered than the "group" only uses audio samples for the instruments that make up this "orchestra."  Don't get me wrong, the music sounds good and I would love to hear it performed by an actual symphony, but needless to say (which is why I'm saying it), I was a little let down.  But that shouldn't stop anyone from giving what they've done a listen as all their music is free to download.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
And They Will Play On Forever More