Play the game...

The other night I got into a discussion with some of my twitter chums about video games, doing the nostalgia bit and all that. But that got me thinking, as a thirty-two year old, what games am I supposed to like? Now if it was down to them marketing people I would be cruising around Vice City doing the work of others. Though maybe as rebel I have never gone for that and discovered a rebirth.

As during the 90's Sega and Nintendo fought it out to be number one in the marketplace, I came down on the side of the Italian plumber. Buying all their products and old uncle Tom Cobbly and all as much as I could. Though through this period I got Total magazine, the Nintendo bible for me with reviews, features and cheats as well. Its was the style of the magazine that caught my eyes, anarchic and knowing as well. By using cartoons of their reviewers, this tied in with the sense of we're not journalists but we are one of you.

Totally magic...

Steve Jarrett, Wayne Allen and Andy Dyer thrust the magazine into newsagents at the end of 1991 when the Nintendo boom was coming to the boil, they raised the bar into new heights but by 1993 the unique feature of the sprite-style pictures were gone. They allowed the fans to see what the people writing the magazine looked like, using this device as means of poking fun but also showing what they were about.

Playtime in the Total! office...

Overtime, the reviews came and went, awarding Super Mario 64 the illusive 100% but in 1994 Jarrett went to launch Edge magazine for the more hardcore gamer. That's when gaming started go from bright colours to realism, I went along for the ride with the Nintendo 64 and later Playstations 1 and 2. Yes, they were realistic and a quantum leap away from the world of Yoshi, but they didn't have that feeling of being able to pick up and play straight away like the SNES had.

But then my brother found a Wii, I heard all about the console from the reports about it and that it was doing great business. So with a couple of games I set about trying to rekindle this love affair. Really, I thought that I would see for a while and got back to the Playstation but over time, I started to enjoy myself again. Feeling again what I did as 13 year old all those years ago, the plumber had hooked me. But it wasn't him which found my love supreme, yes there was games like Tiger Woods PGA Tour which were available and also Formula One 2009 as well, but it felt playable and I was in control. The one game which got me fully back into the spirit was a surprising one really, that is Wii Music....

"I'm playing all the right notes... But not neccesarly in the right order!"

I will admit I can't play a note in real life and maybe some people might think that playing music on a console might not be the real thing. But being able just to pick up and play is something special, hearing something which you've created. Never would I thought I would get a real feeling from again but after all this time the feeling's back and I feel good for it...