We all remember that day. Pulling the large, gray consul out of the box, plugging it in, and beginning life as a “Mario” devotee. Ah, those were the days. Before there were Halo 1,2, or 3, before Wii’s and Cubes and Boxes, there was The Original Nintendo. But we didn’t call it original back then. It was just called friend and bringer of Bowser goodness. What follows is a tribute to the good ol’ days of gaming.

I appreciate the developments in game consuls. I never could have imagined in my childhood that someday they’d make controllers that ‘rumbled’ or games with more than two dimensions (I think Microsoft is working on an 5th dimensional system). But I was happy with what I had. When Super Mario Bro.s 3 came out I don’t think any of us expected the joy it would bring. I spent countless hours battling koopas and rescuing kings. Tonooki suits, pixie wings, and fire power were my weapons against the onslaught of turtles, turtles with wings, turtles with armor, and so forth. It was me and my little Italian plumber against the world. I was always Mario, by the way. Luigi is for n00bs.

I got an N64 for my fourteenth birthday and our old NES went the way of the storage room. Then it was all about the PS and then the X-Box. Now this new generation of gamers have never seen Princess Toadstool or a ’1 Up’ mushroom. Tragic. I think we should all get back to basics and spend a little time with our roots. Find an old Nintendo consul and have at it. It would be like a return to the womb…if you were born a true gamer that is….

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 8:36 am and is filed under Total Coolness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.