For me, these blog posts provide me with opportunities to contemplate my life as a gamer and the countless moments of joy, frustration, as well as perseverance that games have provided me. Many members of the millennial generation grew up with video games; some have "outgrown" the video games, whereas others, such as myself, remain avid players to this day. Today's generation Z youth are often fixated on their smartphones and "free-to-play" mobile games while lacking the cognizance of, what I consider, quality productions and classical works, whose Metacritic scores and/or cult fandom exemplify the degree to which video games have become state of the art.
For this final part of my "Reflections on Gaming" series, I wish to briefly look back on my childhood, adolescent, and adult experiences with gaming, highlighting key moments and franchises that are noteworthy. Certainly, unless I remain selective in the games and experiences I wish to this discuss, this will inevitably become an endless, banal autobiography of myself as a gamer (if it hasn't become one already). Every person enjoys and experiences video games in different ways. Every person has their favorite games and cherished memories that they hold onto. Such is the case with me as well.
From pre-school to fourth grade, I was never very good at playing games. My parents bought my sister and me a Super Nintendo and Gameboy. These were my first consoles, and for a while the only games we had were Super Mario World and Tetris 2. As time progressed, I slowly added to my collection. The first video game I ever completed was The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on the Gameboy. As a young gamer, I was mostly satisfied with replaying the same levels in the games I owned since I could never make it past a certain point in each game. In our youth, simplicity and repetition often sufficed for the purpose of keeping us entertained.
If I had to pick a few games that truly defined my later childhood and early teenage years as a gamer, I would have to give special attention to Mega Man X, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Pokemon, and Final Fantasy (VI and VII in particular). Not only was I addicted to these games, constantly replaying them over and over again, but I became a die-hard fan of each series, having played every major title for each series. All save for Mega Man X8, which I will complete by summer's end, and Final Fantasy XIV, which I have committed to never playing due to having lost seven years of my life to Final Fantasy XI (both XI and XIV are MMORPGs). I owned a Nintendo 64, a spontaneous present that my mother gifted me one day when we were at the mall, and later purchased a Playstation One and Playstation 2 (I still own my Playstation 2), which served to provide me with hundreds of hours of gaming (and movie) entertainment. I still have my Gamecube, original Xbox, red Wii that came with New Super Mario Bros., PS3, two Gameboy Advances, DS Lite, multiple 3DSes (I collect different editions, mostly Zelda themed), Wii U, PS4, and Switch. I plan to buy an Xbox One or One X at a later date.
I think I became a completionist gamer around the time I started playing Zelda and Final Fantasy. I had to complete every quest, obtain every collectible item, and max out my characters' stats if possible. In Pokemon, I have completed the Pokedex for every game generation: 151, 251, 386, 493, 649, 721, 806 (since Zeraora is not yet released outside of Japan)... I felt compelled to play every game of each series that I loved. As I aged and entered adulthood, I rediscovered Metal Gear Solid, which is now one of my favorite video game franchises, and played through every main entry in the series. Big Boss is my favorite video game character, and MGS's masterful yet convoluted storytelling with its memorable characters and anti-nuclear movement theme truly resonate with me. Furthermore, I loved playing each game in the Metroid, Castlevania, Kingdom Hearts, Uncharted, God of War, Assassin's Creed, and Batman Arkham series. Arguments have already been made for why the following games can be considered among the greatest ever made: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Zelda
Link to the Past, and Zelda Breath of the Wild; Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 3,
Sonic and Knuckles and Sonic Mania; Super Metroid and the Metroid Prime
Trilogy; Castlevania 3, Super Castlevania IV, and Castlevania Symphony of the Night; Metal Gear
Solid 1-5; Batman Arkham Asylum and Arkham City; Ico and
Shadow of the Colossus; Portal 1 and 2; the Mass Effect Trilogy; Mega Man 2 and Mega man X; Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, IX, X, and Tactics; Chrono Trigger; Uncharted 2, 3, and 4; Donkey Kong Country; Okami; Shovel Knight; Cave Story; Undertale; Xenoblade Chronicles; The Last of Us; Ducktales...
I also still need find time to play the Witcher, Dark Soul, Elder Scrolls, Deus Ex, GTA, Bioshock, and Persona series. Long is my bucket list, and hopefully I can complete all the games I wish to finish before I die.
Today, I cannot stand leaving a game that I have played unfinished; before I move on to the next game, I have to beat and complete (sometimes even to 100%) a game until I deem my completion rate for that particular game adequate. I usually only make an effort to 100% my favorite games, but in general I am quite selective about the games I play. Now I spend all my money collecting games during Black Friday and other sales, acquiring overpriced collector's editions, and keeping the majority of the games I purchase in the plastic shrink wrap until the day when I can find the time to actually play through them. There have months when I can hardly play any games due to work, graduate school, or simply getting distracted and failing to find time for this video gaming hobby of mine. For now, I think it's best to simply end this post and actually go play a game. Megaman X Legacy Collections 1 and 2 recently came out, and 'tis time for me to reconnect with some dear old friends of mine: X and Zero.
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