Super Mario 64: A Tribute to Nintendo

I remember my first video game. Wow, that was weird to say (slash type). Being a millennial, besides being doomed to eventually move back in with my parents, means video games seem like they've been a part of my life ever since I was old enough to understand what my dad's Palm Pilot was. But thinking about my first video game, I realize how much of my future experience depended on that first time I really got excited about playing something on my tv. For me, that first experience was Super Mario 64.

I get it: Nintendo wasn't the first video game maker. You guys who grew up with Atari and the early PC games were the first. And that's awesome. For me, Mario was the first character to introduce me to gaming. I spent so much time trying to figure out how to get around that first stupid level, until it turned out I had to jump INTO the paintings!

In hindsight, the straightforwardness of this type of level design was brilliant. It was easy for my 6-year old brain to understand. I didn't care yet about whether a game respected my time, so running from room to room to visit different levels made perfect sense. I was in a castle, and to get to other places I jumped into different paintings in different rooms within the castle. I remember being so confused watching my friends play other games with complicated menus that led them from level to level in lieu of a real-world "hub". Nowadays, things have changed such that the public demands streamlined interfaces to help you get into the game as fast as possible so you can get your stuff done. I get it: we've learned a lot since then. We don't need to have our hands held through different concepts anymore. But dang, the concept of a video game was so simple back then. You buy game. You put game into slot. You press power. You play game. Nintendo was one of the early champions of gaming and, because of their efforts, millions of people today are having fun playing games they love. But we should look back a little more often and remember the hand-holders that made it all possible.