Super Mario Brothers

I am going to show my age a little bit tonight, but I really don't care. I'm 37 so it's not like I'm ancient or anything. *grin*

When I was a kid, my family bonded through video games. I remember being very young and going to the arcade to play Pac-Man and Galaga, and did it with just one quarter per game. It was A LOT of fun.

In time, we got an Atari and played for HOURS on it. In fact, I remember my brother and I being sent to bed, and my parents staying up to play without us. (What mean parents I had!) I remember games such as Centipede and Missile Command being the big games, and we would have our own competitions in our home.

When we got older and could stay home alone, we had a Nintendo. I remember playing Nintendo for HOURS on end. I also remember LOVING Super Mario Brothers. It came with the Nintendo game set, and I worked SO HARD to conquer all the "worlds" within the game. It was a lot of fun!!!

All my loyal readers know that early this year I finally bought a Wii. I have gone through various stages with the Wii, sometimes I play it a lot, and some months I don't even turn it on. Overall though, I am glad I bought it because just like when I was a kid, it gives me something to do with people when I guests over.

I recently bought the New Super Mario Brothers Wii game. I tried it out a couple weekends ago, and LOVED it, so I splurged and bought one for me. Today I had a friend over and we played it for about 8 hours! It was SO MUCH FUN! When we conquered World 1 we were dancing and yelling and cheering. Of course, it took us roughly 7 hours to do it! *grin*

I often hear people complaining about video games, and I will admit I have been one of those people from time to time. However, today I was reminded of what GOOD can come out of a video game.

First of all, it drew my friend and me closer together as we worked toward a common goal. We cheered each other on as we worked TOGETHER to beat the levels! It was also fun to figure things out with him too. I mean, he had never played the game before and I had only played it once before, so there was plenty to figure out. Sure, we could have read the manual, but what fun would that have been? *grin*

Secondly, it made me think about how hard we worked to beat the game. It took a lot of patience and perseverance to beat the game. More than once we talked about quitting, and we did take a brief break. In the end, we didn't quit. We kept at it, and in the end we knew we had EARNED the right to play level 2!

Finally, it reminded me of being at home as a kid, laying around on the living room floor yelling at the TV together. And cheering each other on to victory together. Today was priceless to me.

The coolest part is that we're only on Level 2, and have PLENTY more to figure out! I can't wait!

Right now though, I have a book to read! Gosh, I love break!

*grin*
Life.
Is.
Good.