rubinville

I've been thinking back fondly to my days as Assistant Manager at Electroncs Boutique lately. This soul-searching/reminiscing has led to this very important entry. Yea, that's right, I'm going to rank video game systems by how they have affected my life. Let the controversy begin...

1. Nintendo
The original 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, also known in more nerdish circles as the NES. This system was my first video game system and had such a grip on me that it eventually led to the beginning of the end of me being able to play with GI Joe and Transformer toys. It came with Super Mario Bros., perhaps the best adventure game ever on a video game system. How they were able to package the system with a game about an italian plumber who ate mushrooms while chasing an overgrown turtle is still a mystery to me, but they somehow pulled it off.

Nintendo had many classic games including Contra, Mike Tyson's Punchout, Baseball Stars, Metroid and Legend of Zelda. My brother and I beat Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link faster than anyone we knew, we still believe we were the first people in America to accomplish the feat. (I'd say the world, but as we all know Japan gets their video game releases before we do.)

The Nintendo controller was a simple 2 button format, just the A and B buttons, and it worked pretty damn well. Punch/Kick, Swing/Throw, we could do it all with just two buttons. If we had only known what the future would hold.

2. Sega Genesis
Perhaps the most amazing accomplishment of the Sega Genesis was that it was able to dethrown Nintendo from their perch high atop the video game world. Like the name of the system, this feat in itself wa almost biblical. Genesis had better graphics, better sound, a controversial 3rd button and a sleek, black look. It came packaged with Altered Beast and it's first run of games included Ghouls and Ghosts, which I would argue is the most underrated video game of all time.

What pushed Genesis to the next level was probably it's lineup of great sports games. Electronic Arts, which later spun its sports division into EA Sports, came out with Lakers V. Celtics and Madden Football. Lakers V. Celtic eventually became what we know now as NBA Live, and Madden Football became what we now know as Madden Football. I spent so many hours in the basement with my brother and friends playing both those games that there were times we even forgot to have our after-school snack! I kid you not.

3. Sony Playstation
I remember the first time I saw Sony Playstion. I sophmore in college and this kid Chris, who i wasn't really friends with got the system. It was a transistion moment for me, because now that I didn't have the system that was most popular, it became the first time that I wasn't one of the best at all the games we played. I should note here, that at the same time I began smoking pot, so my eye hand coordination wasn't what is once was.

Basically all we played on Playstation were sports games, again mostly NBA Live and Madden Football. Hour after hour of stoned sports games. I'd write more about this time, but I don't really remember it.

4. Sony Playstation 2
My times with PS2, my current video game system, has been a bitter-sweet time for me. The skills when it comes to the sports games are mostly still there, but now my 14 year old cousin, who I once could whip in any game with my eyes closed, can now smack me around pretty good. My ability to play for hour after hour has also greatly diminished as my eyes start to burn and my fingers get stiff after a certain period of time. However, despite these unavoidable consequences of aging, I have begun a new journey into the many genre's of video games. As many of you know, I am now playing Baldurs Gate 2, after conquering the first, and before that beating X-Men Legends. These games are role-playing games, and not the type you play with your significant other. Well, unless you roleplay as a drawf and a wizard, but that's really your business.

Anyway, the PS2 has both opened and closed some video game doors for me. Well, mostly it has closed doors, but every now and then I do find the right magical key. I don't play for as long, or have the emotional stake that I once did, but now when I play it's just a way of escaping the day to day crazyness that life is.

Well, that, and also learning how to shoot and maim people, like in such games as Grand Theft Auto. Because, we all know, if Joe Lieberman is right, video games make people kill.

Now lemme get going, I have to sharpen my machette.