I don't have the typical "I've been playing video games since I had fingers" history. To me, video games were that thing my dad played while he worked out (he still has an original play station on which he plays one of the first Maddens...or some other football game. Either way, it's old as shit). Then to shut me up as a kid, I received a pink GameBoy Advance, where I played Pokemon: Sapphire, Xena: Warrior Princess, a Totally Spies game, and a Powerpuff Girls Game. Oh yeah, I was a girl gamer. This continued when I upgraded to the DS Lite, with such masterpieces such as Cooking Mama, Gardening Mama, and a Polly Pocket game. There were others, but they were lost to the void that was the old mini-van we had. That or my brother stole all of them when I stopped using my DS. I also had a computer in my room, but it wasn't hooked up to the internet and was only used for horrible games based on dolls and kids shows.
I never even thought of video games really being important to me until the Wii came out. My brother and I had never begged for anything so hard in our lives. Up until then, the only experience we had with a home console was the GameCube we played at the daycare/neighbor's house we went to before school. There, we first experienced Mario Kart: Double Dash, and the underrated and probably horrible 3D Platformer iNinja.
My mother finally conceded and got us the Wii, only because it would "give us a workout".
It did not give us a workout.
We maybe played a total of three hours of the athletic Wii games, versus over 300+ hours of the random games you'd only ever hear of if you watch obscure, Let's Players. We had the original Endless Ocean (Game Grumps fans, you know what that is), and we finished that shit. One hundred percent completion. We also had games based on Shrek: The Third, Spongebob (and it's not the one everyone played on the GameCube; it was Creature from the Krusty Krab), and the Simpsons. We had the must-haves, too. Your Zeldas and Marios (including the Karts), but we also had (and still have) almost every single MySims game ever released.
A few years into this, the floodgates opened. For the same Christmas, my brother got an Xbox 360 and I got a PS3. Since then, I upgraded to the PS4, but my brother has pretty much joined the PC master race, and just threw all his money into a desktop. We did both go in on the Wii-U, and will probably get the Switch, too. We love our Nintendo.
For me, video games have always been my favorite story-telling medium. Interactive story-telling that I can control in some way. I don't get distracted or lose interest because I am the protagonist. As someone who needs to be doing multiple things at once, video games help me focus and relax at the same time.
In the past year, all of my favorite video games have been remastered/ported to newer consoles. While a lot of people see remasters and ports as obvious cash grabs, I never see them that way. For a college student who could only bring one console to school (which is my PS4), it's a way I can show my friends here my favorite games!
For my first articles on Odyssey, I'm going to focus on these games, reflecting on what they were, and where the series has gone since then. The remasters I am referring to (and what to look for in the future) are as follows:
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD
Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection
Batman: Return to Arkham
Skyrim: Legendary Edition
So yeah! Are you as pumped as I am? Yeah, you are. You don't just have to look out for these games, I also have a lot to say about movies, TV, politics, Youtube, and modern games, and since my brother and I both share our love for video games, I'll probably mention him a lot.
Does this mean I'm a gaming journalist now? Holy shit fanboys are going to hate me. Well, I may not be IGN quality, but hopefully, I can provide some short of substance and entertainment. Enjoy!
