Video Games

On Tuesday morning, on my way to my last day of work before Thanksgiving Break, I got into my first car accident as a driver. I had just merged onto I-90 from the exit ramp, and I needed to merge to the middle lane or be stuck going on to I-787. Problem is, this time of morning, everybody is going to 787, so the lane I’m in is going about 20 mph. The middle lane cars are going 50-60, normal traffic speed, its really rainy and icy out, I can’t see a thing. I begin to merge over, and am sideswiped by an 18-wheeler. I almost shit myself, but I was lucky. All that I had was a dis-attached mirror, hanging by the cord, and it wasn’t even broken. I took it into the car dealership after work.

My Playstation 2 had been broken since about September. I hadn’t bought a new one yet. I kept telling myself it’s because I don’t have the time to play. But, there is always time. You make time for the things that are important. I just didn't want to spend the money. Yet, after spending $214 to reattach a mirror, I decided to spend the $149 and get myself a new Playstation 2.

Yes, I am 24 and still play videogames. People my age have grown up with them. The popular games for me now are Madden Football, the last three Grand Theft Auto’s, and Metal Gear. The new graphics still amaze me. I thought about waiting until the PS3 comes out, but I decided against it. There is a certain point where a person has enough technology to satisfy. My grandfather is happy with cable tv and fm radio. My father has stopped at the computer and internet. He is befuddled by video games. I used to not understand how he could not want to learn how to play video games, but I thing I understand. I have no intention of getting an IPod, or a satellite radio, or Xbox 360. I have enough technology to keep myself confused. Even a simple cellphone without a camera is fine. Some of the things on it, like text message, I still haven’t quite figured out.

The greatest video games, anyway, include more of the classics from Original “Old School” Nintendo than from the more advanced systems. Here is THE list of the greatest video games ever, in no particular order.

Pong—simple, yet enjoyable. Like bouncing a ball against the wall and waiting for it to come back to you, it never gets old.

Ms. Pac-Man—“She's fun. She's cute. She swallows.”-Van Wilder

Super Mario Bros. 1—The Original. It defined the mythical adventure genre. Unlike complex games like Zelda where you have to find stuff and think, in Mario you just go from one side of the screen to the other. I can beat the game using warps in less than 9 minutes and, going through every board, in about half an hour.

Super Mario Bros. 3—The Greatest Video Game of All Time. Hands down. No Questions asked. Just amazing.

Contra—Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A B A Select Start.

RBI Baseball—The first game to use real players. And by real players I mean bubble shaped cartoons that had the real players's names. It has teams from 1986, so we get the Red Sox with Roger Clemens, Dave Henderson, Wade Boggs, et al, the Mets with coked up Darryl and Doc, the Angels with a ready to retire yet amazing video game star Reggie Jackson.

NHL 94 (or was it 95?)—This is the game Vince Vaughn and co. played on Swingers, so it has to make the list.

Tecmo Bowl and Super Tecmo Bowl—The greatest football video games of all time. People still bow down in reverence when they hear Video Bo Jackson mentioned. There were real players, for Super, real season stats and rankings, and best of all, the game play was simple. Instead of the complex offense and defense schemes you see in Madden, you had 4 offensive plays in Tecmo, 8 in Super, and defense was just guessing what offensive play the other person or computer picked.

Crash Bandicoot Warped—The Mario of Playstation. It brought the Mario 3 genre into 3-D. At least for me.

Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andrea—So wrong, yet so fun.

Madden Football—The Madden games are great. I still get nostalgic for Tecmo, but there really is nothing like Madden.