My Birthday, and my love for video games

One thing can be said about my wife - she knows how to celebrate people and occasions.

Last Tuesday was my birthday - my 29th, and I've resolved to stop counting from here on out - and I woke up to find a bowl full of honey nut Cheerios, a box of Swedish Fish, and a note from Shelley promising a fun day ahead. I happen to be a big fan of including dessert with every meal of the day, so all in all, I got things started off right.

Waiting for Shelley to come back from a work meeting, I plopped down in front of the TV and fired up XBox 360, which has a few awesomely-retro games downloaded on it. I didn't know it, but video games - right up there with my love for writing and hockey - would be a main theme of the day. Needless to say, I was quite pleased when Shelley got home and we began a day of maximum funnage.

Why do I love video games? Well, there are several reasons. It started when my older brothers got an Atari 2600 when I was only 3 or 4. Once I figured out how to use the joystick, I promptly lost at every game in every way possible, but I didn't care. After a few years, I graduated to my brother's NES, and the game that kind of started it all for me: Batman, based on the 1989 movie. From the music to the gameplay to the awesome-for-the-time graphics, I'll always remember that game fondly. Remember that, because it factors in later in the story.

Aside from that, the often-cold Michigan weather meant that playing basketball or street hockey wasn't the most fun option for me when I got home from school. As well, video games allowed me to control the entertainment that I was enjoying - I could only watch Transformers: The Movie and The Lion King so many times (100 times each? Oh yeah, I was hardcore). One birthday, I received a Sega Genesis with Sonic the Hedgehog, my first console of what is now a collection of 16 game systems and growing! The types of games have changed, but the appeal stays the same, and whether with others or by myself, video games are just wonderful entertainment.

My wife knows this, because after a tasty lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, she gave me my first gift - $30 to spend at a retro game/record store. We arrived there and walked in for the first time, and amidst a sea of vintage vinyl albums was also a great collection of old games. At first, it was hard to choose, until...what was that behind a glass case? An original NES. And on the far wall? A copy of "Batman."

After having the owner test the NES and Batman game, and getting advice from him about what to do when ants make their home in electronic gadgets, I was on my way, pushed on a rush of nostalgia.

The next stop, however, was a whole new level of fun: my next gift was a bunch of money to spend at an old-school arcade. For the next two hours, Shell and I tag-teamed some arcade Mario Kart, helped Homer and Bart save Maggie from Mr. Burns in The Simpsons arcade game from the early 90's (seriously, that show has been around forever), shot a whole lot of dinosaurs in The Lost World light gun game, and played the most tense game of air hockey you've never seen. In the midst of it all, we both had a blast. That's another great thing about video games - the memories you make when you play them with loved ones. I think every time I play air hockey for the rest of my life, I will always remember the epic game Shell and I played on my birthday.

Moving on from there, I snagged Metal Gear Solid 3 for the Playstation 2 at Gamestop, finally owning all four games in the MGS series, and we then relaxed to eat dinner and watch the NHL playoffs at the restaurant - the Sharks vs. the Canucks. Secretly, I was cheering for the Canucks, but uh...you don't announce that in a crowded, rowdy restaurant in San Jose. The natives were getting restless...good thing we left before the Sharks got eliminated.

The one other gift I received that day came at the restaurant, too: money toward a home theater system! My first thought was, "I can't wait to watch/hear Avatar and Inception on our TV and sound system!"...and my second thought was, "Do I even know how AWESOME all my video games will look/sound when we move to SoCal and set up our entertainment center?!"

Nerd-thoughts like this occur on a daily basis.

My other two favorite things, hockey and writing, were both covered in the form of goalie leg pads and FOUR well-written birthday cards, respectively. When we move to SoCal, I can't wait to bust out those goalie pads and school some fools in roller hockey (hopefully without involving any injuries). And after an extremely timely and heartfelt card from my parents, Shelley had fun with picking out three different birthday cards for me that proved you can write seriously funny stuff in only a few words.

All in all, it was a fantastic birthday. That's about the 10th time I've said it, but it's true. And it reminded me of why I've loved video games for all these years. I'm already looking forward to, one day soon, helping Batman save Gotham City once again.



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