I didn’t grow up with Nintendo. I played plenty of arcade games, but for some reason we picked the “wrong” home video game systems: Odyssey 2 instead of Atari 2600, Atari 7800 instead of NES. Of course I’ve played Super Mario Bros. but I didn’t “grow up” with it the way my wife, many of my friends, and most people my age (late 30s) did.
I recently bought Super Mario Bros. on the Wii’s Virtual Console so the kids can play a game that is easy to understand and control (though it isn’t an “easy game”). They really like it, and I was a little surprised how much I enjoy it, too. And if I felt guilty for liking an old and silly game (I didn’t) I’ve recently come across a couple pro-Mario articles:
Why A Man Plays Mario (Kotaku.com)
Better Late than Never? (AV Club)
I think this (from the latter article) sums it up:
Here’s another thing I didn’t understand about games until I played Super Mario Bros.: Games are supposed to be fun. And it is enough for games to be fun.
