My Gaming Journey Part I: What Started Me on the Path of Gaming
Why hello there, blog reader. I’m so glad you could join me today. Today, I’m going to talk to you about what got me started on the path of gaming Let’s a-go, like Mario!
Speaking of Mario, the Super Mario Bros. is what got me started on the gaming path. Indeed, Super Mario did just that. So, you may be asking yourself, what about the Super Mario Bros. series of games got me into gaming? It’s simple. When you’re a kid who is in elementary school and you are being bullied like I was, you’d want an escape. Something to get you away from all the drama and such. For me, the Mushroom Kingdom, ruled by Princess Toadstool Peach, was that escape. Here, in this Kingdom surrounded by blocks that I could jump and break to get powerups, to the lovable and easily excited Toads, I could run, jump, climb, and have fun with Mario, all why escaping from my bullies.
Another game that got me started gaming was Kingdom Hearts, which is essentially a story about friendship and the cliché of light defeating darkness, or at least, the first. To explain the story of the next games would be way too confusing and convoluted for non-gamers (I mean, come on, it even confuses me sometimes!), so I’ll just leave it at that. The gameplay has improved over the years, and I find myself coming back to the series all the time. It’s also what got me into ARPGs (Action Role-playing Games).
Finally, we have the Final Fantasy series of games, specifically, Final Fantasy X (10, for those of you who can’t read Roman numerals.) This is what truly got me into JRPGs (Japanese Roleplay Games). This game, to this day I have yet to beat it, is truly adored and it will always have a special place in my heart. The love story between the two main protagonist, Yuna and Tidus (I pronounce it Tee-duhs, but most people pronounce it Tie-duhs) is, from what I’ve heard, very bittersweet. The plot basically follows like this: Tidus is taken from his home of Zanarkand by a force called Sin. Sin transports Tidus to Spira, but it turns out, somehow, he jumped 1000 years into the future. He joins Yuna and her guardians, Wakka, Lulu, Kimahri, and eventually, Rikku and Auron, on her quest to defeat Sin. Along the way, Tidus and Yuna fall in love. And that’s the plot without spoiling too much. I highly recommend checking it out, even if you aren’t into gaming. You can get it on Xbox One, Playstations 2, 3, and 4, as well as on PC (I used to own it on PS2, before it stopped working).
And there you have it! Those are the games that got me into gaming. If you’re a non-gamer, I recommend playing some Super Mario games. If you’re already a gamer, like me, I recommend the other games I have listed. As always, thank you for reading my blogs! See you all in the next blog!
My Gaming Journey-A Retrospective: By Tim G. 