Your history with video games

[Cloudman]

mZuzek said:
Well I don't expect anyone will be able to properly keep up with a thread like this.

I had a SNES and Genesis since before I can remember, and my older brother says we also had a NES but I can't remember it. Since he was older than me, he usually had the say in any gaming decisions we ever made because I was easily influenced by him - and his influence was always the general word-of-mouth.

I loved both consoles as a kid, my favorite games probably being Zelda and Sonic 2 in each one, but a day came when someone offered us a trade - either the Genesis or the SNES for a Game Boy Color. Naturally, I wanted to get rid of the Genesis because I loved Zelda so much and was actually able to progress farther into it than my brother (you can't imagine the pride that comes from being better in a game than your 3 years older brother), being actually relatively close to beating it for a small kid who didn't know English. We argued a lot, since he wanted to keep the Genesis to play... football... (or soccer if you would)... obviously he managed to have it his way and there went my only chance to beat a Zelda game as a kid.

But the good side was I was introduced to Pokémon and also fell in love with it. Not long after, we would get a PlayStation - it was a pretty good time actually with the 3 consoles from different companies. I played a lot of Sonic on the Genesis (but only ever managed to beat 3D Blast), Crash on the PS1 (beat the entire trilogy) and Pokémon on the GBC (finished both the 1st and 2nd generation games). Eventually the Genesis disappeared. I think it's the kind of things that happen as a kid and you don't worry about your consoles as much... I never saw it again. It was probably around 2003/04 when it happened.

We got a PS2 in 2005 and it was our main console for a while, as the PS1 faded into irrelevance and we lost our GBA (which we got in exchange for the GBC) around 2007. And while I did play loads and loads of games on the PS2, its reign could be divided into 2 eras: the GTA San Andreas era and the Guitar Hero era. The console eventually stopped working in late 2008 (though I have managed to play on it a few times years later), and it only led to the next thing.

We got the Xbox 360 in 2008 and for the first year or so it was pretty much my Guitar Hero / Rock Band machine. I simply loved those games and played them endlessly - it was awesome being able to play them online and in fact the whole Xbox Live experience blew me away. But destiny didn't want it that way - in late 2009, there was a thunderstorm and a lightning struck near our house. It broke a few devices, with the biggest loss being the Xbox 360... partially. The console itself still worked (after scaring the hell out of me with the red ring of death), but it could no longer connect to the internet. From then on it was over... it remained my main system for years, but there were barely any games that interested me anymore and I never liked the thing as much being restricted to offline play.

During this time, I started to play more and more on my PC, especially emulators - and Pokémon started to become a really big thing. I noticed there was this new game coming out (Black/White) and despite thinking they were going to suck (because I hated Diamond/Pearl), I got anxious and downloaded it from the internet the day it was released in the US (pirates never fail to disappoint, do they?). And I fell in love with it. Throughout 2011, I just played loads of the DS Pokémon games and I was also starting to get into Zelda, having finally beat A Link to the Past in January that year and getting into Ocarina of Time. I wanted to get a proper console and started looking into that stuff - the answer was extremely obvious.

I got the 3DS in early 2012 as my OoT3D and Pokémon machine. Throughout that year, I played on the thing endlessly and it was through it that I started to get more into Nintendo (and gaming) news. The first direct I watched was the Pokémon X/Y one in early 2013 and from then on I was pure hype. I started getting interested more and more in all things Nintendo related (got into Star Fox with the 3DS remake), and the E3 Direct that year nearly convinced me I had to get a Wii U that year.

I eventually did get the console, with the standout games leading me to it being the prospect of the new Zelda and Star Fox games (yes, I firmly believed there would be a new Star Fox) - but I also wanted The Wind Waker HD, Super Smash Bros. and was mildly interested in Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8. It was also during this time that I started visiting VGChartz to keep track of sales, and I slowly started to see more and more of this site - eventually I began to lurk on the forums, reading several threads and becoming increasingly interested in the community around here.

E3 2014 was obviously a huge overload of hype as a Nintendo fan (and someone who was eagerly anticipating Zelda and Star Fox), and it only led to me give up the whole lurking thing and joining VGChartz for real. And boy was that a good decision, I love this place. Well...

that ended up way longer than I wanted to. tl;dr: my brother is a scumbag (maybe being a bit too harsh here) who can't make up his own mind about stuff he likes so he just follows the word-of-mouth and bashes me for my decision to get a Wii U. But screw him, I love the thing.

I read your story : ) Sounds like you had some ups and downs. Honestly I dunno if the trade of a Genesis or SNES would have been good for a GBC. Both consoles hade really great games. Sorry to hear about your 360 too : <