Quite a while back, I discussed with some people that I felt like gaming was no longer as magical for me as it once was. I couldn't really put a specific reason towards this that actually made sense. One thought was that it was simply me growing up, but I didn't want to believe that, because I strongly felt games can still be magical for somebody in their 20's. Another was that games nowadays just don't have that magical factor (or I'm simply not playing the right ones for my tastes). Following that discussion, gaming quite literally hit a low point for me in my life. In 9 months time, I played almost no games, excluding a bit of Civ 5 or League of Legends with friends on occasion. It was quite amazing, as never did I see myself as not seeing gaming as an important part of my life.

I really didn't know how to get gaming back into my life, but moving in with a good friend certainly helped. We set out to start fresh with gaming, going all the way back to the NES and Super Mario Bros. With this, we made a goal that we would work our way through some of the great games from my past.

In this thread, I'll post quick journal entries about how things are going, what I'm currently playing, etc. I wouldn't mind suggestions for games. The consoles I own are: Super Nintendo, N64, PS3. I will likely be purchasing a Wii and WiiU, as well as a PS2 in the near future. I also wouldn't mind if people discuss if they have ever had similar situations to my own.

Expect my first journal entry to come later today.

I began my journey with none other than Super Mario Bros (via Super Mario All Stars). It really was great. It reminded me of what it was like for me when I first started gaming. We followed this with Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. To put it simply...this game is a significantly harder than the first, which is what makes it so special. After a few nights of tough work, we had gotten through everything, only to be extremely depressed and finding out there are actually 5 more whole worlds. While I will be going back to beat those worlds, I've put it on hold for now so I can work on other games. We have temporarily skipped Super Mario Bros 2, as it isn't technically a Mario game at all...although I will likely be revisiting it eventually.

While playing these other games, we also worked through the entirety of Guitar Hero 5. I know its a much newer game, but it is still quite a bit of fun with other people.

Additionally, I purchased Final Fantasy 1 on PSN, and have been working through it. Personally, I have put about 4 hours into FF9, and have never played another Final Fantasy game in my life. I've heard great things, and felt I was missing out, so wanted to try it. There are certainly aspects of the game I think are great (fun battling), but I also think the game is lacking in certain areas (certain enemy combinations have proved to be very cheap, plus I've largely felt lost a couple of times as even though I don't like a game being too linear, there are points where it is extremely difficult to have any clue where to go next). Overall, I certainly want to beat it and try future Final Fantasy games.

One final game I have been working on is Donkey Kong Country on SNES. I've got about 50% through it, and absolutely love the game.

I like to think that my journey has started off amazingly. I've been playing more video games in the last 2 weeks than I have played in a long time. Not only that, but I have been having an amazingly fun time at it, which is certainly a change.

Looking forward, the games I will be working on are: Finishing Donkey Kong Country; Finishing Final Fantasy 1; Super Mario Bros 3; Perhaps Guitar Hero Metallica