Yet I can’t stop playing games like Super Mario Party, Super
Smash Bros Ultimate, Astral Chain and to an extent Animal Crossing New
Horizons. With the last few Nintendo consoles I’ve owned I’ve only really used
them sporadically unless something like the new Pokemon had just came out and
you’re probably thinking the reason I’m playing so much at the moment is
because of games like this all releasing near each other.
This is not the case though, surprisingly it’s actually because
I’ve taken more note of the kind of experiences Nintendo can offer outside of
just single player. Over the last few years I’ve really wound down my online
play and co-op experiences due to factors like work and generally not having as
much free time as I used to.
I used games as more solitary experiences until my wife
started to take an interest in what I was playing. Sometimes she would just
watch me while doing other things but at times she would tell me about what she
used to play as a kid on the Nintendo 64 and would ask if I had any games similar to what she had played that we may be able to play together.
Initially she watched as I played Tetris 99 while we were living
in Australia and all I had with me was my Switch. She was filled with nostalgia
for it and asked if she could play, intrigued by the concept of battling other
people online. She found it extremely addictive as I’m sure a lot of us have
and began clocking in the hours quite quickly on her days off.
This opened the door for us to start talking about games
like Smash Bros and how she loved playing it at her cousins house as a kid.
When I told her the series was still going and I could buy it she got super
excited. Since then we’ve been religiously playing Smash Bros, Puyo Puyo, Super
Mario Party and more.
I felt Nintendo really allowed me to share my hobby with my
wife but also give me a new reason to play and enjoy games. I find that one of
us is usually playing the Switch at any given time now and most evenings we will
look at each other and just say ‘Switch?’. I still do play other consoles when
I have the time but I’ve found that Nintendo has almost changed my perspective
on gaming at the moment and that now I would rather have it be this fun joint
experience for the both of us.
Now this will likely change as time goes on as we tire of
playing the same games and while I’m currently enjoying experiences like Animal
Crossing which has kept me coming back to the Switch for single player and
online, I feel as though I want to experience more ‘co-operative’ games with
people around me.
I want to do some couch co-op on Until Dawn and treat it
like A movie, or keep playing party games like Jackbox with my friends when we
meet up. I’ll always hold a candle out for playing alone but I’m happy to have
experienced this change in me thanks to Nintendo.
