I want to ask you all a question. Do you remember what one of your earliest memories playing a video game was? Right now your probably thinking of either playing a video game console that a family member like a cousin or older relative had or the first video game console you ever owned or maybe even just seeing an arcade machine at some public place. Those examples tend to be pretty interchangeable I find.

For me though it’s definitely when I got my PlayStation 2, the very first video game console I ever owned, for Christmas back in 2000. And with that console not only did I also get Crash Bandicoot 3 and Spyro 3 since the PlayStation 2 was backwards compatible with PlayStation 1 games but also a demo disk containing previews of upcoming games at the time. And there were only really three games from that disk I remember that well. Jak and Daxter, Devil May Cry because of course I’d remember that and Klonoa 2 (which side note can I just say how fucking stupid it is that the original PlayStation 2 version of Klonoa 2 costs as much as it does second hand on Ebay when not only is it over 20 years old at this point but you can literally buy an enhanced version of both it and the first game for modern systems and around the same price of $70 AUD? I mean that’s not as bad as some second-hand games can sometimes go where they can reach into the 100’s for but still.) All of these demos on this disk, they were all different kinds of games of different styles and different tones and different genres, and I had no idea what any of them were going to be like until I played them. And I loved that! Not knowing what I was getting into, that sense of the unknown, was exciting to childhood me.

I still remember when I originally played that Klonoa 2 demo as a child. That dark and stormy first level with that music in the background contrasted with the almost marketable plushie like character designs only for the other playable level in this demo being this bright waterpark where your going down a water slide on a floating surfboard. I loved it and am still kicking myself over how it took me over 20 years to play the full version of this game and it wasn’t even the original release either.

And that wasn’t even the only Demo disk for the Playstation 2 I had. You see my parents actually got a subscription to a PlayStation Magazine for me during the 2000's and every issue they would come attached with a playable demo disk. And I had a lot of these which meant even if I wouldn’t get to play the full versions of these games until much later in my life for various reasons, (other games that were more interesting to me/was a child and didn’t have my own money/was literally at the mercy of my parents bank account) I still had the opportunity to play a short snipit of a lot of different kinds of games. Zone of the Enders, Prince of Persia The Sands of Time, the original God of War, fucking Dog’s Life! And Dog’s Life wasn’t a very good game to begin with! But guess what? Even though Dog’s Life is one of the games I admit I’m glad I never sought out the full version of it was still something I had never tried before then. Same with almost every other game on these disks I played. Some I would eventually get the full versions of and others I wouldn’t until I got much, much older. Or maybe not at all!

And then we have games where my parents just got me them as a surprise gift, ones that I had no idea existed until that point nor did I have any expectations prior to playing them like with Scaler or Super Paper Mario. And that’s what I loved about playing new games, trying something new! Trying something different! Experiencing something new and unique!

And that love for trying unknown, different, and unique experiences, that never left! It has remained as I grew into a teenager and then into an adult. Only difference is that now I have more access to the internet which… okay to be honest that’s been just as much of a curse as it has been a blessing because of how much toxicity, cancer and negativity I’ve sadly had to put up with over the years not to mention all the people who are so thin skinned they see everything as an attack on them because “THIS PERSION SAID SOMETHING I DON’T AGREE WITH! THIS PERSON POSTED SOMETHING I DON’T LIKE! THIS PERSON IS SAYING OR POSTING STUFF THAT ISN’T EVEN DIRECTED AT ME PERSONALLY! I’M UNDER ATTACK! PERSONAL ATTACK! I’M UNDER ATTACK!!!” but it has also opened up a lot more opportunities for new games for me.

“Oh, Nintendo is making a new third person shooter IP about human squid hybrids who use their own ink for their weapons? That could be interesting. What’s that? The people who made Sly Cooper and Infamous are making a new open world game based in feudal Japan about a samurai who’s forced to break his own code of honour to fight back agents the invading Mongols? That could be neat! Come again? The people who made Skullgirls are trying their hand at a RPG action platformer hybrid? Yeah, I’d be into trying that!”

And I am super happy for that because in my honest opinion, trying new kinds of games and new kinds of experiences is way, WAY better and way more important than just playing only one game or one kind of game for most of your life. Think about it, if I had played nothing but Classic Crash Bandicoot and Spyro then I might of never gotten into the Prince of Perisa games. If I had stuck to only playing Assassin’s Creed once I got into that series and it was the only thing I ever played then I doubt I would of given the Shantae series a try or fallen in love with it as much as I am now. If I had just stuck purely to the Tekken series for my fighting game fix then would I still of been willing to try the Soul Calibur series out? Seriously, imagen playing nothing but Call of Duty or Minecraft for over a decade and nothing else just because they are super popular franchises and in the formers case get yearly releases. How boring would it get to just play the same franchise for years on end where very little actually changes when there’s so many games getting released that you might find yourself enjoying if you gave them a chance?

And I think this is a really important mindset to have because more often than not I’ve seen more and more people saying stuff like “gaming isn’t good anymore” or “gaming isn’t fun anymore” or whatever other sayings people are going on about in terms of modern gaming being bad. Meanwhile, they say this while also playing only one or two kinds of games because it get’s them the most views on there YouTube channel and the most ad revenue and never having tried anything else to find the gold in the mound of shit. And obvious this isn’t me trying to defend the industry as it is now because there are A LOT of issues with it right now and a lot of trends that just make me want to commit nefarious deeds anytime they come up. From shit like live service, battle passes, microtransactions, re-releases of old games that somehow look worse than the original even though these releases are running on objectively better hard where. But in my experience in the past four years alone I have played more games that I have enjoyed the hell out of than I have games where I haven’t. Hades, No Straight Roads, Ghost of Tsushima, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Hi Fi Rush, and that’s just new types of experiences two or in the case of Animal Crossing one I haven’t gone through for a long time. If I included new games that belonged to franchises I was already into anyway like Ratchet and Clank, Super Mario and all that I’d be here for longer.

In fact, it feels like the only new releases people even get excited about anymore are just re-releases or remasters of older games they likely have already played anyway. And re-releases just on there own are one of those things where my opinion on it largely depends on the context. From the perspective of someone who might of never played that game before then yeah, it’s great that those games can find a new audience especially since many games I have played for the first time have been via a re-released version. Double so if those original copies cost way, WAY to much second hand to begin with. From the perspective of someone who’s asking for those re-release even though they already have those original versions and have the means to still play them nowadays if they want, really? Is this really all you want from gaming anymore? Just remasters and re-releases of games you already played and still own? Nothing new? Nothing different?

Seriously, for as much as I love the Nintendo Switch one thing I have never been a fan of is how in the first couple of years of its life 80% of its first party library just felt like ports of Wii U games I either already owned like Mario Kart 8 and Pokken Tournament or could of saved money and gotten on my Wii U since I was finally making my own money around 2017 when the Switch launched. Sure, it wasn’t ALL Wii U ports as one of my favourite 3D Mario games would come out on this thing it’s launch year but I have recently gotten to the point where I have actually been asking myself “What was the point of me even getting this thing at launch if you’re just going to make most of its library port a bunch of games on a system I have already owned since 2012?” It's purely a personal thing of course since it's still great more people can play this games and I usually do try to look at it from that perspective when I can. I mean if there’s one thing I will give the Switch ports of certain Wii U games is that in the case of stuff like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition they are actually the better versions of those games to play thanks to the gameplay tweaks and more content. Even with that though I still find it really wired that some people will be so quick to praise and actually ask for more ports on the Switch but then turn around and make fun of the PlayStation 5 for its ports even though the number of ports on that thing really isn’t as high as some people will make out.

I fucking hate console war bull shit so much.

But let’s say for the sake of argument that you’re not as interested in trying something outside of your comfort zone. Which is a perfectly understandable thing to be thinking and despite thinking that trying new games is important, trying to force people to play certain games is about as tolerable as the elitists who think that you should be playing every single game ever on its hardest setting because they think you’re not a “rEaL gAmEr” if you play God of War 2018 or Ragnarock on “Give Me Story" Difficulty. However, even then, wouldn’t you agree that long running franchises that have been around for decades should still try new things anyway?

In fact, I actually have a lot of respect for games that aren’t afraid to dip their toes into new avenues or shake up their formula a little bit. That is actually why Breath of the Wild is ranked so highly for me as one of my top 3 favourite Zelda games. Up to that point the series had been using the Link to the Past/Ocarina of Time formula for so long that this felt like a massive breath of fresh air. I mean even excluding main series we got stuff like the Dynasty Warriors crossover Hyrule Warriors plus it's sequel Age of Calamity and the Crypt of the Necrodancer crossover Cadence of Hyrule which were two completely different experiences from the typical Zelda fair yet could still serve as a great way for people like myself who absolutely love the Zelda series to try something new. Hell, even Assassin’s Creed Origins is a game in another long running series I love that I have a lot of respect for because of how it was willing to shake things up gameplay wise considering how the franchise was more or less suffering from over saturation at that point. Granted, I think that particular issue wouldn’t of even existed if Ubisoft didn’t try to push for yearly releases and actually gave there dev teams time to finish developing their games back when they did do yearly releases but my point still stands. And the Super Smash Bros series alone has done a lot for my interest in certain games, not just from the fact that it’s a cross over series with multiple different kinds of franchises but also thanks to stuff like the trophies pre Ultimate because of how they actually had descriptions for the characters or items and for Brawl and Wii U in particular, playable demos of those characters games of origins. I don’t think I’d even have an interest in some of the games that I do if it wasn’t for Smash Bros.

And sure, obviously you aren’t going to enjoy every new thing you play. That would be stupid to assume you should like something just because it’s different. I’ve played so many games in the past 20+ years of me playing games and while they all obviously weren’t the best, some even being shit like The Sniper 2 which is genuinely the worst game I own in my collection, I’m still happy that I am able to try as many different kinds of games as I have. And I think more people should try new games or franchises because even if you don’t end up liking them at least you were willing to give them a try. Just please, if you do dislike certain games you try, don’t say shit like “Ugg, I don’t understand how anyone can like this kind of game” or “WHY does this game have so much hype around it” and actually at least be respectful towards the people who do like it for the love of Palutena!