Because we don't have any boys in our family, my dad treated me like his "faux-son". He bought me KNEX (remember those sticks you assembled together to create things like ferris wheels...?), Legos, Batmobiles and my first game console--Super Nintendo. There was 1 game on it, some kind of duck-shooting game I'm sure you're all familiar with.
Next was a PC game called Hangman. This was on the MSDOS platform (if you were born in 1990 you might not have any idea what that is). Through the years, my dad bought me racing games, fighting games and mystery games.
He eventually stopped when I was in high school and had to "focus on my studies" and prepare for college, and "life". But by then, video games (and anime) were simply a part of my life, and a portion of what drew me back into games was Final Fantasy. I've never finished a FF game (yet), but it was one of the first games where the characters were dressed so unique and a bit outlandish; they were obviously costumes for the characters.
Fran, from Final Fantasy XII. Giving Lady GaGa a run for her money. Or panties.
Afterwards, I was exposed to Magna Carta, with even more fanciful and bizarre outfits.
Magna Carta 2, Image via kotaku.com
But I'm sure none of you have heard of Magna Carta. Most of you know it as an old legal document.
However, all of you are familiar with Mario and Luigi, Ash Ketchum, Lara Croft and Duke Nukem.
Duke Nukem
Lara Croft and Angelina Jolie as Lara
A girl walking around in a skimpy tank and brown short shorts with mountain boots and a long-braid can be associated with the Tomb Raider.
Mario and Luigi
A stout man wearing a red shirt with blue overalls and 'stache would bring the "Mario" reference to mind.
A cosplayer as Ash Ketchum; the anime version of Ash Ketchum (named Satoshi in Japan)
cosplay image via sodahead.com
cosplay image via sodahead.com
All of these are our favorite game icons, regular folk who have had to ascend to great heights to protect something sacred or save a damsel in distress.
These characters resonate so soundly with us despite them wearing only 1 outfit throughout their career (The Tomb Raider's outfit changes occasionally but she is always identifiable with that long braid), partly because they are ordinary. In a way, this is part of a video game's appeal... ordinary people set in extraordinary (mostly unreal) circumstances.
5 comments:
Very cool, I had no idea that you were such an avid gamer back in the day.
I played with a lot of Lego and Knex too back in the day. I'm kind of sad that I don't have anymore to pass onto other little kids.
I have more Lego now than when i was a kid. you're like my soul mate =)
Nice post. Final Fantasy (specifically VIII, youtube the opening if you havent seen it) was the game I played when I told myself this is what I wanted to do with my life. Sonic and pokemon had a big impact too.
excellent work, but you have any idea who in this real world may do a good of Duken Nuken interpretation, or Mario o Luigi please better than that horrible 80's movie.
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