Mii and U

I love video games.
I LOVE videogames.
I LOVE videogames.

Until recently I never really thought about why I spend so much time with my eyes glued to a screen and hands molded in the shape of a controller. There's so much that makes gaming, in my opinion, the superior medium. When utilized to their fullest, video games can tell stories, change the way we think, and even bring people together. Today, I just want to talk about the latter.



Some of my fondest childhood memories involve me sitting on a friend's couch or floor with a controller and some junk food. Oddly enough, I can't seem to remember the games that we played; which can probably be attributed to the fact that most of them were pretty awful. I do remember having loads of fun though, even though I realized the game that we were playing wasn't very good. The thing was, having a friend around and overcoming challenges together turned a mediocre game into an enjoyable experience. I've always found that even with single-player titles, videogames are at their best with a friend or family member around. That feeling of discovering a hidden secret, or finally defeating a really hard boss, and having someone to share it with, is one of the things that I love about the medium.


One of my not-as-fond childhood moments involved the emergence of popularity of online multiplayer. Now, don't get me wrong. I actually really enjoy playing games online with my friends and random people on the internet. I even think that online multiplayer can be utilized in some really interesting ways, such as in games like "Journey". It's just that once online multiplayer arrived and became a bullet point in a check-list of "things hat we think games need to sell", local multiplayer started to take a back-seat. More and more, it seemed that people would rather play with you on a connection than on a couch. And I guess I can't really begrudge them for doing so.

There's just some magic that was lost from the switch from local to online multiplayer. It was replaced with another magic, a magic that wasn't necessarily better or worse, just different. It's a feeling I would very much like to have back, but with less and less interest in local play, I can see why publishers and developers choose to omit these features from their games. But maybe it doesn't have to be that way.



With the unveiling of the Wii U, couch co-op and competitive play seems to have had a resurgence with devs. Now, this could just be a coincidence, but I have a feeling that the Wii U gamepad has reinvigorated consumer interest in local multiplayer. The asymmetrical nature in which games like Nintendoland is built around could just be the thing to bring friends and family back together and gaming under the same roof!

Or maybe I'm just dumb. What do you think?