Covid-19 visited my household again last week, except this time I was the one that had it. The elementary schoolers with their dripping noses and unwashed hands finally got me. The ensuing quarantine forced me to miss work and stay away from supermarkets and friends. Usually I am psyched for an excuse to sit on my computer all day, but this weekend greeted me with a sensation that I haven’t experienced in some time… utter boredom. Crushing boredom. My body felt tired and sick, but my brain was active and would not quit. I could not bring myself to do anything. 3 am rolled around on a Sunday and I decided to act on a subtle craving that I have nursed for maybe a year. It is a craving that hits me at regular intervals, but I only indulge it once every half decade or longer. I booted up the CRT and played Pikmin.
My setup is pretty much ideal. I couldn’t sleep in my room with my GF because of my virus, so I took up residence in my grandfather’s room. My grandfather’s room is a doorless alcove with a leather couch taking up most of it. The space could probably be called a sunroom, except that the curtains are drawn constantly. When he is home, my grandfather spends most of the day lounging on the couch, watching movies and smoking his pipe. You can probably guess the smell in there. The subtle rankness of decades of tobacco smoke is cozy, and I have improved the comfort of the room with blankets, a wii, and a tiny baby CRT. The old TV combined with the plush carpets and wallpaper create a scene directly out of the 20th century. If I were a kid in the 90s, I’d probably feel nostalgic about it.
The Nintendo GameCube was my childhood console. I remember seeing Mario Sunshine at a kiosk in some toy store as a kid and thinking Bianco Hills was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen rendered on a screen. I would wake up early in the morning and lay on my dad’s legs watching him play it. We also had Mario Party 4 and Super Smash Brothers Melee. The games were a little too hard for my soft, illiterate brain to play myself at first (and Petey Piranha scared the shit out of me), but I loved loved LOVED to watch people play. Before there were Lets Plays on YouTube, there were parents, older cousins, and babysitters. My babysitter, Gina, had a GameCube of her own, and she knew even more amazing games. She took us to Blockbuster one day and forced me to rent Wind Waker. She insisted it was amazing. I couldn’t read well enough to progress past the tutorial island, but crawling around/playing pretend on Outset was more than enough stimulation for young me. My babysitter, however, had a functional adult brain; she could read. I watched as she went through the game. She sailed the seas, I would beg her to read every dialogue bubble and she would generally tell me to shut up, but I absorbed absolutely everything I could.
Another game that Gina introduced me to was Pikmin. I’ll keep the gushing brief, but Pikmin gripped me. Pikmin 2 was still a new game in 2004, and the sheer size of the experience knocked me off my feet. The adventure seemed endless. Every cavern had amazing creatures hiding in them. My childhood stuffed animal was a white Pikmin named Whitey. The pretend games I would play with my toys often involved crash landing somewhere and needing to repair the ship. I would flip through the Pikmin 2 guidebook and marvel at the insect encyclopedia. I ruined a good guidebook cutting out pictures to play with!
The game I didn’t have was Pikmin 1. I had heard of it, but I was too nervous to play it. Pikmin 2 is a sandbox, but Pikmin 1 is a game of survival. After 30 days, Olimar’s life support fails and he dies. I didn’t beat the game myself until I was older, maybe 11 or 12. Well, as a 24-year-old I managed to beat it in two sessions. I’ll detail my observations in the next post.
;p