Happy MAR10 Day!

Today is MAR10 (for “Mario”, in the event that it’s not obvious) Day 2024.  This has been a thing for several years now and I think it’s cute.  This makes me think of my gaming life and how Nintendo played a minor role in my childhood.  As an adult, Nintendo is still a part of my life, being that I own and play a Nintendo Switch every now and again.  It wasn’t always that way though, in that Nintendo didn’t preoccupy my childhood like I know it did so many other childhoods.

Growing up, I was never a big fan of Nintendo.  It seemed like everyone else around me was, but I was rarely impressed with anything that Nintendo did.  I’m not saying that I wouldn’t play anything that Nintendo made or anything that released on a Nintendo console.  I just wasn’t salivating over anything that Nintendo was doing. 

My first gaming experience occurred on the Atari 2600.  I got my young gaming feet wet with the likes of Atari classics such as Combat, Blackjack, Warlords, and even the sub-standard port of Pac-Man.  I don’t how it happened, but at some point in the early 80’s, my Atari 2600 had broken.  There was something wrong with the port where the power supply would plug in.  Somehow, the port had gotten separated from the motherboard and there was no longer a way to power it on.  My dad didn’t consider the possibility of having this thing repaired back then and there it sat for many years (the console, not my dad).  I still have this console in my possession and while I had briefly thought about getting it fixed, for nostalgia’s sake anyway, I have yet to make a move and send it away to be repaired.  So, for the last 40 years, this Atari 2600 has done nothing but sit there.  About a decade ago, I had even bought another Atari 2600 console and played it for a few years.  That replacement console remains active, in that it is plugged into a TV and ready to go.  I just haven’t played anything on it for at least two years. 

After my original Atari 2600 effectively died, I went without a console until 1988, when for that year’s Christmas, I was gifted a Sega Master System (SMS).  A friend of mine got his SMS in 1986 and I seemingly fell in love with the console and pretty much anything Sega at that time.  I didn’t learn this until many years later, but the SMS was technologically superior when compared to the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).  The SMS didn’t do nearly as well commercially in the United States because it didn’t have the swath of support from third-party publishers that the NES did.  Overseas, the SMS was a smashing success.  Still, what games were on the SMS in America were decent and definitely worth playing.  I still own a Sega Master System, though it’s not that same console from 1988.  That original 1988 console had a problem with its reset button, so as soon as I was able to get another console on the cheap, I did.  I think in the late 90’s, my brother found an SMS at a church rummage sale for five bucks or less.      

As far as my experience with Nintendo in the 80’s, I remember playing Super Mario Bros. for the first time and thoroughly enjoying the simple, yet engaging, gameplay.  There was something impressive about playing a game of that magnitude, a “platformer” before such a term had even been coined, with a controller that only featured two buttons.  Now, Sega had a similar platformer called “Alex Kidd In Miracle World”, but truth be told, Alex Kidd couldn’t hold a candle to anything that Mario was doing.  Super Mario Bros. was definitely setting the bar as to what a platformer could be and do.  As much as I would be willing to play a Super Mario game back then, I was never a huge fan of the series, or the character himself.  Even today, I have struggled to get into his more recent adventures, including Super Mario Odyssey, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, or even his most recent title, Super Mario Bros. Wonder.  Today, I don’t look forward to or enjoy playing the majority of other Nintendo properties either.  I never liked the Legend of Zelda series, though I love the title screen music from the original The Legend of Zelda game on the NES.  Metroid has never drawn me in.  Castlevania is not a bad series, but it was never one that I felt I needed to play.  I do like Animal Crossing though and I will openly admit that.  I just haven’t played it in well over a year.  I can only imagine what my seemingly abandoned island looks like today.                                           

So, yes, while I can pay homage to Mario and Nintendo as a company by at least penning an entry such as this one, I only do it because I’m also paying homage to my gaming roots, stemming all the way back to when I was growing up in the 80’s.  Nintendo was there. Atari was there.  Sega was also there, as were Sony and Microsoft. 

Gaming has always been a part of my life and it has shaped who I am today.  As much as I have an affinity for Sonic The Hedgehog, a Sega property, I cannot deny that there have been moments in my life where Mario and his universe briefly captivated me and occupied my every thought.  I know where I come from and as much as I am not a fan of Nintendo, I still have to recognize that Nintendo was still an influence, albeit a minor one.

So yes, Happy MAR10 Day everyone, and thank you, Nintendo!