Nintendo

“Dad, you may know a lot about old games like Space Invaders and Asteroids but in this house I am the Nintendo Master.”

He is right, in this house he is the Nintendo master and all will readily admit his overall skills are superior to the rest of us, but the Nintendo Master forgets his father can be ridiculously competitive.

The conversation started because he was watching me try to fumble through Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions.

The game had been provided for review by the fine folks at Nintendo and I was happily checking it out or at least trying to.

Trying to meaning that the 3DS didn’t want to cooperate with my fingers or so I tried to claim.

It might have worked but the aforementioned Nintendo Master didn’t have similar issues and his hands are about my size.

The Nintendo Lesson

I listened to his laughter and instruction and after a few minutes agreed that it was worth passing the 3DS over to him so I could see how he played.

Don’t tell him I said this, but I enjoyed listening to him explain how, what and why he was doing certain things and was grateful that this teenage boy was happy to spend time with his old man.

He is a hair short of 17 now and while we haven’t reached a place where he is unwilling to hang out with me it happens with less frequency than before.

The boy who was once my shadow doesn’t always feel like being the shadow anymore.

That is normal and natural, but not without a bit of angst for the old man.

****

Anyhoo,  as I sat there listening to him talk I thought about buying the Wii when he was around 8 and wondering how long Nintendo would hold his attention.

The games seemed to be geared to younger kids and while that wasn’t a big deal then I figured eventually things would change.

Except they haven’t completely, there are some games he has totally given up on but the Mario games aren’t among them.

He still plays some of the Zelda and Pokemon too among others.

That is not to say he won’t get on one of the other systems and play something more grown-up but he still gets lost in the games on that 3DS which I might add we have had since 2011.

That is a pretty good run.

The Nintendo Lesson Part II

At family gatherings, my middle sister sometimes likes to tell all of the children about how Uncle Jack/Dad and grandpa would play this game where I would end up being sent from the dinner table.

I can’t tell you exactly how or why this game started other than when I was a teen I was smarter than my father and I liked to try and prove it.

On more than few occasions, my dad and I would have a disagreement during dinner that led to my being banished from the table.

While I would like to say my dad was primarily responsible for my exile it is not true, I did quite a bit to make it happen.

Yeah, I was ornery back then and I guarantee there were more than a few comments that made my me that made him want to pick me up and throw me.

****

Fast forward to the present the Nintendo Master does an excellent impression of me as a teenager with one giant exception.

No one ever took my 3DS because I didn’t have one but he does and his mouth led to it being stripped from his possession.

I told him to consider it to be his Nintendo lesson but I don’t know that he took it as that.

Trust me when I say he is lucky I remember how fiery and feisty I was at his age. 🙂

****

During the time in which he wasn’t allowed to use or play on the 3DS the old competitive fire burned a bit brighter and I tried to take advantage of the time to improve my skills.

If this were a movie I’d tell you I gained a lot of ground and turned into a Mario powerhouse but that is simply not true.

I got better, but not enough to turn around and say I was the Nintendo Master but I did improve enough to get a thumbs up from him.

And that my friends is worth a lot.

I’ll keep playing these games with him for as long as he’ll let me. Sometimes it is the best way to get a teen to talk.

Disclosure: Product was provided by Nintendo but all opinions are mine.

It is neither profound nor particularly insightful to say it can be difficult to capture a teenager’s attention, especially when the person asking for it is their father.

That is not to say mine refuse to pay attention or interact with me because they do on a regular basis but it would be dishonest to say they respond like they did when they were five.

Yep, the sad but true story is they no longer see dear old dad as Superman.

Now, I am a just a man who sometimes does super things for them.

Nintendo Captures Teens & Monsters

Nintendo provided a free version of the Monster Hunter Stories for me to review.

You should consider that to be my disclosure but just in case you didn’t get it, here it is again in bold, Product Was Provided By Nintendo.

My initial idea was that I would play it and then give it to my almost 17-year-old son to try and the two of us would write the review together.

But people plan and G-d laughs and so you have a picture of me above filming my son playing the game.

Why?

Because he picked up the 3DS and started playing and it captured his attention almost immediately

Every time I told him our plan was for me to play and then him he asked me to wait just a little bit longer.

Eventually, he broke down and gave me my turn but it wasn’t an unencumbered experience and by that I mean the following.

He tried to coach me the whole way through and while that might sound irritating I didn’t take it like that.

Instead, I was grateful because it gave us something to do together and we enjoyed some father/son time that has been simply wonderful.

Don’t misunderstand that to mean that we never do anything together because we do a lot, but this was different.

Different because he was the expert and he was the person teaching and that was fun for both of us.

Kids Grow & People Change

Steiner the minor and I have always had a good relationship but lately it has been a bit more challenging.

As he has gotten older and more independent there have been more of those moments where we bang heads a little bit.

More moments where I find myself quoting poetry to myself or sharing it with him as we dissect parts and pieces of life.

That Whitman quote above has been of significant importance to both of us.

I have told him I don’t want or need him to be exactly like me but that I also need him to not try so hard to prove he is not.

There is a rhythm and balance that you can find if you look for it but it doesn’t come if you push too hard.

This game came at the right time for us and I think that our collective search master of Monster Hunter Stories helped us find it again.

So if you are looking for a walkthrough with cheats, tips and tricks about how to play this game, well that is not what this review is about.

But if you want an idea about a game that young people and teens can play as well as adults, this might be one to think about.

Disclosure: Product was provided by Nintendo but all opinions are mine.