It's been documented numerous times that the first video game I ever played was the original Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis. I don't remember much about that early period of my life, aside from being frightened by the Sega chant upon start-up (I have autism, and it didn't stop scaring me until I was thirteen, shut up), but I remember having a Sega Genesis and a Playstation growing up; with a family friend who had a Super Nintendo. Obviously, older titles have that allure that newer games don't tend to share, and it tends to be a very strong allure indeed if the countless retro video game reviewers on Youtube during the early 2000s to now is any indication. Hell, I was an avid browser of the Wii Shop Channel when it was a thing. And now that I've confirmed my age, let's talk about mini consoles. For those unfamiliar, a Mini Console is a replica of a video game console that contains any number of games pre-installed on the system; think the Super NES Classic ...

I don't remember much of my early gaming life. I remember I had a Sega Genesis and a Playstation growing up and that one of my early childhood obsessions was Mega Man and, of all games, Battle Arena Toshinden 3. Yet I distinctly remember my first time I ever played Metroid Prime. It was at a Wal-Mart demo kiosk somewhere in Texas, I believe; where I first laid eyes upon the game that I would fall in love with. I didn't understand much of the game, as I'm sure a lot of people didn't when they first played the game, but I liked what I saw. Shame I didn't have a GameCube at the time. It wasn't that much longer later when we were visiting relatives in Arkansas, and my aunt Heidi visited at the same time and brought her GameCube and several games, one of which was Metroid Prime. I played through the first area of the game, the Frigate Orpheon, I beat the Parasite Queen, and then I escaped its destruction only to find that I would be flying down onto Tallon IV, where ...

Darkness. That is what she saw for a long time. The last thing she remembered; she was in the hospital recovering from self-afflicted wounds caused by a high drop. That absolute stain of a physical education teacher took her virginity as well as her safety. She had been in the hospital going through rehabilitation when a sudden explosive accident ravaged the clinic. Or was it an attack? She had heard of these odd figures from seemingly nowhere... it didn't matter, though. Shiho was caught in it all the same and had died that day. Or did she? With her eyes closed, she saw data lines fill her vision like an OS of some kind. Opening her eyes, she saw that she had been strapped to a workbench of some kind. Testing the restraints (she was careful not to break them in case an alarm was tripped) she found she could budge a little but not much. Oddly, she was strapped down with metal cuffs instead of leather like she would expect. Whate could that mean? Then she heard a voice. "How ar...

I am not a very social person in reality. When given the option to go to community groups or talk with people in college, I choose instead to eschew them. It is a lonely existence in the real world; but I tend to be much better about social interactions online. I met my wonderful boyfriend of a full year and I've kept in contact with a lot of my online friend and real life friends via Discord. I've been a chat bunny for as long as there have been chat programs worth a damn. I used to be very much into internet forums; even ran a couple in my time. I've mentioned, numerous times over the years, that my all-time favorite video game is Metroid Prime, and a large part of that comes down to the atmosphere. Metroid as a series is very isolating; even in titles like Fusion (which came out the same day, funny enough) that have dialogue roles for more than one character. Even in the often-regarded apex of the series, Super Metroid, there were strange creatures called Etecoons and Da...

I love fighting games. These games may have a high skill ceiling, practicing and training being constantly required for any kind of constant success, but if you really think about it, that same learning and training methodology is necessary for real life combat training. Just as every real-life fighter, whether in televised professional wrestling, recognized boxing circuits, the grappling-focused UFC, or any other fighting tournament you can think of; so too do the various characters in fighting games have their own fighting style and way to operate them. One given shotokan karateka might play entirely different than another though they may look and play similarly.  In the most famous fighting game of them all, Street Fighter, there are no less than seven individuals who practice the same style of martial arts, the fictional Ansatsuken, or assassin's fist, and each of them play very differently from another. Ryu is a traditional, one might say archetypical shoto - honest and straig...