The E3 Rundown

E3 was last week! And you know what that means: time for thenoblehero's recap of awesomeness! I was going to talk about everything E3, but then I realized how bored I was writing about it, so I'm just gonna skip through my favourite things. Just a warning, it'll be pretty much all Nintendo, 'cause Nintendo wins E3.

First thing: more new characters for Super Smash Bros. were announced! Mii Fighters in three customizable varieties are on their way, so finally you can enter the battle. They also added Palutena from Kid Icarus (cool I guess? I'm not really big on that series), and Pac-Man! Now they've got mascots from a bunch of the big video game companies, and they showed off a battle between Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, and Pac-Man to demonstrate.

Next up, Nintendo showed off its next Yoshi game: Yoshi's Woolly World. I've always liked Yoshi, but I've never actually bought a Yoshi game. This game is changing that. It just looks so adorable and very fun. Yoshi is a crochet doll version of himself! I'm really looking forward to this game.

Another new game I'm looking forward to is Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. This game spins directly out of Super Mario 3D World where there are little sidequest-like levels in which you take control of Captain Toad and go through an odd little 3D puzzle level. I'm not describing it well. This game takes that concept and dials it way up giving the titular character more abilities and more complicated levels to get through. It looks awesome.

There are two new Zelda games coming. Hyrule Warriors is a mashup of Zelda and Dynasty Warriors. It looks pretty fun, and you get to play as a bunch of different Zelda characters (including Zelda herself). It's a hack and slash action game that's sure to be a hit. The other is a new formal Legend of Zelda game (currently untitled) that is probably still quite a ways out, but the quick video they showed looks beautiful! I am very much looking forward to seeing more.

There was a little bit of news about Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby at and around E3, as well. There was a trailer showing off a little bit of gameplay, and four new Mega Evolutions, plus two Primal Evolutions were shown off. Mega Sceptile and Mega Swampert will round off the 3rd generation starters' mega forms. Mega Diancie and Mega Sableye made appearances, and the versions of the legendary pokémon on the box-art have been revealed to be Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre. Clearly I'm excited for these games.

Nintendo also showed off a new game called Splatoon, which could be a pretty big hit. I recommend looking it up 'cause I don't think I can describe it and give it justice. It's a team battle game where you play as little squid people who spray coloured ink everywhere to take over as much territory as possible. You can turn into a squid and swim through the ink rapidly, but get stuck when you hit the opposing team's ink. Like I said, it sounds odd, but looks great!

The last game I'm going to mention is a new game exclusive to Xbox One called Scalebound. It looks like you play as a dragon knight battling monsters and stuff. The trailer looks fantastic. Go find it!

Better yet, I'll post links below. If I can figure it out. Perhaps I'll post liks to all the trailers of games I'm excited for but don't feel like talking about, too! Yeah! I may later give my impression of the actual press conferences too, but at this point, probably not... Anyway! Links below!

Nintendo:

Super Smash Bros. for 3DS - October 3rd, 2014
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - Holiday 2014
Yoshi's Woolly World - Holiday 2014
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - Holiday 2014
Hyrule Warriors - September 26th, 2014
The Legend of Zelda - TBA 2015
Pokémon Omega Ruby - November 21st, 2014
Pokémon Alpha Sapphire - November 21st, 2014
Splatoon - TBA 2015
Mario Maker - TBA 2015
Fantasy Life - October 2014
Mario Party 10 - TBA 2015
Mario vs. Donkey Kong - TBA 2015
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright - August 29th, 2014

Xbox One:
Scalebound - TBA 2015?
Assassin's Creed: Unity - October 28th, 2014
Dragon Age: Inquisition - October 7th, 2014
Sunset Overdrive - October 28th, 2014
Ori and the Blind Forest - Fall 2014

PS4:
inFAMOUS: First Light - August 2014
Ratchet & Clank - TBA 2015?
LittleBigPlanet 3 - November 2014

PC:
The Sims 4 - September 2nd, 2014

So Much Nerd Love!

Okay, so it's been an exciting week. My little nerd heart has grown three sizes with all of this tech love announced.

At Apple's WWDC event, they made a bunch of cool announcements. There's a new Mac Pro in the works. There's new functionality with iCloud coming, mainly the ability to use iWork on the web. Mac OS X Mavericks was announced with improvements to Calendars, Safari, and Notifications, and the addition of the Maps and iBooks apps to Mac. There's probably a lot more cool stuff that was announced, but I was really just interested in one thing.

iOS 7 was announced, and I'm very excited about it. As you can tell from the above picture, there's been a major visual update. All of the app icons are updated with a flatter, more simplified look. They've greatly improved the visuals of all of the apps. They've added Control Center, which gives you access to some the important phone settings with a quick up-swipe. There's improvements all over, but it would take me too long to go over it right now, so I'll leave it for a later post.

I really want to talk about some of the cool stuff announced at E3 as well. As usual, my favourite part of E3 was Nintendo, but they didn't even do a press conference this year. Instead, they did a special Nintendo Direct featuring a bunch of new games. And they did not disappoint.

Super Mario 3D World is a new sequel to last year's 3D Land. This time they are throwing back to the old Super Mario Bros. 2 with the inclusion of Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach as playable characters. They've introduced the new Cat Mario suit, giving the characters cat-like abilities. It's also multiplayer, so that's a really cool addition. I'm definitely getting this game.

They also brought news on Pikmin 3, Pokémon X and Y, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, and Zelda: The Wind Waker HD. They brought the MAJOR announcement of the new Super Smash Bros games for Wii U and 3DS, including the new characters added: Mega Man, and the Villager from Animal Crossing.Bayonetta 2, Sonic Lost World, Mario Party 8, The Wonderful 101, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. So many awesome games. I'm really gonna have to get a Wii U.

Otherwise, I haven't really been keeping up with all of the E3 news. I watched the Xbox One press conference, but nothing really stood out for me. I skipped the Sony press conference, but I'll probably watch it eventually. There's really only two other games I've followed. One was the re-announcement of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, now called Final Fantasy XV. The previous announcement that it would be PS3 only is now out the window as it's been announced instead for the PS4 AND Xbox One. Also announced, and I'm REALLY excited for this one: Kingdom Hearts 3! It's still early in development, but I can't wait.

So yeah, it's been an exciting week. I've already calculated that I'm gonna be very broke with all of the new games coming out over the next year and a half. At least iOS updates are free. Anyway, it's time for work. Enjoy your Saturday!

Failed Blogger

Sorry guys. I'm a failed blogger. What's it been since my last post? Oh wow. Over a month! Worse than I thought! Oops.

I have excuses! My usual Saturday posts have begun to be harder to manage. USUALLY I catch the bus to work on Saturdays, which puts me there an hour early, so I blog in Starbucks before my shift. But my wonderful roomie/bff changed her schedule around so she works same time as me and gives me a ride.

The other excuse is that I've been out of town two of the last three weekends. A certain handsome man has kept me more than a little distracted, so once again, blogging has suffered. But really, I think y'all (yes, I just said y'all) want me to be happy so getting my romance on is probably an acceptable excuse.

So what have we missed out on? Probably plenty. Marvel NOW! is officially rolling out, and the changes are pretty exciting! I'm particularly enjoying All-New X-Men, and Uncanny Avengers is giving a lot of WTF moments and it's only two issues in. I'll try to do a post giving a rundown of the new state of Marvel comics soon.

I've also been obsessed with the new Nintendo 3DS game, Paper Mario: Sticker Star. Paper Mario is one of my all time favourite game series, and this new game does not disappoint. I was concerned at first, but like I said, I've been somewhat obsessed with it, so it's gotta be good. There's a collecting aspect to it, which automatically hooks me.

I've finally started reading again too! I finally finished The Serpent's Shadow, which I started forever ago, and I've read the three e-book companions to the I Am Number Four series, and FINALLY started Mark of Athena. Mmmm Greek/Roman mythology. My favourite!

So yeah! That's the basic rundown. I'll have to do a proper review of something soon. But for now, work time!

The Last Day

Soooo day 6 of the trip, and the fourth and final day of Comic-Con was quite the day indeed! For whatever dumb reason, I had been up until midnight the night before, and as it was the final day of SDCC, we were up at 4am. Yes, you read that right. FOUR. A. M.

We had a good excuse though. Doctor Who. Sunday is the day that always brings the Doctor Who panel to the fans, and being fans, we needed to be there. As we were walking up, the line didn't look so bad. Buuut it was just 'cause it was dark. The line was huge. At that hour of the morning, all I could think to say was "so much hate!"

It actually wasn't all that bad, there were so many people spread out with sleeping bags and stuff that they took up way more room than usual. So we found our way to the end of the line, and hung out for a little while.

At 6:30, Andrea and I decided we needed coffee, so we left our bags with Neil in the line, took an order from one of our line friends we'd just met, and headed to the closest Starbucks. Which had another gigantic line. This line was the slowest moving Starbucks line I have ever seen. At one point, I ducked out of that line to go use the nearby washroom, which prior to me getting there had had a line. So I left one line to get in another line after already having left another line. Weird.

Anyway, AN HOUR AND A HALF later we got our coffees, and while we'd been waiting the Hall H line had begun compressing, so we went and found Neil and our line friends, gave out coffees, and continued on through the line tent setup. Once compressed, the line was actually not bad at all, and we could tell that we'd have no problem getting into the hall.

We whiled away another hour and a half chatting with our new line friends about the convention, reading our various books, and Neil and I played with our Nintendo 3DSs. Seriously, street pass is a lot of fun at conventions like these. You pretty much take ten steps and you've found another 10 street pass tags.

At 9:30am, they finally started letting people into the hall. And by 10, we were walking in and getting our awesome Fringe hats (like the observers wear in the show). We found our seats, and the show began! The cast were awesome. There was crying and lots of laughing. And of course plenty of inadvertant innuendo. The show looks like it'll be going into a great final season.

Once that one came to an end, the Supernatural panel began. I don't watch Supernatural, but I think I might need to start. It looks like it would be right up my alley. The cast and writers were fantastic, and there was much girly screaming in the crowd. They tried to figure out what the plural of the word apocalypse would be. Apocali? I don't think so. And of course, plenty of dirty mindedness.

And then, the main event: DOCTOR WHO!! Such an amazing panel. Moderating was Chris Hardwick (who we were apparently stalking with the six times we saw him over five days) and on the panel were Stephen Moffatt, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and Arthur Darvill. The panel was so great. They showed two preview clips (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship? Oh hellz yeah), and did the whole Q&A thing with the crowd, plus watching Chris nerd out up there was great. I'm SO excited for the next season!

After that, we headed through the totally insane crowd back to the exhibit hall where we found some really cool prints. I ended up picking up a Jean Grey one, while Andrea got one with Beast. So great. We headed through the hall and we were getting really frustrated with the crowd, so we headed out.

We found a restaurant that we'd been to the first day (I still don't remember what it was called) and had a late lunch. I had a great big burger which was fantastic, along with a nice big fruity drink. I think the alcohol was much needed so I didn't totally lose my cool.

After lunch, we made one last pass through the exhibition hall, grabbed a protective sleeve for our new prints, and ducked back out and over to the Nintendo Gaming Lounge at the Marriott next door. We checked out a few demos, and then headed back to the shuttle back to our hotel, and that was the end of San Diego Comic-Con 2012.

I won't lie, I'm a little bit happy that it's over. It was so busy, and so hectic, and it'll be nice to not have to fight through the crowds anymore. I had such an amazing time though! I definitely would love to do it again next year, and I'd definitely like to visit San Diego again regardless.

More Evidence That I'm a Nerd

So, I had planned on typing up this great big E3 review blog (and I had actually typed most of it), but I decided that there was far too much useless stuff that I just didn't care about in it, so this is E3 blog attempt number 2! Every year I get super psyched for the Electronics Entertainment Expo (or E3, for short). It's where all of the big gaming companies get together with the press and show off all the new stuff they're working on. It's all very exciting for a nerd like me. This year I was actually a little bit disappointed with a lack of actual release dates for games, but I was pleased with what they showed off.

Now, the main events of E3 are the "Big Three" press conferences, those three being Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. There are a few other "big" press conferences, but I'm not gonna lie, I didn't watch them 'cause they seemed pretty darn boring. But even two of the "big three" were pretty boring to me.

Microsoft kicked off E3 with their press conference, showing off all that's new with the Xbox 360. Which really wasn't exciting to me at all. I actually quit watching partway through. What I did get out of it was that they are really trying to push the Kinect (which I don't want) and they have a lot of sequels and remakes of games I don't care about (war games, shooters, and more Halo...). Tomb Raider actually looks alright, but I don't think I'll play it. Fable: The Journey seems like a step backward for the series, I like free play, I don't want a game-on-rails. The new Xbox Experience (dashboard) looks pretty cool though, and TV through the Xbox would be cool (but Telus already does that here).

Sony held their press conference on everything Playstation later that evening and this one I got to watch live 'cause it was after work. Once again, I wasn't overly impressed. There was a lot of similar stuff to the way the Microsoft show went. Sequels of games I don't care about (war games, shooters) and a real push to get with the 3D gaming experience (I don't like 3D). They did release a cool 3D monitor bundle, and talked about the new feature that eliminates split screens using 3D glasses technology, but I'm still not buying it. They also talked about the NGP, now dubbed the Playstation Vita, or PSV as I'm gonna call it. Looks like a pretty nice piece of hardware, but it seems like they are just trying to cram as much into it as possible to make it seem cooler than the 3DS. I may buy it, especially since it's only gonna cost $250, but so far there aren't any games that interest me coming for it.

Nintendo was the star of E3 once again this year (as far as I'm concerned anyway). They opened up the show with a special look at the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda. They did some fun little musical stuff, and talked about the Zelda games they've got coming out this year. Link's Awakening being released on the 3DS Virtual Console that day, the N64 classic Ocarina of Time 3D coming to the 3DS on June 19th (which is this coming weekend! I pre-ordered mine, did you?), GBA classic Four Swords coming to the DSiWare shop for free this September, and Skyward Sword for the Wii on it's way this holiday season. There was some more stuff to do with that but it wasn't important enough to remember.

After that, they showed off a string of 3DS games on their way: Mario Kart (which appears to have a few new gameplay elements added to it, air and underwater racing sections), Star Fox (boooooring), Super Mario Bros. 3D (which looks AWESOME! Can't wait to get my hands on that. Tanooki suit!!), Kid Icarus: Uprising (looks cool, but is really old news since it's reveal last year and STILL no release date), and Luigi's Mansion 2 (So cool! I don't even know why! I had no interest at all in the first one but I want this one so bad!). They also talked about a few 3rd party games but they were all dumb so I won't mention them.

Afterwards, they announced the Nintendo Wii U! It looks pretty exciting, but as time goes on, I lose enthusiasm, so I really should have blogged about it sooner. It's basically an HD Wii, for the most part, even using the Wii controllers and such, BUT it's got one big difference. The main controller for the system is basically a tablet computer fused with a motion sensing controller, with buttons. Minus the CPU. It can be used as a second screen for all kinds of different things, plus some games even allow you to switch gameplay from the TV over to the controller so someone else can use the TV for something else. See how it doesn't sound all that exciting? But it IS! I SWEAR! Watch the videos! Maybe I'll make another post entirely devoted to the Wii U later. Good plan, I think.

Anyway, that was pretty much it for the Nintendo conference, the rest was them talking about the Wii U and different developers weighing in and pretty much from there it was just boring crap. Elsewhere at E3 Nintendo also announced a few other games. A new DS Kirby game that looks a little lame. A new Wii Kirby game that looks AWESOME. And... uh... I don't remember what else. There was nothing new about Paper Mario, which made me sad. There was a new trailer for it, but that was it. Square Enix was pretty weak on their presence at E3 with an absence of ALL of the games I'd been looking forward to see from them. They DID however have some good stuff on FFXIII-2 which looks like it will be good. Now just to finish the first one... Natsume brought their new Harvest Moon and Rune Factory games which look very nice (I like the farming games...). There was also some new stuff on X-Men: Destiny which I want very very badly, and a new Spider-Man game which looks like it will be good, but I doubt I'll play it.

And I think that is pretty much it. I really had to rush through all that 'cause there was a lot of stuff announced. I'll probably do future blog posts dedicated specifically to certain game/system announcements once I absorb more info, and you can expect a review of the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D sometime in the near(?) future 'cause I went down and pre-ordered it today. I'll probably be there right when they open to pick it up on Sunday too. To be fair, they open at noon, and I'll just be leaving my weekly family coffee thing right about then, so it's not like I'm a rabid fan or anything. Anyway, until next time...

Why Do You Hurt Me, My Love?

I was just reading an article on Gamespot about how Nintendo is planning on stepping up marketing for the 3DS due to lower than expected sales of the system. I don't think I have to tell you that I am a huge fan of Nintendo, and I think the 3DS is fantastic. You already know that. But they really don't get it. Marketing is not the problem.

The marketing is great! The system itself is great as well! The problem is that there is a severe lack of good games for the system! That and the fact that they still haven't released the promised update that will allow online capabilities such as the web browser and eShop (which includes the DSi Shop and Virtual Console library). When they decided to release the system, they really should have pushed to release at least one of the big games they announced way back when the system was first revealed. Give us Zelda, or Paper Mario (although I think that one might just be me that's super excited for it), or Kid Icarus. Something!

But no, they chose to release the system with a very limited selection of games and features, and now they are paying the price. Literally. They've got the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake coming out in a couple of months, but that is about the only big game they've got on the way soon. I love you Nintendo, but you've really gotta figure this stuff out. You can't sell a system without games to play on it! Your die-hard fans (me) will buy your stuff anyway, but then we suffer waiting forever for the games!

I really hope Nintendo learns its lesson by the time the recently hinted at successor to the Wii comes out, otherwise we may see them spending far too much effort and resources on marketing and seeing the games suffer.

I Eat My Words

In this latest entry of The Nintendo Hero, I eat my words. On January 21st, I posted another entry on the 3DS in which I said that I probably wouldn't bother getting the 3DS at launch day... I pre-ordered it a few weeks ago. And technically I didn't get it on launch day, but I got it the following day. Let me tell you. It is AWESOME! I'm a big fan.

So yeah, I pre-ordered from Future Shop, 'cause they had a better price for the game I picked up with it, and the 3DS also had a pre-order bonus in the form of a starter kit which includes all kinds of useful things, like a car charger, carrying case, screen protectors, and I dunno what else 'cause it's gonna be a little bit delayed in getting to me. But that doesn't really matter.

With the system, I decided to pre-order Nintendogs + Cats: Golden Retriever and New Friends (there's a mouthful). It was really the only launch game that seemed even relatively interesting to me. And I'm actually pretty happy I did pick it up. I've got my little Shiba Inu puppy named Bean, and I'm teaching her tricks and stuff. If I can't have a real dog, this is the next best thing!

But again, I'm getting side-tracked, I really just want to talk about the system itself. The Nintendo 3DS is a pretty nifty piece of technology. The obvious improvement over the original DS and DSi is the 3D top screen. I'm really not a fan of the 3D craze going on right now, but for this system, I think it really works. The 3D effect works without glasses, so that's one big hurdle gone for me. I hate wearing the stupid glasses. And the effect can be turned off and you can enjoy the games in 2D.

The 3D cameras on the outside, coupled with the system's motion sensing technology (accelerometer and gyroscope) make for some pretty fun times as well. The AR cards are one feature of this, you can play a whole game based on one little card sitting on the table. The other more interesting one (in my opinion) is the Face Raiders game preloaded on the 3DS. You take a picture of your (or someone else's) face, and then play a game where little flying robots with the faces you've used fly around and attack you. I was dancing around my living room turning this way and that avoiding and attacking the weird little face-bots. Clearly more of Nintendo's attempts at more active gaming.

Now, the feature that I find most interesting is StreetPass. When you leave the 3DS in sleep mode (closing the lid without actually turning it off) it will still search for other 3DS systems to communicate with. If another 3DS in sleep mode comes in contact, they will swap StreetPass info (depending on whether or not you have it enabled, and what you choose to share). Different games use the feature in different ways, but the 3DS StreetPass Mii Plaza has it's own exciting uses of the feature. Every time you run into someone, you'll swap Miis, and with the Mii, you will also get a piece of a puzzle that presumably creates something fun. And there's another game within the Mii Plaza called Find Mii, which is some sort of RPG game that requires you to run into other Miis to help you along your quest.

So far, I haven't actually run into anyone else with the StreetPass feature 'cause I've only had the system for 3 days and have yet to take it out with me anywhere, and somehow I feel like it might be a little bit difficult to find other 3DS users in my little northern city. But I suppose I'm gonna have to start carrying it around with me so that I can check out the StreetPass features. Aaaaaand that's it for this post. I'll probably think of something else fun to write about later, so look out for a follow-up post down the line!

The Nintendo Hero Returns, or Pokémon Master

So! The new Pokémon games came out a week ago, and I've decided that that is exciting enough to bring back The Nintendo Hero! The new games: Pokémon Black Version and Pokémon White Version. I've only played a small portion of the games so far, but I am very impressed!

The biggest improvement is the graphics. The games keep their 2D sprites for the characters, but they've made the game world a much more 3D environment. They had a pseudo 3D effect in the previous generation, but it's much better done this time around.

The other great graphics improvement is the battle screen. Previous games have included small amounts of movement in battles, but this time around the pokemon are in constant motion in battles. The pretty much just appear to hop around, but when they use sound attacks, their mouths open, and when put to sleep their eyes close. It zooms in and out on the attacking pokémon and has a much more interactive feel.

I've got a lot further to go in the game because I spent nearly a week trading between the two games until I got all three starters in both games. I'm not sure how I feel about the starters in this game. I guess I like Snivy, and I do like Oshawott, but Tepig is pretty lame. But in comparison to the previous generation, I do like these starters better.

The rest of the pokémon introduced in this generation are a mixed bag. There are definitely some nice ones that I do like quite a bit, but it seems like there are quite a few really lame designs. The ice cream looking one, and the garbage bag, and the gear one. They seem very unoriginal, but I guess I don't really have to have them on my team.

I'm curious how difficult it will be to fill the Pokédex this time around. That has always been my main focus of the Pokémon series, the collection aspect. There are all those people that spend endless hours making their perfect competitive battle teams, but I'm really just not interested in that at all. I just want to get every single pokémon possible. On a related note, the only game I've ever completely filled the Pokédex is Pokémon Blue. The next closest is Pokémon Diamond where I'm only missing Deoxys.

So far, I'm really enjoying the game. The graphics are better, there are 156 new pokémon to catch, and the story so far is pretty engaging. I've only just gotten to the second gym, but I'll give updates as I make it further into the game!
Pictures borrowed from Nintendo and Bulbapedia.

The History of Gaming

Today I'm going to introduce another recurring theme post on my blog. Again, it is video game related, but don't be fooled into thinking this is a video game blog. Oh no. It is about more than that. It is full of ALL KINDS of geeky stuff! But I'm getting off topic.

The History of Gaming! Now, I don't mean in a general sense. I mean MY history in particular. And in the beginning, there was NES. The Nintendo Entertainment System. We got the NES when I was probably 3 or 4 years old. Clearly I was a Nintendo fan right from a young age. I don't really remember much about life back then, but my earliest memories are of my cousin Brandi staying with us for a bit and playing one of the Mario games pretty much non-stop.

It wasn't until a few years later that I really learned how to play video games. We had the old Mario Bros. 1 through 3, the second (which isn't really a Mario game...) was mine, and I loved it. I remember getting it for Christmas one year. It was a big deal. We also had Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, some dumb football game that I could never figure out, and my favourite, Bubble Bobble.

One of my fondest memories of Bubble Bobble was playing it for hours with my Dad. I was terrible at it, so eventually it would just be him on his own, but I had so much fun. Blowing bubbles and popping enemies, running away from the evil skeletal whale thing that terrified me. Eventually, the fun would end when my older brother let a friend borrow the game, and that friend's house was burglarized, resulting in the loss of my favourite game.

But all was not lost, we still had our other games, and we would occasionally rent new ones. I'm not sure for exactly how long we had the NES, but it seemed like forever when I was a kid. But one fateful day, when my younger brother and I were playing Super Mario Bros. 3, the unthinkable happened! Do you remember the minigame that you could play when both of you selected the same level on the world screen? It was actually an even older iteration of the Mario Bros., I believe. Well, Paul and I were playing the minigame, and I kept winning ('cause I'm amazing! and also modest), so he got angry and threw the controller at the floor, as we often did when we got angry playing games. There was thick shag carpeting! Nothing bad would happen! ...right? Wrong. The controller ricocheted off the floor and hit the NES with enough force that it never worked again. I was devastated. We tried to make it work again, but eventually we realized that it was kaput, and my gaming life was over.

Except it wasn't. But that's another story for...

The History of Gaming!