The Super Nintendo Essays is a series of posts detailing my history with and passion for the SNES. It had a profound effect on my life as a gamer, and I wanted to share some of my most memorable stories about it with you!
My brother and I are about seven years apart in age. That gap has led to us being in very different stages of our lives up until we both hit adulthood. While this at times made it difficult to connect, video games were always our common ground. That truly began with the Super Nintendo.
He was still a toddler when I got that SNES for my birthday, but he wasn’t completely green to gaming. Before turning two, one of our older cousins gave him his old Game Boy. Of course, he wasn’t that good at the games he played, but at that point he was just starting to learn how to talk and read. I guess because he was so young at the time, I don’t think he ever played on the NES with me.
When my parents got me the Super Nintendo, they made it very clear that the second controller was his. From this point forward, he was my gaming buddy. Initially, we played a lot of Super Mario World together. Partially cause he liked that game. Partially because the only other game I had was Star Fox, and well…
The first time I ever saw him horrified of anything was the Star Fox game over screen. The sight of Andross and his floating head and hands would immediately cause him to cry and run away. Having spoken to him recently on the matter, he’s still creeped out by it.
In hindsight, he got good at games pretty quickly. Towards the end of our Super Nintendo run going into the Nintendo 64, he was capable of holding his own in many games. Though it wouldn’t happen until a bit later, our ultimate battleground became Tetris Attack.
Better known as Puzzle League in North America, Tetris Attack is quite possibly the best competitive puzzle game that nobody talks about. It was a pioneer in match 3 puzzle gaming and competitive gaming while still being a blast. One thing about it that was so cool was that the game would slow down due to action being too frenetic and it made the game better. The game got a bit easier when it chugged along, plus it also felt so satisfying to know that the console can’t even handle how awesome you are at playing the game.
At some point in our lives, my brother got better than me in this game. We’ve waged this ongoing war in Pokemon Puzzle League on the Nintendo 64 and Planet Puzzle League on the DS, but I still can’t topple him. Was really hoping that we could continue our feud with the Super NES Classic, but it will only appear on the Japan-only Super Famicom Classic. Haven’t decided yet if I’m willing to pay a premium to import it, but just for Tetris Attack alone, it’s tempting.
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I love my brother and I’m fairly certain we would have found something else to bond over if our history was different. However, for us, it really began with the Super Nintendo. The bond that we forged while playing those games together is one that stays strong to this day. This is just one of the many reasons why this console has such a special place in my heart.
Check out previous posts in the Super NES Essays series!
In Third Person 