The 2006 Quest for a Wii · 10:54pm Nov 21st, 2020
It knocks one's brain around to consider that childhood actually happened; those familiar dreams were once upon a time real. I think back to school. Playing with the gang at the park. How dressed in blurry memories they are. It's hard to consider, sometimes, that the past happened.
When there's so few hints of it in the present.
And the way those cues rise are odd.
Writing is a reflection. It reflects the essence beneath the skin. One's being, in the process of prose, filling the form of the page. It's thanks to this that we can go back. Recording a memory to convert it into a readable experience.
I can't say the worth of the salt of the words below.
Only that they're probably worthwhile for me.
It'd been back in 2006 and I could not tell you what grade I was in. That's a lie. I was in Grade Four. News of the Wii coming out had been raging in my mind for months. I thought it was revolutionary. The biggest trailers you could watch were of a player controlling Link, their hand moved his, able to slash.
This was mind-blowing as a kid. I didn't think it would be possible for games to be better than this. I thought this allowed one to enter the game. To actually be Link. I could see myself running in place as Link did the same, sometimes pulling out my sword only to put it back.
My biggest dream was to be Link. Travelling hero with a sword setting out on a quest to save the princess. Twilight Princess remains my favourite Zelda game for this fact alone. The overall feel, mood, and atmosphere of it wins me over.
But getting your hands on a console on a will close to launch was an impossible feat. The supply didn't come close to the demand. They made a thousand units when millions wanted one. You could not find them anywhere.
It killed me to think I wasn't going to be able to get one, to be able to get to go to the next generation of gaming. It seemed so futuristic. It's hard to describe the feeling now for it's beyond my cynical thought.
But I guess the unit was a mark of the future. I always used to confuse the fact that it was not Blu Ray. My step-father did his best to explain this. The PS3? It was Blu Ray even though it didn't exude a blue light. The Wii, however, did this—yet was not Blu Ray.
That took me a few years to figure out.
My step-father used to work for a delivery surface that primarily delivered video game units to stores. He did his best to snag a console when he could. Every day I would come home from school and, if there wasn't one sitting at the door, then chances are, it didn't work out today.
Every day I would sit in class thinking about the game. How you would run up a mountain and the pulling of a sword in overseeing a distant camp. It's strange writing about this now because I can't really nail that childhood excitement I had.
I suppose playing the game would allow me to be in it. That I could actually escape from the world and go inside the one of the game. But more than that. It was something that allowed one to get hype over. To be excited that, any day, today could be.
It came to the point where it reached my birthday and, because we hadn't got one, my parents were forced to give me the gift of the game itself. It still had been a terrific gift. I would spend hours looking at the case. It was like holding something from the future.
The icon in the top right.
The details and shots on the back.
Opening it up to look at the disc. Popping it out and examining it. Looking over at the manual to the tease of content. Knowing that I had the game, the experience in a disc and that, so long as I could put it in—I would play.
I would look and look at it. It was a sacred item I was not supposed to have. It made me giddy to even hold it.
I must have been one strange kid.
A few days passed when I was in school that my mother paid a visit. She never really did that and rarely did she drop off an extra lunch. She met me at the door and, in leaning down for a kiss on the cheek, she whispered:
"John managed to get a Wii today!"
I blinked and my heart stopped. Skin became electricity as I vibrated in place. Must have banged into the doors and walls like a ping ball as I rattled in euphoria. Soon lunch was done and we had to line at the wall to enter the class. My teacher wondered the reason for my hype.
"Wii! I got a Wii today! I'm so excited I want to get naked!"
Yeah.
I was a strange kid.
Sure enough the day was long—although the run home was short—and approaching my home like it was a temple. Funny how an item can change one's perceptions of a setting. Walking through the hall, I turned, knowing it would be there.
My step-father sat in the chair for who knows how long, arms crossed and a smile strong, eyebrows in a subtle rise. He was a god in my mind and I knew it. We both cheered, went crazy, hugged, and went to tear apart that box.
Living room was meant only for movies but, since tonight was special, we hooked it on the big screen. Creating a Mii and talking about how crazy it was you could move the remote and it would move the cursor. Once ready, I dashed to my room, getting that scared game—holding it with two hands.
Bringing it down, the seconds like minutes, in seeing the special way the game booted into the system. Opening up the menu for it without hitting start. Being amazed that this was a thing at all. It was that experience. Rise from the norm. That floats euphoria into the chest.
And now it's been more than a good ten years and I'm fighting to get my hands on a PS5. Conditions set like they were that time before. Only my family isn't involved in it anymore. No step-dad trying to snag it or mother to watch me open it.
And now I'm the one trying to hunt the fucker down.
Yet the quest and the wait and the hype reminded me of that time. Months speculating the system and weeks living in hype of it. It helps to get stoked for something as to keep the fires of life alight.
There really wasn't much to this story.
Only that I wanted to jot it down.
~ Yr. Pal, B ~
I LOVE THIS GAME
"I'm so excited I want to get naked!"
Good to know I'm not the only one who said weird shit as a kid.
I have a work-around.
EB Games aren't taking orders for PS5 right now, until more stock is announced.
I can pre-order games for the future, cancel the order, and instead of collecting the money back, let it build as in-store credit.
That way, when they start taking orders again, I can get a big chunk of the cost off.
5402516
I had to blink twice at this.
To me, Nintendo went the extra mile to make this game amazing.
5402519
... why?
5402539
...why the complexion? Just save money for the system and then purchase it at first availability.
5402547
Because demand is that high that they're not reaching availability.
They are getting pre-sold out. People even anticipated the demand and bought two and three to resell on Ebay and Amazon at prices that can only be considered extortion.
My way, I can guarantee one gets held for me and I don't exceed my budget.
I AM just a full-time carer after all. Honestly, if it weren't for Ratchet and Clank, I would leave getting PS5 for a year or two, when they start to drop the cost.
5402554
How does that guarantee you get one held over any other paying customer?
Still my favorite Zelda game. That takes me back
5402563
Because the amount sent to each store is ONLY the amount registered as a customer order, all because of how high the demand is.
You know, it's funny. I actually started playing Twilight Princess HD this week. It's been fun.
5402563
To be fair both of you are kind of right.
The amount pre-ordered is guaranteed. Whether extra is ordered is.... kind of up to the store... kind of up to corporate.... kinda of up to if the manufacturer over/underestimated demand (biggest factor in this equation)
5402696
That's a bit odd—but I'll believe you.
Twilight princess is my favourite Legend of Zelda game, and alsi the first one i played
5402796
Same dude the first game I saw was skyward sword which my cousin was playing but when I saw there was a game before skyward sword I got it instead which was twilight princess. In fact I replying it now, just got to gerudo desert.
Man... Twilight Princess.
This was my second LOZ game and my first 3D Zelda, my first being Link's Awakening.
T.P. had an very realistic art style, Link evolved over the course of the story learning new fighting moves, and had a pretty great story.
Sure it had its faults if your motion controls were iffy, but you had a great time all the way through.
I did not get to finish Wind Waker, but playing that SOO long after finishing T.P. showed me how much Nintendo tried to improve what they did in W.W. and surpass it.
I think the thing I remember the most about T.P. was Agatha.
Such a side busy quest, but I loved her theme every time I walked into her home.
I love Porter machines and her theme just takes me back to those pre industrial record players
I was just looking through the blog history and found this one, I was actually about to start a new game for twilight princess on my wii, when I was growing up it was always twilight princess and Windwaker for me the adventure and fun with Windwaker, the story, art, and lore for twilight princess also best Ganondorf model especially when you got to see and use him in SSB brawl.