Rock Chick

Mario, Luigi, Sonic, Zelda, Paper Boy, and Toad. Who are these colorfully named characters? If you grew up in the 1980's they were most likely your best friends. (Or did you guys actually have real friends back then?) Anyways, they were my best friends. I fondly remember the hours I spent playing Nintendo on my bedroom floor. I mastered Tetris, dominated Paper Boy - I was seriously the neighborhood champ at delivering electronic newspapers, and owned Mario Bros. 1 and 3 (because honestly, WTF was up with 2?!) As soon as Super Nintendo came out, I had to have one. Soon enough though, the 80's gave way to the 90's and the 90's gave way to boys. I unplugged my clunky video game systems and stored them away in the basement for years to come. Over the years, I turned my nose up at every video game commercial, player, or movie-inspired by. Who were these crazy people that spent hours sitting behind their computers punching buttons or screaming at their TV's?! Didn't they too put away their Duck Hunt guns and World Track Meet Running Pads?? Apparently, the video game world kept evolving long after I signed off my last game of Islands of Adventure. I just had no idea.

Fast forward to last Friday night. Nick and Leigh were recently the lucky recipients of a Nintendo Wii system. I was incredibly skeptical that this Wii thing was actually going to amuse me in any way. I grudgingly picked up one of the wireless controllers (no more A and B buttons!) and created my character. Soon enough I was kicking my opponents arse in boxing, bowling strikes like a pro, and hitting home runs out of the park like Jose Conseco! This was all fine and good and I was thoroughly enjoying myself. That is until the unveiling of a little thing called Rock Band. Out came the guitars and the cute little drums and the microphone. I could hardly contain my excitment...the guitar only has four buttons and a knobby thing -- surely I can play that! I can't tell you how amazing this game is for a person that has zero musical ability, but has always harbored a secret desire to rock out onstage like Slash. And the songs don't totally suck! I fumbled my way through Creep by Radiohead, Say It Ain't So by Weezer, and Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi. The last one really killed me...I'm no Richie Sambora (even though I HAD been drinking a bit).

So what is the moral of this story? Well, I learned not to count video games out. Even though I might have developed from a tom boyish 7 year-old girl with invisible friends to a 27-year old diva wannabe, I can still enjoy a night of video games. I don't think I'll be jumping on the second life bandwagon anytime soon (that still completely weirds me out), but if anyone has a Wii I will be the first one over destroying those guitar solos.