Another Day (er... week), Another Mario Post

I've started new posts about a dozen times since my last one a week ago, but every time I came up with something clever or pithy, I invariably sneezed it away (lovely imagery, eh?).

So while I'm still not feeling super-swell, I couldn't leave you hangin' forever. If this isn't my best writing, though, please forgive me, as I write out of love. *pats self on back. nauseates readers in the process.*

As a gamer and parent, I lead a binary existence. *uses pretentious language. nauseates readers in the process.* I rent and play games that are appropriate for my kids, as well as games that I wouldn't let them play until they turn my wife and me into empty nesters.

The best way to judge which way the ESRB pendulum is swinging is our GameFly account. At any given point, and depending on who's playing, of course, we could have 2 E-rated games, 2 M-rated games, one of each, or one each of anything along the game rating spectrum (..uh, to a maximum of 2 on our account).

Recently, we've been all Mario, all the time. The GameCube was the last of the 3 consoles to bring gaming joy into our lives, and recently, we've been playing a little catch-up.

I bought Super Mario Sunshine with the console, and in recent weeks, we've rented Mario Power Tennis and Mario Kart Double Dash!!. Since we've played the tennis game for over a month, we're returning it for the just-released Mario Superstar Baseball, and when we return Mario Kart, it'll be time for a little Mario Golf Toadstool Tour. I'll review all 5 Mario games (there are many more Mario games (e.g. Mario Party & Paper Mario). I'm talking about these 5 for now) in the coming weeks.

One of the fun things I like to do is to turn the "reveal" of the new game into an event. When the kids see an orange envelope in the mail, they can barely contain their excitement as they show it to me. As they ask which game I got for us to play, I make a show of taking the disc out of the envelope and putting it into one of the consoles. The first moment they find out which game we'll be enjoying together is when the opening graphic appears on the screen. And there is much rejoicing.

In case you were wondering about setting the kids up for disappointment, I always let them know beforehand whether the game is for kids or grownups. That way, when I've got a hankerin' for Resident Evil 4, God of War, Halo 2, etc., they know not to get their hopes up when the mailman comes. FYI.