I'm gonna lay this right out there for everyone -- I think video games have grown to the point where they pretty much lack any kind charm or even genuine fun in playing them. I say this mostly because of a recent "night out" that involved going to Dave and Buster's, one of those warehouse-sized arcade and dining places. Supposed to be a kind of Chuck-E-Cheese's for big kids, ya' know? I had never been before, although I'd heard about it, and the people I was out with really dig the place. Can't say I’m a fan. Aside from having a decent time drinking beer and playing ski-ball, I can't think of one damn game in that whole place that I had any actual fun playing. I don't really blame the place itself; I just think that if you're going to have a giant arcade, you might want to put something in it besides modern games that involve nothing but driving and/or shooting. Lame.
 
Being of a certain age group, born, say... about 1975, I grew up with an Atari 2600. In high school, I was playing a Nintendo Entertainment system, having saved up my own money to get one after being jealous of my brother's Sega Master System (which eventually proved itself to be a colossal piece of shit). Trips to the mall with my mom usually resulted in getting to hang out at the arcade there, which was always a hell of a good time. Played a lot of a game called "Afterburner," which, for a kid who wanted to fly jets and was obsessed with F-14s, was a blast. Even the local rec center that my parents singed me up for had a game room, and I clocked serious time there playing "Rampage."
 
Point? Fuck these modern games, both arcade style AND the fancy home systems. In their efforts to make everything super "realistic," game designers have squeezed out every drop of what made them great in the first place -- the fact that it WASN'T real life. Giant lizard smashing buildings? Awesome. SWAT team member shooting up bad guys in an urban landscape? Too much like the local news. Fat plumber stomping on turtles? Always a good time. Flight simulator game that's so complex that it cost two dollars to play, yet is impossible to figure out? Fucking awful. "Galaga": great. "Dance Dance Revolution": Painful on oh so many levels.
 
I don't know where the whole thing went wrong. I still have the Playstation that I bought right out of college -- used it a lot until I got married. Now the wife of all people wants to get one of those Wii things (thinks the kid will soon be old enough to be interested), and I just don't know. I almost think that we'd be better off trying to find an old NES on eBay and let the kid grow up knowing how great video games really can be.
 
Lord knows I wouldn't mind playing a little “Metroid” myself, either...