Eulogizing the WiiThe Wii gets a lot of flak for being the home to so many “baby games” and shovel ware, but that little white box holds a special place in my heart.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that the Wii made me the gamer that I am today.

Almost six years into the console’s life cycle, the Wii is known for it’s many peripherals, less-than-stellar graphics, and motion controls that never quite lived up to the hype. It’s easy to forget how exciting and unique the Wii was at the time, but I’m not here to defend Nintendo of America. Instead, I want to talk about how the Wii affected my life.

Like so many others, I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember. My brothers and I had a hand...

Eulogizing the WiiThe Wii gets a lot of flak for being the home to so many “baby games” and shovel ware, but that little white box holds a special place in my heart.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that the Wii made me the gamer that I am today.

Almost six years into the console’s life cycle, the Wii is known for it’s many peripherals, less-than-stellar graphics, and motion controls that never quite lived up to the hype. It’s easy to forget how exciting and unique the Wii was at the time, but I’m not here to defend Nintendo of America. Instead, I want to talk about how the Wii affected my life.

Like so many others, I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember. My brothers and I had a hand-me-down Atari 2600 that we used for hours of Combat, Pitfall and Frogger.

I moved on to NES, Game Boy, and eventually a Nintendo 64. I spent countless afternoons playing platformers like Mario and Donkey Kong Country, puzzle games like Tetris, and fighting games like Mortal Kombat.

I burned through three Game Boys and my jungle green Nintendo 64 was my most prized possession.

During high school, I quit playing games altogether. I put away what I considered to be “childish things,” and focused on scholarship, public speaking and goals for college.

I’ve always been an introvert, and I struggled to make friends during my first year of college. It’s a painful truth that I’m just awkward in social situations. Standing on stage and giving a speech in front of a thousand of my peers was a breeze for me, but I found the prospect of meeting with a small group of the same people terrifying.

I grew up on a ranch outside of a very small town. I graduated with a class of four. Living in a 12x12 dorm in the middle of a city was indescribably jarring for me.

On my first trip home, I dug out my battered GBA and took it back to campus. I methodically worked my way through my meager game library, and when I was done, I played through Half-Life on the laptop I was supposed to be using for homework. I played a few more games on PC and I started watching G4 (which used to show video game footage instead of Cops re-runs), and found excuses to hang out in the dorm lobby when other students were playing Halo on the big TV.

I never considered buying a console. I never talked about playing Half-Life until morning, and I hid my GBA if anyone visited my dorm. Playing games helped keep me from going crazy in a way that books and TV couldn’t, but I was ashamed of my hobby.

The Wii craze hit shortly before I graduated college, and soon after I got a job, I bought one. I played through Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, some of the Lego Games, then, on recommendation from G4’s X-Play, I picked up Bully and No More Heroes. Those games taught me that video games didn’t always have to be naïve, trite, or family friendly, and that could be a great thing.

I picked up Twilight Princess, and after a day spent marathoning through the last ten hours, I felt like I was a different person. Playing games didn’t make me immature, it just meant that I liked to have some control over the stories I consumed. That game was beautiful, and it inspired more grown-up feelings than any art gallery ever had.

After I finished Twilight Princess, I bought an Xbox 360 and became an unabashed card-carrying, Jinx t-shirt wearing member of the gamer community. Today, I can quote every line from Red vs. Blue, critique an IGN game review, and my greatest joy is sinking a day off into a Bethesda RPG. More importantly, I can feel good about that part of my persona. I owe that all to the Wii. Even though my Wii has been mostly gathering dust for a couple of years now, that little white box is probably the most important console that I’ve ever owned. So thanks, Nintendo.

Shaline